To choose an FJ Holden hearse as your street machine project requires a bizarre sense of humour but to those who knew Pat Fay, the car was an exact match to his larger-than-life personality.
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Pat's so-called Humpy Mekka - "humpy" being an affectionate nickname for the earliest Holdens because of their abundance of body curves - had been part of the Summernats line-up from the event's earliest years in Canberra.
Adorned with lurid, vampire-themed 1970s-style and slightly risque murals and often seen with a coffin either in the back or on the roof for added funereal effect, Humpy Mekka was as much a part of the early Summernats scene as burnouts and mullets.
Bought from a grocer-cum-funeral director at the NSW country town of Kyogle near the Queensland border for $450 in 1974, the deep purple Holden van was completely rebuilt and modified by its owner over a series of years using a curious mish-mash of parts from Mercedes, Simca, Chevrolet for the engine and Jaguar for the rear suspension.
With his wild, woolly hair and booming voice which could carry across a crowded carpark, Pat was a drag racer, larrikin and street machine innovator who used his show car to successfully promote his spare parts business.
In its heyday, the immaculate van garnered hundreds of awards and Pat would truck it all around the national hot rod and custom car shows, always eager to have a yarn about modified cars and his particular automotive passion, panel vans.
After long ill health culminating in Pat's death five years ago at 73, the van disappeared from view and its future was unknown and uncertain.
But to prove that street machiners can be fiercely sentimental folk, the ailing, slowly rusting old van was tracked down at what was expected to be its final resting place and elaborate plans then hatched to fully restore it to its former glory.
Canberra-based multi-grand champion winner and Summernats regular Peter Fitzpatrick has helped get the project off the ground.
The automotive skills faculty at the Canberra Institute of Technology in Fyshwick have climbed on board and apprentices from a range of trades, including spray painters, panel beaters, mechanics and automotive electricians, will be working on the van as a special project throughout 2019.
"This is just one of those projects where people who know or have seen the van previously - and thousands of people have - want to know more about what's happening with it and want to get involved," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
"Apart from a few bits and pieces, we've tracked down just about everything needed to bring it back to its prime condition but from this point on there's quite a bit of elbow grease and technical expertise now required to make it all happen."
The Humpy Mekka will be shown at Summernats in its unrestored state on the PPG stand before it heads back to Canberra Institute of Technology for its restoration. Dedicated Facebook and GoFundMe pages have been created for people keen to track the Canberra-based restoration.
Should the restoration proceed at a reasonable clip, the intention is to have it on display in its pristine state at Summernats in 2020.
