hi all. my name is ricki and im from new zealand. its a spot on the globe at the bottom of the world, but an awesome spot it is.

my current daily driver is a 67 valiant safari station wagon. i bought it about 7 or 8 months ago as a road legal car. since buying it i have lowered it, done some panel work, shaved rear door handles (makes it look longer), and given it a spray job. although i will post progress pics when i get more time, heres how it looks as of today.

<a href="http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o104 ... nt=020.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o104 ... rs/020.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o104 ... =022-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o104 ... /022-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

i have some sweet plans for it, but as it is my daily driver some things will take longer than others. immediate plans are redo brakes and some mechanicals (over the next few weeks).

future plans include a swap to LPG. petrol is NZ $2 a litre here (around $ US $8.50 per gallon), so LPG will make it more economical to drive. interior to be redone, mostly factory but probably in a white tuck 'n' roll. some rust in roof (drip rail) to be sorted, once done it will get fresh paint on top - most likely a gold or silver metalflake with some candy pinstriping.

the body will recieve one of 2 paint ideas. it will either be flamed from nose to bum, or will have woodgrain panelling (painted of course). im partial to the woody as i havent seen another one of these model ever done in that style (letalone most 60's wagons here in the southern HEMIspehere for that matter). it will have pinstriping here and there.

there are other ideas, but theyre huge, and involve a lot of work. all of which im happy to do, but its all about time. we'll just see.

just want to say its great to have found this forum, im really looking forward to getting to know more about 225's (first ive owned amongst several other chrylsers over the years) and mostly getting to know you guys.

oh yeah, non car related part of me. im a solo dad of 2 awesome little girls (ashliegh and jessica), have 2 other kids from a marriage who live at the other end of the country (my only son danya, and nika). im a fulltime musician and perform 4 to 6 nights per week every week at 2 irish pubs (although i dont play much irish music). i mostly just play solo with acoustic guitar and my voice.

i also have a rockabilly / country band called The Voodoo Kreepers (hence the user name) which if youre interested, you can check us out on www.myspace.com/thevoodookreepers

during the summer season (hot rod and car show season) i host a TV show here called The Red Shift. it focuses mostly on american cars, some aussie stuff too. shows, feature cars etc. we're about to film our 3rd season, and our 4th season is already planned as a winter show which will see us doing a full build of a early 50's buick which will recieve late model upgrades and kustom bodywork etc. should be fun. you can see snippets of the show at our website (you wont see me on there, so youre safe, haha). and if youre mega interested, you can purchase the first 2 seasons on dvd from there also. www.theredshift.co.nz

sorry if that sounds like a plug, its not, im just letting ya's know a bit about myself. look forward to chatting

ricki

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