COMING ATTRACTIONS KINGER!Home Built

Luke Eastham took an already tough HG, stripped it down and put plans in place to bring it back much wilder than it ever was before…

LUKE & ANNE-MARIE EASTHAM - 1971 HG HOLDEN

WORDS – PAUL BECK PICS – SUPPLIED BY OWNERS

This HG has been around for a while and in its previous life before moving into Luke’s garage to be rebuilt, it had been subjected to the abuse dumped on it in burnout competitions. The stresses and strains that go hand in hand with putting on a smoke show for the crowd hadn’t been kind for the Kingswood, so when the time was right, Luke got stuck into reliving the HG of all its boltons to give the old girl a freshen up. Before too long, the HG was just a shell with all of the removable panels, interior and complete driveline removed.

ORIGINAL STYLE

INTERIOR

427CI SMALL BLOCK CHEV DOMINATOR CARB

DIRECT PORT NITROUS ALLOY HEADS

E85 FUEL

SMOOTH ENGINE BAY

NARROWED 9-INCH DIFF WITH FLOATERS

FOUR-LINK WITH COIL-OVERS

29X15-RUBBER

REPAINTED IN FACTORY

CORAL & WHITE

FABRICATED INDEPENDANT FRONT END

The body shell was subjected to a thorough make over that saw the sheet metal taken back to bare steel before being banged, bashed, welded and grinded back to better than it was when it left the showroom floor all those years ago. All of the rust was removed with new panels added to those areas. Luke and mate Andrew Brown handled the body work duties before handing the repaired body and associated panels over to another mate, Jake Spokes, to give the body, reshaped engine bay and panels the once over prior to adding the factory coral and white colour combo. The underside of the HG has been cleaned up and fitted with a custom independent front suspension set-up with a rear clip and four-link added to the back to house the 29x15-inch wheel and tyre combo.

The original small block that was in the HG suffered a major meltdown during its final burnout appearance when several pistons decided to take a leave of absence through the side of the block.

The original small block that was in the HG suffered a major meltdown during its final burnout appearance when several pistons decided to take a leave of absence through the side of the block. A new, 427cube small block was ordered through well-known engine man John Sawka, who fitted a solid roller cam, AFR heads and an NOS direct port nitrous kit. The previous tunnel ram has been replaced by a single dominator and intake and runs on a strict diet of E85 fuel. Backing the stretched small block is a Powerglide auto fronted with a Coan converter while the narrowed 9-inch diff houses 35-spline axles, floaters and 4.56-gears, giving the HG a stout driveline capable of handling any punishment Luke chooses to throw at it. The interior is set to resemble a fullresto with the front seats to be recovered and the rest of the interior cleaned up and reused.

If all goes to plan, Luke is hoping the HG will be back on the street by Christmas, but with baby number two shortly, it will happen as it happens. One thing is for sure though, this HG is being engineered for regular street use, but will also be run down the strip, and subjected to a burnout comp or two. Wherever the HG appears, it will be doing it in style with new paint, smoothed out engine bay and pro-street style wheel and tyre combo. Bring it on…