S1 EP10

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Sorry about that. Welcome to the third broadcast of Talking Talk this afternoon. So wishing everybody had a great week and a great weekend. Lots of car racing going on, lots of car shows, lots of coffee and cars. In Perth this morning. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Touring car racing. Last week, Le Mans 24 Hour. [00:00:28] Speaker A: Grand Prix. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Some of the, Some fantastic racing, some fantastic results by Australian drivers. And let's get stuck into it. And today our special guest is Antonio Gatani. Tony Gatani, AKA Von Custard. Welcome, mate. [00:00:49] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me, mate. [00:00:52] Speaker A: I just, I just can't believe that you're here. So we've sort of met previously and we've, we've had chats and discussions and we've met, but I didn't really actually know who you were and it wasn't until a great friend of ours, Chris Duranto, AKA El Toro. Yeah, El Toro, yes. Said to me, mate, you need to get hold of this guy. Yeah, I got, Okay. I said, why? He goes, mate, he's a fruit and vegetable, but he's into cars. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Yes, Condor fruiter here, Konda fruiter. [00:01:26] Speaker A: And he's in. And so, yeah, so tell me about yourself, mate. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Tell you about Mr. Tony. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yes, Mr. Tony. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Okay, well, where can I start, mate? Italian parents immigrated to Australia. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Dad started doing fruit and veg. I remember growing up and there was a lot of garlic broccoli growing. [00:01:53] Speaker B: So for some reason I really loved cars. I don't know, might have been the Grease movie, I don't know, I don't know. But, so I ended up going to high school at Lumen Christie College. And there was a young guy there by the name of Glenn John. And his father was a hot rodder here, like a old school hot Rodder from the 50s and 60s and he was building model cars. And I thought, oh, geez, I want to get into that, I want to start modifying that sort of stuff. So, so that's where the love car started. I, I guess I worked in the family business for, I don't know, until it was 25, and then did a few little stints in other fruit and veggie shops. And then I, I've been at SJ Fresh Produce now for 22 years. So. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Tony, the fruit and veggie man that loves cars and modifying cars, cutting cars up, you know, and petrol station signs, you know, garage nail you, all that sort of stuff. [00:02:52] Speaker A: That's awesome. So your lover cars came from the hot rodders. Did your father say to you, hey, you know, you need to make a better life. We're Making a better life. You need to be a lawyer. [00:03:03] Speaker B: You need to go to uni. Yeah, he did. [00:03:05] Speaker A: What did you say? What did you want to do? [00:03:07] Speaker B: Look, you know, so dad always kept pushing for doctor, lawyer, you know, top end job sort of thing. But my mum, she always pushed. Do something yet you want to love. [00:03:20] Speaker A: Yep. [00:03:21] Speaker B: You know, so you know, if I look back now, I wouldn't be able to say, hey, oh geez, I'm your fruit and veg for the rest of my life. But it's given me what I got today. You know, I love doing what I do. I get up 2:30 in the morning. Yeah, but dad. [00:03:40] Speaker B: I still remember there was so many days that he used to. There's a few words that I can't say on radio but he used to say, stop playing around with cars, get back in the shop and do some work, mate. [00:03:51] Speaker A: So. Okay. [00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:52] Speaker A: That's awesome. What was Your. [00:03:56] Speaker A: First car? [00:03:58] Speaker B: 1978Hz Holden Kingswood SL. [00:04:03] Speaker A: And obviously the bug hadn't caught so was it modified? Were you going to customize it? [00:04:09] Speaker B: Look, I did a few like back in the, I guess the 90s back then I put GDS, flutes and mags and you know, sheepskin covers in the stereo and typical Italian going through Northbridge with a loud doof doof. So. But I guess I didn't have the money to actually go like I loved an 85 exposute cop car VK Commodore or something or a VN. Just didn't have the money. Even though my parents were like well off. They, you know, successful in their business and everything but I had to earn my. In my little quid. [00:04:46] Speaker A: So yeah, I'm very similar. I used to, I sort of went. Started to work at 14. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:53] Speaker A: At Woolies and pushing trolleys and you know, had enough money to when I was 17, 18 and I bought my first XP Falcon which was you know, seven and a half thousand. [00:05:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker A: And then yeah, I used to cruise down Brunswick Street. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Nice. [00:05:10] Speaker A: You know, through Chapel street and you know, King street and you know there was a different era back in the 80s and 90s. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:18] Speaker A: So yeah. And the art of customization, how did that come across? [00:05:23] Speaker B: Well, I. I was invited to go to the Perth District Model Club meeting with my friend Glenn and I can't remember if it was his folks that brought us there. It was on a, I don't know, Thursday night. So basically that's where I thought about modifying cars and I started I guess back then going to the local news agency, buying car magazines, you know, Aussie Custom rotter. You know, street, street magazines, you name it, I was buying them. But then I. I got the bug with the US anything from the 50s. And then for some reason the 49 to 51 Mercury's. I love those. So. And then I started chopping them up, going to the local toy store and started chopping up. [00:06:08] Speaker A: That's awesome. I remember like Eddie Ford. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Custom rudder. [00:06:12] Speaker B: Yeah, custom rudder. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah, like. And also going to the first street machine shows. [00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:17] Speaker A: The hot rod show in the exhibition buildings. I've still got a T shirt. I was a participant. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:22] Speaker A: It was like. It was my dream to just have a go there. [00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:27] Speaker A: But then it was. I was living the life when I went there and I had a car there and I met all those extraordinary people. Like Pat Fay. [00:06:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Pat F. I love Pat Fay. Pat Fay passed on, but he had the hump. The Humpy Decker mega hearse. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Oh, I don't even know that car. [00:06:44] Speaker A: I mean it was, it was like a. A hearse and it had the coffin on the outside and the coffin on the inside. Wow. And Pat Fay used to sell T shirts and mate. Pat Fay, a legendary Holden guy. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:58] Speaker A: And the first street machine car shows in Canberra. He was there. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Nice. [00:07:04] Speaker A: So Pat Fay, the early hot rodders, Mr. Blue, that sort of stuff, you know, I love, I love that. I love going there and I love going to the car. You know the news agent reservoir. You know the news agent where you live. [00:07:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:23] Speaker B: Talking about the T shirts. [00:07:26] Speaker B: I've got T shirts from John's rod and custom picnic still in plastic from 96. [00:07:32] Speaker A: And we're gonna get there to John's running custom. [00:07:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:35] Speaker A: And it's just about the love and the passion and when you're a young guy. Yeah. You're not real great with girls. [00:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:07:42] Speaker A: You got the best. You know, you. You sort of putting your reference into your car. [00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:47] Speaker A: And then your mum's looking at you once you get a girl. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:07:51] Speaker A: What's this car going to do for you? [00:07:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:53] Speaker A: You know, mine was a bit different. [00:07:55] Speaker B: It was like, we're going to arrange you with this Italian family. And I was like, no, no, no, sorry mate. I used to shoot out the back to the back shed. [00:08:03] Speaker A: So. So, yeah. So yeah. Sort of our, our lives are similar. [00:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:09] Speaker A: Along similar lines. You're. You're in Perth, we're in Melbourne. [00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:08:14] Speaker A: And you know, I suppose the Melbourne scene. [00:08:19] Speaker A: A lot different from the Perth scene because there's a lot more people, a lot more cars. [00:08:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:23] Speaker A: And then you Just bring up John's Rod and Custom. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah. God bless him. [00:08:29] Speaker A: How did. And I knew John. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:32] Speaker A: And I went to a few shows that John ran. How did somebody from Perth. [00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:38] Speaker A: Get the John's Rod and Custom? Okay. You know, I think it was the first ones were in like Packenham, Packingham Packing race course. [00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's correct. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Back in the day. So how did, how did somebody from Perth get to Pakenham? [00:08:53] Speaker B: Well, that would have been 96 and I guess I don't know if the newsletter. There was a little magazine like a 50s custom magazine done by a couple of guys in New South Wales from the Gosford area. Darren Struss and I've forgotten the other guys names but there's a couple of guys there. I started seeing ads for John's Rod and Custom as well in other magazines and I used to just. Back then there was no Internet. No, it was on the phone. Tina used to. Tina used to man the phones and I used to speak to John and I joined the koa. So Customs of Australia and I guess it was like just a good old fashioned pick up the phone ring. John always had time to talk to people. Even though he was busy chopping cars and doing whatever at the workshop, he always had time. And I said to myself and a couple of guys here in Perth said I want to do a little trip to Melbourne to go to John's Rod and Custom picnic, you know. So two of my mates, Glenn, that is the guy who got me into cars, him and another friend of mine, Daniel, we did a five day trip, went to Melbourne. I sprained my ankle three days before and I remember hobbling around and it was an eye opener. It was like I've never seen 3,000 cars at the Pakenham racecourse and anything and everything. It was mind boggling. [00:10:24] Speaker A: It is, it was, it was, it was something, it was something that. [00:10:31] Speaker A: You had to see. [00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:33] Speaker A: And it was everything. And they had rockabilly bands. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah, rockabilly bands. Pinstriping, flamethrower competitions, exhaust wrap competitions. Yeah, Itchy Fingers were playing, you know, just anything and everything. Old drag cars on trailers, you know, I think there was a semi trailer truck on a smaller chassis. I mean there was stuff there that I've gone. I can't believe that I'm seeing this. [00:11:00] Speaker A: How did somebody from like you, you go there, you travel two and a half thousand kilometers. It probably wasn't a modern car that you went in. Yeah, you go, you go to Pakenham. [00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Which is the other side of the country to the other side of the country to Pakenham, which is the other side of Melbourne, in the middle of nowhere. Back then. [00:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:21] Speaker A: Because 96. It was still all. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Full land and, and, and cabbage patches. [00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:11:26] Speaker A: Now it's all houses. [00:11:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Well, you know, you said it was just a phenomenal thing to see. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:36] Speaker A: What, what made it that. But I think what was the essence of that? I think. [00:11:44] Speaker B: How can I put it? I think to me it was like that John welcomed anybody and everybody into that arena, if you know what I mean? [00:11:58] Speaker A: If you. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically his arms were open to anyone. You love cars. I don't care if, if it's a Sigma or if it's a Fiat Topolino or If it's a 51 Merc, mate. Come and bring it in. [00:12:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he was, he was awesome. I, I, I went to see John at his house in Berwick. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, me too. Yeah. [00:12:17] Speaker A: And. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Hey, Darren, Come up. [00:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:21] Speaker A: This is what I'm doing. [00:12:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Chopping up a car. I've never seen it. Yeah, I'd heard. [00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:26] Speaker A: But I'd never seen it before. Yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker A: And I went to buy something off of my car. [00:12:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:33] Speaker A: He goes, oh, I got this, I've got this. You know John's rolling custom picnic. [00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:37] Speaker A: I go, oh, yeah. So you know little Darren Shanta from the northern suburbs. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Drove. There was no, there was just a Monash. There was no, you know, roads or whatever. Took us half a day to get there. [00:12:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:50] Speaker A: And I'm just blown away by Packer Race course. [00:12:55] Speaker B: So. Yeah. Like three young guys under, I don't know, 25, get to the Melbourne airport, go to Rent a Bomb. [00:13:04] Speaker A: Get Rent a Bomb. [00:13:05] Speaker B: It was some Commodore, VB Commodore. And we end up going out and the thing is, the hospitality of everybody was fan. John even said, hey, Tony, I'm going to the workshop. Hop in, we go for it. I've never been in a 32 Ford Roadster hot rod. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:19] Speaker B: Bang. Off we go. And I was like a kid in the candy store, mate. So. And I think that that time they'll put in the windscreen in there in his mainline ute that he just chopped. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So. [00:13:30] Speaker B: And they cracked it. And I heard a few Fs this and. But it was awesome. I loved it. Loved it. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:36] Speaker B: And I went many a times, probably half a dozen times. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Those, those events that he had were, were, you know, one of a kind. He was, John was a one of a kind person. [00:13:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:49] Speaker A: And the, that era of time. Yeah, that was his era of time where exactly. Everybody that had a custom, that had a hot rod, that had a, like a hotted up car. [00:14:04] Speaker A: A 50s, a 60s, a 40s, a 30s. I'd never seen a juice coupe before. [00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:10] Speaker A: I'd never seen, you know, anything like that before. And that was just an eye opener. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:14:15] Speaker A: And then we went to see a car, went to the Victorian hot rod show and yeah, there was a guy called Kevin Mayo and he, he was advertising a five window. [00:14:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, nice. [00:14:26] Speaker A: Just a body. [00:14:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:28] Speaker A: And I'd had the Falcon and dad and I went up there and I said to him, he goes, I remember you got that xp. I've gone, yeah, I've got the xp. He goes, look, I don't want to sell it to you because it's a lot of work and I don't know whether you could do it. [00:14:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:44] Speaker A: And I got. Oh, that's fair enough. I said, look, it's a lot of work. It was just a shell. [00:14:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:49] Speaker A: It had a. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Checkerboard front. [00:14:53] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Firewall. [00:14:55] Speaker A: I've never, I've never seen anything like that before. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:58] Speaker A: And yeah, we had a chat and you know, you sort of go, look, mate, I don't think this car's for you. [00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:04] Speaker A: I said, that's cool. [00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:06] Speaker A: And so I didn't get it. But going to John's and seeing all of these things, yeah, I wanted, I wanted a. I wanted a five window. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:15:16] Speaker A: And this was an all metal five window. I think it was like $3,000. [00:15:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:20] Speaker A: And he goes, mate, what do you do? You've got this car, that car. That car. Yeah, I'm a chef. Apprentice chef and xyz. But going to John's. [00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:29] Speaker A: And seeing all of that, my eye had sideboards in the end. I had the pointy shoes. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I did too. [00:15:37] Speaker A: I had the sideboards at the pointy shoes. I had the belt buckle. Yeah. I used to go see the Straight Eights in Fitzroy, you know. I mean. [00:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:15:45] Speaker A: I mean, I just sort of transformed myself from this little wog kid. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:49] Speaker A: Into a rocker. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:15:50] Speaker A: You know, and I was going to see the Straight Eights or the King Billies. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Yeah, nice. [00:15:54] Speaker A: You know. And was there that scene here in Perth? [00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah, there was, there was. Back in the day, there was, you know, a few clubs, you know, so there was a lot of rockabilly action. So I think that's still alive and well here in Perth. So I guess for me I was a bit of a late bloomer. I didn't really get into the dancing and all that sort of stuff. So who's going to pick the fat Italian kid down there? [00:16:21] Speaker A: I. [00:16:21] Speaker B: Up against the wall. [00:16:23] Speaker A: These kid over there. [00:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:24] Speaker A: You know. [00:16:25] Speaker B: You know, at the end of the day, there was a lot of, you know, a lot of clubs, a lot of young, you know, I'm in my early 50s and the guys that were doing it back then are still doing it. You got Rusty Pinto at the moment with Richard Blasik. He's started his own business. [00:16:43] Speaker B: Restoring cars and he was a rocker from back then and he's still a rocker, so he plays double bass in the band. So they're still doing gigs. So. