HE builds houses by trade, but building cars is where Danny Board's heart lies.
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The Eglinton-based car enthusiast has been building and restoring cars for decades and has a number of awards to show for it.
The most recent was the Summernats Street Awards Top Factory Production Muscle Car, which Mr Board won with his 1969 HT GTS Bathurst Monaro 350.
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This car has been going to shows for the past 12 months after a 20-year on-and-off rebuild.
"They built 500 of them to race at Bathurst," Mr Board said.
"When I got it, it was painted gold, it had rust all on the floors, it had a sun roof in it.
"I just pulled it all apart, sand-blasted it, got a bloke to panel-beat it and then a mate of mine painted it in the back shed at home.
"It's all home-done, not in a shop. All built out at Eglinton."
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Mr Board said it was COVID that really pushed the build along.
After realising that lockdown was a serious possibility, he ordered enough parts to keep him occupied.
"I thought I'd buy enough stuff so if it shuts down, I'm good to go to build it," Mr Board said.
"Then I just kept going. I got the motor and put the motor in, then you do a little bit more and you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you just keep going."
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Mr Board has a strong history of winning awards at the Summernats show, having won with his custom-made Holden VK 1984 Commodore ute three years in a row prior to entering his newer build.
While some custom-made cars never have their tyres touch the road, Mr Board's builds are all registered and can be driven on the road.
He likes to drive his cars to all the shows rather than have them travel on a trailer, giving him a chance to enjoy the experience a little more.
"I put my ute in skids and burnouts and all the driving events," Mr Board said.
"This one will go through the driving events as well."
The first award the Monaro won was in February last year when it was named the grand champion in the SS Owners Club of NSW.
Mr Board's next outing at Kandos on Australia Day has been postponed so he will now look to the Bathurst AutoFest in March.