HERE it is – our first chrome-bumper Carnage project car. Our previous creations have all been plastic bumper cars for budget reasons, but when we saw this 1963 Dodge Phoenix up for grabs on GraysOnline, we just had to make a bid. And guess what? We nabbed it for just $1454.30!

And sure, it didn’t look like an obvious bargain. The factory 318 Poly motor was missing and someone had started rubbing back the paint on the left-hand side. But the car was otherwise very complete and looked to be remarkably rust-free.

The deadline for the build was to have the car in Cobar, NSW for the first Running On Empty Festival. But once Scotty got back from Hot Rod Drag Week and had a week off with the family, that left him just 24 days to get the job done and ready for the 850km road trip.

In this episode Scotty starts the process of getting the car roadworthy – and slots a Blueprint 440-cube big block from Eagle Auto Parts into the old girl.

You’ll have to wait until the next episode for the rest, but I can tell you that the car is finished and ready to head up to Cobar tomorrow morning. The lads have had a few issues with vapour lock, but fingers crossed they should be rolling into the festival Saturday morning in their chariot.

Many thanks to GraysOnline, Valvoline, Extracted Performance Exhausts, Eagle Auto Spares, Iain Kelly, the Maxx Performance boys, Elko Performance, Michael Tsumaris and Taco Bill Springvale.