Today, Aussie custom pioneer and restoration guru Valentine ‘Val’ Neil was laid to rest in Brisbane at the age of 83. Val’s custom EH Premier is one of the oldest surviving and continually-driven custom Holdens and will remain with his family.

Born in Cleveland in 1941, Val left home at 15 and become an apprentice at Denning’s Coaches as a motor coach body builder. Although he officially completed his apprenticeship in panel beating, Val always referred to himself as a coachbuilder first and then a panel beater second. He always said, “Coachbuilders were trained to build from scratch, whereas panel beaters only fixed what was already damaged”.

Val was most renowned in his later years for his seemingly-magical skills repairing or recreating stainless steel moulds. Val’s memorial service was attended in person by a whose-who of the Brisbane car scene, with a stack of classics parked outside in tribute and many friends watching from around the globe.

The tributes read out at the service included this one from fellow customiser, Andrew Clatworthy:

“Val lived around the corner at my place at Thornlands and was a regular at my place and panel shop, Street Neat LTD. Of course, Val was a close family friend, but he was more than that – he was my mentor over the last 40 years that I have known him personally and as a fellow metal shaper. Val lives on through many of us. His stories and conversations would never be short for anyone, but we loved him for this. Val instilled in many people his old-fashioned values and attention to detail, especially yours truly. If he was explaining something and sensed he was losing his captive audience, he would utter ‘pretend to be interested’ and not skip a beat in his explanations. That line is still a much-used one in our family today.

“Val could tell you the thickness of a beetroot in a road trip on a particular year and what price it was, the shop and the owners who sold it and how long the day was with the family in tow. And the mechanical niggle that he sorted out as soon as he got home. He would ring me and repeat the road trip story, with the added sequel of the mechanical niggle and how he sorted it, the shop and staff the sold the parts, the price and the beetroot stain that still haunted him. His bird Charlie would interject on key points in the conversation and he would say ‘That’s right, Charlie.’ Val was the original dull man before it became trendy online, but we found it all interesting, at least I did. ….as I’m writing this, I’m panel beating still, using the tools his showed me how to use and the principles and his words are still in my head. This is how it has been my whole career of 40 years in the restoration game, with Val in my ear berating me kindly to ‘do it this way, not like that.’ And the beetroot? It was a quarter inch thick and cut with a crinkle cut chip maker, in his words ‘you just don’t see that anymore.’

Anyway, as Val would say – no more chit chat, I have work to do. Now where was I?” Andrew Clatworthy, New Zealand.

Fellow customiser Paul Kelly and photographer Peter Bateman visited Val in his home workshop back in 2008, which we present for you below:

First published in the February 2008 issue of Street Machine

Val Neil may not be the biggest name on the automotive scene but his work adorns hundreds of top-level restorations, street machines and custom projects around the country. He’s one of a handful of gifted tradesmen able to repair or replicate the stainless and alloy brightwear that has adorned motor cars since they were first made. Perfect paint and panel is one thing but if the trim isn’t perfect, the end result can be very disappointing.

From the outside, Val’s shed is part of a neat 70s home, but inside lies some pretty trick stuff. Parked on one side is an EH Premier like no other, and surely one of Australia’s oldest surviving customs. Val bought the car when it was four years old and set about transforming it into a unique custom that has served as his daily driver for over 40 years. The idea was to build a car that people would recognise as an EH but with more modern styling. In doing so, he eschewed the custom trends of the day and built a car that is commonly mistaken for a GMH prototype or export model — the ultimate compliment!

Val served his apprenticeship in the early 60s at a small local panel shop that carried out specialist work, like building hearses and station wagons on locally made Customline sedans. So his hands-on skills were honed on custom fabrications of all types in a time where everything was made in-house. Later the business expanded into building buses and luxury coaches, where he picked up more skills.

During this time he bought and personalised an FX sedan but after some years he wanted to move on as there were places outside Queensland to be seen, and wider experiences to be had, so he gave notice. With his severance pay and savings he loaded the FX onto a boat and headed to New Zealand where he travelled and worked for two years.

He returned home without the FX, which was when the EH came into his life. It became the base to showcase his abilities but at all times his training, grounded in practicality and function, dictated how he went about it.

Valiant tail-lights suited the height of the quarter panels and could be extended to look like full-width lights, matched to ’63 Dodge Phoenix indicators and reversing light. The rear light buckets were hand-formed, as were the sections to modify the upper and lower boot panels. That done, the quarter panels were split in half and new upper sections were rolled and folded to remove the swage line and the ‘mess’ of the original tail-light positioning. The result was an EH with a smooth, flowing shape from front to rear.

The rear bumper was constructed using two factory units, cut and shut to make two separate sections. A piece of ribbed aluminium was cut and folded to suit the panel between the tail-lights, and then anodised gold.

“People often think I’ve cut the back end off a Valiant and welded it on,” he smiles.

The front section is based on the then-new HK Brougham’s grille and headlights. The fronts of the original guards were cut out and new sections made to blend in with the headlight surrounds and guard moulds. A new panel was also fabricated to fit between the top of the grille and the bonnet.

The front stone tray and the bumper were both modified to match the new, peaked front. Special indicator surrounds were made and chromed to finish it off. The rest of the car is a beautifully preserved piece of Australian motoring history that has served its owner tirelessly for the over 40 years.

Another beaut feature in the shed is Val’s own body-straightening system, which would have rivalled any shop in Brisbane at the time, yet when it’s not required, it’s invisible. The walls are covered in shelves with all types of mouldings and patterns hanging down, and containers of clips and special brackets that long ago became extremely rare beasts. On benches are jigs and special handmade tools that are used to repair or remake moulds.

In the late 80s, Val’s skills were used to repair some unavailable older mouldings on an accident-damaged car in the shop; when other repairers heard about what was possible, people started seeking him out to work his magic.

After decades spent in other people’s employ, Val retired from the smash repair industry and has since concentrated on specialising in moulding repairs — a well-timed move, given the recent interest in Australian muscle cars.

Since every owner wants their car to be perfect, he’s been inundated with work and he has developed special methods for restoring many components; for others, he makes copies that no-one could pick from originals.

These days he specialises only in muscle car mouldings and fittings and he still has a two-year waiting list! Retirement is on the cards — but he’s been saying that for a few years now.