Paul Johnston has been in the automotive game his whole life. Before building his own mechanic business and dedicating himself to family life, he spent his spare time mucking around with old Holdens. With this stunning VK Commodore, he’s gone back to his roots and built the kind of street machine he lusted after decades ago.

First published in the October 2025 issue of Street Machine

“I always wanted a VK, but could never afford one when I was younger,” Paul recalls. “I recently had two mates building VKs, and I thought it’d be cool to have the three cars cruising together, but as things went on, I realised I couldn’t do all this work and just have another Blue Meanie replica.”

He’s quick to admit that he was heavily inspired by the modern icon that is Peter Lewis’s BOSS XC, built by Howard Astill (SM, Jun ’23). With that in mind, it’s not hard to draw similarities between the styling and finish of that stunning show car and Paul’s above-and-beyond Group A tribute.

The basic formula for resurrecting an early Commodore shell is as old as time: fix a bit of rust around the windscreens and perhaps some in the boot floor, then undo some war wounds from decades of daily driving and you’re just about there. However, Paul went to the extra effort of putting it all together in primer first to affirm his vision before tearing it all back down.

Paul’s good mate, Jason MacKenzie of SIXTY7 Camaro fame (SM, Apr ’24), took an active role in the panelwork, and it’s safe to say there was plenty required. “This shell was fairly rough, but it didn’t matter because we were going to redo the lot,” Paul says. “Plus, it was complete. The bonnet was smoked, but a sales rep came into my work and gave me his spare bonnet – this was before Covid sent prices skyrocketing!”

The car was about to go to paint with a straightforward carby Holden V8 combo, but Paul yanked the handbrake at the 11th hour to expand the scope of the build, sending the car tumbling down a rabbit hole that went all the way to the covers coming off at Street Machine Summernats 37.

Of the myriad ways to describe the bodywork, it is simplest to say the car glows. The panels are arrow-straight, and the custom-mix Lexus blue paint is a perfect choice. “It was always going to have the Group A kit, and when it came to the colour, I just wanted it to sparkle,” Paul says.

The same quality of finish wraps underneath the car, with the floorpan colour-matched and detailed with the same level of enthusiasm.

Paul’s desire for quality and unparalleled shine saw him pick Schott billet wheels, which were sourced through ProFlo Performance. “I saw that BOSS XC wore Schotts, so I rang ProFlo, who really went above and beyond in helping me dial in everything around the brake clearance and fitting the rear wheels into un-tubbed arches. They’re like jewelry!” he beams.

“It was only ever going to be a Holden V8, and it had to be un-tubbed,” Paul says. Both are simple requirements, but he still managed to shoehorn a stack of technology into the car. To start, the iron lion runs an EFI Hardware stack-injection manifold that’s governed by a Haltech Nexus R5 VCU. The R5 is a truly powerful unit that allows Paul luxuries like sequential injection, individual coil ignition instead of a crusty distributor, and cruise and traction control through the drive-by-wire throttles. “It’s just awesome stuff to have,” Paul says. “It makes the old cars so much nicer to drive – the only thing it’s missing is heated seats!”

The rest of the driveline is all GM-H, too. “If I had my choice again, I would’ve put an eight-speed ZF auto in it, but it had to be all-Holden,” Paul laughs. “That’s why we went with a VL Turbo diff over a nine-inch, and the VF GTS brakes.”

The trim plays into the same theme. Practically all of it went in after the car broke cover at Summernats 37, Paul having taken on feedback from the Summernats judges while building on his own vision. The Scheel seats remain, but everything else is fresh. It’s sharp and angular like the 80s stylings of the original soft stuff, yet undeniably modern and built using current technology. “A lot of the parts used are 3D-printed or CNC-machined,” Paul explains. This extends to the speaker pods in the door trims and boot, and the custom fascia for the giant Haltech dash. It’s as if the 80s crashed violently into 2025 and created the kind of car that designers drew four decades ago, but didn’t have the technology to bring to life like Paul’s trimmer Brent Parker has.

The road to Summernats stardom felt like a fairytale for Paul, who had first set out to recapture his youth and build custom cars with his mates once more. “I’d been to Summernats and read all the car magazines since I was a kid, and to build something that gets unveiled was a huge goal,” Paul says. “This is a major milestone in my life and my career as a mechanic.

“We didn’t want to overcook this one –just focus on the simple things, executed exceptionally well.”

PAUL JOHNSTON
1985 HOLDEN VK COMMODORE

THANKS
ProFlo Performance; Lowe Fabrications; Autotech Engineering; Concourse Moulding; Jason MacKenzie; Brent Parker; Steve Moylan; Rare Spares; Holdcom; Rocket Industries; Cem Guler at Limitless FX Paint & Panel; my family and friends for all the help and support.