This article on Wayne’s HJ sedan was first published in the January 2019 issue of Street Machine

“I PURCHASED this HJ sedan in August 2016 from a Facebook site for $2500. I am a panel beater by trade but have not touched a car for 30 years; fortunately the HJ was in much better condition than I’d thought.

I began a 19-month nut-and-bolt resto, doing 95 per cent of the work myself in my double garage. As the work progressed I started looking at pictures in magazines and going to local car shows for some ideas, and the neat and clean resto blew out of proportion.

My two mates kept commenting: ‘You’re building a show car.’ I kept disagreeing until one day we were at a car show and they kept saying the same comment. At that moment I turned to them and simply said: ‘Yep, looks like it.’

The motor is a rebuilt worked 308 with a stage-one cam, flat-top pistons, Statesman heads, Edelbrock inlet and 600 Holley. It makes 320hp before NOS. The gearbox is an M21 four-speed going back to a Salisbury nine-bolt with 3.08 gears.

What a journey: many ups and downs, major feats and back-to-the-drawing-board failures. This car has to be seen to be believed.”