Yup, this is a gen-u-ine HQ GTS Monaro 74, in my possesion for about 2 years from about 1994. It was powered by a warm 308, M21 cog boxed and 3.08 LSD big Salsbury diffed. Factory silver from Melbourne, I bought if off one of my old bosses who was the second owner, at only 92000 km's on the clock.
"Everyone should own a V8 sometime in their life"
Pulling the 308 out...
She was a bit rough, I started with a rebuild to get the engine spot on, with body due to follow. "Go before show" you know. I got as far as a strong rebuild (almost a _year_> off the road!), but it was stolen shortly after returning to the street, taken to Gnagara pine plantation and stripped. This is a popular Perth 'midnight spares' area. Managed to get it back before it was torched, but it was all too late, a lot of the engine was gone.
At this point, in 1996 I decided to give up and sell the rest of it but a mate of mine from work offered to buy what was left and get it going again "it would be a crime to wreck it". He spent a considerable number of bucks on the drivetrain (it was worse than we thought: new diff needed, new bottom end, etc) but at last she was going strong again.
Engine bay after Steve cleaned it up
After about five years she was just getting rustier and rustier (he didn't get as far as cutting out the rust and a respray) and anyway he'd moved on to other things like marriage and kids. But in a fine tradition of passing it on to the next keen guy he sold it to the president of the Monaro Club of Western Australia - perhaps he might take her back to show room condition ;)
Recovered from being stolen
If there is a car out that that deserves a full rebuild, it's this old HQ. And it did get rebuilt! Mel sent me a few photos years later, and she is looking great again. A piece of history, preserved!
Rebuilt by Mel
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