I first saw Vonny Vauxhall as she arrived in Millthorpe for a display on Redmond Oval. The Bush Council rally in April 2012 had come to town having driven out from Orange for the day in Millthorpe.
I was astonished to see a 1937 Vauxhall in excellent condition, looking great in her Navy Blue Duco, entering the display area. Vonny was exactly how I imagined my restored 1937 Vauxhall was going to look.
Eric Clarke, the previous owner and Vonny being loaded on our Club trailer to depart Alstonville in March 2014.
I had no idea that two years later I would be the proud owner of Vonny Vauxhall.
I had been collecting parts to restore such a car since 1988. A story about the restoration of my Vauxhalls was printed in “The Colonial” Vol.32, August 1999.
My father had purchased a 1937 Vauxhall on his 21st Birthday, and it was our family car when I was a young boy. It was the first car that I ever rode in as I was brought home from Blayney Hospital to our home in Millthorpe.
Although I had set out to restore a 1937 Sedan, after collecting many parts and bodies, I became side-tracked and decided to first restore a 1936 DX Vauxhall Coupe in order to improve my restoration skills. My idea was that I would then be able to do a good job on the sedan.
Progress was at snail’s pace and as I continued with the coupe restoration, I was also restoring parts such as fuel tanks, lights, grill, bumper bars etc. for my sedan.
Eric and Gwen Clarke had restored Vonny and had been long time members of the Newcastle Car Club. In 2014 they had retired to a Village in Alstonville near Ballina. Unfortunately there were strict rules that only allowed for one car per unit, so Vonny was advertised for sale.
As I had already been 26 years trying to get one car restored, I decided that it may be time to take a short cut and purchase Vonny as a going and completed Vauxhall, saving another 20 years of time and effort.
Eric and Gwen were reluctant to farewell Vonny but were kind enough to pass her care over to me, so in March this year, Phil Donoghoe and I drove up to Alstonville and collected the car of my dreams.