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll see the King Billy's. They've changed their name, but they're playing it like a hotel in Oakley. The Straight Eight still play in Melbourne. Yeah, but you know, that scene. [00:17:07] Speaker A: You know, the. That hot rod scene, it's never, it's never diminished. No, it's always, it's always. It's always been there. [00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Some. Some. Some areas not as strong as others. Yeah, but if you go to a, you know, a Jay Le in on a Sunday morning or whatever or, you know, Fremantle or wherever there, or, you know, Mandurah Rod show there. Heaps of cars. [00:17:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:17:37] Speaker A: And all the old guys, I mean, you got to respect. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:41] Speaker A: Their. Their attention to detail. They've been around for. For years. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:47] Speaker A: And they still got the sideboards. The wives are still. The wives in their 70s. They've still got the bobby shop socks and they're still, you know, so that scene, that, that love, that passion. [00:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:59] Speaker A: You know, it's all, it's. It's all there. [00:18:02] Speaker B: It's. [00:18:03] Speaker A: It's just. It's never left. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Where you get some scenes, they come and go. The bodies and widgets and this and this. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:09] Speaker A: But the, the custom. The custom. The hot rod, the 50s, the American Graffiti style. [00:18:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Everyone loves John Milner in the. In the 32. Five Window Coupe, you know. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:21] Speaker A: So, you know, in Perth in that era, the scene, I take it, was a smaller set than Melbourne. [00:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it was smaller, yeah. Because as we were talking a bit earlier, going to Melbourne and seeing 3,000 cars, the closest I got to was to Big Al's poker run with 800 cars. [00:18:41] Speaker A: Yep. [00:18:41] Speaker B: And Big Al's poker run was probably the biggest event. [00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:45] Speaker B: And you saw everybody came out, you know, so you had your hot odds, your rockers and, you know, you had everything. So, you know, another guy that is now retired and it. From the. I guess the 70s. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Yep. [00:19:01] Speaker B: 80S. Who I got introduced to when I was 15 was Alan Barton. He was a teacher at Kelms. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Got high. Yep. [00:19:09] Speaker B: And my cousins, who were a little bit older than me, they helped him build his model, a roadster at the high school. So. And he's still driving it around. It's still the same color, you know, and it's nicknamed the Rainmaker. So, rain, hail or shine, he's out in that hot rod. [00:19:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It's. It's a lifestyle, isn't it? [00:19:28] Speaker B: Of course it is. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:29] Speaker B: And. [00:19:30] Speaker A: And I suppose there are some people that have said to me in the past few weeks, man, you've had your car for. I remember when you built that car. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:38] Speaker A: And you've still got it and it still looks the same. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:41] Speaker A: And I'm going, yeah, we've had a few iterations. [00:19:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Over the years and. Yeah, you do have that. Yeah. And you drift in and out of clubs and. [00:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. [00:19:50] Speaker A: You drift in and out of communities. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:53] Speaker C: You're. [00:19:54] Speaker A: You've been around for, for many years in Perth. Yeah. How many, how many communities like that have you been in? Because obviously you drift out with families and you drift out with this. And. [00:20:08] Speaker B: Look, I was never really a huge, I guess, club member. [00:20:12] Speaker A: Yep. [00:20:14] Speaker B: You know, I guess my number plate on my custom line. [00:20:19] Speaker A: Yep. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Says it all. Outcast with a K. Yep. But not being as I am, the outcast, it's sort of like sometimes I'm the square plug trying to fit into a round hole. You know, my whole family's holding nuts and I was the first one to buy Ford before. Bought my custom line when I was like 21. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So. [00:20:39] Speaker B: But, you know, there's. I'm a member of a really awesome car club now. You know, I used to run my own car events, the Vodka Cruise nights. [00:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Used to do them once or twice a month back in the day, last 15 years ago. [00:20:54] Speaker B: So, you know, and for me, it's like anything, really. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:58] Speaker B: You go through phases in life. [00:21:00] Speaker A: So you've mentioned Von Custard. [00:21:03] Speaker B: Yes. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Von Custard, the artist. [00:21:06] Speaker B: Yes, that's me. [00:21:07] Speaker A: So Italian kid. [00:21:12] Speaker A: How does an Italian kid. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Become. Become a hot rod pinstripe artist? Because some of the stuff that I've seen. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:22] Speaker A: In the past and in the present. [00:21:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:28] Speaker A: I can't even describe it because it's, it's, it's sensational. [00:21:32] Speaker B: Well, thank you. I really appreciate that, mate. I mean, look, it was never always fantastic. It looked like I did. My first jobs were like a Chicken scratched at the bonnet, mate. So look. [00:21:45] Speaker B: My custom one, when I first bought it, the first day I got it, I was in the car park and someone rear ended me. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:51] Speaker B: And it was yellow, white and yellow. And then it changed to two shades of yellow. And going to the Perth District Model Club meeting one night, Tony Summers, who's in Melbourne now, he said, oh, here comes the Custard Slice. Well, and they started calling me the Custard Slice kid. And then when I started doing my artwork. [00:22:11] Speaker B: I thought Von Dutch. Von Custard. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:15] Speaker B: And let's just start. Let's just start, you know, going to John's Rod and custom 10 years ago with someone. One of my mates was talking to a guy with a 39 Chevy and it was like red oxide and had the Terracotta Kid written on the door. And he's going, oh yeah, reminds me of Von Custard. He goes, oh yeah, I remember him. He goes, yeah, well, he's just over there. And he came over, you know, how you going? And you know, it just stuck. I just, I love the name, you know, I got it tattooed on me. So with, with the paintbrush there. And in high school, the one thing I really loved, especially in year 11, unit 12, was art. [00:22:53] Speaker A: Yep. [00:22:54] Speaker B: You know, my, I guess my history of art and that when I did essays was more of a D or an F, but my art was an A and I loved, I loved doing art. So I was always, I think, good with my hands. So. So I picked up the brush when Jeff Ray. Do you know Jeff Ray? He's got that 32.5 window coupe. [00:23:15] Speaker A: I've heard of it. I've heard of Jeff. [00:23:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So he, he, I teed it up with him back in the day to come over and pinstripe my custom line in 2001 or 2000. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:26] Speaker B: And he, I said, can you please pinstripe my car? And he goes, yeah, no worries, I'd love to. Came over, I took out my brushes. And not that he got upset, but he said, hey, Tony, flown all the way from Melbourne to pinstripe your car. And I'm seeing people over here, but you're pinstriping over there. You should be finish dropping your car. He thought my stuff was okay. And I was like, wow. So I just practiced, practice, practice. And then you, you meet people like Ryan Ford, Eddie's son, you know, and I was pinstriping with him. I was pinscribing trophies for the Perth hot rod show. And it just got my art just. It blew out. It got really, really good. I got really huge, and I was doing a lot of work, but then sometimes life gets in the way, you know. You know, you divorce or whatever. And now I do it, you know, I've got a couple of jobs lined up that I'm going to do. So when I got the time, I'd love to. Love to work on cars, model cars, phones. [00:24:26] Speaker A: I've done all sorts of stuff, so I like that. I think you've posted that. That Jaguar. [00:24:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I just bought that yesterday. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Well, wonder what that's going to be like. Yeah. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll do something to that. [00:24:39] Speaker A: Where did the inspiration come for your pinstriping? I used to get, like, a hot rod magazine as of America. George Barris. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:49] Speaker A: Now the King. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Is that where it. [00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I've done it. I guess I've done a lot of reading and with the car mags and just reading on how when these cars were built and painted, it's like taking your wife out to the. I guess, to the ball. And the pinstriping is her jewelry. You just need to do that extra little touch. And that just, like, accentuates the car a little bit more. And that's what I really liked. You know, the bonnet can do a little bit here or around the headlock lights or. Von Dutch himself went. He goes wild. [00:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:25] Speaker B: Because there's a lot of things there. I remember reading when he, you know, Barris left for the night. Okay, I'll finish this car off. And he broke up the next morning. He was still going on a woody wagon. And he just. And he told him there's a whole story behind it. And I'm going, wow. Jesus. So those guys that were doing, like, Gene Winfield. [00:25:45] Speaker B: You know, George Barris, Kusenberry Brothers, you know, all those guys that were putting scallops and pinstriping and that, that made my juices just flow. It was really wild. [00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah. The artwork, I mean, I like it. I remember seeing stuff in Melbourne and, you know, the. The spider web. [00:26:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:08] Speaker A: Excuse me. The spider webs. Yeah. On a, you know, 57, you know, chopped red, you know, wagon. [00:26:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Geez, look at this. [00:26:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:17] Speaker A: How good is this? I would. I'm not. I'm no good at art. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:22] Speaker A: But I like color. Yeah. I like collecting color. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:28] Speaker A: And I couldn't. I was never any good at the artwork, but I was good at matching colors. Yeah. That's nice. No good with my hands. [00:26:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:38] Speaker A: And. Excuse me. And, you know, I suppose it extend. It ex. Extenuates a car. [00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:46] Speaker A: It gives it another personality. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, yeah. [00:26:49] Speaker A: And you know, I mean there's a project that I've been humming and arring to do for some time. Yeah. And it's one of my, it's my red Cyclops. [00:27:03] Speaker A: My red Cyclops car. [00:27:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:05] Speaker A: And it does need it. Yeah. So you know, I think my arm's going to be twisted there to get that done by Von Custard. [00:27:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no dramas mate. [00:27:13] Speaker A: And you know, so, so I've got the Von Custard. Where did that lead? So you had, apparently you were, from what I understand from people back east, you were very big back in here in Perth. So you had the car shows and stuff like that. [00:27:29] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I used to go basically back in the day would be late 90s, early 2000s, I used to go to the Perth hot rod show. I try to always put in a car and they were like, I chopped up a 53 Ford sedan and made it into convertible and dummied it up and put it in the show. I had the 63 Beetle that I made it into a three window tail dragger, like a 36 Ford sort of thing. So I always cut up cars and I just, my mind is always working on cars and chopping up cars and stuff. So customizing and I did every year I had a trade stand, you know, so people come up to the, the booth, old pinstripe phones, lighters. [00:28:20] Speaker B: The odd lady's leg, so trophies, you name it. And then I'll you know, hand out cards and you know, people will give me a call. Hey mate, can you come around and do this, this car for me? I need a little bit on my boot or my bonnet or on my dash. I said yeah, no dramas. So I did a couple of show cars, you know. So yeah, talking to a guy yesterday, I said I love you. Your pickup and your, your lettering who did it or an 85 year old did. I said wow, that's awesome. I wish I, you know, I'll be 85 and doing that sort of stuff. And he said, I remember you, you're the Pinstripe. You did the 34 Ford when you're upside down and the power went out and I'm going, yes, I remember that night. So people remember me. So yeah, that's awesome. [00:29:02] Speaker A: I mean, I suppose. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Excuse me again. I suppose, you know once, once you get a reputation and once you're in, in Perth was. [00:29:14] Speaker A: A much smaller village. [00:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it is, you know, smaller. Yeah. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Than sort of Melbourne back east. Yeah, I mean, you know, fold Custard's the King of Perth. [00:29:26] Speaker B: Well, look, I'm humbled man. And I don't, you know, I always have my feet on the ground, you know. [00:29:32] Speaker A: I know. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Look, I love, I love the custom culture. I love custom cars. I think that's my number one passion. You know, I've got a hot rod now, 32 Ford Roadster, but I've had my custom line for 31 years and. [00:29:51] Speaker B: You know, I remember, you know, in 99, maybe 2,000, I was told I needed to get it ready for my best mate's wedding. I got it converted with a using 54 mercury parts and same thing back then it wasn't like get on the computer and print off stuff. It was like get car magazines, get brochures and whatever you could measure up with the ruler. Is this going to fit? And it. Yeah, my eye was pretty good and it worked out and it converted my custom line into a two foot two door mold. Custom, you know, a French to headlights, French to tail lights. You know, I modified it when I what I could. You know, I'm not mechanically inclined, I've done like gearbox conversions. But when it came to cutting up cars and having that vision, you know, I thought I had it, you know, it was okay. You know, some people probably think a bit differently, but even more, I guess even more that brings happiness to my heart is that I've, I've seen stuff and I've made stuff. Oh, I'm going to make that little tea bucket into a bit of garden art. And that ended up being mystique shift here in Perth. Okay, so someone's grabbed it, seen the potential and worked from there. You know, I remember buying a model A2 to body, picking it up at in my Mercedes van and that ended up becoming. [00:31:18] Speaker B: Peter Gardner's little chopped, chopped black model. A hot rod pickup. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:24] Speaker B: And I'm going, geez, I've saved a couple of cars now, now they're on the road. That's in here, mate. [00:31:30] Speaker A: It's in the heart. It's in the heart? [00:31:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's in the heart, mate. [00:31:33] Speaker A: So I'm not like a hot rod or as, as per se. What's frenching? [00:31:38] Speaker B: Okay, Frenching is so you basically, if you get a custom car or any sort of car really from the 50s, you can take their headlight rim off and you've got to take the headlight bucket out and put it from behind. So you've got to take the wheel out so bolt it in from behind and you weld the actual steel rim and then you bog it and paint It. Okay. And that's frenching. So it looks. So that front fender or front guard looks like it's all one piece. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:07] Speaker B: So. And a lot of people were probably back in the day here being in Australia. 52 Fords had steel headlight rims that they could use. You had your international dual headlight stouts and into trucks that people used on hot rods and custom cars on FJS back in the 60s. [00:32:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So. [00:32:26] Speaker B: And I mean I'm still looking and you know Marketplace is a guy in Mattington that's got a, a dual headlight like 5 ton inter truck that all I want is the headlights. [00:32:36] Speaker A: So what, what does somebody, what does somebody say when you go mate, I only want your headlights, not the whole thing. [00:32:44] Speaker B: Depends, you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Mate. You know, look, 30 years ago, 20 years ago I used to knock on people's front doors and go hey, I spotted that car out the back. You know, blah blah blah. These days people get a bit edgy, you know with the Internet and the value of things and stuff. So you know, and that, you know, that's also the same in collecting. You know Marketplace, you find it all the time, you know. Oh yeah, no worries. I'm keen that. That's $50. And then half an hour later you, you try and get a hold of oh now I've sold it for 200. So you know. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's interesting. We'll sort of, we'll bring that other thing. So you know George Barris and those. That was an inspiration. And the early hot rod Eddie Ford Custom Rodder. Yeah. I remember going see Eddie back in the day. Wild man down at Castlemaine. Yeah. Rod Hatfield. Yeah. You know there's some to name a few. And then you know, Norm Hardinge. You know Dry likes racer guy. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:54] Speaker A: You know, normal's been around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Normal Aussie desert cooler. And he's coming on, he, he's, he's, he's going to come on as a guest too. Yeah. Nice. And we're going to talk about dry likes racing. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:08] Speaker A: How they got involved and you know there's all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions that go to the dry lakes. