Dave Whitehead's "Golden Idol"

Dave Whitehead is an old mate of mine from Perth, Western Australia. When I say "old" I mean I've known him for quite a while... but he is old too. Dave's always had a thing for '56 Vickys and he had this one stashed away for a few years. He kept himself busy tidying up a Customline convertible and cruising the wheels off that. He then shifted house and once everything got sorted he got stuck in to the Vicky big time.

Dave did all of the bodywork himself, frenching the head and taillights, smoothing the engine bay, moulding the fenders and rounded all of the hood and door corners.

 

Here it is getting pretty close. The paint's all done and it's just waiting for the finishing touches.
Here you can see how Dave modified the rear panel so that the boot closes flush. Normally they overlap. You can also see how Dave has tunnelled the taillights and made up customs lenses.
Not many customs have an engine bay this nice. Dave smoothed everything out and detailed it beautifully.
Here we are a few months down the track and she's all done. Dave didn't get a chance to chrome the grille bar, but he plans to later.
No airbags in this sucker. Just old school low.
Dave spent a bunch of time modifying the rear panel and the bumper to get it to look this good. Yes Dave knows he should probably chrome the bumper, but it's been cut and shut that many times and has that much bog in it that he doesn't think the chrome will stick!
Dave did all of the trim himself after going to night school. Can't beat white tuck & roll for that classic custom look.

Here's the fairly worked over 351 Cleveland that Dave runs. It's an ex drag racing motor and is still pretty hairy. Dave's not scared to use it either and the car has been down the track more than once.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's good for a 13 sec quarter.

Here's the car at the Geelong Nationals in 2003. As you can see Dave finally got around to chroming the grille bar.

The car was actually driven across.