3 minute read
WORLD FIRST FJ49
ASHTON SHOWCASES WORLD-FIRST FJ49
HOW DREAMS CAN BECOME A REALITY
DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT.
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blueprint australian industry trade college
N 05 JULY 2022
Ashton Montesalvo, Year 12 Australian Industry Trade College (AITC) student from the Gold Coast, brought a unique car to the campus as part of an inspirational talk to his peers. The car, (an FJ49), is a combination of old meets new, and is the first of its kind in the world. For those car enthusiasts it’s an FJ45 with an LC79 VDJ transplant which took two years to build.
“The importance with this car is to really show to everyone how anything can be possible as long as you put your mind to it. Dreams can really become a reality if you work hard enough for them,” says Ashton.
“A lot of my peers did get the idea of what I was trying to say and they really appreciated how I wasn’t being arrogant by saying, ‘Hey, you can do this too if you put your mind to it!’.”
The FJ49 began as an iconic, old school, 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ45. “It used to have an old engine and drive chain 6-cylinder petrol engine in it. I took all the running gear out of a rolled over ex-mining car — a 2011 Toyota Landcruiser 79 series (which is the newer version of the old FJ’s). I mixed all of the good things about the 79 in with the old style FJ45. Anyone who is into cars loves these FJ’s so I wanted to make the most of it — new meets old heritage version of the car.”
The labour of love has been about two years of work including lots of late nights and working weekends. “There’s been a lot of custom work on the car because obviously it hasn’t been done before,” explains Ashton.
“There was definitely a lot of times I felt unmotivated and didn’t want to keep going but some great things don’t always come instantly and without hard work.
“That’s why I brought the car in to the AITC — to show how times do get tough but it’s worth it in the end.” The whole build has been documented on YouTube into an 18-part series — Patriot Games FJ49.
DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT.
Ashton’s background in mechanics began in his dad’s company, Patriot Campers, from an early age. He is now signed-up as a school-based apprentice mechanic with Patriot. “My dad, Justin, owns the company and I take care of his race cars and all of his personal cars. I’ve been doing that since I was 10-years-old. I’ve been working on everything and learning as much as I can.”
Ashton began at the AITC in June 2021 in Year 11. “The AITC focuses on treating you like an adult and really teaches you everything about trades. My old school didn’t have a trade focus at all. There was an attitude that if you weren’t going to Uni you weren’t going anywhere in life and I didn’t agree with that. The AITC has been a way better fit for what I do and what I love.
“Some people don’t want to go to Uni. They like working with their hands and doing a trade — it needs to be embraced way more in normal schools.”
Ashton has other big goals as well like achieving his Year 12 Queensland Certificate of Education. “It’s like a life goal that everyone deserves to get. Finishing Year 12 is important for me and honestly I love being here at the AITC so I want to be here for as long as I can.”
He finds the structure of Industry and Education Blocks at the AITC “really good and intuitive. It helps people to learn what they need for a trade. When you’re a teenager, and doing 40 or so weeks of school, it can be tough for some because it can’t hold their focus. The AITC program breaks that up and it’s more fun. The program gives people time to learn their field on the job while achieving an education. Everyone has heard the saying ‘you don’t learn this in school’. So the AITC program helps people learn more in a hands-on way.”
WISDOM