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Well Norman, when every time he came over to wa to the hot rod show. Cuz you'll set up a stall. [00:34:19] Speaker A: Yep. [00:34:20] Speaker B: I always had to make sure I had something pinstriping that related to tikis. Cuz he's got a huge tiki bar. [00:34:27] Speaker A: Yes. [00:34:28] Speaker B: And he kept Buying all my tiki stuff. So he's got a bit of on custard art, which I have to say. Thank you very much, Norm. [00:34:35] Speaker A: So, yeah, Norm's great. I remember like, Norm did a lot for me early on with my, my Falcon and then obviously the race car and then the F3 car and stuff like that. Yeah. And Norm was always good to have a chat. Yeah. And he's got some. He's done some really good stuff and you know, he's really involved in the DHL DH L L R A. Yeah. So, yeah, the salt racing down at Lake Gardiner, which if you, if you see like gardener today, it's like a. [00:35:05] Speaker B: It's a swimming pool. Is. [00:35:06] Speaker A: It's a swimming pool. It's like. It's. Yeah, it's an inland. [00:35:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Lake. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:11] Speaker A: So there'd be no dry. Dry likes racing there for. For a little while. [00:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:16] Speaker A: So, yeah, so you've. You've touched upon signs and Petronalia. [00:35:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:23] Speaker A: And we've got mutual friends. Yes. And. [00:35:28] Speaker A: Is that a natural progression of the car scene? [00:35:33] Speaker B: Look, I. I think it is. It depends on what you've really like. I mean, you know, I. I've always liked the bowsers and the, the signs and stuff from Neptune was my favorite. You know, I never got to see a Neptune petrol station because I was too young. But Golden Fleece was around, Total was around Caltex, all those. The big guys, you know. Yeah. You know what? I. I got into the cars first and I never really had, I guess, the money, the spare money to buy any stuff when I was doing up the cars. But later in life. [00:36:13] Speaker B: I started, you know, meeting other people that were doing a lot of that and I really enjoyed that sort of stuff. And I also enjoyed what the American pickers did because I was doing that sort of stuff 20 years ago with finding car parts. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:27] Speaker B: You know, I'll go to an orchard and I'll find. I found like 232 Ford Roadster cows and doors and guards and stuff. [00:36:35] Speaker A: And I was going to. [00:36:35] Speaker B: Jesus, I'll grab these. How much you want? Yeah, no worries. We did the deal. And then I'll be on the phone to people going, hey, is this what a 32 looks like? And go, yep. And I'm going, wow. Didn't believe I could find anything like that. So I enjoyed doing that sort of stuff. And then it eventually being number plates and then signs and then oil bottles and racks and so, yeah, it is a bit of a. You know, I like to have a nice display, like Yourself a nice display, some signs, some number plates, some memorabilia of anything. You know, you're more into the racing, you know, I'd like to have a signpiece from Ed Roth, you know, or something signed by Barris or something or Winfield, you know, something like that. So I haven't got anything but I'd, you know, I'd love to get something like that. So. [00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's always. [00:37:26] Speaker A: You never know when something's going to come up. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, exactly. [00:37:32] Speaker A: And the fortunate or unfortunate thing is it all depends on what coin you got, where you are exactly. [00:37:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:41] Speaker A: Especially now with the auction houses. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's an all day auction on Facebook and this and that. [00:37:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:47] Speaker A: There's other pages and Southern and petrol oil and whatever. But it's probably easier. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Out east. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:57] Speaker A: How hard is it out here? I see the, there's a wall page and yeah, there's a bit of stuff. [00:38:04] Speaker B: But you know, look, I tend to find, because I was starting 20, 20, 2020, 2022, I was starting to get pretty big in buying and selling but a lot of my gear went east and I sort of, it was hard that there are top end people here that want to buy top end pieces but I sort of feel like the boys on the east coast, they probably had a little bit more cash up their sleeve and, and then I started, you know, people started messaging me, hey Tony, I found this and I'll give them prices and sometimes I buy, sometimes I don't. Sometimes someone else will offer more and more. Yeah, sort of. I've heard it a million times here in Perth where they've said, oh I wish you didn't sell at least. But the thing is the person with the, the deepest pockets always going to win, you know. So. [00:38:59] Speaker B: You know, when you start talking to the bigger collectors on the east coast and some of them do buy top end stuff, you know. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. [00:39:09] Speaker A: It'S, I suppose, you know, it's very difficult. [00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker A: And I suppose you've got guys like Nigel Cricket. There's a collectors and he, he, you know, I've had the conversations with him about stuff. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker A: And then you know there's other collectors here in Perth that are high end. [00:39:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:30] Speaker A: And you, and you see stuff for sale and whether, whether you, you fancy it at those dollars. Yeah. But the guys back east. Yeah, there's a lot of money there. [00:39:41] Speaker B: Oh yeah, of course there is. Yeah. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. There's, you know, you know, there's a lot of money there and you know, I suppose we were just Talking about our great friend Stuart Norris at. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:51] Speaker A: Pharaoh's Tomb. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:39:53] Speaker A: I mean, some of the things that he's got. [00:39:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. They haven't seen the light of day in years, mate. [00:39:59] Speaker A: He's got 700 songs. [00:40:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:01] Speaker A: You know, and I've had the privilege of looking in there. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:05] Speaker A: And just, Just amazing. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Oh yeah, mate, there's. Look, my collection now is probably a third the size, but I had some stuff that was really, really awesome. And. [00:40:19] Speaker B: There are guys on the east coast. I remember getting a message, it went for a minute, a minute and 20 seconds. A video message from a gentleman who had, I probably reckon would have been 500 odd panels of signs laid out and stacked up of single. Single signs, triple signs, you know, two piece signs, four piece signs. And I'm just going. [00:40:49] Speaker B: There'S probably a million dollars worth of signs there. But I think in this industry of that genre, I couldn't get anything out of him because there's a lot of people that actually trade. [00:41:03] Speaker B: So. So if I've got something that you want and you've got something, we can come up with some sort of arrangement. Sweet. And trading's right. I've done it. My favorite signs are the directional sign, so to say, like to Helena Valley, 5 miles, use plume oil. [00:41:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:21] Speaker B: You know, they're my favorites. And I've done trades with some, some guys and it's worked out great. [00:41:27] Speaker A: So. [00:41:28] Speaker B: But yeah, like there are people that have been collecting for 30, 40 years. When songs were worth. Those panels were worth 50 bucks. [00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I know. Jeff Clay Melbourne. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:40] Speaker A: His. His stuff was extraordinary. [00:41:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And he downsized and he had a massive auction. [00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:48] Speaker A: Through burns and. And you know, it was just. I was, I was in awe. [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:55] Speaker A: I just had to go. I bought some casserole things off. Yeah. Because that's what I was into. [00:41:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:00] Speaker A: And I went there and I thought, man, this stuff is awesome. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:05] Speaker A: And people said to me, if you ever get an opportunity to go there. [00:42:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:09] Speaker A: Have a look. [00:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Yeah. [00:42:11] Speaker A: Frenchie, when he was in North Melbourne, went there a few times and some of the things would. Was just. It blew me away. [00:42:19] Speaker B: When you say French, is that Dale French? French, yeah. Look, he's got. And I think he's bought and sold. He's in his. Changed his collection so many times, you know, and I did the same. I. I always wanted a Mercury. [00:42:32] Speaker A: Yep. [00:42:33] Speaker B: And I thought, hang on a second. I did a deal with a couple of people and I sold a whole leap of signs and I went and had a look At a car and I've gone bugger. I just, it's not doing for me. I don't get the vibe. And then I put a wanted ad for a hot rod and I found a 32 Ford Roadster. [00:42:48] Speaker A: And that's the roadster that you bought in Adelaide? [00:42:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I bought in Adelaide, yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker A: So tell us about that roadster. [00:42:55] Speaker B: Okay, so that roadster, I believe it was built in the 90s because I spoke to the guy who built it in the first place. He was a little bit upset because I bought it because he wanted to buy it and I didn't know but he told me a little bit about it and then I bought it off a gentleman in Adelaide and I, I love it because it's Aussie Ford body, original chassis, hotted up flathead. [00:43:22] Speaker C: I've. [00:43:23] Speaker B: I've had flatheads for a few years, but I've only had them like stock. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Yep. [00:43:27] Speaker B: And this thing is like. It'll lay rubber anyway. [00:43:30] Speaker A: It's a cut snake. [00:43:31] Speaker B: Oh mate. 296 cubes, twin carbed. You know, it's got all the fruit on it, the, the heads, you know, you know, the fin heads, you name it, it's got all the fruit. Top loader, four speed and a nine inch and it goes. [00:43:46] Speaker A: Yeah, tell some of the people what a flathead is because I know a lot of people won't know what a flathead is. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Okay, so a flathead is a prehistoric V8 with a Super fit thick, I guess, steel head where everything in the motor is inside the actual motor. So your, all your lifters and everything are in the block instead of being in the heads. Okay, so that's. Well, they were built from 32 to 54 here. Yeah. In Australia. So in America I think stopped in 53. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Yep. [00:44:23] Speaker B: But then the French ended up getting motors for their military vehicles. And I remember in the 90s that the, they had a, when they sold out, they had a whole leap of flatheads which the Yankees got a, got. [00:44:35] Speaker A: A hold of them, mate. So. [00:44:36] Speaker B: But that's a flathead motor. Flathead Ford V8 is like a. Anywhere from a 21 stud to a 24 stud. So instead of a normal Falcon six cylinder, it's got like what, six, six bolts for the rocket cover. There's no rocket cover on these. The actual head is the rocket cover. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Okay, so. [00:44:55] Speaker B: So, so yeah. And then you had the Ardan overhead valve conversion which made it even more, I don't even know how more powerful, but it did and they look even better. [00:45:05] Speaker A: So. And they were the they were the drag cars. Those SoCal. Yeah, those SoCal races that you hear about. [00:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:13] Speaker A: The early hot rodding magazines out of California. I mean that was really the world of hot rods. [00:45:18] Speaker B: Of course it was, yeah. [00:45:19] Speaker A: You know the flathead before the overhead camera. [00:45:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:45:22] Speaker A: The flathead was the king of the drag. [00:45:24] Speaker B: That's exactly right, mate. [00:45:25] Speaker A: The flathead was the king of the drag strip and yeah, they ran them and you know, I sort of remember seeing pictures of them and the Arden head and. [00:45:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:35] Speaker A: Didn't had then I saw one close up of them. Well, this is a bit different. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:40] Speaker A: And when I was on the research to build to buy that five window. [00:45:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:45] Speaker A: Oh, that's what I want to put in. [00:45:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We never, we never ever. It never ever eventuated. [00:45:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:51] Speaker A: But you know, so. So, yeah. So you got the hot rod. [00:45:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:56] Speaker A: What rims and tires and stuff? [00:45:58] Speaker B: Oh look, I've just bought. Because you can't, can't license the hot rod with cross ply tires. So I've got some radials and 16 inch radials, rims and tires coming through. Armadale Auto Parts. So, yeah, I'm just. I pulled the dash out because I had like a, a couple of holes here that I didn't want in the dash. So I just wanted to make it look more like traditional 1940s early 50s style hot rod. So it's black. Yeah. It's got a chopped screen on it. [00:46:25] Speaker A: It, it look, it's. [00:46:26] Speaker B: I love it. [00:46:27] Speaker A: I love it. It's abely go. It's going to. It's going to be the bomb. Yeah. A four speed top loader behind one of those. [00:46:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:46:35] Speaker A: That's a bit different because usually they just run, you know like a, like. [00:46:38] Speaker B: A three speed non synchro or three. [00:46:39] Speaker A: Speed non synchro or get this. [00:46:43] Speaker B: So when I blew my gearbox in my custom one. [00:46:45] Speaker A: Yep. [00:46:46] Speaker B: So that's an 8 BA. That's the last of the flathead V8s. The bell housing on the 8BA gearbox has got I think four or eight, sorry, four holes. [00:46:57] Speaker A: Yep. [00:46:57] Speaker B: A top loader gearbox has got eight holes where you bolt it up. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Yep. [00:47:02] Speaker B: So the four outer bolt holes are for a ladder model gearbox. The four inner bolt holes fit directly onto an 8B. [00:47:10] Speaker A: A bell housing top loader. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yep. [00:47:12] Speaker A: You know Ford, Ford were really good and. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Oh, mate. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Ingenious. [00:47:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:18] Speaker A: In some of the things that they. [00:47:19] Speaker B: Did that blew me away and then that's the first thing I did when my gearbox blew up. Bought a high performance Top loader that was rebuilt, put it in and the conversion was pretty easy. I did it myself with my brother. So. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, top loaders, I mean there was a, there was a three speed top loader. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:36] Speaker A: There was a four speed top loader. [00:47:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:38] Speaker A: Indestructible. [00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:40] Speaker A: And then when Ford. [00:47:43] Speaker A: Went to lamar with the GT40. [00:47:45] Speaker B: Yep. [00:47:46] Speaker A: Basically the gearbox, the transaxle is a top loader. [00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:51] Speaker A: And top load are indestructible. Yeah, indestructible iron case, 31, 31 spline they had in the GTs here, but they were bigger with the 428s and that. And I'm sure our next guest who's coming on in the next hour or so. Yeah, he will tell us. El Toro. Yeah, he will, yeah. I mean he's, he's the man, he's the, he's the main. Total performance. [00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:15] Speaker A: So we'll bring that up later with him. Cool. And you know, he's. Yeah, he's, he's another, he's another. He's another cat. Yeah, he's another cat out of the barrel. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. [00:48:28] Speaker A: So, so we both know him well. So you got the five window, you've still got the custom line. [00:48:35] Speaker B: Yep. [00:48:35] Speaker A: What else have you got? Okay. [00:48:39] Speaker B: I've got a one off built EK convertible, custom. So my lovely, lovely partner calls it the clown car. [00:48:49] Speaker A: So. [00:48:49] Speaker B: Clown car, yeah, it looks, it looks hideous. But to me, I guess customs, you can have gorgeous customs and you can have some really ugly customs. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:00] Speaker B: And for me I'm a bit of, I'm oddball. So to me it's like, like someone that wants to buy an eh. I always went for the ugly duckling, the EJ or the HD or you know, the, the, you know, I guess the underscore of the car world. And this ek, this guy, he's customized a lot of cars and I think they nicknamed him George Barris of Perth. He's modified a lot of cars over the years. And this EK used to have a 57 Chevy front bumper and a normal screen that was licensed. And then I bought it with the back window being the front window and the door, it's a two door now. The longer boot and you can see parts where he's wrecked a HQ Kingswood to use parts. So it's got the headlights below and indicators up top and it's, it's pretty wild to me. It's a full on wild custom. So running a 202 or a 186, I can't remember. Automatic. [00:50:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:04] Speaker B: So yeah, there's the EK. I've got a 2011 Malou Black Edition, number five of only 100 made. