Rod Building

Projects at andy scicluna’s area 51 workshop, Woodend, Victoria

- AL O’TOOLE

Andy Scicluna has been operating out of his shop, Area 51 in Woodend for the past eight or nine years producing low-key but high-quality work. Prior to that he had a shop in Altona, worked as a TAFE and trade school fabrication teacher, and was a caretaker for Lindsay Fox, restoring and maintaining his vast car collection that includes cars such as the gullwing Mercedes. He also had a stint over in England at a restoration shop, working on classic Ferraris and Jaguars.

He’s got more than enough experience in his field and a reputation for quality work that sees him somewhat hiding from the spotlight rather than chasing it, but not for nefarious reasons, more so that he’s just not chasing the work. Word-of-mouth advertising alone keeps Andy plenty busy.

Some notable cars that he has more recently played a big role in include Mark Koster’s Hemi powered ’34 Plymouth coupe that we featured back in ASR issue 296, Dave Monaghan’s W head big block Chevy motivated Deuce coupe, Ross Fortuna’s bare metal ’36 three-window that was on display at Motorex last year and Lee Priggot’s Hemi powered ’32 five-window. He’s also done a few Falcon GT coupe projects and Monaros and there are more hot rods coming that will certainly blow some socks off! His own flathead powered ’34 Ford roadster graced the cover of our May 2006 issue and his current project for himself is a killer Pierson Brothers-inspired lakes style coupe with injected small block power. I actually visited Andy’s shop to get some photos of a new, top-secret project he’s building for a customer that won’t be seen anywhere until the car is debuted.