Green Arrow

Rob Tanti hits a bullseye by transforming a bog-stock kingswood survivor into the ultimate weekend cruiser

- Kian Heagney

ONE of the biggest challenges of building a pre-1980s muscle car in this day and age is finding a good base to start with. Most examples either look like they’ve been parked next door to the Titanic or require re-mortgaging the house just for a rolling shell. Rob Tanti got lucky in that regard; six years ago he snared a complete and original V8 ’74 HQ Kingswood to use as the base for his dream street cruiser.

“I had an HQ One Tonner in my early 20s that I built into a bit of a pro street thing, but I wanted something with more seats to take my mates and kids cruising in,” Rob says. “I got put onto this HQ sedan, which was fully grandpa spec with a factory 253, column shift, bench seat, mud flaps, towbar, sun visor, hubcaps and even a/c!”

Rob cruised the Kingswood for a year like that before dropping a second-hand 355 Holden stroker and TH400 in the thing and powder coating a whole bunch of stuff under the car. He also repainted the engine bay. “I had that driveline in the car for about a year, but it always leaked, and a few other things gave me the shits, so I started looking for something else,” Rob explains.

Initially, Rob was strongly against going modern with an LS, but with some solid persuasion from a few mates, he eventually caved. “I actually hated LS engines, but I saw the potential they have,” he says. “The whole reason I decided to go LS in the end was reliability more than anything else.”