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:12] Speaker B: So that's a lovely car to drive, the low mileage car. I've got my 54 Chevy 3800. That's a nice truck. I bought it stock. It's always been a vision of mine to give someone a car and say, look, this is what I want done. And, and it's been done. So it's got a crate motor, 350 turbo, 350 air con power steer. [00:50:38] Speaker B: Salisbury diff. You can drive it anywhere. It's, it's really cool. I mean the gearbox, I just got the gearbox replaced. There was a bit of an issue with the gearbox, but there's that. And then I've got another 54 Aussie Chevy truck cab that I've chopped and that's going on a panel van chassis, so. And there's another influence there with George Barris. He built the dream truck. And I've always wanted to build something wild. So I've chopped the truck cab and I've modified the dash and I've, I've got a chance to get a 56 Buick convertible which is a burnt out wreck for parts. [00:51:11] Speaker A: Yep. [00:51:12] Speaker B: So I want to use some of those parts to customize my truck. So yeah, that's pretty much it. And my custom line that I've owned for 30 odd years. [00:51:22] Speaker A: So that's a daily driver, is it, or. [00:51:24] Speaker B: No, no, no, I've got it on club road, Joe. And basically it, you know, it was a daily driver. Back in the day. It was a four door, it was a pretty rusty car but I got all the, all the rust cut out and then I finally converted it to a two door and gave it a few little custom custom touches. And it's been the same since 2001. It's BlackBerry Pearl with flames and pearl white interior with tuck and roll. [00:51:53] Speaker A: So. Nice. [00:51:54] Speaker B: Yeah, so. And I've had many, many, many other cars. [00:51:59] Speaker A: So look, it's, it's been great. Like it's, you know, we've, we've passed during the night a few times. Yeah. Then you bought a couple of things off me and it's been great. And you know, the mutual friend that we've got. And we're gonna play some music. [00:52:19] Speaker A: To go into the next hour and these songs have been picked by our next guest and we're going to play two or three songs and. Cool. And. [00:52:31] Speaker A: These are for Chris AKA El Toro and we'll be playing them now. Hey, Little cobra, the ripcords. Miralu, Dick Dale and the Deltones. Beautiful. You like Dick Dale? The king of the surf guitar. Yep. So yeah. So we'll be playing that next. [00:52:56] Speaker A: Well we've had some. Some great music some. And some great chat with Tony. Our last song really by Dick Dale on the Deltones. And on the line we have Chris Toronto AKA El Toro. Mate, how are you? [00:53:12] Speaker C: All good. Darren, nice to have you. [00:53:16] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:53:17] Speaker C: Freezing in Victoria and we've got an. [00:53:21] Speaker A: Old friend sitting next to me. Von Custard. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Hey, good man you. [00:53:27] Speaker A: So tell me about Chris Toronto. [00:53:33] Speaker C: Me, myself. [00:53:34] Speaker A: Yeah, tell me about your cars. [00:53:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean well obviously known you for probably 30 years. I've been to early Falcons where I cut my teeth. Had lots of them over the years and then progressed into other 50s and 60s Fords. Had a little dabble in the Volkswagen and Porsche world as well. But my collection mainly on the performance era of the 60s. [00:54:00] Speaker A: So tell us what you've got at the moment. [00:54:03] Speaker C: Current lineup. I've got a 64 Ranchero 264 speed car that's nearly finished restoration. I got a 64 Mercury Cyclone that's a factory drag car which has a hypo motor in it. 289 with twin four barrels. It's a Shelby setup. Early 64 setup. Top loaded nine inch car. I bought it the original owner in Tennessee last year. [00:54:31] Speaker C: He campaigned it all through the 60s and 70s and then parked it up in the 80s and we dragged it out of his barn and got it going again. There was a. It's fought me all the way but we're there. Ready for retro now. Hopefully I'm going to break into the 13s with it. He ran 141 and 66 in it. So this time. So we're gonna try and beat that with a. I'll just put a 411 in it and hopefully they'll get it moving a bit quicker. What else we got? [00:54:58] Speaker A: We got. [00:55:00] Speaker C: My big project is a 66 mark II JD40. The 427 tunnel port car with a ZF gearbox in it. We hope to break the 200 mile an hour mark using 6 use technology that's nearly ready for paint. Motor box is built now. Yeah. Everything they correct all carbies and everything on the motor. Yeah. That'll be a pretty special and kind of correct example of 1960s GT 40s. [00:55:34] Speaker A: For total performance there. For total performance there. It's some of the most amazing. I've got Tony just going man, how good is he? [00:55:42] Speaker B: Salivating. [00:55:44] Speaker A: He's Salivating and you know like I've done you like 30 odd years but you've also got, you've got a, you're doing the JD40, you got a Cobra. [00:55:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got an UX cover as well. This a 29 car. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Yeah. Was that a guy up in tackle, a friend of mine, Peter and I went there to buy a 427 motor off him and end up buying. Coming over the Cobra and that's a. [00:56:13] Speaker A: That'S an aluminum body car because I see you go to the car shows and you know when people put their hands on it you. You're not very happy. [00:56:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:23] Speaker C: That guy's black sweat and hands unfortunately and people, it's really. The old guys are the worst. Worse than the kids. They are. They find something sexual about it and they run their hands over it. [00:56:37] Speaker A: That's awesome situation. [00:56:40] Speaker C: Very colorful signs I put on the car when I take shows now. [00:56:45] Speaker A: It's very strange. You've also got Fred. Yeah, tell us about Fred. [00:56:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I bought it off a mate, Dan Parsons in, in the States. He's a big C700. We didn't get them in Australia but this is the same tow truck that Ford, Holman Moody, all the drag racing teams used. Yeah, he's a big monster of a truck. He's got a 361 big block Ford FT motor in it with the 4 speed and 2 speed diff. Yeah, Big, big truck. They look similar to the D series but yeah they're just bigger proportions and it's been the only one in Australia that's on the road. Is pretty cool. For sale at the moment though. I'm running out of room down here desperately. [00:57:31] Speaker A: There's plenty of. I'm sure there's plenty of room in Western Australia. You know some of the how so. But the other car that you, that you've got and Tony loves them. Yeah, the Continental mate. [00:57:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:46] Speaker A: Tell us about, tell us about the black Continental. Yeah. [00:57:50] Speaker C: The black 57 Lincoln premiere. Yeah. Just a nice survivor car. Best paint car. Yeah, yeah. All the options. Hamburger for what? That one. But yeah, factory black and red can't be those colors. Yeah. I've also just recently purchased the 62 Thunderbird. It's a sports roadster with the fast corner on it. It's got factory tri power on it. So three, two barrels. It's quite a stunning car. All the power options, drives really nice. We have to take it off to Queensland later next year on the run. I like driving all my cars all my cars are good drivers that drive in the spec, so you got to drive. I try to take one car out every weekend at least, if not more. [00:58:40] Speaker B: Well, well, for me it's the, the Lincoln and the, the 59 retractable. That's. They're my two top picks. Tell us a bit, a bit about the 59, mate. [00:58:53] Speaker C: 57. [00:58:54] Speaker B: Oh, 57. Sorry, mate. Yeah, you, you probably sold the 59 a little while ago, didn't you? [00:58:59] Speaker C: Yeah, but I had four of them now. Yeah, that was a cool thing. Brought off. Original owner, grandson actually. I went to the Ford dealership when I was in the States where it was all new, which is pretty cool. Yeah, the, the factory bike car too. Yeah. It was actually a high, high engine spec, but low accessory spec car, so it was quite cool. So, yeah, as fast as you can get a 57 retractable going because they're a heavy car. [00:59:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:28] Speaker C: But we slammed it and that. I can't do the trip to Queensland last year as well. [00:59:32] Speaker A: Nice. [00:59:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I drive them. [00:59:35] Speaker A: So what does El Tor. So what, what. I've known you for a long time, but where the, where do these cars come into? How I know when you had your ex, your XM and that was, that was, that was a standalone car, everybody loved that, that very first Falcon that you built and now you've gone, you've gone every every other way and now it's El Toro, Ford dealership, Ford performance, tonal performance, everything home in the Moody. How did that happen? [01:00:12] Speaker C: Well, my dad was always trying to steer me out. He was a drag racer back in the 60s, 70s, raced at XTGD back in the day. He always was trying to steer me away from that stuff, but for some reason I was always been attracted to that era, like. Well, obviously you and I both hardcore guys in their younger days, you know, and I was, I've always been a restorer and trying to get correct detail. That's kind of always been my thing. And all my cars, you can actually, you can tell I'm always all very similar the way I build them. [01:00:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I am a boring restorer at heart. Yeah. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah, but you've got, you've got the detail and even, you know, I saw you 12 months ago and I picked up those, those things that you had for me. Some of the things, the Home in the Moody stuff, the, you know, the Westlake Rocket covers, you know, I mean, it was just like going to a part shop at home in the Moody. It was just, it was, I was blown away. [01:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been clicking for a while, but yeah, and I loved FES. I've always loved FD Motors and 427 stuff's always been home at least and makes accumulate a bit of it over the years now. Yeah, one of the larger places of them around in Australia. [01:01:26] Speaker A: I can large. I mean some of the things that you got is just, you know, it blew me away and it blows other people away and people in America and you know, I suppose, you know, one of the stories you tell that you went to somebody's place to buy something and they gave you a gun because they thought that you to look after yourself. Yeah, tell us about that. [01:01:48] Speaker C: Well, yeah, everywhere I stayed in the States, most of the guys had large gun collections which you could give us what we have over here. But yeah, I got to know I helped one. One old guy. [01:02:01] Speaker C: He was hard. He was at an old age where he couldn't work on his car. So I put his guitar together for him and got it ready for the drags and he goes, oh, you know, you look like a son to me. I want you to take a gun with you the rest of your Trips. I did 33000 k's in the 6 weeks I was there. And I'm honestly, I can't take a gun with me. [01:02:22] Speaker B: You can't bring it back, mate. [01:02:23] Speaker A: You can't bring it back. [01:02:25] Speaker C: We welded into the chassis rails. Afraid I said, mate, I can't do that. [01:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's. That's awesome. That's like some of the stories that even Tony's been telling me about, you know, melt about, you know, Perth and then traveling to, to, to, to Melbourne for John's Rod and Custom. So how did you. You guys, how did you two meet? [01:02:49] Speaker B: Well, I think we actually don't think we've actually met in the physical sense. It's been, it's been more along the lines on. Through Instagram or. Were you, were you ever in the newsletter? I can't remember. [01:03:03] Speaker C: Yeah, and we had the market connection as well. [01:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, the markets, yeah, the market collection connection, yeah. So I guess it was like, you know, the odd phone call before the Internet. I guess we used to talk and well, you know, you'll see an ad. I remember, I think I bought some 56 Ford hubcaps, like 10 of them off here one time. So. [01:03:27] Speaker C: That's right. [01:03:28] Speaker B: So yeah, so I'm always seeing his stuff come up, so. And there's always that, you know, that phone call that you just leave off for the last time when you were. [01:03:36] Speaker A: Talking to him, you know, so it, that seriously is. And I suppose. [01:03:43] Speaker A: The car game, the car scene, the people involved, it's like a, it's like your second cousins that you don't see, that you don't hear that. Yeah, one's in Europe and one thing, and he comes in and it's like, it was like it was yesterday that you haven't chat. [01:03:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:58] Speaker A: And, you know. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Some of the, some of the things that I've seen that I've seen Chris get over the years is just unbelievable. And yeah, I love your, I love your Facebook marketplace comments. [01:04:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's the best. [01:04:16] Speaker A: And yeah, they're the best. There's nobody on a Saturday morning. I'm, I'm laughing. [01:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:23] Speaker A: And Rebecca's going, what are you laughing at? Who are you on the phone to? Going, oh, just this guy selling. What's he selling? They go, don't worry about it. It's, it's so funny. [01:04:34] Speaker B: I thought wa was bad, but it sounds like where you come from, the worst. Mate. [01:04:40] Speaker C: I, I, I really don't want to stop a Commodore for, for a 65 galaxy or. [01:04:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I'm hearing you. [01:04:47] Speaker A: You know, I mean, you know, and yeah, the car scene, you know, I mean, all right, so we've, we've all got a connection. Not so much me, but you guys have got a connection with the markets. [01:05:02] Speaker A: Chris's, Chris's own coffee shops and a restaurant and things like that. Yeah. And we've all supplied everybody. But I've cooked Chris on a fair few occasions and, you know, just that, just that rapport that you have with somebody, you meet somebody at 2 o' clock in the market and, you know they've got a hot rod magazine in their back pocket. Yeah, yeah. Mate, you've got to stop them. Yeah, because that's a bit, that's a bit strange. It's a bit, that's a bit strange to happen. But even like, you know, some of the hot rods. [01:05:36] Speaker A: The car scene in the day, you know, there was car clubs everywhere and, you know, I first met Chris when he was a member of the Geelong XMXP Falcon Car Club. And we're going back 30 years and even though we don't see each other all the time and, and talk, but we'll send a text occasionally and whatever. I just think that, yeah, every time. [01:05:58] Speaker C: We speak to each other, it's like we haven't, we spoke yesterday. [01:06:01] Speaker A: It's like, it's, it's bizarre. Like, you know, I mean, it's like, just like yesterday, it's like, you know, we're 18 year old and we're having a coffee at Pellegrini's at 2 o' clock in the morning. He's, he's going to the market and I'm going home. Yeah, that's right, you know, or yeah, we go on to Danny's Burgers. Or you're having a burger at Danny's. Or, you know, I know Chris is, likes the, the, the old Negroni. [01:06:27] Speaker A: And having breakfast at Mario's, which is an institution in Fitzroy. And, you know, that's part of the culture that we've had. Everybody knows everybody, everybody's involved with everything. And if you can help out a mate with a comment or whatever. I know Chris wants to go to Goodwood in America and hopefully, you know, I'll send a message to, to GV. Yeah, George Vikovic. [01:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:57] Speaker A: Mr. Python himself. McLaren can am driver. I believe they go. They are, they have plans to go to Goodwood next year. [01:07:06] Speaker C: Yeah, in the week. Yeah. [01:07:08] Speaker A: So you spoke to, he spoke to, spoke to the big man with the cowboy hat. [01:07:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, he's currently. He's way easier here for the Catholic. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah, he's been, he's been racing. Racing in America. He's doing, he was at Indy a couple of weeks ago and you know, he's racing, he's racing his Cobra, the McLaren. The McLaren's here in Australia and you would, you would never have think that there's a McLaren, you know, can AM car in a, in a, in a garage in Northcote, but there, but there actually is. [01:07:39] Speaker A: So, so Chris, are you. When you get the GD40 and you've got the, the drag car, is that the, is that the aim? Is, is it the aim of Cristoanto to go drag racing or circuit racing? [01:07:52] Speaker C: Yeah, we're gonna do some racing in the, in the Cyclones here and then the 40. We're gonna give it a run as well, but see how, how it goes. But it's gonna be a bit of a monster. We've already done out the motor. It's 6, 10, 5, 80 foot pounds, which is even more than the original 66 cars had back in the day. [01:08:10] Speaker A: Well, that's, that's massive. Is. [01:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, that's, that's massive power. So tell us a bit about that car because I know there's, there's been some in depth conversations and there's been some in depth builds about it. [01:08:26] Speaker A: You know, obviously this is a roaring 40s. This is another chassis. [01:08:31] Speaker C: No, so we started off with the roaring 40s we've changed over now. I had parts of an original body. I got a original roof from Holman Moody when I was over there. [01:08:43] Speaker C: We've now got an RCR chassis which is more correct and correct to shape as the original cars. So I managed to get one of the twelve dry stump magnesium setups from one of the race cars from Le Mans 66. And we were going to put that in the car. So the Roaring Fordy chassis wouldn't have accommodated that. So, yeah, the RCR car registration is always a difficult thing with these cars. [01:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So what gets me. So the roaring 40s cars, they're built in Dramana in Melbourne. I think Rob's his name. He builds them to a. They're all five liter. And you're going to put a 427 in. [01:09:33] Speaker C: Yeah, it's correct. Yep. [01:09:34] Speaker A: So how does a 427. [01:09:40] Speaker A: Fit into one of these? Even though they like. Even though they were originally built like that. But what about registration and stuff? [01:09:49] Speaker C: Registrations are hard one. So car's already been registered and previously. So I've got a previous registration history to sell. This car's getting over the line. [01:09:58] Speaker A: Is that that car you saw in Eltona? [01:10:01] Speaker C: Yes, correct. [01:10:02] Speaker A: Ah, bonus. [01:10:05] Speaker C: Unfortunately was built as a. As a 69 car, which is the Golf one, which basically all they all look like. I'm building an early 66 Ken Miles car. So in the white and black scheme. [01:10:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Ken Miles, champion. [01:10:20] Speaker A: Champion war hero. Drove his tank. I don't know if you know the story about Ken Miles, but Tony. But he drove his tank from the beaches of Normandy in 1944 to Berlin. Wow. And survived the war. One of the very few English guys in a Sherman tank to actually not get hit, not have any problems. Yeah, yeah. Imagine 1944, France. A lot going on. [01:10:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, of course. