PUMP ACTION
BEN BROWN USED GOOD OLD AUSSIE DEDICATION TO TURN A TATTY AMERICAN STREETER INTO A BLOWN, ’BAGGED SHOW-STOPPER
Ben Brown turns a tatty Yankie streeter into a blown, ’bagged show-stopper
BUYING a car from the USA is a huge gamble, and one that plays on your emotions for months as you wait for your investment to cross the Pacific Ocean on the slow boat out of Long Beach. I’ve done it, and so has fellow Central Coast resident Ben Brown with this ’72 Chevelle – although back then it was nothing like the candy-coated elite-level show car it is now!
“I wanted something different,” Ben says. “I love the fat rear end of a Chevelle, so I began my search in the USA and ended up buying this car, which was on the show Car Warriors.”
While that sounds like a beaut purchase, it didn’t quite turn out so well. You see, Car
Warriors sees legendary hot rodder Jimmy Shine give two teams just 48 hours to build cool rides off the same base vehicle. Ben’s Chevelle had been put together by SPG Customs from Philadelphia, though the tight time restriction was evident when Ben saw the car in the flesh for the first time.
“When it turned up it was nothing like the photos and not finished how it was on TV. I was so excited tracking it on the ship all the way from New York, but then it turned up and it didn’t start, none of the electrics worked, and the interior was held together by a few screws. I cracked the shits and ripped the whole interior out of it.
“I was just going to redo the interior and get it registered as a weekend cruiser, but then things started to snowball. I spoke to a mate about the paint, as it had a terrible pinstripe down the side and we needed to rub the car right back to fix that, so I thought I’d change the colour.”
Rod’s Custom Restoration was given the job of changing the Chevelle from blue to black, although Ben threw a spanner in the works at the last minute.
“I was going to go black right up until I spoke to the guys at House Of Kolor and we decided to go Candy Apple Red instead,” Ben laughs. “To Rod’s shock I turned up with all the gear for Candy Apple Red instead of black. In the meantime I had purchased a set of V-rod wheels from Showwheels and had them ready to rock and roll for when the car was finished being painted.
“Rod finished the car and, when I went to pick it up, everyone was amazed at how good the colour looked, and that right there was when the bug really hit.”
While many of us would be spending hours locked in the shed putting our car back together so we could drive it as soon as possible, Ben took a mature approach by sitting back and thinking of exactly what he wanted the finished product to be.
“I took it home and parked it in the garage for about a year while I worked out where I wanted to go with the car, slowly getting parts for it,” he says. “It was all quite tame until I was on Facebook and saw a brand new blower for sale; that’s where the game changed for me and I called Rob Zahabi up at Rides By Kam. We discussed a plan of attack for about two hours on the phone and, about a month later, I did a road-trip up to the Gold Coast with a ute full of parts and a half-finished Chevelle in tow.
I WANT TO BE IN THE 1000HP CLUB TO ENJOY POWERCRUISE, BUT STILL HAVE A SHOW-QUALITY CAR AT THE SAME TIME
This is where Rob took over and got the car to where it is today.”
The Rides By Kam team handled that custom interior with new dash and centre console, fitted the Air Ride air suspension, updated the steering with rack-and-pinion and an Ididit column, and resprayed the front end after some minor transport damage on the trip to Queensland. They also sent the 383ci smallblock Chev down to Jake’s Performance to be rebuilt.
“The Chevelle came with a brand new crate Edelbrock 383ci stroker, but we had to rebuild it to suit the blower, with new pistons and some other parts,” Ben says. “It’s only running 5psi or 6psi, which is very under-driven.”
The first-gen small-block is an iron four-bolt block and rocks a pair of Edelbrock Performer aluminium cylinder heads, but the attentiongrabber is that Blower Shop 6/71 and manifold, topped by a pair of 750cfm Holley four-barrel carbies, and plumbed with Aussie Speedflow fittings. Spark is provided by MSD, while the 98-octane fuel comes via a Holley mechanical pump. A custom twin three-inch exhaust blows out the spent gasses.
Before the SBC was re-installed, Rides By Kam smoothed out the firewall and painted it to match the shell. Ben then went to town with the Billet Specialties catalogue, and what didn’t come from them was sent to the chromers for an almost mirror-like finish. Despite the amount of work undertaken, the Chevelle was ready to be picked up a year after Ben dropped it off, and it debuted at Summernats 29.
“The car was finished in late December 2014 ready for Summernats as its first show, and I was stoked to get into the Top 60. I got an Encouragement Award and, more than anything, got valuable advice from the judges on small changes and tweaks we needed to do.”
While some would think a few tweaks might be a couple of weekend jobs or bolt-on covers, Ben isn’t one to do things by halves. “I’m in the middle of working out a plan for a new and improved PH FAT, which includes tubbing and notching the rear end, smoothing everything, a possible colour change, rollcage and new motor combo,” he says. “I want to be in the 1000hp club to enjoy Powercruise, but still have a show-quality car at the same time.”
We reckon Jimmy Shine would like this ’72 Chevelle a whole lot more now Ben has worked on it.