In The Shed At Shady Creek With Richard Fazzani

The small Victorian community of Shady Creek is a distance from the highway, in fact Cobb and Co. coaches used to rattle and rumble through the area way before the Princes Highway was ever dreamt of.

Doug Hamilton

Today there is still a rattle and rumble in Shady Creek because hot rodder, Richard Fazzani lives there. In his large shed are many interesting playthings from the past. We will concentrate on the four wheeled stuff.

First up is a 1934 Vauxhall sedan that Richard rodded around ten years ago. It is one of only two that GMH produced that year employing the larger Detroit inspired body, rather than the common English sheet metal. Its rarity and family connection made Richard hesitant to rod it, but the rather decayed wooden substructure finally made up his mind. The chassis has been fully upgraded with Jaguar suspension front and rear and a 350/350 Chev combo make for comfortable all day reliable cruising. Subaru seats help also, while a Morris Minor dash, that is a perfect fit, gave twelve-volt instrumentation. What isn’t seen are the metres of steel tubing needed to brace and support the once collapsing body.

The tall, narrow and questionable radiator and grille assembly has also been replaced by a fibreglass Deuce shell in order to get a larger cooling area. Doing this also meant removing the iconic Vauxhall fluting from the bonnet and further disguises the car’s true identity. Fluted lenses in ’34 Vauxhall headlights on stock mounts flank it to show the way, while early Model A taillights serve at the rear.

The 1940 Ford pickup is in the mock up stages but has plenty of potential already. It started its new life as a circa 1946 Jailbar cabin to which ’40 Ford doors have been fitted. This was not as easy as it sounds as it took some gap tweaking to make it all work. Richard then stepped up to his first chop top. It now sits two inches lower than stock. A scratch built tray brings up the rear, while the fibreglass guards and bonnet make up the rest of the body, along with a trick tube grille.