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Ken Miles, just a legend. [01:10:53] Speaker A: Why the. Why the Ken Miles car, Chris? [01:10:58] Speaker C: He's the greatest in that era. And, well, I had to pick one of the mark II cars. So that's. That white paint scheme really resonated with me. So. Because all the Ford Tata performance cars are all white. That kind of like our XM color. [01:11:15] Speaker A: Actually, it's like a Wimbledon white. Was it? Is that correct? [01:11:19] Speaker C: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, a couple of cars that color. I always hated white cars, but now. [01:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah, you've got a few white cars. You've got that. That Fairlane, that's white. Now you're gonna have the gt, you know, so tires and rubber. So it's gonna look exactly like. Like a 66 car. [01:11:38] Speaker C: Yeah. I've actually got a new old stock set of Goodyear Blue Streaks here, which are hilarious, but I obviously can't run them, but they're a great display tire. But yeah, they do do a reproduction Blue Streak now, so I will have a correct profile and on the Halliburtons and stuff. So. [01:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah, so you've got Helly Brains. You got the original home in the Moody roof. [01:12:02] Speaker C: Yeah, lots of good stuff like. Yeah. Original dashes, switches or, you know, really weird ear for it. Original cores for the back. Yeah, there's lots and lots of original parts. [01:12:15] Speaker A: That's amazing. So original parts for a GT40 wouldn't. Would be hard to get. Is there a. Is there a, like a market for them? Is there a black market for them? Is there. [01:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:28] Speaker A: Is there a group of people that. [01:12:30] Speaker C: Fairly substantial collections? [01:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah, you're always learning with this stuff. Some of this stuff's quite rare. I managed to find a distributor for one and it had a tack drive on it, so. And Ford's experimental racing department. The prefixes on the engine numbers and part numbers, I should say SK or xe. Yeah, this is a real oddball distributor and there's a page devoted to this on Facebook. I just asked for it. Would anyone be able to help me ID this? Dizzy. I've got and I had about 40 guys straight away, like in my inbox. If you want to sell it. Do you want to sell it? I go, oh, that's one of these. And it turned out to be one of the race cars from Lemon 66, which is very cool. [01:13:13] Speaker A: That is. That is extremely cool. I mean that's, you know, some of the stuff that you're talking about is like, rare is rocking on. Tony's looking at me and he's. He's met. [01:13:23] Speaker B: To me, to me it's like, so how did that part end up in Australia in your hands? [01:13:29] Speaker C: Central Victoria. Yeah, yeah, Central Victoria. [01:13:32] Speaker A: Central Victoria. [01:13:33] Speaker B: So a Le Mans 66 distributor ended up in Central Victoria. [01:13:37] Speaker C: Yep, the same. I got the correct carbies too, for that motor. And they were in real local as well. I bought them in Northern Victoria. [01:13:46] Speaker B: That's it. Mind boggling. [01:13:47] Speaker A: It's unbelievable. [01:13:49] Speaker C: They were on a ski boats motor. [01:13:51] Speaker A: Ski bike. [01:13:53] Speaker A: That's unbelievable. And you know, like some of those things that you've got, like you've got the, the home and the moody rocker covers. You found the pair of Westlake rocket covers in Geelong of all places. [01:14:08] Speaker C: Yep. [01:14:13] Speaker C: Quite a few good finds. [01:14:19] Speaker C: On Chris on a Boxing Day last year, he said I'll make, yeah, that motor we were talking about. And I thought, man, I'm sorry, I don't know who you are. I'm sorry, I've forgotten who you are. He's like. And I realized, I went back to the messages. Six years ago he'd offered me a motorcycle and I ended up being an Arco Galaxy. And it has. Now that has the correct rock covers. They were covered in grease and rust on a terrible looking thing and I gave them a really good clean. They come off perfect now, mint. And they're, they're the correct rock covers for the race motor. So all the three or four motors have donated their bits and to make it all correct. But yeah, we've got all the right bits now. [01:14:55] Speaker A: Well, that's, that's, that's truly a remarkable effort because we're just looking at each other and, and I've seen the stuff that you've got and Tony's just going, man, with this stuff, it's like, not only is it priceless, historically priceless, but how I know of a fit like stuff travels the world and. But some of this stuff, like for a ski boat, you know, guy goes and buys, you know, you know, GT40, you know, for his ski boat. I mean, there's a story behind every part that's going into that car. [01:15:38] Speaker A: I mean, I mean, there was a. [01:15:39] Speaker C: Lot of stuff brought out here in the 70s, you know, 80s and people. Yeah, there are substantial, you know, FA collections around. But, yeah, it's got a. Prying them out of people's hands is the hard bit. [01:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah, but mate, you're. You're very good at it. I mean, you're, you're extremely good at it. [01:16:00] Speaker A: And how, how do you do it? Because I suppose everybody wants to know. [01:16:05] Speaker C: That what I tell people, I tell every single person I meet that I'm into cars. [01:16:10] Speaker A: Yep. [01:16:11] Speaker C: And, you know, and you, you never know what, you know. I've been lucky and found a couple of cars I've done, you know, really well out of. But yeah. [01:16:22] Speaker C: I tell every single person. I mean, and then, you know, oh, my grandpa's got that, or my auntie's got that. You wanna, do you wanna buy that? Yeah, yeah. That's how we do it. So I tell every person I meet and when I was working hospitality, my previous life, I would tell everyone, every customer I met. [01:16:39] Speaker A: So how does that. So hospitality. So hospitality. [01:16:45] Speaker A: Where? Where? So obviously I've been in hospitality all my life too. I'm still in it, fortunately or unfortunately. [01:16:56] Speaker A: Where did that start? Because Obviously, I believe you used to do deliveries on a yellow Vespa. [01:17:04] Speaker C: And that yellow Vesper is returned to my life. I told it when I left Collingwood, left Melbourne eight years ago. And when I was in Melbourne visiting my friends at Vespa House. And Chris, there's something in the front of the workshop you can go have a look at. And it was my old bike that I built years ago. And, yeah. So he goes, you want it back? Yeah, I'll take it. Yeah. So back in the collection now. [01:17:26] Speaker A: Well, so I remember seeing that little yellow Vespa outside Pellegrini's one night, and we're having. Yeah, the sort of a couple of guys there, and I had my crew with me and they go, oh, man, who are you? Who owns this thing? I said, mate, this guy makes one of the best coffees in Melbourne. And I ended up taking the young guys down to Chris's in. Was it Johnson street or Smith Street, Chris? [01:17:59] Speaker C: Johnson Street. Collingwood. [01:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah, Johnson Street, Collingwood. And, you know, we're there and we're going, man. And it was always a Genovese coffee. [01:18:08] Speaker C: Genovese coffee. And I'm always a manual machine. I've always had manual 1950s and 60s machines as well. [01:18:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. [01:18:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So I have a beautiful E61 there. I'm sure I've got a. I still want to know, right in the kitchen right now, when I'm looking at, would that. [01:18:23] Speaker B: Would that be the same as your other good friend out there, Gonzaleb? Would he? [01:18:28] Speaker C: Yeah, Gonza. [01:18:33] Speaker C: Coffee purist as well. [01:18:35] Speaker B: Stuff on Instagram. [01:18:38] Speaker A: So. So the coffee shop, the cars. [01:18:44] Speaker A: Going out, you know, the, the. The. The vibrant life of that area. When you're buying stuff or when you're introducing your stuff or when you're introducing yourself to people to buy things. Yep. [01:18:59] Speaker A: Would it make it. Did it make it easier to do that? [01:19:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:03] Speaker A: Doing what you're doing. Yeah. [01:19:05] Speaker C: Having that personal experience of talking to people, make people feel comfortable and so you stuff. That's how it works. [01:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah, but, yeah. [01:19:13] Speaker C: Yes. And I'm prepared to travel. You know, I get in the car and I drive. The second week of New Year, after, you know, our break, I. I drove. I did a parts run and I drove from where I live in Geelong to Melbourne, Sydney, Mildura, Adelaide and back home. And I had a guy last week ring me up and he couldn't be bothered driving two hours to cover a path. [01:19:41] Speaker C: You're the real deal and you get off your ass and you find this stuff and no one's going to find it for you. It's because it's Internet generation. Everyone thinks everyone's going to be delivered to them. They can just find it online. But get up your ass and go for a look, you know, that's, that's how you do it. [01:19:55] Speaker A: At one time you were, you had a car trailer or a car truck delivering cars across the country. [01:20:03] Speaker C: I had, I had a classic car delivery service. It was a 65F350 with the tandem on the back and you know, that truck drove to Queensland when we went to, you know, we adlied one way to Sydney. The, the following and yeah, yeah, bought my house with that business. [01:20:24] Speaker A: How did, how. So, so was that between coffee shops? [01:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah, no, yeah, had the cafes going and I was doing that on my, my weekend. So Monday, Monday, Tuesday. [01:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:36] Speaker C: And yeah, always, always had a lot of stuff going on. Buying, sewing and I've always been focused. [01:20:44] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's. [01:20:47] Speaker A: That's how you get around. [01:20:50] Speaker A: Buying stuff, looking for stuff. It's not all on the, it's all, all not on the Internet. I remember going. One of our other haunts in Melbourne was the Embassy Cafe. [01:21:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Still, still one of my favorites. I only went there two weeks ago. [01:21:08] Speaker A: The age, the age building. Yeah. Just off Swanston street or King Street. [01:21:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:21:18] Speaker A: They'd all wait for the, they'd all wait for the age set days age to come out and they'd get the age and go to the, you know, Embassy Cafe and you know, they'd be having burgers and Cokes at 5:00 and there'd be no mobile phones back then. So you'd go home and, you know, ring those numbers. [01:21:36] Speaker C: Yes. [01:21:36] Speaker A: For those cars, you know. [01:21:39] Speaker C: Yep. [01:21:40] Speaker A: Yeah, the, those, those haunts, you know, I remember Mr. Wobble Head. [01:21:47] Speaker A: Fat Jack. [01:21:50] Speaker A: Fat Jack. You remember Fat Jack. [01:21:52] Speaker C: I got the roof rail strips from my 64 hard top link from Fat Jack up in the loft. I spent the next couple of hours digging through all these chrome strips and found a mint pair of hard top. Yeah. [01:22:04] Speaker A: Another. Another legend. Fat Jack Peterson. [01:22:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:11] Speaker A: He was the only person. [01:22:14] Speaker A: To do a burnout at the Melbourne Moomba Festival Parade in his black Zephyr. 289 Zephyr. [01:22:23] Speaker C: Yep. [01:22:24] Speaker A: A customized Zephyr and did a burnout. [01:22:27] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:27] Speaker A: On at the Moomba Festival. Moomba Parade. How times have changed. [01:22:34] Speaker C: My dad raced against him back in the 70s. [01:22:38] Speaker A: And your dad, what did he race. [01:22:40] Speaker C: In the 70s, Chris XTGD at that time. [01:22:45] Speaker A: XTGT was it in what, like a pro stock Silver Pro stock class. [01:22:51] Speaker A: Just. [01:22:51] Speaker C: A street class there I think at that time. But yeah, I think he was running 14 those days. But. [01:22:58] Speaker A: That'S awesome. [01:22:59] Speaker C: That's the only one that's eluded me. I've. I'm pretty good at tracking cars down and I've been looking for over 30 years for that car and haven't been able to find it. [01:23:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's one of those, it's one of those things, isn't it. [01:23:14] Speaker A: That you, you look for something and it might be on your doorstep. [01:23:21] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. [01:23:23] Speaker A: What do you think? [01:23:24] Speaker C: Funny, a photo came up on the Internet of a. [01:23:28] Speaker C: Can't remember the name of the town but it was a girl on the back of a buffalo, a cow being walked down the main street of this town. And in the background of the photo is my dad's xtgd which was hilarious. He put a XY GT rear spoiler on this xt so it was quite distinctive and. [01:23:48] Speaker C: Knew the rego. So yeah. [01:23:51] Speaker C: I managed to put a local Facebook page there or that town. I put an ad up. Does anyone know anything about this car? And the owner had passed away but his wife messaged me back and said oh, here's the photos of the car. And so we tracked it to about 85 and that was the last we could found of it there. [01:24:11] Speaker B: So, so is this, is it still registered under the same plates? [01:24:15] Speaker C: Do you know I'll be able to find it? [01:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. So you know, going back in time in history, your, your all your cars are correct trim code, engine, tires, wheels, brakes. Where did that start from? Because that's pretty well when you and. [01:24:38] Speaker C: I met it, you know, almost 20. I remember going to the early child and car coming part number the alternator or whatever and they'll be laughing at me. And then I, I knew I could see what the guys, Mustang guys in the states were doing with restorations and then the JD guys here and then I was like, oh, why can't I've done any sh like that? So that's what I did. And I was, you know, it was me really, David Nolte. You know, there wasn't a lot of guys that were doing correct restos in those days. You know, David was always one of my idols. So you know. And then you know, I got into the Squire wagons too. You know, I had 14 of them over the years. [01:25:13] Speaker B: So now you're talking. [01:25:16] Speaker A: I know. [01:25:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:19] Speaker C: One of my greatest finds was I found a 48 Ford Sportsman in Queensland. [01:25:24] Speaker A: Wow. [01:25:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:25] Speaker B: Aussie. Aussie Right hand driveway. [01:25:28] Speaker C: No, well, no one. All my mates are in the 40s fords. No one knew that car was in Australia. Yeah, it's a rare car in the States. That kind of. Yeah, very high value car over there. And it was sitting in. A guy who owned Dream World had owned it. He, yeah, three cars. He fell over his workshop and died. His wife sold his friend and three cars to a family friend for 20, 000 bucks. And then he sold each other three cars for 3,000 bucks. [01:25:54] Speaker A: Jesus. [01:25:55] Speaker C: And that car was probably worth $400,000. [01:25:57] Speaker B: Oh, of course, of course. [01:25:59] Speaker A: You know, you're bringing back memories earlier with David Nolte and, and those guys because they were, you know, they were the, they were the bees. Knees in the day. His cars, his cars were. His cars were fantastic. And in that era, I didn't really get it. [01:26:19] Speaker A: And I sort of. I get it now, but I still don't. I still, it, it still, it still bugs me. It still bugs me to this day that, you know, I'm thinking, all right, so you've got an xp. It's an xp. It's not. We're not talking a gt. But those cars that he did, those squires, like squats. Squire wagon was the ugliest thing that Ford ever made. [01:26:45] Speaker B: I love it. [01:26:47] Speaker A: But they are the rarest, most desirable. They're not, you know, they're the rarest, most desirable car. [01:26:56] Speaker C: I built my first three of those for 300 bucks each. [01:26:59] Speaker B: So, Chris, how many, how many did that make? Because I don't actually know the numbers. [01:27:02] Speaker C: So. 600 in the XLS. And then there was 111, I think, XMs. And they say there was 93 XPs. But I, you know, in my, you know, exhaustive research into finding these cars, I've only ever been able to track eight of them down. [01:27:20] Speaker B: What, XPs or XP squares? [01:27:22] Speaker C: And I had one of them. Yeah, yeah, but look, yeah, as far as we know, they're the correct bill numbers, but you'd think that more of them would have survived or parts of them survived. You know, most of the people were into them and you know, when I was, I had my first one, but I don't think anyone in the early club had even seen one in real life at a time. [01:27:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no one had seen any. And you know, the only other person who I knew had one was Carlo Laudini at Resolve Motor Trimmers. [01:27:50] Speaker C: Another great, you know, big hero of mine. [01:27:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Carlo. Carlo's legendary. And then the late Adrian Ryan from Ford Public affairs, he had three of them and cannibalized three to build one. [01:28:04] Speaker A: Unfortunately, Adrian's Pass. But, you know. [01:28:10] Speaker A: It'S just remarkable, you know. And he had them on a farm at Shepparton, I believe, wrapped up and in the middle of a field. [01:28:21] Speaker C: Well, I got my XP by chance. I. I used to run an ad in the Weekly Times, the country newspaper. Wanted to buy Squire wagons. And a guy rang me up and it was pre Internet days. He said, I've got. Well, I think he's an xp. I saw you wouldn't have an xp, man. I'm trying to get him to describe it because, oh, you either want it or you don't. I said, well, how bad is it? And he was up in New Sydney. He goes, oh, if you fly to Sydney, I'll pick up the airport. You can drive it home. [01:28:49] Speaker C: And I didn't know if it was an XLXM or xp because the airport, my jaw dropped. An XP Squire pulled up to pick me up. [01:29:00] Speaker A: That's. That's. That's amazing. But even, like, back then, like, it was, you know, like you put an ad in the Herald on Weekly Times, I mean, you wouldn't do that. I mean, today it's a marketplace or, you know, on the. On the Facebook or on this or on that. You know, back when we started, it was Set day's age, Car trainer, training post, Trading. Trading post. I mean, the trading post was the king. [01:29:27] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, see, here in Wa, we had the quokka. [01:29:31] Speaker A: Yep. [01:29:32] Speaker B: The quokka came out every Thursday. So every Thursday morning, straight down to the servo, grab it onto it, onto the cars, and then the Sunday Times Saturday night. Any news agency had the Sunday Times Saturday night. And there'll be lines of people wait for those. [01:29:48] Speaker A: Just. Just amazing. I mean, you know, I mean, the days are. The days are different. [01:29:55] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, of course. [01:29:56] Speaker A: And, you know, the Age newspaper, the Trading Post, you know, just. And. And talking to people. Talking to people and finding out what they've got, where they are. And I know we've. Chris and I have talked about the. The Holy Grail of falcons for many years. [01:30:22] Speaker B: I don't know much about this stuff. So what's the Holy Grail? [01:30:25] Speaker A: The Holy Grail is the 1963 Miss Australian. [01:30:31] Speaker A: Retractable ute that was made. There was a ute. [01:30:34] Speaker C: It was a ute. [01:30:35] Speaker B: It was a ute. I remember. [01:30:36] Speaker A: So the 1963 designed by Lou Band, who was designer in Geelong. [01:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:43] Speaker A: Chris's backyard. Yeah. He also designed and built a hatchback Cortina. Okay. Which his Wife used to drive around Geelong. Okay. Lou