Members Cars (Archive)

The Ivanovski Family's VJ 770

In the beginning we owned our first Charger which I bought in 1997 it was a Starburst Bronze 1973 VJ 770 265 auto in ok Condition. I had the car rust repaired and painted Sparkling Burgundy. I drove the car for 3 years like this before I decided she needed a heart transplant and by this time the dodgy rust repairs were coming back.

While I was building up a new drive line I had some quotes on repairing the body properly, the prices were scary enough to stop a man from drinking. So I put the body repairs on hold but put the new engine and gearbox in the car. The engine is a 265 with forged pistons, E38 cam, shot pined rods, head ported and polished, block and head skimmed to get 10 to 1 compression ratio. The engine is fully balanced and blue printed, with all new components including E49 springs, valves, rockers, anti pump up lifters and hi volume oil pump to keep it all lubed. The air and fuel is mixed by a 500 Holley and a set of performance headers take the gas out through a single 2 inch exhaust system with a chrome exhaust end for more speed. The auto was a tricked up BW35 which drove nicely and took a small beating and held up. After a while I felt that it was time to revisit the body repairs and sure enough they were still pretty scary, so I had a look in the Quokka low and behold a 1974 VJ 770 body restored no driveline looking for a good home. After about 3 weeks we agreed on a price and the car was mine. I took it to a friends workshop were I began its transformation.

As you will see in the pictures the current paint scheme was one that only a few people could live with and I was not one of them.

I looked at the car for several days and lots of colors and picked the new color which I named NOSKI Orange!

Mainly because I blended the colors with a little help from the painter. After stripping the car back to just a shell I sent it to the Panel shop to be checked over a couple of dodgy spots were repaired and it got a fresh coat of Two Pack NOSKI orange paint. A few months of assembling and transplanting the drive line with an upgrade from an auto to a 4 speed manual with a lighted fly wheel and custom made clutch and pressure plate. A quick visit to the pits we now have our new 1974 VJ 770 Charger with some minor upgrades from the original.

The car hit the road on Boxing Day 2003 which was an effort on its self I only started the transformation project in April the same year and with the help of my wife who looked after the kids while I worked on the car I managed to get it done. Soon after the family's first cruise in the car on a nice 32 degree summers day I had the custom aircon fitted so we can enjoy driving the car all year round. We are now looking for our next family project, either another Charger or a VJ or VH Hardtop this time it's going to be a big block V8 for some more power.