BIG TIME

TIM HADDOCK’S VJ UTE MAY LOOK UNASSUMING, BUT THERE’S SOME SERIOUS GEAR LURKING BENEATH ITS DIE-STRAIGHT PANELS, INCLUDING A TORQUEY CHRYSLER BIG-BLOCK

- JACK HOULIHAN 

WHEN Tim Haddock arrived at Chryslers On The Murray in 2015, he had $2000 in his pocket and an eye for a fresh project. The 49-year-old builder and Mopar addict had recently sold a tidy VC to help fund a raft of house renovations. But with home duties sorted and some petty cash left over, the Melburnian made for Albury-Wodonga.

It was there he found a rolling VJ ute shell, fortuitously priced at $2000. “I didn’t really want a ute at the time,” Tim recalls, “but I thought it was a good buy.”

While Chrysler’s body looked straight and dry from life in outback NSW, Tim didn’t realize just how good it was until later on.

“Initially we were just going to put a little 318 in and paint it a basic color,” he says. “Then I had it sandblasted – that’s what reveals the truth behind cars. It came through 100 per cent rust-free; it was unbelievable. So we pretty much re-evaluated what we wanted to do from there because you don’t find them in this condition very often.”

Shortly after, Tim snapped up another half-finished Valiant ute – this one with a 383-cube Chrysler V8 between the rails. With that purchase, the VJ’s fate was sealed, and Tim got to work on a classy, factory-style ute with an engineered big-block grunt.

With his sights on an angry, supercharged 383, the engine was pulled down and crack-tested. But by the time Tim drew up a list of US-sourced parts, the first wave of COVID had tanked the Aussie dollar and thrown shipping arrangements into disarray.