also. [01:30:57] Speaker A: Built the first design, the first coupe utility. [01:31:02] Speaker B: I was going to say they, yeah, the Coop utility. [01:31:04] Speaker A: So the 1934 Ford or 33, they did this. So they did this car. [01:31:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:10] Speaker A: Out of a, out of a, out of a ute. [01:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:13] Speaker A: Based on the 59 Skyliner, Chris. [01:31:15] Speaker C: Yeah, correct. Yeah. [01:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:18] Speaker C: And, yeah, and I believe I, I saw one going to high school and I saw the hatchback Cortenna in the same house on the way to high school for many years and then they disappeared. [01:31:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:31:30] Speaker B: It was in one of the Aussie restored magazines that Eddie Ford did. [01:31:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I remember seeing years and years ago. [01:31:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:37] Speaker A: And Lou, Lou Band's wife. [01:31:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:41] Speaker A: She used to drive the hatchback Cortina to Woolies. Okay. In Geelong. [01:31:48] Speaker B: So this is the, the first of the Cortinas, was it the first? [01:31:52] Speaker A: I think it was, yeah. It was Mark one, Mark one hatchback. [01:31:56] Speaker B: Okay. [01:31:57] Speaker A: It was ugly brown. Like it wasn't a really nice color. But they're retractable now. You know, I've heard, we've heard all the stories. We've never ever seen one or have known of one to survive. [01:32:20] Speaker A: I've heard about them. I've seen the pictures, I've seen the plans. Adrian Ryan showed me the plans back in the day. But if somebody had one in this day and age, yeah, we would be all, it would be all over the, it would be all over Facebook. It'd be, you know, Melbourne lost cars or Perth lost cars or wherever. [01:32:43] Speaker B: So how, how many did they make? [01:32:45] Speaker A: Five. [01:32:46] Speaker B: Okay. [01:32:48] Speaker A: Six cars. Chris had six cars. So they made six cars for the, for the Miss Australia Quest in 1963 and they had the, the young lady who seen the photos. Those cars are non personal gratis. No one knows where they are with. There's been stories that they came out to wa or there's been stories but. And a few, and sort of a few years ago I think there was a guy on one of the Facebook pages. [01:33:19] Speaker A: Made claim that he had one and I remember that it just blew up overnight. It just blew up. And I rang Chris. I what do you reckon? Bet this guy and I think Chris spoke to him. So continue the story, mate. [01:33:34] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that one was but Michael Murphy, oh who's well known Sydney Billy Falcon guy. He, he says he knows of one that survived up there but the owner doesn't want to take it out or doesn't want to show anyone unfortunate because it'd be a lovely car to see. Yeah. And I've looked obviously for myself for years trying to find one but never, never been able to get one. Yeah. [01:34:00] Speaker C: People. But yeah, I've never come across one other than the one I saw on the way to high school. But I was kind of just getting into the cars at that stage so it wasn't on my radar. [01:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah. It's pretty amazing that none of them. [01:34:17] Speaker A: None of them actually survived on. Like we've heard the story that they were given away to the. The ladies who were in the Miss Australia quest. [01:34:28] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [01:34:28] Speaker A: I didn't know that that was one of the stories. [01:34:33] Speaker A: They were given away as prizes. But that's. It's all he say. Yeah. [01:34:38] Speaker B: Okay. [01:34:38] Speaker A: It's all he. It's. That's he say. Yeah, there was a story that one of them that they were all sent to wa. [01:34:46] Speaker B: Okay. [01:34:48] Speaker A: And if they were sent to wa, somebody like Tony Gatani that would have ended up in a hot rod show. So yeah, he would have seen it. [01:34:56] Speaker B: I can tell you. I've never seen one. [01:35:00] Speaker B: I remember the magazine that it was in. [01:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:02] Speaker B: Because I remember reading. Because that's to me is a factory custom to me. You know so. [01:35:09] Speaker B: And the closest thing that I can get to. There was a guy here in Perth that built it looked like a really mint. Close to factory. Eh. Not eh. HR Convertible silver back in the days. [01:35:22] Speaker A: Okay. [01:35:22] Speaker B: And yeah. I've never, never seen one. Never. [01:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I believe. Yep. The lady across from us. [01:35:30] Speaker B: Yes. [01:35:31] Speaker A: Her uncle had a convertible Falcon. Oh, okay. And I'm yet to talk to that person. [01:35:40] Speaker A: And every time I go to see them. [01:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:35:45] Speaker A: I forget about it. [01:35:46] Speaker B: Oh. [01:35:48] Speaker A: And that is. [01:35:51] Speaker A: And other. Other family people that I've spoken to have said that he did have a convertible Falcon. So I don't know whether it was one of those. [01:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:36:03] Speaker A: But I haven't asked that particular person. [01:36:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:36:06] Speaker A: Because every time I've gone there I've forgotten about it. [01:36:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:36:09] Speaker A: And in the car I've got. Oh man, I forgot to ask you. [01:36:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:36:13] Speaker A: You know, but Chris, were they. Were they Futuras or was that the future only deluxes. [01:36:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:36:21] Speaker A: Only Deluxus. [01:36:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, they were Futuras. No bucket seats. They bench in them. Yeah. All 170 cars. Yeah. Nothing special about them at all. [01:36:32] Speaker A: So interesting. [01:36:32] Speaker C: You know, I mean and a non motorized roof. [01:36:38] Speaker A: Hand operated. Wow. [01:36:42] Speaker C: Wow. [01:36:42] Speaker B: So not like the doors with stock doors. [01:36:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:36:52] Speaker C: Make it look weird. [01:36:52] Speaker B: Cuz my next question was going to say the front wind sedan height or is it. [01:37:05] Speaker A: Jeez, that's it. Actually it actually narrows down. It actually narrows it down. A fair bit. Cuz you're not looking, you're not looking for a Yankee car. [01:37:15] Speaker B: No, you're looking for. [01:37:16] Speaker A: You're actually looking at it on Aussie. [01:37:19] Speaker C: That story with that one, that guy said he had one ended up being a. Yeah. Hard top that had the roof cut off. [01:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. And it's interesting also because there are very few or near to. No, I think Bodycraft in Geelong made them. [01:37:40] Speaker B: Okay. [01:37:40] Speaker A: All right. [01:37:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:41] Speaker A: And Bodycraft have been out of business for like 70 years. [01:37:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:47] Speaker A: So they were an independent bodybuilder who did a bit of stuff for Luband. [01:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:37:53] Speaker A: They also did the Cortina. [01:37:57] Speaker C: All the ambulances, herses. They did a lot of them as well. [01:38:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so I've got a question for you, Chris. [01:38:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:38:05] Speaker A: So. [01:38:07] Speaker B: This might be out in left field. So you're looking for your unicorn or you both are. And I know you're into the GT40 stuff now. Gentleman out here in Perth and I don't know if he's still around. [01:38:21] Speaker B: His name's Nick, big collector of Ford stuff. Do you know him? [01:38:27] Speaker C: No, no. [01:38:29] Speaker B: Nick Ferreira is his name. Oh no, he, I think he had a GT40ere wrecked one. I'm not, not 100 sure. But I do know that he's a Ford nut. [01:38:41] Speaker A: Yep. [01:38:42] Speaker B: And he's got over 200 cars. Well but for me it would be if, if he, he would know something maybe if those cars came out to wa. [01:38:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah, it's. It's a diff. It's. It's no one actually. No one actually knows. One of. One of the stories that I, I heard was that after the Miss Australia quest. [01:39:11] Speaker A: Ford used to. In World War II they used to build boats in Geelong because the, the old Geelong plants at Corio and the word was that they put them on. [01:39:25] Speaker A: Like a, like a little boat and they dropped them off the end. Oh really? That's one. Yeah, that's one of those. [01:39:32] Speaker C: Well, I know there's a lot of. A lot of cars buried out of the proven ground. [01:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:36] Speaker C: Yeah. One of my mates, he still works out there at the moment that are a kind of landslide event recently that a couple of cars were unearthed. [01:39:48] Speaker A: Wow. [01:39:48] Speaker C: They're quickly buried again by the men upstairs. [01:39:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's odd. And I suppose back in the day they would either dump them in Corioli Bay to make an artificial reef. [01:40:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:40:02] Speaker A: And they did a lot of that sort of stuff. [01:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:05] Speaker A: I heard of the big hole at the Yuyangs where they used to dump everything and they used to just bury it. Wow. [01:40:14] Speaker C: Instead of crashing opposite the factory as you're heading up that bridge into long as an empty paddock there. There's a Ford factory in it that is for old cars as well. [01:40:26] Speaker A: Under the ground, under the. There's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff buried in Geelong. [01:40:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:32] Speaker A: You know. [01:40:39] Speaker A: So. Yeah. So, I mean, I suppose part of, Part of that's folklore. [01:40:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:44] Speaker A: Yeah. That. You hear that? Yeah. You know. Yeah. They built this and they built that and it went out on a. On a barge to Corio Bay and they just pushed, pushed, pushed it off into the push. But, you know, I mean that it's a likely scenario. [01:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:58] Speaker A: Because nothing has been cited in 80 years. And I always had the dream even coming out here. Oh, man. I might just start looking. Yeah. Just, you know, just. I've. I've got to actually speak to this uncle. [01:41:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:41:16] Speaker A: Because he did have a Falcon convertible. Whether it was a 63, whether it was, you know, something like that. But if it was, it's. It's a start of a story. You know. [01:41:28] Speaker A: If he did have one of those cars, then it would have debunk a few stories. [01:41:35] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Yeah. [01:41:37] Speaker A: One of the other major things that actually survived the 60s was the, the. The driving suit. [01:41:46] Speaker C: Yeah, your driving suit's fantastic. [01:41:47] Speaker A: Yeah, the driving. The. The driving suit that was made by Les Lester in England, Seville Row. [01:41:56] Speaker A: It's on my talking talk. One of my talking talk reels. And. [01:42:03] Speaker A: That survived the. Very, very little survived like that. And to my knowledge, that's the only one that sort of survived. I believe Chris is. [01:42:13] Speaker C: I bought a similar one, but not. Not with the history attached to it. [01:42:18] Speaker A: Yeah, Chris. Yeah, Chris has got one too, but it's, it's a, It's a. It's a racing. Like. If you have a look at all those drivers of the. Of the 60s, Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Jochen Rindt, they all had the same driving suit because Les Lester in England. [01:42:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:42:35] Speaker A: So the modem. They're all. Dunlop, they're all. There's nothing. Firestone, they're all. They're all the same color with the same wristbands and, and stuff like that. So. So, you know, we, we're. We're moving forward. We got a very, A very similar mindset of collecting and you know, picked. [01:42:57] Speaker C: Up recently. [01:43:00] Speaker C: Southern California Sports Car association driving suit in the 60s as well, that I wear in my Cobra. I like the whole hook as well. [01:43:10] Speaker A: I know. I saw, I saw that at Geelong Speed Trials. You're in the cobber and you got the, the, the cowboy hat remind me of, you know, George Vitkovic from Python Cars. That's how he, he roams the countryside. And a cowboy hat, cowboy boots. Sorry, mate. [01:43:30] Speaker C: Carlo Shelby, as I call myself. [01:43:36] Speaker C: The. [01:43:36] Speaker A: Italian version of Carol Shelby. But you know, some of those like, you know, sort of we're just reminiscing about our lives and the cars and the people that we've known and the things that we've seen. And you know, part of talking talk is talking about history and talking about cars and talking about how the cars have brought three people together that across the country who have spoken about things and have been friends or have been acquaintances over many years. And it's probably one of the first times that. [01:44:14] Speaker A: It'S probably happened that, you know. [01:44:18] Speaker A: Where I've sort of gone, oh, I'm gonna have a radio show. Who am I going to get on? I'm gonna. I've got this guy, I've got this guy. And the conversation. [01:44:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:44:26] Speaker A: With me and Tony and now with Chris has been cars, performance, where we've been, how we've found them. You know, it's not. There was no Internet back then. It was, you know, ring up the. Ring up, ring up, bang. This, that, you know, oh, this guy's got this. I think, I think in my father's garage there's a roll of Futura silver vinyl. I've got a roll of it. [01:44:56] Speaker B: Wow. [01:44:56] Speaker A: And that came from the late Bruce Spearing. Who. You know, the old Falcon guys who, who knew Bruce, Johnny Longworth and you know, John McKenzie and those guys. [01:45:09] Speaker A: He imported that from America. And that's, that's enough to make one, one, One whole set of door cards for a, for a 63. [01:45:21] Speaker B: Nice. Beautiful. [01:45:23] Speaker A: And it's just been passed along the line to the next person. And you know, John had bought a 63 that Sting Stan Gibson owns now. And Stan didn't want it, so John got stuck with it. So then John passed it on to me. [01:45:41] Speaker A: You know, that's a relic of the past. I'll probably never, you know, part with that. [01:45:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:47] Speaker A: Because it just reminds you of friendships of the past. [01:45:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:45:50] Speaker A: And people who weren't around, who aren't around today. [01:45:55] Speaker C: So, yeah, we're finally becoming the old guys with all the knowledge now. [01:46:00] Speaker A: Yes, we are the, we are the old, the old crew. [01:46:04] Speaker B: So. So what you're saying is we were the guys back then that were giving crap to the old guys. [01:46:20] Speaker C: Were still all in business. The Harley ducks. [01:46:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:46:23] Speaker C: The getting on two Tree Records, you know, all those different places that were. Yeah. [01:46:31] Speaker C: Worth any money. [01:46:32] Speaker B: Oh, look, I did, mate. I agree with you. It's like. [01:46:37] Speaker B: You know, pick apart. Or you can carry 50 bucks. Or you go to. There was a scrapper here and you just go on a Saturday morning to his yard and there was stuff there that were so oddball, from British cars to Aussie American cars. And you just grab whatever you wanted and you would say, well, 20 bucks, 50 bucks. Now it's thousands. [01:47:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And the all makes swap me at the market. I mean, that was massive. [01:47:07] Speaker C: Yeah, Great spot. [01:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:08] Speaker C: Great menu for it as well. [01:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a like, footscray market. Saturday morning, all make swap meet. I went the first time I went over, man, have a look at this place. What's this about? [01:47:23] Speaker C: And you as big as the MCG Undercover. [01:47:28] Speaker A: It's like that. Yeah, it was. It was just unbelievable. And it was everything. There was everything from Falcon to Holden to Chev to Monaro to everything that anybody had that wanted to get rid of, it was going to be all make swap, mate. [01:47:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:47:45] Speaker A: And it was cash. [01:47:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:47:47] Speaker A: Not card. [01:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it was all cash. [01:47:49] Speaker A: Yeah, cash. Phone number. I remember people walking around with wanted and their phone number on the back of their T shirt. Yeah. [01:47:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:47:57] Speaker C: I used to write up a sign on my T shirt and I buy a white T shirt from Coles and. [01:48:03] Speaker C: Right up the sign of what I was chasing for that time. [01:48:06] Speaker B: There's still a guy at the swap meets here who's in his 80s, walking around with a cardboard front and back with what he wants and a bit of string over his shoulders. Still does it today. [01:48:17] Speaker A: Unbelievable. I know. Stuart Norris, Australia's greatest picker. He's got like a blue singlet. Yeah, it's embroidered in the singlet. You know, I mean, you can't. Some of those, you know, some of those days and some of the, you know, the day of those swap meets is. Is past. It, unfortunately. [01:48:40] Speaker A: Killed all that. [01:48:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:48:42] Speaker A: But the Internet killed it. But the legends that made those days, the Brickies and, you know, the Drags and, you know, Norm Beachy and, you know, Fat Jack Peterson, you know, because he was. He was a legend of northern suburbs. John Traverno, you know, he worked at Ford, but he was making, you know, diffs. And Carlo Laudini at Resort Motor Trimmers. Carlo's a legend. You know, Mark and Danny Durley, Bird, Mark Blekic, his brother, you know those guys. It was just a hive of activity and it was just, you know, because everybody wanted to do something and everybody Was on the same page, you know, Cherry Lane, the drags, you know, Dandenong, Redford Road, Dandenong Drag Racing Club, you know, you know, now Calder's back on board and, you know, it's just, it's just a, it's just a time in history, you know, that we were lucky. Even in Perth, you guys were lucky to, to be in that, that era. I mean it was probably. We were a bit later, we're on the end of it. But the 80s and the early 90s, that was the time when it was, when it was ripe. You know, the, the scene here in Perth and the scene in Melbourne and, and Sydney and the drags and the Falcons and the this and you know, we still make cars at Broadmeadows and they make cars at Holden and gmh, you know. Yeah, and everybody was just, you know, was, you know, the drive in go the drive in, you