SHOW ME THE WAY
Father-and-son duo Winston and Rustin Chivell brought Winston’s one-owner VE Wayfarer ute along (left), attending both the cruise on Saturday night and putting together a pretty good display for the Sunday show. “I bought it brand new,” Winston said. “It was built for the police accident appreciation squad, who used to go around measuring up crash scenes and weighing trucks and stuff like that.” That explains the Celtic Blue paint, optional 160hp slant, 904a Torqueflite and genuine Chrysler sun visor, but doesn’t reveal why it sports such a low body number, yet sat around unclaimed, not selling until the VE’S run was almost up. “It was always my main car; all the paintwork is original and I used to use it around my farm,” Winston said. “I’ve got about 160 classic tractors and 200 vintage engines; I brought most of them home behind the Valiant.” The ute was retired in 1992 when it was replaced with a Falcon, but being on acreage, the family had room to store the historic Valiant until Rustin awoke it from its slumber 22 years later. “I had the motor rebuilt and fitted a Us-sourced twin-carb intake and period alloy wheels,” Rustin said. “I wanted to make it look like an original service ute. The dealer who sold Dad the car had one, so we replicated that; I even tracked down the old dealer principal; he was still alive!”