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MORLEY’S WORKSHOP
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[email protected] or via snail mail at Unique Cars,
Locked Bag 12, Oakleigh, 3166. Yep, he’s gonna fix you up in no time...DAVE MORLEY GIVES YOU THE CAR ADVICE YOU NEED –
AND MAYBE A BIT ABOUT LIFE AS WELL
DAVE^ MORLEYGARAGE GURUS
AND (^) ON
E MORE^
TH
IN
G.
..
OVER CHARGER
I
love getting out back of beyond these days. My
three-decades-old LandCruiser is now a regular
visitor to the mulga and in the last four years or
so has been to every State and Territory apart
from Tassie and the ACT. (Tassie is on the to-do
list; the ACT, er, we’ll see.)
Now, dead cars were once a part of the regional
landscape until scrap metal became about $200
a tonne a few years ago and the scrappies started
touring country areas buying up old cars that,
at the time, weren’t worth much (if anything)
beyond their scrap value. I hate to think how many
salvageable old dears were crushed and turned into
fridges and microwaves as part of this process.
However, the cost of running a truck out to farms
and country towns eventually reached the point
of no-profit once the distance involved became
too great. And the result of that is that the true,
fair-dinkum, honest-to-goodness outback is still
home to quite a few dead `uns.
My last trip took me into the East Pilbara of WA
and, somewhere between the towns of Papunya
and Kintore (google it) I found not just a dead
Aussie car, but a vehicle that will have a lot of UC
readers weeping into their kebabs as they read this.
I actually zoomed past the old girl at first,
because even though the orange paint was a clue,
the thing was so beaten to piss that it was only
when I was almost past that I recognised the make
and model. Yep, a VH Valiant Charger. Cue quick
U-turn and much oohing and aahing from me and
the mates I had along.
As you can see, of course, there’s not much
left to salvage from this old girl, but the forensic
scientist in me was still intrigued. Somebody, for
instance, has used an angle-grinder to cut out
and remove the little sections of the rear quarters
where the Six Pack decal would have been. The
black bonnet (what was left of it) was also an R/T
clue, but who knows if it was an original R/T or a
mock-up. Then again, who cares: Any VH Charger
is retro royalty these days.
The engine (on the ground next to the shell) was
a two-barrel Hemi that had either been removed
from the car or thrown out when it crashed. But
maybe the thing was just dumped out there many
years ago when old Valiants were worth nothing.
The big hole in the side of the engine block
suggests that may have been the case.
The VH wasn’t the only early Aussie wreck I
found but it was the one that made the biggest
impression on my crew. I’d love to know the car’s
back-story and how it got to this remote part of
the continent on the edge of the Gibson Desert.
Anybody seen it themselves or know the story?
The other question is whether it’s worth rescuing.
Well, it’d be a hell of a recovery thanks to the sheer
distance, the crook roads and the $3.40-a-litre
fuel out that way. Plus, as you can see from the
photos, the old girl is well past any real chance of
rehabilitation. Even out in the dry, dusty desert,
rust will still eventually get a hold. And yes, the tags
were both missing!