TOUGH LUV

WE LOOK BACK AT DAVE HEMSWORTH’S AMAZING FJ UTE, BUDGET-BUILT ON A CHEV LUV CHASSIS AS A GENUINE STREETER AT THE HEIGHT OF THE PRO STREET ERA

- NOEL TUCKEY & SIMON TELFORD

WHEN is a humpy ute not a humpy ute? When it gets dropped over a Chev LUV chassis, is powered by a Ford Windsor and grunts through a Ford driveline!

The man behind this schizophrenic creation is plumber-turned-storeman, Dave Hemsworth. Dave’s been in the customizing business for yonks, fooling around with hot rods before slotting Jaguar and Ford Windsor mills into early-model Falcons. Then he became hooked on humpies, building a black small-block Chevpowered FX (SM, Aug/Sep ’85) and a white FJ utility that had a Hemsworth-crafted tilt front. But these were just a taste of what Dave had in store.

The Hemsworth mind started ticking over after a trip to an engineering shop in ’85. Purely by chance, the boys in the shop were working on a Chev LUV chassis, fitting it with a nine-inch Ford diff. The track, wheelbase, and front and rear kicks of the chassis all clicked, and Dave started thinking. And measuring.

“I thought maybe it just might fit under an FJ ute body,” Dave remembers. “I measured it up first and found the front chassis kick was exactly the same as the FJ subframes, and the rear chassis kick followed the FJ rails as well. I didn’t really know if it was going to work with the LUV chassis under it, but it looked close enough, so I bought a chassis for a hundred bucks, and I picked up a body for 50. I didn’t want to stuff up a good body.”