1972 JACQUI DICKEN'S VALIANT CHARGER 770
OF ALL THE RESTOS
we looked at in 2016, this is the one that has the greatest story. This Valiant Charger owner, Jacqui Dicken, proved that you don’t need thousands of dollars and a wealth of expertise to fix up an old clunker.
She says, in her introduction to the tale: "It wasn’t until I took it upon myself to restore a car, with only the support of my wonderful Grandpa, that I learnt what was possible and what I was actually capable of. On the 9th of May 2012 my Grandpa and my Mum and I drove to a Valiant garage in Ballarat. It was owned by a man called Ray who had wanted to restore a VH Valiant Charger 770 with his son but, as is a common story, never got around to it.
"In early 2011 I had gone to my Grandpa with a dream, I wanted to restore and drive a 1972 Valiant Changer 770. For a whole year my family had tried to convince me to pick another car because the one that I had wanted was just too rare to find, but I wouldn’t give up. In fact, my father had thought that I was wasting my money and spent many nights assuring me, and my supportive mother, that my Charger would be nothing but a rust pile."
In the end, she defied the critics and got the job done. Great work.