Many of you would be familiar with Steve Sines and his legendary HZ Kingswood, KINGER (SM, May ’12), which has evolved over the years from a cool cruiser to an all-out blown and injected skid monster. But a few years ago, the Sines clan made the decision to retire KINGER from skid duties, so they were keen to get stuck into a new project. This impeccably presented, LS2-powered HJ ute is the result.

First published in the September 2025 issue of Street Machine

From the outset, Steve was keen to get his 14-year-old daughter Lacey heavily involved, especially in deciding the overall look of car, and she jumped at the chance. “The colour was always going to be the same as KINGER – custom Lacey Pink,” says Lacey. “I wanted the interior to be black and the chrome to be blacked out – all opposite to KINGER – and for it to have a scoop. We had a concept drawing done, and we used that to make the real-life version.”

The first ute earmarked for the build was bought from Rusty ‘Mr Doorslammer’ Taylor for a carton of beer, but – as one might expect given the purchase price – the body was pretty roached. Even so, Steve was still able to strip it of plenty of useable parts before beginning a hunt for a better shell.

“I found this one rusting away in the Swan Valley,” Steve says. “I’d never had any experience at rust repairs or panel beating, but over the years I’ve seen a lot. The idea was to build a car that a novice with a give-it-a-crack attitude can try to do, all while keeping the budget as cheap as possible.”

With that in mind, Steve bought himself a welder and made a sheet metal bender to carry out any rust repairs that might be needed. Fortunately, he had his best mate Michael ‘Youngen’ Walton around to answer any welding questions. “I bought some steel to practise on, and when the time came to start repairs on the rusty body, we got a homemade rotisserie and sent the body to Super Spray to blast it inside and out,” Steve says. “The body came back, and boy, did we have some work to do! It had rust all in the usual spots, and the roof was cactus.”

Rust repairs were tackled in earnest, and once again, Lacey was keen to be involved. “She sat watching with her own welding gear for a bit, and then she started slowly doing bits on her own,” says Steve. “We fixed all the rust, filled in every hole, and hammer-and-dollied dents, which we learned how to do by watching YouTube videos like Howard Astill’s; he explained it so well for the novice.”

Steve must have built up a fair bit of confidence and skill doing all that, because the next jobs on his list were pretty major undertakings, starting with welding in a new roof that he’d sourced off Marketplace. He then moved on to the chassis, chopping and flipping the rear section of the rails so he could tub the rear. While he was at it, he welded the four-link bracketry into place, wire-wheeled everything clean and then gave it a coat of KBS paint.

With the chassis work done, it was time to get stuck back into the body. “I stretched the factory rear tubs 90mm out to the chassis rails, as I like the factory look better than the generic tub look most cars have,” says Steve. Good mate Neil Moneypenny from Xclusivefx talked Steve through the ins and outs of panel beating, and if he still wasn’t sure, he jumped in and showed him. “I bought everything Neil used and recommended,” Steve says. “My problem was that I wanted to get the car the best I could for my first shot. It took me a solid year of my time off.”

Once Steve reckoned he was finished, Neil came around to have a look and identified only three small things to smooth out – not bad going for a bloke who had never done bodywork before.

Being a heavy diesel mechanic by trade, Steve is pretty well sorted when it comes to the engine building side of things, but he didn’t really know much about transmissions, so he taught himself how to rebuild the Turbo 350 with advice from Terry at Shift Transmissions.

To power the ute, Steve opted for a 6.0-litre LS short motor with just 8000km on the clock, which he’d picked up for $500 a couple of years prior. “George Separovich told me the goodies I needed to build an LS, as I’ve always been a small-block Chevy guy, and then my missus Tammy and I chucked the motor together,” he says. “We replaced the cam, lifters, oil pump, heads and manifold; I was gobsmacked how basic and easy the LS was to piece together.”

Next, Steve set about getting the body ready for paint, splining and guide-coating it several times until he was happy with the result. The ute was then sent to Xclusivefx so he could apply the paint under Neil’s watchful eye. “I was nervous, but it was so helpful having Neil in the corner guiding me,” Steve says.

Just before Christmas, Steve invited Youngen and his son Bentley to help drop the motor and ’box in. Steve works FIFO, and with Motorvation 39 coming up fast, he flew to work knowing that once he got home from his swing on New Year’s Eve, he’d have 23 days to screw the HJ together, which would leave him about a week to detail both the ute and his KINGER HZ and get them show-ready.

“The push was hard, but having Tammy and Lacey helping made it satisfying,” Steve says. I could have asked for help from mates, but they know me – I like the challenge. The good people from Pro Performance were delivering parts to me at home to help the push, and good mates dropped by to check in or have a coldie.”

Lacey’s favourite part of the build was seeing the finished car look the same as the concept rendering. It’s often said that having a plan and sticking to it is the best path to a successful project, and the Sines family definitely did that.

With the car complete, Steve and Lacey now faced their biggest hurdle – unveiling it at Motorvation. While Steve is a bit of a legend in the burnout scene, he’s a pretty low-key guy, and Lacey is pretty shy. “I had a hard time speaking about retiring the sedan, as we have done so much with it in 25 years, and then talking about the ute, which we have put 500 hours of labour into and done a full nut-and-bolt resto on,” Steve admits. “To see it sitting there not looking out of place at Motorvation and only having spent $48,262 in parts proves that with no labour costs, a car can still be built by the average person.”

Not long after Motorvation 39, father and daughter got out on the burnout pad in their joint creation, with Steve behind the wheel and Lacey riding shotgun and giving directions. “She’s been the passenger for four burnouts now,” says Steve. “At the last one at Wanneroo, I told her, ‘Wherever you point, I’m steering.’ I was surprised how good she was; she has a good eye for it. We came second, so she was happy.”

Does Lacey think she’ll ever get the car back from Dad? “Probably not!” she laughs. “He’s hogging it, because he still wants to do burnouts in it as well – he doesn’t know how to share!”

Don’t worry, Lacey; before you know it, you’ll be ripping killer skids in the ute yourself, and in the meantime, you’ve got one of the best in the business as your teacher.

THE SINES FAMILY
1976 HJ HOLDEN UTE

THANKS
Tammy and Lacey – I couldn’t have done it without them; my mates Youngen, Justin, Claude, Daniel, Phil and Nelg; my sponsors 24/7 Hose & Fittings, Welshpool Welding, Genie Exhaust, Xclusivefx, Tuff Mounts, Blown Motorsports, Shift Transmissions, Super Spray and Boddington Tyres.