Features 1958 'Star Model' Customline

Hi this is my Australian delivered 1958 customline, I've owned for a few years after purchasing it from my mother (she had it for about 10 years prior) the star model as it's known here was a locally produced variant of of the USA 1955/56 customline/fairlaine body and frame with 1955 Canadian meteor side trim and a 56 Canadian grille with a locally designed dash that as far as I'm aware never appeared in any other country. The car was pretty mechanically sound when my mother bought it it had a very tired 302 Cleveland and c10 (pan fill c4 to our American friends) auto with the stock diff and a disc brake setup off a xa falcon on the front, that engine gave up the ghost a few years before i bought the car so my father and myself reaced it.with a 351 cleveland (with a few goodies like 302 heads and a 4 barrel intake) so then mum took the car drag racing at a local hot rod day and betwern her and myself we busted the cuzzo diff

So dad and I narrowed a 9" and fitted 3.0:1 gears and it was a pretty sound car when i bought it. Here's a photo of the car when I bought it

and I only changed a couple of things visually first thing I did was ditch the hub caps


Then painted the spindles red

 

So that's how the car stayed for a while. Next thing the auto blew up and a mate had a c10 with a 2500 stall and shift kit so I fitted that

then I changed the rocker covers when I fitted some roller rockers


And a little video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRn7SoFF7ok&feature=youtube_gdata_player
So a was good I spent alot of time driving it every where I even had it at the go-to-woah at the geelong nationals

 

After a while I killed the first 351 so I rebuilt another one


Then just spent alot of time driving it everywhere, some photos from chopped




All was good then about 18 months ago a drunk driver in a commodore tried to shorten my Cuzzo but it fared alot better than his car

 

Kool story so far...

 

Deconstruction







A bit of playing aroun with an intske i bought for it

Then it went in to storage for a while

 

Liking it so far, besides the idiot in the commodore. This may sound an odd question, but is there a chrome trim above your headlights? I'm looking for something for my Zephyr and your headlight surrounds look very similar if not the same.

 

So a couple of weeks ago a mate and I decided we were going to get his valiant ready for chopped (5 weeks away at that time) and after a few whiskey's decided we didn't have enough work cut out for us and we decided we should get my car back on the road so the Cuzzo runs and moves under it's own power but still needs it fair share of work before it's ready

 

Yeah it has a trim above the headlight, not sure how close they are to Zephyr light surrounds though

 

Cheers mate. I think they're slightly different the more I look at them, but looks like they'll be close. If not, the car's already been hacked up, a little more won't be an issue. Not much time till Chopped now, but with enough whiskey and late nights, anything is possible.

 

Cusso & Zephyr eyebrows are different.
Seems like this thread oughtta be in 'Hot- Rods' the way you dine out on Clevelands. Whatever- you have a fine old 4-tone '58 star there. Rad intake. I'd hate some nerd to hit my FJ like that- bodywork takes so long. See U @ Chopped. Lookm fwd to seeing the Valiant too.

 

Cheers for that, yeah I have been through a couple of clevo's and autos, but as the saying goes if it breaks you fix it faster

 

Looks like a 55 with a 56 dash to me along with the Canadian grille and side trim.

 

There are a few Mk2 Zephyr parts over here in NZ, Uteslider.

There is a pair of chromed headlight surrounds on the local auction site for $5 - send me a PM if you are interested.

 

This weekends attempt ended with a fair share of progress

Then it drove for the fist time in 12 months (only about 2 miles) to my mates workshop so we can work on them side by side


My mate and his valiant, it's nearly ready for hi-fill and primer

 

The dash is similar to the US version, but not the same. Looks like a cross of 54 and 56 US dashes....

 

Correct the dash looks like a Yankee one but when next to each other they are actually distant cousins

 

Love this thing! Those chrome steelies are tough on it, hope to see it at Chopped this year?

 

90% chance it will be there

 

Though I would post a before pic of my mates valiant, its a 1964 ap5 it had spent 25 years on blocks in the old bloke he bought it off's shed

We got it running and drove it 100ks (60 miles) home without skipping a beat

 

love the chrome and grille on that!!

 

Great car!!!

 

Looks like the car has a lot in common with the 55/56 Ford here in the states,,cool looking car. HRP

 

You should have your pal checkout my buddy's Valiant build at our shop. What a gorgeous car, and fun too!

http://www.thesandmshop.com/PolishTickler.html

 

Man that valiant is cool, thanks for the kind words gents they help keep me motivated (as well as a tight deadline)

 

You can definitely see a lot of '55 Ford in that car. Cool.

 

But of progress lately, spent the weekend sorting out sheet meatal and wiring, just so I could take it for a drive to find out if the auto was decent (the short drive to my mates panel shop made me suspicious of it's condition).





The white bonnet us just a temporary item it's so rusty I have no faith in it staying on the car above 30mph, but it keeps the engine dry, here some interior photos






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