FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Hi Smiley here, I'm a 32 year old wife and mother of 3 kids under 6 and I love my FC.

On Saturday 3rd March, 2007 I finally took possession of my very own 1959 Holden FC Special Sedan.  We bought it off a bloke in Melbourne with a familiar story, too many projects, not enough space or time.  Putting up with three kids on a long trip to collect it, ok.  Towing a heavy trailer with a struggling VN, managable.  Negotiating our way through Caroline Springs to find the people we bought the car off – a nightmare!  What a rabbit warren Melbourne has become (or maybe we’re just spoilt for space in the country).

Though married to the most talented of panel beaters, Hoota, I thought my FC was going to sit in the shed until other projects got finished first.  My vision that she’d be complete by her 50th birthday in 2009 but my husband became very motivated.  The Monday night he and a mate got the old grey motor working.  The next day our 5 year old son was in the boot vacuuming out all the dirt and our 6 and 2 year old girls washed its windows.  I removed the chrome mouldings off the quarter panels and rear, and took out the tail lights.  I removed all the body deadener and sealer from the boot and that night Hoota paint stripped and wire wheeled to bring the boot back to bare metal to reveal a perfect shiny behind!!!   Happy to report no rust in the floor pan at all.

I’ve been very impressed with how accommodating Hoota has been at having his wife working on a car in his shed.  He works his day job from there as a sole trader Panel Beater.  So far the Holden has been welcome sitting beside a Mustang and Chevy ute he’s doing up for work though I wonder if it’s a little distracting as he keeps wanting to come over and work on the Holden.  But then maybe he’s just happy to have us there for my policy of encouraging sexual harassment in the workplace!

I had a first attempt at using the sandblaster but it wasn’t as successful at getting off stray boot paint as it was making sand castles in my hair (t-shirt, shorts, socks, oh bloody everywhere).

By the end of week rust was cut from the bottom of the quarter panels and rust from the boot seal was replaced with new steel and welded in.  Hoota was also quite proud of his engineering efforts to replace the lower tail light panel.

So we’ve started off very eager in our first week considering the only time we get to work on her is after hours or when I can get clear off my pre-schooler children.  But with this type of enthusiasm she may very well be finished this year sometime!!!

Thanks for reading my post

Cheers,
Smiley  :)

PS  I will post some pics as soon as I work out how to do it (and peel myself away from my car!)

Well done Smiley good to see the kids are chipping in.What do ya reckon finished in time for the Nats? Once the bug bites its hard to stop ;D.Cheers Tommo  

Congrats Smiley nothing quite like an old Holden. Good luck with the resto hope its finished for the 50th birthday. Pics would be great.What colour is it?
Cheers,
Graham

Sounds like a nice little start.....congrats on your score.
Still a looooong way to go though.
Good to hear you're taking the hands on approach, you will feel a sense of accomplishment when done, and it will feel like it really belongs to you.
Keep up the good work, and keep us updated.
Regards
Alex

wish I had a wife that work on the car with me instead of against!!

Week 2: This week we managed to get a fair bit done.  I tried paint stripping for the first time managing to do a good effort on the left hand quarter panel.  Even getting the thumbs up from the professional, my husband.  I tell you what 48 year old paint is a cow to get off!  A few days later I stripped the right hand quarter panel and it was exciting to see that besides the rust on the bottom they were in pretty good condition.  Hoota paint stripped most of the roof and it too was pretty good and then I came into possession of a new power tool – the disc grinder with a fibre glass stripped disc.  Awesome – no messy paint stripper just grind off that Seminole Brown and Adobe Beige paint work.  I love it.  The grinder was a brand new purchase as Hoota’s old one (15 year old mind you) was getting fixed and I think he was a little put out because to date I’ve gotten to use it more than him!  A little more rust was cut out of the boot seal and replaced and that was about it for week 2.  So from behind she’s all bare metal.

I’ve really enjoyed getting in and doing stuff on the FC and the kids are getting used to Mum being in the shed all the time however my son did make the comment when picking him up for kinder and my shower and clothes change didn’t completely hide the smell of paint stripper and thinners, that I’m ‘turning into Dad’.  We had a discussion and came to the conclusion that as long as Dad didn’t start wearing dresses and painting his nails, me working on cars was not as bad as Dad turning into Mum!

And photo's are coming I promise... I'm photobucketing as we speak!!!

Cheers
Smiley

Hey Smiley,

great to read about your resto adventures, great commitment.

i can only wish my partner was only half involved.. in fact she doesn't even like riding in the car... ::)

which has its benefits.. no speed alert!

best of luck with it, post pics.

Cheers

Ed

Your a champion!

Week 3 update...

Hoota paint stripped most of the roof and I finished it off.  I sanded back the roof so Hoota could metal file and repair the dints.  As it turned out the roof didn’t need any bog work mainly because of my talented and perfectionist husband and he got out all the weird dints put in the roof by a dodgey roof rack from the first owner who used it as a painter’s work vehicle.  It’s in spray poly now.

Oh and we picked up some new guards from Melbourne.  

I’ve felt pretty slack this week so I’m aiming to pick up the pace this week.  We want to finish off the boot and guard repairs and get them into undercoat so that we can rearrange the shed and fit in yet another vehicle for repair, Dodge Charger.  It’s a friend of ours so the FC will be getting repaired in unison with this house crasher but the only reason I’m not spewing is because in return for work done to the Charger I’m getting complete free interior trim and seats etc from the best motor trimmer in Bendigo.  I just have to stop the snide remarks about American junk versus Aussie Cool…  

Anyway a friend dropped around a whole heap of old Holden parts, doors and boot that I’m off to see if anything useful for the FC so I’ll bid you all farewell.

Cheers,
Smiley

PS should post some progress pics since this is a Photo Album page shouldn't I?!!!!

Boot Spare Wheel Section Before

(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w182/SmileyFC/sparewheel030307.jpg)

Boot Spare Wheel Section After

(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w182/SmileyFC/sparewheelbm.jpg)

Roof Before

(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w182/SmileyFC/roof030307.jpg)

Roof Repaired Bare Metal After

(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w182/SmileyFC/Repairdroofbml.jpg)

looks like things are moving along fast and proper,  looks like you have a pretty decent car there.
looks like marrying a panel beater was a good move too.