I’ve had other Valiants and just decided to move up to the next shape. I’ve always wanted one since I was a kid. There was a bit of spare cash lying around – just a bit, enough to buy the car.
I didn’t really target a Sportsman. One street away, a guy called George Massih was advertising a mock-up of an R/T Charger at a reasonable price for the time ($30,000). I went and had a look and made him an offer. I’d been looking for a car for a while, including travelling interstate.
We went through the usual banter but didn’t end up getting it. I rang him back and he said he had sold it but had another for sale, so I went and had a look – it was the Sportsman. I was thinking this is ugly! He said it is what it is, complete but needing a full resto, though you could turn it in to a driver fairly easily.
George has become one of my best mates. He said, “You buy it and I’ll help you.” And he didn’t back away from that. Every time I called and needed help, he’d come over, take photos of his own cars if we needed to work out how something went back together. We talk all the time and are going down to Chryslers on the Murray together.
When I got it, it wasn’t too bad at all. It could have been fixed-up easily as a driver. It was a complete car. It had taken a bit of a hit in the front, but was all there.
I started stripping it and taking photos of everything, bagging and tagging along the way. A mate said that was very important.
Then I went down the road and bought a box of sandwich bags and a black marker.
However, there was a pretty big complication along the way. At the time I had a double garage and a carport. In the process of doing this car, I demolished them both and built a garage.
Things had to come out, things had to go away. We got it all together in the end.
What was it like for rust? I bought three things for it – two rear quarter panels and a boot floor. The boot wasn’t too bad, with just a couple of rust spots. But the panel beater goes, “Look man, we’re doing a concours job on this, so let’s just peel back the boot and put another one in.”
The rest of it was perfect; chassis, body, floors.
The guy I took it to, DJ at the Toy Factory in Artarmon, does a lot of Porsches and is in to the Euro thing. When he saw the car he was happy to take it on. He’s a bit of a visionary and could see the end product in his mind.
He took it for 12 months – it came back on a dolly on a tow truck. We pushed it up the drive – it took about six of us. The paint was exceptional and when I looked at it I knew we were going to have to bring the rest of the car up to that standard.
That was the point of no return.
The engine was the correct one and in good shape with an original 48,000 on it. When I pulled the head off, I looked at the bores and they were clean. Even so, it was sent away to Arthur Johnson Engineering, which rebuilt the motor. They did a little work to it, nothing major. It went out 40 thou and has a bit of a cam in it.
We added a Hemi Cane manifold, a 600 Holley carburettor and Genie extractors. That’s finished off with an R/T-style dual exhaust, complete with the upturned tips. It’s smooth and pulls really well.
We had the gearbox rebuilt by Smithfield Diff & Gearbox – it’s a single-rail BorgWarner four-speed. Plus the diff (also a BorgWarner was rebuilt with limited-slip internals.
When it came to the interior, I bought the houndstooth seat material back when the Australian dollar was close to parity with the American dollar. There’s a place in the USA that does every single cloth trim for Chrysler – I couldn’t believe my luck. So I got four metres delivered here for just $500.
Damian Casey at Parramatta Auto Trimmers did the whole interior. He’s a perfectionist. Door cards, sunvisors and roof lining I got from a place called Cools Auto Trim – he has a lot of moulds and stampings for these older cars.
The car has lots of little details such as the Sportsman badges and other trim. I renovated all of that, which is painstaking work. I was very lucky that the chrome on it was still good.
George did all the pinstriping by hand – it took three days! We took everything out of the garage, masked up the whole car for one stripe. Then we would wait for that to dry, then mask again for the second stripe. It was all done by hand. George isn’t a signwriter, but he just has a knack for it. He’s a champion.
We got the auto electrician in to finish off the wiring, he asked if I had had the instruments done. When I said no, he recommended doing it before he got started, so we knew everything would work.
The instruments were originally built by VDO and they were happy to do the refurbishment. Then it was just plug and play.
As for the dash, we sent that off to a panel beater and I did the painted trim.
When it came to wheels I put it out there that I was a looking for a set of W35s. A guy from South Australia got back to me and said he had a good set. I organised a trip with Brie, my partner, a combination holiday and parts pick-up.
We turned up and the wheels were nothing like the photos. I made a counter-offer and brought them back. I found a business called All Mag Wheel Repairs which put them through a CNC. They really finished off the car – a proper period factory option.
All that took about eight years. The hardest part was just to keep going. You get to a point where the driveline is in, the interior is sort of half in, and then you have to start with the really fiddly stuff; doors, windows, pinstriping, badges, wheels. You get exhaustion after a time.
I now love working on it and am lucky in having a really good support crew around me. You know when you have bad day at work, you come home, open the garage, turn on the light and maybe do one thing, that just makes your day okay.
It drives really well, she’s tuned really well by George at 360 Racing. It’s smooth and beautiful to drive. It’s probably a little better than factory.
What’s the next project? There isn’t one – we have a few other cars and that will do for the moment.