know, Coburg or here in Perth or down at Geelong or, you know, cruise the streets of Melbourne or cruise the streets in Perth and you know, you know, kebabs or burgers or whatever. So, you know, it's just one of those times. Chris, what's your best time, your best time in history. [01:50:35] Speaker A: Where you'd want to be? [01:50:37] Speaker C: Oh, 63, 64 in California. The greatest time, I think when the big blocks were coming out and that total performance. [01:50:49] Speaker C: Design was, you know, it's going off, you know, that if it was, there was money, there's hope. You know, there was a good time in America, but yeah, we were, you know, obviously a little bit behind down here without what we got our offerings. But yeah, that time to be in California then when they were on crazy times, their cars are pretty fast and I had open checkbooks of factory backing and it was crazy time. [01:51:14] Speaker A: Yeah, like, like Shelby was at the airport in, in, in California and you know, I suppose it was for total performance all the way and everybody was at each other's throats and nascar, they weren't really into road racing into, in. They weren't really into road racing in America, but with the Mustang changed things. Trans Am, you know, Alan Moffat, the Cortina, Alan, man racing, you know, then, you know, nascar, the Torinos and stuff like that. So Tone, your best time, your best time of the era. [01:51:48] Speaker B: Oh, look, I, I've always said I would have wanted to been a teenager. So like 17 to 19 years old in 1955. [01:51:58] Speaker C: Yes. [01:51:58] Speaker B: Smack bang in the middle of the mid-50s. So probably just coming out of high school and then, I don't know, just going down to George Barish's soft mate or Gene Winfield woods or doing something like that. I would have loved to have gotten my hands into that sort of stuff. [01:52:14] Speaker A: So. Interesting, because, you know, I've been watching a bit of. For the past couple of months where I've been at home and I haven't been able to go to work, but. And I've been. I've watched every YouTube, everything on YouTube from, you know, Dale Jr. Download, but been watching this Stapleton 42. And he was at Ed Pink's. Ed Pink shop. Ed's passed away. But he. He was building the 429s to go drag race. [01:52:43] Speaker B: Wow. [01:52:43] Speaker A: I mean, and there was an engine there that they showed and Ed Pink said, oh, this is the last one I'm building, but it's going to Australia. [01:52:52] Speaker B: Wow. [01:52:53] Speaker A: So it'd be interesting to see where that Ed Pink engine ended up, whether it be a drag car or drag boat. [01:53:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I would. [01:53:03] Speaker C: It leaves close to Tony. [01:53:04] Speaker A: It lives close to Tony. [01:53:06] Speaker B: Does it? [01:53:09] Speaker A: Tell us more, Chris, tell us more. [01:53:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you're saying it's in. Over here in wa, mate? [01:53:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it's definitely in wa. Wow. Very good collector. He's got some fantastic cars. [01:53:19] Speaker B: Tony Permachili. [01:53:22] Speaker B: Sorry, is it Tony Permacelli? [01:53:25] Speaker C: No, no, no, no. [01:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. That's amazing because, you know, I've been watching all that sort of stuff and I suppose my. My time, you know, I would like, you know, the mid-60s, but the mid-60s here, the mid-60s in Brunswick. [01:53:45] Speaker A: Northern suburbs of Melbourne. You know, there was, you know, Harrops Howler. There was, you know, the. The early drag cars. Norm Beachy in Sydney Road, Bob Jane in Sydney Road. Brunswick, you know, Stuckies in Sydney Road. Like, everything was nearly in Sydney Road. Brunswick. Yeah. [01:54:00] Speaker C: My dad was a motor mechanic there in Cindy Road, and he watched, you know, the Camaros come. Come off the. The two ZL one. [01:54:10] Speaker C: That you watch them both being unloaded. [01:54:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, those times everybody made something. Every. Every car dealer had a car that was racing. Like Tony and I spoke before. Every, Every. Every dealer had a car. Every dealer, you know, sold something. There was all sorts of weird and wonderful cars and, and things for sale. And, you know, it was a different era of time where people actually made things here in Australia. So. So, yeah, so we've got. We have covered just about every known man, name, shape, Ford history in the past hour. And we're going to play some music and. And thanks to Chris Duranto, AKA El Toro. Mate, thank you very much for coming on tonight. [01:55:07] Speaker C: Good to see you, mate. And Tony, you too, mate. [01:55:09] Speaker B: Yeah, good to talk to you, buddy. [01:55:11] Speaker A: And we're gonna play a couple of other songs for Chris. Sleepwalk, Santo and Johnny and Rumble. Sleepwalk. [01:55:23] Speaker A: Santo and Johnny and Rumble by Link Ray. Thanks, mate. Much appreciated. Have a great day. [01:55:31] Speaker B: The best music from the 60s to today, IPL radio. [01:55:37] Speaker A: So that was an awesome hour of power with. [01:55:42] Speaker A: El Toro Christorento. That was some of the things we crossed. Many, many discussions. And it was an hour, like. It was an unbelievable easy hour of talk. And you know, Tony. Unbelievable. [01:56:02] Speaker B: Oh, it was awesome. It's good. Good to catch up with Chris. Haven't spoken to him in a long time, so. [01:56:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's. He's a great. He's a great person. [01:56:12] Speaker A: And yeah, we talk regularly when he sort of. When I. When I say something, I just message him. [01:56:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:56:18] Speaker A: And just say, hey, mate, what do you think of that? [01:56:22] Speaker A: And, you know, the insights of what he's got. And the wholeman, the Moody and the four Total performance. Just unbelievable. The garage, that blows you away. [01:56:33] Speaker B: That blows me away. Just all numbers matching, collecting, all that sort of stuff is like. It's pretty wild. [01:56:42] Speaker A: So. [01:56:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. [01:56:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it is, isn't it? I mean, I wouldn't have. I know he's. He's. His collection is. Is vast, but. And he's had. He's had a couple of problems trying to store the collection. [01:56:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:56:58] Speaker A: And the amount of cars and parts that he's got. And Fred. And Fred's for sale. You know, I suppose, you know, he was at the All Four Day last year and he had Fred and the Cobra. [01:57:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:14] Speaker A: And it was just an awesome sign of people. Oh, man. Where did that come from? Yeah, you know, so. [01:57:20] Speaker B: And that's that infamous video of the guy with the cigarette looking underneath. Cobra. [01:57:25] Speaker A: That is the infamous. The infamous video of a guy under the thing with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, looking at a aluminum body cover with his hand on the bodywork. [01:57:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:39] Speaker A: Just unbelievable. Yeah, but that's okay. There are wood ducks everywhere. [01:57:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:44] Speaker A: Now this next sort of period that I've got Tony with me, being from Melbourne, we had our. Our jaunts, our joints to go to. [01:57:57] Speaker A: And, you know, reminiscing with Chris. You know, we'd have the Embassy Cafe in North Melbourne, near the Age Danny's Burgers in Fitzroy, a couple of kebab shops. But generally they're the two burger places that the car clubs used to hang out At. Yeah, in Perth. What were the, what were the haunts? Because not being from Perth and being new and I suppose next week I'm going to be interviewed by Carlos Garcia because nobody knows who I am but. And I'm trying to understand the Perth. [01:58:34] Speaker A: Scene. [01:58:34] Speaker B: Okay. So. So back in the day, so I got my license in 1990. So. [01:58:42] Speaker B: You know, green as grass, 17 year old in a Hz. So. [01:58:48] Speaker B: Back then my favorite place was Bernie's Burgers. So it's no longer around. The property got sold or the rent or I guess the lease ran out. It was on Mount Spay Road there from 1930, 39. [01:59:05] Speaker B: It's probably been 25 odd years since it's closed down. [01:59:09] Speaker A: Yep. [01:59:10] Speaker B: I used to go there every Thursday night. Used to drop my younger brother off at uwa. That was a really good burger joint and a lot, a lot of. [01:59:19] Speaker B: I guess car, car runs and that used to end up there. The only other place that still rocking it these days from back in the day is Alfred's Kitchen at that sound in Guilford. [01:59:35] Speaker A: Yep. [01:59:36] Speaker B: That started in 46. World famous pan Am soup there. They're still using the old meta stove. [01:59:44] Speaker A: Wow. [01:59:44] Speaker B: So absolutely awesome place that. [01:59:49] Speaker A: Oh look. [01:59:49] Speaker B: There was a few other places. [01:59:52] Speaker B: Out where I grew up in Kelmscott there was a place called the Ponderosa that was a good burger joint. I think Bernie's had maybe another place out near, near the Leopold Hotel. I'm not too sure. There was Hamburger Hill. [02:00:11] Speaker B: Near Burswood, that was another one. So it seems like there was a bit of a theme with little burger joints near the railway line. [02:00:18] Speaker A: Yep. [02:00:18] Speaker B: So the Ponderosa was just next door to the county. [02:00:22] Speaker B: Train station. [02:00:26] Speaker B: The Hamburger Hill was near Burzwood train station near the, the Burswood Dome in the casino there. I'm just trying to think where there was a few others. There's quite a few over the years. I think the, there was a big one back in the day out towards Scarborough. So and that was a bit before my time. So that was probably more my Dad's sort of 50s and 60s era. So but for me, I have to say hands down, Bernie's Burgers, Alfred's Kitchen, Ponderosa. These days. [02:01:03] Speaker A: Look there's a lot of. [02:01:05] Speaker B: Lot of burger joints out and about. [02:01:07] Speaker A: So. [02:01:10] Speaker B: Not so much with car runs and stuff. But there's a few that you, you know, people do, do drive their cars too. So probably my favorite right here, right now, Burger Freight and Belmont. You know he's a, you know, pretty, pretty good at what he does. So another one There, Brooklyn Burgers in Kelmscott on Brooklyn highway is another one. So there's a few burger joints and these are more south of the river. North of the river you've got Charlie's Barbecue and a few other ones, Thugs, Chicken, all that sort of stuff. [02:01:42] Speaker A: So that's awesome. What we're going to do is if you go to the Talking Talk Facebook page under tonight's. [02:01:51] Speaker A: Post, post your favorite burger joint. So wherever you are in Perth, eastern states, overseas, in America, because I know we have a few listeners on the iHeartRadio network, which IP always is. Yeah. So this is basically for anybody around the world who's listening. [02:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:15] Speaker A: What's your favorite burger joint? [02:02:19] Speaker A: Whether you be in California, whether it be Melbourne, whether you be in Sydney or, you know, you like your pie floater in Adelaide, you know. Please. [02:02:31] Speaker A: Please, please leave a message because it's going to be in an interesting next half an hour, I suppose, you know, in Melbourne. You know, we've spoken about the Embassy Cafe, which is a taxi rank in West Melbourne. Okay. Where all the cab drivers go. All the Greek cab drivers. [02:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. [02:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Used to go. Because it was run by a Greek family. [02:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:53] Speaker A: And Embassy Taxis was upstairs and down. Downstairs was the kitchen. [02:02:57] Speaker B: Okay. [02:02:58] Speaker A: So you had a lot of limo drivers and that sort of stuff. And they'd have a double hamburger and chips or a steak. Steak or a schnitzel or a chicken breast with salad and. [02:03:07] Speaker B: Still operating today. [02:03:08] Speaker A: Still operating. Wow. Like, El Toro was there last week. [02:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:03:11] Speaker A: Cool, cool. So it's still operating today. [02:03:16] Speaker A: That's probably one of the old school. Old school, you know, eateries. [02:03:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:03:24] Speaker A: Danny's Hamburgers in Fitzroy, Brunswick Street. Love Danny's. Love. The boys there, they bought it from Danny, who was actually George Vitkovic's partner's father. [02:03:38] Speaker B: Okay. [02:03:39] Speaker A: So that's in Northern Troy. They live in Northcote. So Maggie. Maggie's father had. Had Danny's. Her father was Danny. [02:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:03:48] Speaker A: And I remember going there and there was, you know, four. Four, four you goes doing burgers. [02:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:03:57] Speaker A: You know, it's. It's changed now, but the boys have, you know, kept it the same. [02:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:01] Speaker A: The same chairs, the same lemon X. Yeah, Nothing's really changed there. [02:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:09] Speaker A: And yeah, you got your dimmies and, you know, they had a dimmy eating competition. It's a very Melbourne thing. [02:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:15] Speaker A: And you get your double burger and it's. It's when it's cut in half. [02:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:21] Speaker A: It's never. It's never a hole. It's never. It's on a plate. [02:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:24] Speaker A: Like they used to do. [02:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:27] Speaker A: There's an old style bowl of chips on the side. [02:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:29] Speaker A: Not chips on the plate. It's just, you know, that old, that old school and they've never changed. Yeah, Same chips, same dimmies. [02:04:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:39] Speaker A: Same burgers. Exactly the same. [02:04:41] Speaker B: So it's a bit like Alfred's kitchen, mate. Same, same. It's like their peen ham soup been on that meta stove since the 40s, mate. [02:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah, so. So, yeah, so it's, it's the same. And there's, there's, there's other places in Melbourne that have come and gone. [02:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:57] Speaker A: But they're nearly the two. Like there's Andrew's Burgers in Albert park. Not so much an instant and an institution in the southern suburbs. Not so much. You wouldn't find people from the northern suburbs going, yeah, but Danny's. Andrew's. Sorry, Andrew. Andrew's. [02:05:19] Speaker A: Niece took it over her son. [02:05:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:05:22] Speaker A: And you know, it's gone from strength to strength. Still in the same shop. [02:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:05:26] Speaker A: Albert Park. [02:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Fantastic. [02:05:31] Speaker A: It's, you know, sort of the southern suburbs, Albert park. It's a bit, it's a bit more toffee. [02:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:05:39] Speaker A: And you've got, you know, you've got your chicken place and your kebab place and these people that do all sorts of bits and pieces. But I suppose there you got lambs and lambs on chapel that been doing kebabs for years. But you know, it's just a different, just a different lifestyle. It was a different. Those old places. There's another place I think it's in. Yes. It's called not Cafe Niagara. Okay. And used to be run by a Greek family. And you know, it's, it's an awesome, it's an awesome place to go back into the 50s and 60s and 70s, you know. [02:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:06:17] Speaker A: You know, you used to get in your car and used to, you know, stop at Aubrey, then stop at gun the guy or stop at. Yes, gun the guy and, and keep going, you know, and it was a family run establishment. So I don't, I don't think there's many of those family run establishments left. [02:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're right. [02:06:35] Speaker A: You know the family run establishments where, you know, you got your, you know, your auntie there and the old man's on the grill and he's doing the burgers and everything. He's got his little blue jacket on because obviously, you know, Greek call Southern European, you know, they got the little blue jacket on, the little red jacket and yeah, they're just doing a burger here and a burger there and a fish and chips and this and that. So those, those family run, those families have got out over the years because, you know, one thing or another. [02:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:07:06] Speaker A: But the establishments have still, still remained. And I suppose that's also part of the culture. [02:07:14] Speaker A: Of, of every city. [02:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:07:17] Speaker A: Like you got the pie floater in Adelaide. That's an institution. Yeah. You know, there's a. I think there's a pie floater in Sydney. Not too sure, but they're, they're the institutions that the car guys would go to. [02:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. [02:07:34] Speaker A: And you know, whether you're in Melbourne and you go pick up the agent and go get a burger and then you go home because, you know, but it's just a. Was a different way of life back then and it's a different way of life now where, you know, people. [02:07:51] Speaker A: People don't do what they did and it's an, it's, it's, it's just another environment and yeah. Talking to Chris and you know, we were the young guys back then and now we're the older establishment. [02:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:06] Speaker A: And you know, it's great. But you know, you go to the markets or you go to, you know, there's the American Donuts and Vic Market institution. [02:08:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:16] Speaker A: And yeah, we used to drive around there, but now you can't drive there. [02:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:21] Speaker A: You have to find a car parking spot. [02:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:23] Speaker A: You know, so, so there's things like that and there's Dandy Donuts. They're a, they're a hit. [02:08:30] Speaker A: You know, you got your, you know, you hamburger places on the Hume highway and things like that. But things have changed. You got the highway now. It's all big servos. [02:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:39] Speaker A: It's not, it's not like the mom and dad run surveys or the Golden Fleece or the Neptune. [02:08:43] Speaker B: Of course. Yeah. [02:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah. But the Golden Fleece servos with the cafeterias was. [02:08:50] Speaker B: Yeah. The restaurants. [02:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They're outstanding. [02:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:53] Speaker A: Clean, the food was good. [02:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:08:57] Speaker