Like a lot of us, Nathan Stewart’s dream Aussie classic as an 18-year-old was an HQ coupe. However – also like a lot of us – the cost of buying one far exceeded his teenage budget, so he settled on this ute instead.

First published in the December 2025 issue of Street Machine

“It was very much a ’roo-hunter ute; it had the rollbar they’d hang off the back of it as it drove around the paddocks, and it was all rusty and full of red dirt,” says the now 29-year-old Canberran. “But I traded it for the set of standard wheels from my VE Maloo, so not a bad deal, in my view!”

With the help of his uncle and grandfather, Nathan got stuck into the job of turning the clapped-out Quey into his dream machine. “I wanted a really tough street cruiser with a big, grumpy engine, while keeping the outside mostly standard-looking,” he says. “I also wanted to learn new skills during the build, which is why I had family and friends help me out.”

The bulk of the chassis work was done by Nathan’s family, and then his mate Pierce Shields took care of installing the exhaust, tailshaft and Motor Fab mono-leaf rear suspension to suit the reinforced BorgWarner diff. The front end is still HQ gear, albeit refreshed, and Nathan sourced another HQ shell for the rust cuts to get the body up to scratch.

With those jobs done, it was time for Nathan to decide on a suitable powerplant for the ute. “The build escalated as we kept going with it, so it didn’t seem quite right to just throw a 308 at it,” he says. “Being quite young, I needed something affordable, and I got this LS3 from an E3 Clubby that’d had something minor go wrong with it, so we went with that.”

While it was a good starting point, a stocko LS3 wasn’t going to cut it for the kind of tough streeter Nathan was after, so he gave Adam Schliebs of Colinton Customs a very specific brief. “Being in Canberra, where there’s no P-plate restrictions, I’ve heard LS1s on limiter 1000 times, and I hate it!” he says. “So, I wanted this to not sound like an LS; I wanted something that sounded big and lairy, so that’s what I told the engine builders. I wanted maximum presence; I couldn’t have given a stuff about how much power it made!”

To fulfil Nathan’s requirements, Adam began by sending the LS3 to the team at North Vic Engines in Cobram to machine and assemble the bottom end, tasking them with stroking the mill out to 427 cubes using a 4.1in-stroke crank, Manley H-beam rods and CP pistons. Adam then assembled the rest of the motor on Nathan’s shed floor.

The bumpstick is a Crow Cams unit that thumps enough to keep Nathan happy, and the whole lot breathes through a pair of Higgins heads. The mill now sucks through a pair of Quick Fuel 650 carbs sitting atop a Holley Hi-Ram intake, with Nathan once again prioritising sound and presence over power. “I wanted that old-school look, and the intake sound of the carbies makes it sound like less of an LS,” he explains.

Grunt might not have been his primary concern, but the combo still pushed out 530hp to the hubs through a Turbo 400 gearbox – plenty to keep Nathan happy while burling through the streets of Canberra. “We specced the converter perfectly, so it doesn’t push through the lights or anything, but it sounds good and it’s got more than enough to get up and go,” he says.

Getting the HQ straight and with a smart lick of paint on it was definitely not a smooth run. “It went it to a paint and panel shop that promised a three-month turnaround; three years later, I had to pry it out of the shop myself,” Nathan says. Even after all that time, the quality of the paintjob wasn’t up to snuff, but Adam Yeats at My Detail Autos came to Nathan’s rescue, getting the eye-catching gunmetal grey hue looking as it should so the ute could make Nathan’s wedding in late 2023.

“I’ve gotta give a massive shoutout to Adam Schliebs and Nathan Booth, because without them the car would’ve never made it to the wedding or Summernats!” says Nathan. “Adam did all the fuel system and plumbing, and Boothy helped me with so much stuff – tracking down parts, helping me fit rubbers, sorting panel gaps and so on – so they were a bloody massive help.”

Not long after, the Quey had its first major public showing at Street Machine Summernats 36. There, the hard labour poured into the HQ netted Nathan the Top Ute/Pick-Up award in the Street judging. “That was pretty cool, because we put it straight on the hoist after I drove it to my wedding and worked the whole way up to Summernats before it got there,” he says. “So, although it was a build that really blew out, to get that kind of recognition for the effort was really cool.”

With the HQ primarily being a street bruiser, Nathan doesn’t really have any intentions to chase times with it at the strip. “I do still want to take it to a Powercruise; that’d be a lot of fun in a car like this,” he says. “Now I’ve just had a young one, I have been toying with the idea of finally getting that HQ Monaro I’ve always dreamed of so I can take the whole family out. But this ute has been a great learning experience, so I guess I should enjoy it for a bit with the young fella.”

NATHAN STEWART
1971 HQ HOLDEN UTE

THANKS
My uncle Terry Stewart; my grandfather Peter Stewart; Nathan Booth; Dave Hans and the Michelago crew; Adam Schliebs at Colinton Customs for the engine; Pete Hamilton at Profection for the tune; Adam Yeats at My Detail Autos for detailing work; my father-in-law Sam and my wife Kiaria.