In Our Garage Peter Armitage Holden HQ Belmont 1973

Tell us about your vehicle.

My car is a 1973 HQ Belmont.

It’s an original Bundaberg car I've owned for around seven years now and I'm the second owner of it.

The lady who owned it before her father bought it in Mount Gravatt in Brisbane in 1973.

When he bought it, the floods were on and he put it on a train up to Bundaberg.

They were a fairly common car.

They made them all over Australia and they exported them as well to South Africa and America.

What condition was it in when you got the car?

The condition of the car when I got it was it was pretty beat up.- it had been loved to death.

It was very faded, you could see the undercoat underneath it and not much rust, which was a blessing.

I bought it roadworthy and registered, I could drive it straight away.

What work did you have to do to get the car to the standard it is today?

The panel beater, who is retired now, completely stripped it back to bare metal and did a full body restore from there.

It's been restored back to its original colour, which is Salamanca red.

It still has the old, original interior in it.

It was fairly dirty so it needed a good scrubbing with a toothbrush.

Why did you want to buy a HQ Holden?

I bought the HQ because I've always wanted one and I was searching and searching so long for one, I'm a Holden fan too.

There's not many of them left around no more.

People just put them in paddocks, let them rust away and don't do them up.

They're just beautiful things to look at.

It's just one of a kind the HQ, they never reproduced it in any other way.

The thing I like about it is that it's metal, solid metal, you slam the door shut and they thud shut.

It's an old school car, you still got the crank handles to wind the windows up.

I put the grandkids in it and they don't know how to get out or wind the window up!

How much time do you spend on keeping it clean and maintained?

I spend a lot of time polishing it, the maintenance, keeping the tires up, keeping oil up and water and listening out for things.

The chrome, I'll clean it once a year and it just stays good.

I try to drive it as much as possible, but I don't like driving it in the rain.

Usually, it goes for a drive on every Sunday if I can.

When I'm not driving it, it's tucked under its blanket to keep the dust off it at home.

What do you love about the car?

The thing I love about the car the most is the driving of it, it’s a beautiful car to drive.

I get a lot of people waving to me and giving the thumbs up.

You see a lot of people reacting to it and looking at it, they say oh, my dad had one too like this and my mum had one like this.

In Our Garage is always on the lookout for more interesting vehicles around our region.

To have your vehicle featured contact us via email at news@bundabergnow.com