Our knowledge and personal experience about The Land of Oz is limited to songs about vegemite sandwiches and the grunts and growls of the Tasmanian Devil on Saturday morning cartoons decades ago, and we’ve also never quite grasped how someone could live in a place where so many animals can kill you. Apparently there is much more to life down under, and 39-year old Hayden Muir from the town of Red Cliffs was more than happy to reinforce the fact that love of the automobile transcends our cultural barriers.

Here’s ‘Rusty’ in the very beginning, right around the time Hayden Muir first heard the engine run.

Muir owns a 1954 Ford Mainline Utility, or Ute for short, nicknamed “Rusty”. In Australia, the Mainline name was applied to a locally-developed two-door utility version of the Ford Customline sedan. The Mainline utilized an imported Ford V8 convertible chassis with a large crossmember for additional load carrying strength. It would be an earlier cousin to a Ford Ranchero with styling cues appropriate for the time period. Rusty’s old skin conceals the real reason EngineLabs and your author felt compelled to contact Mr. Muir. It’s not too often that you get to see a Flathead Ford running on an engine stand in the land that time forgot with a sound that you couldn’t forget. The engine is the original numbers-matching motivator for the Mainline.

“It sat for about 20 years at the end of a dusty paddock lined up with a heap of other abandoned dreams,” says Muir.

He was unaware of the fact that this relic was languishing across the road from his parents’ house until the early part of 2010 when his father told him about an old Ford Ute that he wanted to rescue. He wasn’t too keen on it because he already had a Holden EK Utility project that he had, in his words, “traded for a slab (case) of Victoria Bitter cans.” If you are following along at home, that’s Australian for beer!

When he first saw his father’s latest project he was amazed how much bigger it was than his Holden and he fell in love with the Flathead, but unfortunately time had taken its toll on both Rusty and the 8BA engine. After some time fiddling with the details, the call came the following day saying that it was running. “It sounded like a chaff cutter over the phone,” says Muir, but he went over to have a look anyway. The sad sounds were the result of stuck valves, backfires and a nest of baby mice exiting stage left.

Video of the engine’s first start, before the rebuild.

The next nine months were spent rebuilding the complete chassis including wiring, brakes, and rebuilding the motor.

“After I had put countless hours into just reviving this old ute, I guess things got a little out of hand. The project changed for me and I started making grand plans. No more ‘rat ute’ ideas and minimal rust work, this old girl was going to get a new lease on life and be showered in love…or money?” says Muir.

More chassis and bodywork followed as well as some serious motor reworking. He took the engine to Flathead specialist Heath O’Brien at O’Brien AMS; O’Brien worked with H&H Flatheads here in the States to produce the eye candy that you see in the video.

New cylinder heads from Flatattack Racing.

All the internals, including the Isky 88 camshaft, hollow lifters, and valvesprings, were sourced from H&H according to Heath’s request. The engine retains the stock-stroke 3.750-inch crankshaft and a cylinder bore that’s been enlarged by .060-inch, filled with a set of Ross pistons.

Muir was so pleased with the HPC coating on the headers, and how it reduced heat levels, that he decided to coat the entire exhaust.

One of the first parts that Muir purchased on his own was the Offenhauser Super Dual intake. In addition, the 60-year old iron engine block meets new iron in the form of new cylinder heads from Mike Davidson at Flatattack Racing. The cylinder heads offer a revised combustion chamber and plug position for improved performance. They also have enlarged water passages to help prevent overheating issues, a common thread with the Flathead engine.

Davidson also supplied the HPC-coated headers, then rebuilt the Holley 94 carbs and the linkage to ensure they worked in synchronicity.

Being a big fan of nostalgia, the decision was made to go retro with the must-have “mag look” Joe Hunt electronic distributor. “This was an expensive but justifiable purchase from Speedway Motors,” says Muir.

The Holley carbs can inhale the fresh smell of eucalyptus through actual oil bath air cleaner housings that were scavenged from a Thames Trader truck, built by the British arm of Ford. The oil was ditched in favor of dry element air cleaners, which will soon be replaced by a K&N model that fits perfectly inside the metal confines.

Back in 1954 when Rusty still sparkled, the Flathead inside was rated at around 110 horsepower, but with the modifications done to it the builders feel that 180 horsepower is now more reasonable. A pretty stout improvement!

“If that’s not enough, I guess we could always start looking for a Paxton supercharger,” says Muir.

Another view of the completed engine prior to installation.

For now Hayden and his father, Phil, will enjoy Rusty’s company. His dad loves tinkering with cars and vintage trucks and he is frequently seen driving his 1949 International KB3.

Long term plans are for the Ute to see show duty and hopefully have it seen someday at the Victorian Hot Rod Show in Melbourne. “Mainly, we want to have fun and meet other guys and gals into cool old cars and put some miles under the wide whites,” says Muir. Sound familiar?

After hearing Hayden’s story on the how and the why behind this cool project we still unfortunately don’t know much more about Australia other than some new words and their meanings. Thanks for sharing your story, Hayden, and watch out for those Box Jellyfish and Red Back Spiders mate! G’day!

The sweet Flatty and its new home.

If you’d like to see more photos of the car during the build process, check them out here.