This article was first published in the February 2019 issue of Street Machine

“WE PURCHASED this car from South Australia in 2008 and brought it back to its new home in Perth. It was originally a base-model six-cylinder car, but when we bought it, it was running a 350, T400 and nine-inch.

In 2012 we made the big decision to do a bare-metal respray and Ron wanted to freshen up the engine, stroking it out to 383ci. It now also has four-wheel disc brakes and Black’s Racks steering, and rolls on American Racing Torq Thrust II rims.

The air intake was sourced out of the USA so we wouldn’t have to cut a hole in the bonnet due to the high-rise manifold. We knew we wanted to do something a bit different with the car, and since we are both big lovers of Aussie rock, we decided to give the car a ‘Rock In Peace’ theme, paying tribute to our favourite Aussie rock musicians who had passed on. We had an under-bonnet mural done by the amazing airbrush artist Kathy Nathan, featuring Bon Scott (AC/DC), Doc Neeson (The Angels), Billy Thorpe (Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs) and Chrissy Amphlett (The Divinyls). We then took out third in the HQ Street Modified category at the Monaro Nationals.

Fast-forward five years and we decided to do resto 2.0. Sam Hawkins of Awesam Paintworks in Malaga agreed to take on the job. We decided to change the colour to Barbados Green with added gold pearl in it, and we also wanted to add another airbrush mural, this time to the inner bootlid. Unfortunately, Kathy had stopped airbrushing a couple of years prior, but Sam was up for the challenge, continuing the Rock In Peace theme with murals of Malcolm Young (AC/DC), Pete Wells (Rose Tattoo) and Steve Prestwich (Cold Chisel).

Bruno from Rod & Kustom Garage did some rust repairs, fabricated the bootlid to make it a smooth surface for the new artwork, and gapped the panels. While the car was in the paint shop we also had some minor things done to the engine and had the gearbox rebuilt by Alex Brogan in Wanneroo.

In the not-too-distant future we plan to rebuild the engine, but in the meantime we just plan to enjoy the new look and cruise to our hearts’ content.”