Bolly 5's Mark 5

We have a guest author today. It's Alex, AKA Bolly 5.

Here's the run down on my Mark5.

My brother and his girlfriend bought the car from Barry Sparks in Geelong at around 1977/1978 for $700. It housed a grey motor with triple SUs and a three speed box and, if I recall correctly, 135 mph was its top speed with a tendency for the front end to lift.

It was painted silver and registered (LFO-???) but a bit of a wreck with odd sized rear wheels, broken rear bubble window, ripped seats etc.

It was housed next door at his girlfriend's parent's house as there was no room in our dad's garage. He relied on his mates to work on it as he is not mechanically minded. After a few years he and his girlfriend broke up with no progress on the car having been made except for some parts having gone missing. I then decided to buy it off them, my brother giving me his half for nothing and I paid his ex $350 for her half. I was able to stow it in dad's garage for a short time.

Around that time I started a motor mechanic apprenticeship. The first two years of my apprenticeship were carried out in Melbourne and having exhausted the use of dad's garage for storage, I took up an offer from a work collleague to store it at his mother's place. So off to Gippsland's ninety mile beach it went and stayed in the open for about two years. Too far to travel even if it was to have been housed so that you could work on it. The only progress made was by others having removed more parts.

I then left that job and continued my apprenticeship in Geelong where once again the car was housed in dad's garage, this time for four years. Being a single car garage, you just didn't have the room to work on it. I then went into the Navy and the car was transferred from the garage up to a 45 acre bush block that dad and I purchased. There it remained, placed up on blocks and covered over with a Vic Rail tarpaulin for ten years.

When I got out I was married with two kids and settled in a town near Geelong called Bannockburn. Now I have my own big shed to house and work on my car. Seven years later, having worked around the house, working a full time job and never having money to spare for the Bolwell, no progress was made. Having realised that our house has not got a dishwasher, we then commenced to build a bigger house in the same town. This once again means a big shed to house the Bolwell, work around the house, work a full time job and never have money to spare for the car.

We recently sold the bush block and I said to the wife "the one thing I've always wanted is a yank tank" and a yank tank I got. I used to drive a big Yank Chrysler when I was about 16 and ever since then Tanks have stayed close to my heart. It's a 1961 Chrysler Newport with fins and, as far as I can find, there are only two others in Australia at present.

Anyway, now that the work around the house is slowing up and the kids are growing up, I can spare some time on my cars. All that is left of the Bolwell is a rusty chassis, with the body, bonnet and doors in poor condition, new rear window purchased a few years ago, front end, tailshaft, rear leaf springs and windscreen. Well there you go, John, that's Alex's Bolly 5 story. I'll be continuously after information, John, so if you don't mind I'll pick your brains as much as I can.

Via the blog, Alex, you can pick the whole country's brains. I look forward to progress reports.