E
VERYBODY loves an HK-T-G Monaro; even Ford guys
will admit they’re pretty tough. That popularity is reflected
in current values; if your Kingswood has two doors, start
adding zeroes, because people are lining up to own one.
But there’s a negative side to the high esteem in which
these rigs are held: What if you’ve got a pearler and want to
start modifying it? George Stathopoulos certainly copped it when
he told people his genuine HK GTS 307 needed more grunt. It
was too good to chop up, too nice to modify, apparently.
Some would give the appropriate salute, fire up the angle
grinder and begin attacking those narrow rear wheel wells out of
spite, but George conceded the ’K was pretty nice and started
looking for another coupe.
An appropriately donor-spec car appeared in Adelaide: a
Verdoro Green HT Monaro GTS 186S. It had received a dodgy
80s resto back in the day and the engine bay was a pig.
“The paint was thiiiick,” George drawls, “and it covered a few
blemishes.” However, a pre-purchase inspection allayed any fears
of a shit-heap, showing that the chassis was solid and the surface
rust nothing to worry about.
Despite this HT being the relatively unloved 186, George still
found a few detractors.
“Again, everyone was saying: ‘Don’t do this’, and ‘Don’t do that’,
but this time I told them where to go,” he laughs. “I had the vision
of this stealth look, with black and grey complemented by little
bits of chrome.”
George shipped the Monaro to his cousin Steve at Scorpion
Automotive, who recommended Zoran at Competition Engines
in Springvale, Victoria to handle the overall project. George isn’t
afraid to get his hands dirty, but he’s an accountant by trade, and
he knows where his strengths lie.
“From a numbers perspective, I anticipated huge resistance
from the other half: How are we going to finance it? How are we
going to pay the rent?” George pauses for a moment for effect.
“Then I remembered, I don’t have another half! I can have my cake
and eat it too!”
Zoran removed the old 186S, dummy-fitting a Dart block and
all-new running gear to the tired ’T, before stripping it completely
and delivering it to Vito at Polo Body Works as a bare shell.
“Vito is a top bloke to deal with; real down-to-earth,” George
says. “Even now when I’m nearby, I still drop in to say g’day.”
Vito may be chill, but he needed some gear out of George to
ensure the build was of the quality they were both expecting.
“Some of the repro stuff just wasn’t quite right, so I had to source
second-hand gear,” George explains. “The right-hand guard was
swiss cheese, so I bought another one. Vito reckons I found the
best Monaro guard left in the country!”
Although angry mobs were assembled and pitchforks raised at
the prospect of George modding the HT, he isn’t a total animal;
body-wise, the only real deviation from standard are the mini-tubs.
“I’ve seen some tubs that look like a massacre back there,” he
laughs. Instead, he requested something more subtle, shifting
the standard wells inboard and welding in a filler strip. “They call
them ‘Band-Aid’ mini-tubs; even before I fitted out the boot, you
couldn’t tell they were there.”
Vito smoothed off the aerial hole on top of the left-hand guard,
sealed off any unnecessary gaps in the engine bay and readied
the body for paint. That lustrous sheen is the result of nine coats of
PPG Tenorite Grey and plenty of clear applied over a die-straight
body. How straight? Just look at Chris Thorogood’s photographsI HAD THE VISION OF THIS STEALTH LOOK, WITH BLACK AND
GREY COMPLEMENTED BY LITTLE BITS OF CHROME