There aren’t many car builds that go exactly to plan, but Western Australia’s Mitchell Rando could have been forgiven for thinking his EH Holden just didn’t want to be brought back to life. Just about everything on the car had to be done twice – not because of shoddy workmanship, but rather just plain bad luck.

First published in the September 2024 issue of Street Machine

It’s not like Mitchell doesn’t know what he’s doing. This is his second car to be featured in Street Machine in the past 12 months; his stunning pro touring ’69 Camaro appeared in our October ’23 issue after being crowned Motorvation 37 Grand Champion earlier that year. He almost made it back-to-back Grand Champ wins, too, with his EH making the final three at Motorvation 38 before being pipped by the late Nigel Warr’s HQ ute (driven by Nigel’s son Tom)

But while Mitchell’s Camaro build took a little over two years to complete, the EH was 11 years in the making thanks to that aforementioned run of bad luck, which started before he’d even got hold of the car.

“It was a bodgy 80s build with a carbied V8 from Sydney,” Mitchell begins. “The transport company bringing it over blew the motor up over-revving it, and it dropped a valve. The motor, ’box and supercharger were then stolen from my shed, and when the car was moved with all the panelwork done, the tow truck driver winched it into the back of the truck and destroyed the custom bonnet.

“The car was practically built two times, and that’s why it has SEQUEL plates on it. I nearly gave up many times.”

Let’s go back to the beginning. After Mitchell got the car in 2009, he fixed the motor, redid the trim and got it licensed in WA. Most people would be happy with that, but not Mitch: “We ended up pulling it down again, built the motor stronger, tidied up the paint, got it trimmed again, and I still wasn’t happy. So, that’s when we went to town on it.”

Mitchell planned to install a set of mini-tubs and give it another coat of paint, but when he had the EH blasted, it came back looking like swiss cheese. To fill all those holes, he decided take the car to Rob at Bare Metal Restos, where it went back to a bare skeleton. It copped fresh inner and outer sills, front guards, rear quarters, beaver panel and part of the boot floor, and all the rust and dodgy repairs that had been holding the car together were eradicated.

For the fabrication side of things – and there is a lot on this car – Mitchell turned to Lea Welch at Reveng Motorsport Engineering. The engine bay now features what must be the largest radiator ever fitted to an EH, fabricated by Lea using a PWR core. He also did the tanks for the intercooler, power steering and radiator overflow. The exhaust system Lea built is another masterful piece of fabrication, with 17/8-inch primary headers tucked inside the chassis rails feeding into twin three-inch pipes that run straight under the diff. “These LS motors need to breathe when you put some wind into them,” Mitch says.

By “wind”, he means boost, and there’s plenty of that thanks to the Edelbrock E-Force 2300 blower. It’s bolted onto an LSA block and heads, but as it has a much lower profile than the stock blower, there was no need to cut up the bonnet. To keep under the 5.7-litre limit for rego, Mitchell used a crank from a 4.8 LS, which brought the stock 6.2-litre capacity down to 5.6. It also means he can rev the ring out of it thanks to the short stroke and big bore.

With all that go, you’d hope Mitch has a little more than HR discs up front to bring the EH to a stop, and he does. The Southern Chassis Works tubular IFS and the nine-inch diff out back are both fitted with 330mm Wilwood discs with six- and four-piston calipers respectively. Double-adjustable Viking coil-overs on all four corners help control the body roll, although Mitchell did recently add a sway-bar, as he wasn’t happy with how the EH handled during the Motorvation driving events. It’s all a massive improvement on what rolled out the GM-H door in 1964.

The interior was handled by Phil Wall at Old Skool Custom Trimming, who removed the headrests on the Alfa Romeo 156 front seats before covering them in black leather with red stitching. The stock rear seat was bolstered to match the fronts, and the centre console got some trim along the sides to contrast with the painted top.

On the outside, the EH has been sprayed with striking Mazda Soul Red. While it might be a modern colour, when the sun bounces off it, it looks every bit as good as an old-school Candy Apple Red over a gold base.

The final touch was the massive 20×7.5 and 20×9.5 Showwheels Nitro 2 Twisted billets, which Mitchell custom-ordered with brushed centres. “It’s not something they normally do, but I wanted it to match the Premier trim on the side of the car that has a satin centre and polished edges.” he says. “I’m not sure how they did it, but they got it absolutely perfect.”

In fact, there’s not much that isn’t perfect on this EH, although that might not always be the case – Mitchell isn’t afraid to drive his cars and, on the odd occasion, beat up on them.

MITCHELL RANDO
1964 EH HOLDEN PREMIER

THANKS
Lea Welch at Reveng Motorsport Engineering for so much of the work in the 11-year build – can’t thank him enough; Tim at Derby Auto Electrical; Josh at LSX Powertrain; the Lush family at Applied Automotives; Sam & Cassie Rhodes at Vulcan Panel & Paint; Phil at Old Skool Motor Trimming; Rob at Bare Metal Restos; Dale & Lin at Dale Signs; Chris at Robson Performance; Chris at Glossworks Detailing; Adam at Cronic Customs; Rob Fran for the electrical work and harness; my wife Tanika and the Rando family for all of the support and help.