1972 CHRYSLER VALIANT VH CHARGER E49 RT

My E49 Charger didn’t look like this when I bought it from John Van Groen back in 2010,” states its proud owner, Dean Masters, and he’s right. Dean has built up what is undoubtedly one of the most immaculate E49s you’ll ever lay eyes on. Better still, he’s documented the whole process. Here’s his story in his own words. “John had been driving it up and down gravel roads on his Amberley farm outside of Christchurch, and the car had had a pretty hard life. In the beginning, I didn’t even know what an E49 RT Charger was — I thought I’d seen one when I was at primary school as a kid and thought they looked pretty mean. My parents had an HT Monaro at the time, which was equally cool, even with a 186, and I guess that’s what started my passion for these Australian muscle cars of the ’60s and ’70s. “How it all began was, I was talking to my brotherin-law Nick one day and asked him what would be a nice classic Aussie car to buy. He told me that E49 Chargers are rare and supposed to go good, so I started hunting around, and found John’s on Trade Me. I didn’t actually know how rare they were — only 149 [were] ever built, and [there are] 100 or less survivors and many in poor shape. I asked my friend Nev from Christchurch to go and check the car out, and he sent me several pictures showing where there might be areas of concern. The car was reported to be very original and still had the E49 chalk mark inside the glove compartment. “The E49 arrived in New Plymouth in May 2010, and, a couple of days later, I was there to see it — I flew over from Singapore, where I live. When the car arrived on the transporter, only my 70-yearold mum was home, and she really struggled to steer it into the garage with no power steering. “Nick and I took the Charger for a few drives. Initially, it just drove like an old car, but, when you buried your foot, something amazing happened … this car flies! It revs and keeps revving. We were grinning from ear to ear. Wow! This E49 is Australia’s best-kept secret — the car goes like hell. No wonder they needed so many ashtrays in the back (four of them) for nervous passengers. The car is not very aerodynamic, and the front end lifts up and starts wandering at speed, which is a bit scary, and it has drum brakes which stop it eventually. “Despite being a great car, the E49 was getting a bit tatty, leaking some oil, and was needing some love and attention. So, a few months later, in August, we took the engine out and sent it to Ross Calgher in Waitara to be rebuilt. Ross used to race Chargers, and we were told [that] he knows Weber carbs, which had been a concern for me — finding someone in Taranaki who could tune them. “Ross rebuilt the engine completely, with a hone; new custom pistons from the US; rings; and [he] overhauled the Webers, clutch, and gearbox. Interestingly, Ross found two cracked rings, which goes to show how tough these engines are — we could pull 6000–7000rpm and not know the rings were cracked; the car kept going and going. “At the same time [that] the engine was being rebuilt, we sent the body to Bell Block Panel Beaters, where it was stripped back to bare metal; bead blasted; and had every panel unstitched, panel beaten, and stitched back together. They found a fair amount of rust in the usual places, but nothing structural. “One thing people don’t seem to know about these old cars is that, after 40 years, they all have rust, and they rust from the inside out. People tend to patch up the outside skin, but the rust always comes back unless you do what we did and unstitch and repair every panel. “While the panel work was being done and the engine was being rebuilt, we ordered a ton of spares from Hemi Performance and Pentastar in Australia. We decided to plan to make the E49 handle and go as good as it possibly could without modifying it in such a way that it couldn’t be reverted to original. No extra holes were ever drilled. “The main modifications were electronic fuel injection [EFI]; disc brakes all round; and adding the front air dam, rack-and-pinion steering, and a higher diff ratio. We also purchased refurbished leaf springs, hangers, driveshaft, and a BorgWarner gearbox. “I’m sorry to say that 90 per cent of the parts provided by Australia were junk and had to be refurbished again properly in New Zealand. There always seemed to be new things popping up to repair, but, by August 2012, the E49 was finally ready for paint. “We used Lloyd and Nits from A&G Paint and Panel. They knew [that] the E49 was a special car and promised to do a top job. I came to learn that the most important thing for a top paint job is the preparation work. Lloyd and Nits spent hours and hours block sanding the car and panels. I was planning to fit a fiberglass hood and paint it black, but they couldn’t block-sand the hood smooth enough to their satisfaction, so we ended up keeping everything original in Hemi Orange as per the tags. “By November 2012, the E49 was ready to head home for assembly. The engine had been rebuilt and a manifold specially engineered to mount the new six-stack EFI, and the refurbished Webers are stored away in a box. “The good thing about Chargers is they are pretty simple to assemble — at least, according to what my mechanic friend John Copland says! — and, in May 2013, the E49 was pretty much back together, bar finishing off the wiring and putting in the front glass. “This is when the fun started. We couldn’t fit the new windscreen, and, after investigation, we found

that the front strut alignment was out by a couple of millimetres, so we unfortunately had to send the car back to the panel beater to fix the problem. The panel beater wanted to use a Portapack to pull the strut back into alignment and wash-in the paint, but we insisted that the job be done properly, which required putting the car onto a chassis jig and repainting it again after the problem was fixed. The result was the car got an amazing paint job and is perfect. “We thought [that] we were nearly finished, but no … by the end of November 2013, the E49 was finished and back on the road, sitting on some custom 17inch Trident-style rims manufactured in the US. The interior was completely refurbished, using new hood lining and seat upholstery, by Waitara Canvas and John Reumers, and, in March 2017, my mechanic friend John and I drove the E49 up to Taupo for the Chrysler Nationals. “On the trip home, it rained the whole way. We nearly rammed a camper van that decided to turn right at 100kph on the main road near Mokau. Fortunately, E49 had been upgraded to disc brakes all round, otherwise she would be in the scrapyard. “This E49 VH is probably the best E49 you will ever see in the world today. It’s been upgraded to look and handle the best it could while still maintaining its original looks. And, if anyone wanted to put the drum brakes back on, replace the aluminium fuel tank and EFI, then the parts are all there in a box. But that won’t happen, as who would want to?”