TIM JACKSON
AMC HORNET

“I was over at French Island about 10 years ago when I spotted this AMC Hornet. I took a picture of it but couldn’t find the owner. Then, just after Christmas, it popped up on Facebook Marketplace for $1200.

“I had to get it taken to Corinella on a ferry a few weeks later. It turns out this car is originally from Deniliquin, NSW. I’ve started fixing it up a bit to get it back on the road, and I’ll keep its patina look and use it as a daily driver.”

DYLAN FIELD
FORD ANGLIA

“This is my 1955 Ford Anglia, which I’ve been building into a pro streeter for the past eight years. I’ve made a full custom chassis for it, and it will run a fully built turbo 1UZ for power, backed by a Powerglide and a HiLux rear end. The car should weigh around 1100kg when it’s all finished.

“All the fab work has been done by me, and I also did the engine work with the help of my two good mates Brendin Jones and Allan Bigham. The plan is to have the car finished by the end of the year, and it’ll be fully road legal and built to hit the strip!”

STUART CAMERON
XD FALCON

“I thought I’d share my 1981 XD Falcon GL Dick Johnson Tru-Blu tribute, which I’ve been building for the past 10 years and is in the finishing stages. The car was originally Oxford Blue but has since been resprayed with a metallic flake. It’s running a full built Barra with a Pulsar turbo, a transbraked Powerglide, and a 3.55:1 9in diff.

“There are new King Springs up front and Gazzard Brothers mono-leaf springs out back, and the interior is brand new and trimmed in the original vinyl. The XD makes 470hp on 15psi, and soon we are going to run it up to 30psi to see what we can make on 98. I have built most of this car myself with help from my sons, who are 15 and 13 and are both revheads just like their dad.”

RILEY HUMM
HT HOLDEN UTE

“Here’s my 1969 HT Belmont ute. It was given to me and my wife by her grandmother after being stored in a half-fallen-down wooden farm shed for roughly 35 years. After getting it home, we got the ol’ reliable red motor started with nothing but a battery and some fresh fuel. Then we discovered how much rust the car has – not to mention the railway sleeper in place of the left-hand rear leaf spring hanger!

“Nonetheless, I plan to do as much of the work as I can myself, including paint and panel repairs. It’ll get a built V8 and auto conversion, a re-spray in the original Oasis Green, and some creature comforts. I would love to run some quick quarter-mile passes in it and hopefully end up doing Drag Challenge at some point.”

RYAN BRUCE
EH HOLDEN

“I’ve been slowly chipping away at my pro touring/pro street EH sedan for around 10 years now. It’s fitted with a Rod-Tech IFS, a carby-fed LS1, TH700 and a 9in with Strange floaters. It has also been tubbed with a four-link, and will run coil-overs and Wilwood brakes all ’round and roll on 18×7 and 18×10 billet Showwheels.

“I had the tubs and engine fitted by a shop a few years ago, and since then I’ve been doing all of the fabrication work myself. I’ve made my own set of exhaust pipes that fit between the rails, a steel cowl scoop, full sheet-metal engine bay, sheet-metal boot panels, and the list goes on. This is the first car I have built, so I’m learning a lot and gathering skills and tools as I go. I’m about 80 per cent done with the fabrication, and then I’ll move on to the bodywork stage. I plan on making one-piece bumpers and fitting them closer to the body, as well as tidying up any factory parts and panels that I’m not overly happy with.

“I know I still have a long way to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it will be on the road in the next couple of years if I pull my finger out.”

KANE MOLA
DATSUN 1600

“Everyone seemed to have a Datsun back in the day. I think I’ve heard every story about old mate’s first car being a Datsun, or your family car growing up being a Datsun. But you can rest assured, it was not a Datsun like this. I got the car as a shell in 2016, and there was a lot of damage to this little classic.

“Over eight painstaking years of rebuilding it in my garage, there was little left untouched, from stripping the shell back to bare metal to remove all the rust, to putting on new panels, repainting it, fitting new rims, adding a custom leather interior to match the colour scheme, and completely overhauling the engine bay to suit an SR20 engine.

“The mill is accompanied by a Plazmaman intake, PSR G25-660 turbo and 6boost manifold. It currently makes around 330hp – in a car weighing less than a 1000kg – so this is not your dad’s old Datsun!”

BRANDON PAULL
NISSAN BLUEBIRD

“This is my 1984 Nissan 910 Bluebird Series 2 wagon, which I bought from the second owner around three years ago. It was my daily for a little over a year, and it copped a flogging – but somehow is still on the original bottom end!

“The five-speed manual ’box is still okay, but I’m on my fourth diff. It’s the last Bluebird to feature the L-series engine and has electronic ignition. It has a Weber 32/36 carby, Stanza headers and a custom 21/4in exhaust. Underneath are R31 Skyline front coil-overs and reset leaf springs in the rear, and it rolls on Rota RB wheels.”

Got a sweet ride that’s currently in the build and want to share it with our readers? Email photos of it (2MB+ each) along with some details on the build to [email protected].