First published in the April 2005 issue of Street Machine

Munro. What he really wanted was an FC Holden wagon, with big rims and a tough V8 under the bonnet. “When I found the HQ, I was actually at the seller’s place to look at FC parts,” smiles Joe. “I’d met the guy before and remembered that he’d started building a tough HQ years ago. I asked him whatever happened to it and he said: ‘You’re looking right at it!’”

Sure enough, surrounded by the remains of countless old Holdens, sat a once-tough HQ. It was clear the owner was never going to finish it, so Joe put the hard word on him and the deal was done, leaving the FC idea for another day.

He was under no illusions about what he was in for. The engine was busted and the axles broken. There was no glass and no chrome moulds. There was also no boot and because of the massive tubs there was no way it was going to hinge in the factory manner. The rear guards had been pumped out but were not yet smoothed straight. The car was missing most of its front panels, and what was there had been converted to the squarer HX style — not what he was after!

When Joe and mate Paul Crocker stripped the car, they found rust in the doors. Rather than get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, the blokes came up with a build plan.

“Paul and I have panel-beating experience but we haven’t been in the trade for 20 years,” says Joe. “As we both have families, we limited ourselves to two nights per week.” Starting in February 2004, the aim was to get the car to the Street Machine Summernats 2005. A tall order, but they pulled it off!

In addition to a work plan, Joe also had a clear picture of what he wanted to achieve. Sure, he wanted a tough car with Pro Street appearance, but he wanted a car with real street-ability alongside its cop-bait looks. That meant pump gas, nice trim, road tyres, operational glass and all the other niceties that your average Corolla takes for granted but which are often lacking in tough street/strip cars.

On the positive side of things, the chassis work had all been done beautifully by JC Performance, with a stout rollcage, deleted inner front guards, four-link suspension and a set of monster wheel tubs.

With the car pulled down, Joe and Paul got to work cleaning up the suspension and undercarriage for paint. They got it nice and smooth but instead of body colour, Joe went for Stoneguard with gloss black on top, practicality being the order of the day.

He knew all along that he wanted orange for the main body colour, offset by traditional GTS stripes. To jazz things up, he decided late in the day to paint the rollcage purple. This necessitated a very complex masking job.

“We used so much tape that at one point I cut a roll of two-inch tape in half with a jigsaw out of desperation,” laughs Joe. Spraying the cage was a seriously tricky affair but it is now a highlight of the car.

One of the biggest challenges in the build was finding the necessary parts and panels, as years of HQ racing have depleted supplies considerably. The now-immaculate chrome window moulds on this car are a prime example.

“Normal HQ sedan moulds are super-rare,” says Joe, “but Monaro moulds are even worse as they are almost all different from the sedan. I paid $600 for a handful of dirty old moulds that needed fixing.” Darren from High Lustre was responsible for getting all the moulds, bumpers and even the windscreen wipers looking factory fresh. These parts now prompt praise from street machiners and restorers alike whenever the car is on display.

Good panels are equally hard to come by and with that in mind, Joe decided to buy a parts car. Things didn’t go quite to plan in this regard but he is definitely happy about it!

“I found another HQ LS for sale. It had sat in this guy’s backyard and he was never going to do it up. So I bought it and found that it was too good to pull apart.” Paul painted the car in matching orange, and applied a set of GTS stripes as practise for the real deal. This ‘parts car’ is now Joe’s daily driver. “Its got a 308, Trimatic and power steer. It’s great to drive and people love it!”

With all the panels on and straight, paint on the main car was applied by Paul.

Although the boys worked their two nights a week with ruthless efficiency, they had their share of mishaps. The blackest time was when they lost a four-litre tin of pearl paint onto the workshop floor.

“It fell off the bench, right onto the arse of the can but the lid popped off and spurted paint all over the freshly prepared guards and onto the floor. We couldn’t speak. I pulled down the roller door and we left. We couldn’t face it. In the morning the paint had flowed out under the roller door and onto the pavers outside,” Joe says.

With the paint done, the engine was sent off to Graham ‘Shorty’ Betts for a freshen up. Shorty found that apart from a couple of torched pistons, the rest of the engine was in good shape and full of some very good gear. The stock Holley 600s were set up for forced induction duties by Mick at Hume Performance and appropriate fuel and ignition systems put in place. Joe estimates power in the 600hp area on pump fuel.

The interior was the final piece of the puzzle and it’s a classy bit of work too. Goodies include re-shaped HQ buckets, custom dash, MOMO tiller and full re-trim in leather and suede by Steve from All Trim Custom Trim. All neat and a perfect mix of tough attitude and Joe’s street ambitions.

With just a few weeks to go before Nats, their chances of finishing the build on time were looking grim, so the boys deviated from their work plan and sacrificed a couple of weekends to get the car finished. The boys don’t like to talk about that particular time in the build but you’ve got to admire the amount of work they did in such a short space of time, without impinging too much on the rest of their lives.

When Joe, Paul and co turned up to Summernats 18, it was the first time in eight years that Joe had been to the great Canberra car festival.

“I went to the first 10 Summernats, then gave it a rest, so I really had no idea what to expect,” he says. He certainly didn’t expect to get into the Top 60 Elite!

“I didn’t build it to be a show car,” says Joe. “I thought we’d get into Tuff Street and just have fun driving around all weekend.” The judges had other ideas and insisted that the HQ had the goods to be part of the Elite Hall action. “I thought that was pretty cool, but when they announced I’d won Third Top Coupe, I was blown away. To get any trophies in a room full of such awesome cars feels fantastic.”

Joe is planning on giving the car a run at the upcoming Nostalgia Drags at WSID but doesn’t intend to make a habit of it. “I didn’t build it to drag. It’s too heavy and it’s set up for cruising. At the end of the day it’s not about racing or shows for me; it’s about driving. I get a buzz just seeing a tough car drive down the road, so getting out there in my own car is just the best feeling,” he says.

Next up is the FC wagon idea, (“The closest I’ll come to a ’55 Chev Nomad,” says Joe) and then maybe a Pro Street-style VW Karman Ghia. Bring it on!

Tough upbringing

Joe is no newcomer to this street machining business. “My first car was a 1957 Chev sedan — I bought it for $350 when I was still an apprentice. It was black, with a tunnel ram and the diff centre out of Santo Rapisada’s rail! Tough car for a 17-year-old.”

A bunch of toughies followed, including a ’62 Impala with a blown big-block and 33-inch tyres, a ’34 coupe with a big-block and four-speed combo, and a very stout HQ ute dubbed UTE454, again tubbed with a blown big-block. Despite all those monsters, the most frightening of his cars was a VW Beetle, bought with full rego for just $3500 back in the early 80s. Nothing strange about that … except for the 350 Chev mounted up front!

“It was awesome! It made your eyeballs vibrate, all that power in such a short wheelbase, a crazy car,” say Joe. Since then, Joe has concentrated on building Harleys, including Heavy Duty and Oz Bike cover bikes. “Bikes are great, because you can do the whole build on a bench. You can fit a gearbox in five minutes!”

JOE NAPOLI
1972 HQ Monaro LS

THANKS
Darky, Shorty, Steve, Phil and especially Paul Crocker — “I couldn’t have done it without him!” Tough upbringing.