A: And they're dotted everywhere. [02:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:09:00] Speaker A: Golden Fleece was a, a staple of Australia. [02:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:09:04] Speaker A: You know, and. [02:09:07] Speaker A: You know, it's a pity that they're not here anymore. [02:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:09:11] Speaker A: Which I think it's a tragedy. It's, it's, it's actually an Australian tragedy that the company like Golden Fleece, their history was never taken on. And when they had those changes of service station with Celtic sample and stuff, they should have actually reintroduced Golden Fleece. Oh would. [02:09:30] Speaker B: It would be nice, mate. [02:09:31] Speaker A: Because as part of history and as part of nostalgia. Yeah. It Would have been an awesome setup to do. [02:09:41] Speaker A: You know, the Golden Fleece service stations. [02:09:46] Speaker A: It is a strike. Ha. Sleep. Yeah. You see the signs, you see the restaurant signs, you see the memorabilia. You know, I suppose with. Without them, the sign collecting and the petronhalia would not be around. [02:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. That's the number one ticket item that every, I guess, collector wants, is. Wants Golden Fleece. [02:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:10:09] Speaker B: You know. [02:10:10] Speaker A: You know, why do they want Golden Fleece? Because it was part of Australian history. [02:10:15] Speaker B: Exactly. [02:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Part of Australian history. So, you know, if you got part of Australian history, then, you know, like, I remember one guy, he had, you know, the Golden Fleece restaurant sign off the. Off the. [02:10:27] Speaker B: Off the roof. [02:10:28] Speaker A: Off the roof. I mean. [02:10:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:10:30] Speaker A: Where do you put 100 foot sign? [02:10:32] Speaker B: Some people got big sheds. [02:10:34] Speaker A: Some people have got big sheds. [02:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:35] Speaker A: You know, and there was crockery and there was all sorts of stuff. You know, my father worked for a subsidiary of Golden Fleece. [02:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:43] Speaker A: And they had a card and, you know, we used to go. When we used to go on service machines or whatever, used to stop at the Golden Fleece, pick up the fuel xyz. We used to have something to eat there and then go. [02:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:56] Speaker A: So, you know, and, you know, they used to stick in my mind, especially the Golden Fleece at Bunyip. [02:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:11:04] Speaker A: In Gippland. [02:11:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:11:05] Speaker A: Because it was a haven. It was. It was just, you know, it was spacious. There was plenty of car parking. There was a little thing, you know, the kitchen was great, the food was fantastic. All the. All the crocky was embossed with Golden Fleece. [02:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [02:11:18] Speaker A: You know, so. So it's part of history, you know, and the burgers were good and the food was good and. And I suppose that made Australia. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that. That made Australia. And Ampole too. Made Australia. But they. Not as much as Golden Fleece. And I suppose he slee. [02:11:38] Speaker A: You know, their demise was. Was agreed. I don't know. [02:11:44] Speaker B: I'm just trying to remember, did Caltex buy them out? I know because I always. Somehow or another. Yeah. The companies always sell out. It's like. [02:11:57] Speaker B: Two small brands that were here and they weren't. I don't think they were here in wa. [02:12:02] Speaker A: You had the Kangaroo brand or Kangaroo. Those doors. Okay. [02:12:06] Speaker B: Yeah, the doors. Yeah. [02:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:12:09] Speaker B: So Kangaroo, I think, was around from 1958, 59 to 64. [02:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:12:15] Speaker B: And that's probably one of the hardest things to get. And that's like. You think about Golden Fleece and then you go, well, what's more Australian than Kangaroo, you know, so. Yeah. And then the other one was Phillips 66 was here. And there was a few petrol stations from the States, which I think were in Queensland, which to me was like, wow, I didn't even know. And they're only here for a couple of years. Yeah. And then they got bought out. So. [02:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting. Celtics did buy Golden Fleece and there was a changeover of the Celtics and Golden Fleece brand. Yeah, I sort of. I saw my father in that era. He worked for one of the companies and the subsidiary company then got sold when Golden Fleece broke up. [02:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:13:06] Speaker A: Because they didn't want the engineering parts of the business. [02:13:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:13:10] Speaker A: So that was a pretty interesting time. But as you say, kangaroo. Kangaroo. I mean, I know I. I think it's Scott Copping. [02:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. He's got the doors. [02:13:21] Speaker A: He's got the doors. So the most famous doors in Australia are Scott Copping's doors. Yeah, Kangaroo doors. Yeah. And then there was another guy. [02:13:32] Speaker A: Who had a company, late 60s. Was it long? Yeah, but he was from Brunswick, Coburg. Okay. And he had xl. [02:13:41] Speaker B: Okay. [02:13:41] Speaker A: And they were the first of the. [02:13:46] Speaker A: Discount chains. [02:13:47] Speaker B: Okay. [02:13:48] Speaker A: So he had Excel 100, you know, cheaper XYZ. And what he used to do was he used to go and buy a lot of Shell stuff and rebrand it and put stickers on everything. [02:14:01] Speaker B: Yeah, okay, gotcha. Yeah. [02:14:03] Speaker A: So he. He had, you know, not many service stations around in Melbourne, but his business was oil exploration. [02:14:09] Speaker B: Okay. [02:14:11] Speaker A: So he would. He would, you know, they would drill wherever and. And just drill for oil. [02:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:14:17] Speaker A: And he thought of the idea, well, if I'm drilling for oil, I might as well, you know, make petrol. [02:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:14:24] Speaker A: So he had. He. So he made the XL brand. [02:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:14:27] Speaker A: I've got a rack of xl, which is a Shell rack. [02:14:30] Speaker C: Rack. [02:14:32] Speaker A: Excuse me. Which is a Shell rack with XL bottles and tops. [02:14:36] Speaker B: Wow. [02:14:37] Speaker A: And, yeah, just one of those quirky, not sought after. [02:14:43] Speaker A: Not really collectible. [02:14:45] Speaker B: And I've been dealing in. In it for like 10, 12 years. I haven't even heard of the brand, mate. So. [02:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was. It was a Melbourne. It was a Melbourne. Was a Melbourne sort of thing. [02:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:14:57] Speaker A: Excel. And then I suppose after Excel, it was Solo. [02:15:01] Speaker B: Yes. So we had. I did know that there was some Solo here, but I don't quite remember it. Total was another brand. [02:15:08] Speaker A: Yeah. French. [02:15:10] Speaker B: What else was there? I don't think we had Fino out here, did we? [02:15:14] Speaker A: Yes, we did have Fino. Yeah, we did have Fino because as an Apprentice chef. I worked for a Italian family and one of the customers was a guy called Jack Cranes. And Jack brought Fina to Australia. [02:15:30] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [02:15:31] Speaker A: Great. Jewish guy, really garish. Drove around the brown Rolls Royce in Melbourne. [02:15:38] Speaker B: Wow. [02:15:39] Speaker A: He brought Fina out. But Solo was actually. [02:15:45] Speaker A: Started by the Actu, Bob Hawk. [02:15:47] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [02:15:49] Speaker A: And he wanted to, you know, lower petrol costs and whatever, and he did that. And then the big oil refinery said, hey, mate, you know, it's great and we'll drop our prices but you need to close your service stations. Yeah. Okay, so Solo with some of the, you know, great stuff that you can't find that collectors like. And we've got a John. [02:16:17] Speaker A: From. [02:16:22] Speaker A: Oh, no, John from Melbourne. Lived in. Says he's from Fitzroy. Danny's Burgers. The best burgers. Yeah, so thanks, mate. Thanks for listening out there in the boonies in Fitzroy is probably going to go to. Probably going to go to Danny's tonight, what's nearly 8 o' clock in Melbourne. So. So, yeah, so thanks, mate, for listening and thanks for sending that text through. And we're gonna play some Johnny Cash for our good friend Tony here. And it's Jackson A Boy Named sue and Folsom prison blues. [02:17:02] Speaker A: On IPL Rockingham from the 60s to today, IPL radio. So that's another Johnny Cash and some sensational songs by the man in Black. Johnny Cash. Love Johnny. Awesome songwriter, awesome player, just fantastic. [02:17:24] Speaker B: Oh, hell yeah. [02:17:26] Speaker A: One of those cruise songs that you can put a Johnny Cash in the CD player. [02:17:30] Speaker B: Oh, mate. [02:17:31] Speaker A: And just windows down and cruise along the. For sure here at Rocco. [02:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I probably go further north. [02:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's fantastic. I mean, you know, since living down here, I've. I've had the opportunity to bring the. The hard top from Melbourne. I had. [02:17:53] Speaker B: Nice. And I don't think I've seen it because when I went to your place, I think you were just setting up. [02:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah, we were just setting up and. And I, I hadn't, I hadn't. The studio just been built. [02:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:18:08] Speaker A: And I was unpacking boxes that I hadn't unpacked for over 18 months. And I suppose Rebecca said to me, she goes, oh, are you gonna drive it? I go, yeah. She goes, when's the last time you drove it? I gone, oh, I can't remember. It was one of those. Yeah, one of those things, you know. And then we got it here and we drove it every. Every weekend. Like I couldn't believe it. Cruising. Yes. [02:18:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:18:41] Speaker A: People are looking at us. That's the, the best. [02:18:44] Speaker B: And you get the Thumbs up and the wave. [02:18:46] Speaker A: That's the beauty, isn't it? I mean, you know, we pulled out of our street. [02:18:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:18:50] Speaker A: Going on the beach and there was a guy on a push bike. I wasn't going that fast. He was pedaling up and he's waving and trying to get us to stop and. Eric, I think I want to say something to you. Okay. All right, mate. I've been sleeping with those cars for years. [02:19:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:08] Speaker A: What is it? Where is it? I've never seen it before. Yep. And we cruise along the beach and yeah, one of the greatest things that we did was move to wait. And I always wanted to live near the beach. [02:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:26] Speaker A: Being, being. Being Maltese and being a wog. [02:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:29] Speaker A: I just wanted to live on the beach. Rebecca wanted to live in, you know, mondeering out the hills. [02:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:36] Speaker A: And I thought if I'm gonna go there, I want to live on the beach. [02:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [02:19:40] Speaker A: And yeah, one of the greatest things is to, to, you know, get your car, wind the windows down. [02:19:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [02:19:46] Speaker A: And especially in the XP hard top. [02:19:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [02:19:49] Speaker A: A rare, rare looking car. [02:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:53] Speaker A: And just. I just cruise the beach. [02:19:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:19:55] Speaker A: Well, it's fantastic. And then, you know, we had the idea of the car club and the car club started and we've gone to some, some cruises. We haven't gone on many, but next Wednesday is the agm, so we're looking forward to that. The XK XLMXP Falcons are done. Wa. So it's our first agm, but cruising with Johnny Cash or Johnny o' Keefe or Elvis. Elvis. Or Buddy Holly and the Crickets or, you know, you know, I haven't got anything on an emp. I've got an old school alpine system in the glove box. [02:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:20:31] Speaker A: And, you know, I suppose it's one of the things. And, and how do you listen to music when you're cruising? Oh, look. [02:20:38] Speaker B: I've got the, like the stereo set up in the custom line, but when I got the airbag set up, I disconnected it. Haven't done anything. But I usually have like a little, I don't know, like a MP3 player, speaker thing that I'll put it through my phone. [02:20:55] Speaker B: In my truck I've got a stereo setup which is wireless. The same thing through Spotify. [02:21:01] Speaker C: Wow. [02:21:03] Speaker B: You know, and just the volumes on the side of your phone, you know, so there's usually a lot of. In the truck. There's usually a lot of country and western. [02:21:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [02:21:12] Speaker B: Getting played in that. So I feel, I feel like it's a truck. I think it came from Minnesota. I've got the cowboy hat, so. [02:21:23] Speaker B: But yeah, I just. I love that sort of stuff, so. [02:21:26] Speaker A: It's awesome. I think. I think I'm gonna have to get a cowboy hat that. Because I feel a bit out. I'll get the little. This little sports car cap. Yeah. And people look at me. Oh, man. [02:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got those. I like the. We call them the granddad hat. [02:21:41] Speaker A: I've got a granddad hat, so. But. But I got mine from a. Soccer in Japan. [02:21:47] Speaker A: That's the. That's the weird thing about it. But, you know, Chris has got his cowboy hat. [02:21:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [02:21:53] Speaker A: Looks like Tony G's got his cut tailboy. My. [02:21:57] Speaker B: My missus, she's. She's a cowgullie kambala girl, so she's. [02:22:01] Speaker A: Out in the sticks. [02:22:03] Speaker B: In the sticks, so. And she loves horses. So we went out to Kugati to the rodeo out there and found a nice cowboy hat. And I thought, bloody oath. [02:22:14] Speaker A: I'll take that. [02:22:15] Speaker B: Thanks. [02:22:16] Speaker A: I've been. I've been. I've been watching the guys on YouTube make cowboy hats. Yeah. [02:22:20] Speaker B: It's cool, isn't it? [02:22:21] Speaker A: It's. I love it. I just. There was one day, I was just saying cowboy had. Come on, man. I'm gonna watch all his videos. [02:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [02:22:29] Speaker A: And I mean, this is the John Wayne. This is the gunslinger. This is the. And I'm going, man, how would I look in a cowboy hat? So I haven't. I probably need to do it. [02:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:22:39] Speaker A: Because all my mates have got one. [02:22:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:22:41] Speaker A: So I'm gonna have to get one. The sunny wa is not like the sunny Melbourne where there's no sun at all. [02:22:48] Speaker B: Well, I found out the first time I went out to Cool Garden, it was like 26 in the car. Opened the door and it was like 44, and I've gone, wow, it just hits you like a ton of bricks. [02:22:57] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's awesome. It's. It's just one of those things, you know, I just thought of. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna get myself a cowboy hat. Wait till I told Rebecca I'm gonna get a cowboy hat. Yeah. It's gotta be the transformation from the. From the little Maltese guy, from the northern suburbs or the big Maltese guy. [02:23:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:23:17] Speaker A: To the. To the guy that goes to the beach every day. Which I have been going to the. Which I haven't been going to the beach. But. [02:23:26] Speaker A: It'S winter now. But yeah, it's colder in Western Australia. Not as cold as Melbourne, but I just love going to the beach. I mean, my. One of My favorite things is going. [02:23:38] Speaker B: To be, yeah, nice. [02:23:40] Speaker A: But the other favorite thing is just getting the car. Getting the coupe. Yeah, the hard top. [02:23:46] Speaker B: I have to agree with you. There's nothing like people say, you know, car people are like a different breed of people. And I'm going, not really. I mean, for me. [02:23:58] Speaker B: There'S nothing better. If you've had a hard week at work, you know, there's things that have happened in your life or whatever. You get behind the wheel of an old car. [02:24:08] Speaker A: Yep. [02:24:09] Speaker B: All your troubles go away. [02:24:10] Speaker A: True. [02:24:11] Speaker B: You just crank, crank some music, go for a drive. And for me, there's nothing nicer with myself, my girlfriend, hop in the car and mate, we were living in Byford and we'll drive all the way to Whitford's. I love my coffee. I'll go to Whitford's for a coffee and a donut and you go up the coast and it's just beautiful. It's a beautiful drive. [02:24:37] Speaker A: Awesome. So on that point, on that part of the evening, it's 10 to 6, got 10 minutes left. We've got a three more tracks to play for the to the end of the end. They're great cruising tracks. [02:24:54] Speaker A: We've got to say thank you to everybody for listening. [02:24:59] Speaker A: All around today. Gotta thank our guest Antonio Gatani for coming in, AKA Von Custard. It's been an awesome afternoon. I can't thank you enough time for coming in. [02:25:12] Speaker B: Oh, mate, thank you for asking me. [02:25:13] Speaker A: And our great friend Chris Toronto, AKA El Toro, who's freezing his bum off in, in Melbourne. In Melbourne on the coast. Mate, can't thank you enough for coming on. It was an hour of power. Yeah, it was, it was. Probably went a bit too long, but it just kept flowing and it was one of those, one of those awesome things to, to be able to do today with two, with three friends, talking about our cars, our experiences, our lives. Yeah, and that's all about talking talk. Talking talks about talking about cars. What brings, what brings you together. And cars have brought three of us together over many years and I know that I've known Chris for many years. I've haven't known Tone at all for many while. But we have been talking about fruit and veg a little bit, which is another story for another time, for another place. But talking talk is all about the journey of the car and the journey of our lives. And we've got some cruising music to some Buddy Holly and some Elvis Presley to finish off the night. So thank you very much to everybody for listening. Next week's program will have Carlos Garcia interviewing Darren Chanter about his life, but because people in Perth and WA don't know much about me. And we'll have Corey Horder talking about all things motorsport, Formula one, sports car racing, Formula V, touring car, etc. So thank you very much to a do see you hear from me next Sunday from three. Thank you very much. IPL radio.