Ever since I sold my first car, I have suffered withdrawal symptoms any time I have found myself without a collection of mostly derelict 'project' cars stashed in the backyard. At times I have had as many as 19 cars, which did not do too much to impress my neighbours or my landlord. At the moment I have managed my addiction to the point where I only have 4 cars and a bit of room to move, although whenever I clear some room I seem to buy something to fill it.

My first car was a 1971 Mk II Ford Cortina which I got for $0 because the previous owner wanted to be rid of it. It became the perfect training ground for an amateur mechanic by obediently blowing up or breaking down at regular intervals so that within a year I had a lot of experience of engine building and other repairs.

After selling the Cortina I bought an EH Holden wagon for $100 but sold it for $50 after realising 90% of it was rust. I then got into Datsuns, first a series of 180B sedans and then about 20 1600 sedans, only 3 of which were ever registered. My favourite 1600 was the first car I ever painted with flames. This car also ended up with a large 'skull and crossbones' on the roof, which caught the attention of the police one night - a police helicopter followed me for some distance, presumably to get a better look. At one point I had a Datsun 1600 wagon, a rare model in Australia, until I wrote it off by jackknifing the tandem trailer I was towing and caving in the side of the car. Later I bought a Datsun 1000 wagon with a 1.2 litre engine - a tinny little car that somehow could do 180km/h - lots of fun but it was probably as crashworthy as a cardboard box. I once managed to embarrass some guys in a Landcruiser by using all 700kg and 60-odd horsepower of the wagon to tow them out of deep mud after they bogged the Landcruiser and then bogged a Nissan Patrol trying to tow out the Landcruiser.

About this time I got my hands on a Datsun 180B SSS coupe with an FJ20E 2 litre 16 valve twin cam engine, which even naturally aspirated was able to drag HSV Commodores. Fitting a turbo version of the FJ20 only made it more fun, although I was never able to tune it properly - the one time I tried to test its top end it was still pulling hard at 220km/h before I had to back off for traffic. Unfortunately an undiagnosable electronics problem has meant it has been off the road for a few years while I have concentrated on other projects, and I am  starting to think it will never see the light of day again.

During all this fun I had also bought a Leyland P76 Deluxe and stashed it away in the backyard because it was a manual V8 model - relatively hard to find, as most V8s were automatics. I had developed a craving for P76s after seeing how well a friend's P76 handled, even putting my modified Datsun 1600 to shame on winding roads. There is nothing as fun as a big V8 manual car that goes quick in a straight line and on the curves. My best mate had a P76 Executive automatic at this stage that he was driving unregistered, with the gearbox gradually dying to the point that it eventually had only third gear. Even with this handicap it proved itself able to outrun the police on a couple of occasions when he wasn't keen on being booked for driving unregistered. When this exuberance put him in hospital for about a year after crashing another mate's Mazda RX-7, I inherited this car and eventually put it back on the road, converting it to manual with parts from the P76 stashed in my backyard. It also ended up with a quick and nasty flame paintjob when I got sick of looking at the primer patches.

This picture shows it riding on EF Falcon taxi rims, but it normally had 14"x7" ROH Charger spec 5-slot front rims and matching 14"x8" rears.

Eventually after many hard years of hooning about, the engine, which by this stage had probably done nearly 300,000 hard kms, called it a day and started breaking rings until it was running on about 5 leaky cylinders. Meanwhile the clutch linkages needed twice weekly rewelding, and some nasty rust holes were appearing, so it was stripped for parts.

While I had the P76 on the road I found and couldn't resist buying a Datsun 180B SSS coupe fitted with a P76 V8, 4-barrel carby and Celica 5-speed gearbox that had been an Autocross car. Rust eventually killed it but not before it had developed an awesome reputation as a burnout weapon and a great bush basher in the State forests outside Melbourne.

With the death of the P76, my current daily driver became a Datsun Bluebird TRX, yet another car I got for nothing after a friend moved to Sydney halfway through an engine transplant. Some quick and nasty rust repairs and an engine swapped from a $130 wreck and I was back on the road again.

I needed another project car to fill the void the P76 left, but I didn't want another P76 because it is getting too hard to source parts for them. I had always liked AP5 and AP6 Valiants after seeing an immaculate AP6 Wayfarer ute some years ago, so when I saw an AP6 ute advertised for $2600 I went to have a look. It turned out to be too rusty and incomplete, but looking around the workshop where it was stored my wife fell in love with an AP5 sedan. On the way home we looked in the Trading Post and found this ad, checked it out and eventually brought it home for $1000, cashing in the rego for a $280 refund. It is sitting in the garage as I collect parts for its resurrection. It will be fitted with a modified slant motor with a 2 or 4 barrel manifold or a handbuilt multi-carb manifold depending on what parts I can find, extractors, cam, push-button automatic, late model Valiant disc brakes and a Centura diff, along with a few minor bodywork mods.

 Here is a rough concept sketch of what it should look like:

I haven't settled on a final choice for the main body colour, although it will most likely be a bright purple. The interior will be the original two-tone blue. Note the modified rear wheel arches - they need repair anyway due to a bit of rust and accident damage on the left side, and will be a similar shape to XP Falcon wheelarches. I had already planned this modification before I found out that some U.S. versions of this bodystyle actually had wheelarches of that shape from the factory.

Unfortunately the AP5 rebuild will be slightly delayed, as my wife has just fallen in love with and bought a 1971 Fiat 850 Series II Sport Coupe, even though she doesn't have a license! It looks like this little 903cc engined beast will become my new daily driver after fixing the brakes and a few minor electrical faults. It looks like my automotive addiction is so strong it has even infected my wife!

I have always had a thing for panel vans; if Chrysler had ever made AP5 or AP6 vans I would have been looking for one. I had already thought about the possibility of building one from a wagon, but when I saw this picture (which looks like a digitally modified image based on a wagon) I realised how good it would look. Now I am looking for an auto AP5 wagon to supply the gearbox for my sedan, so I can try this idea out in the metal.