FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

It starts innocently.  A chance remark, an unexpected response, and a new project starts.

In May 2008, there was a fortieth anniversary celebration at work, and the retirees were invited in to share in the fun.  An ex-colleague found me, and said, “I’m cleaning out the garage, and there’s an FC Holden which I started to restore.  Would you be interested in it?”  I said thanks, but as I already had two old Holdens, I didn’t really want a third.  But I knew some people in the FE-FC club, and I could pass his details on, and see whether anyone’s interested.  I mentioned this to my parents in passing, and then my father said, “Why don’t you take the FC on?”  Never in thirty years of me bringing cars home had he said this.  So we went around to my ex-colleague’s, and took a look at the FC.  Usual story.  1959 FC Standard sedan, stripped down in 1990 for a restoration which got not much further.  Panels good, floors good, sills shot, rear doglegs shot, LH rear quarter very rusty.  Special interior, Simca Aronde front seat, Speco floorshift, Toyota heater.  Reconditioned engine, new brakes, and about three trailer-loads of spares.  Good parts vehicle, in other words.  I looked at it differently: viable, but probably lengthy, restoration.  Lots of people restore Specials.  Original Standards are a lot thinner on the ground.

$700 later, and the FC is mine.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P001.jpg)
Now to strip the car down properly.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P002_1.jpg)
Characteristic pose for quite some time to come.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P003_1.jpg)
Engine and transmission out.

Now that’s an engine bay!

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P004_1.jpg)
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P005_1.jpg)
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P006_1.jpg)

A division of labour came about naturally:  I did the bodywork, and my father took care of the mechanicals.

Once the shell was stripped down, I got an idea of what I was in for.  The body was a mess where the subframe bolts on.
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P007_1.jpg)
Journey of thousand miles starts with single step – the right hand front inner sill.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P008_1.jpg)

I made a pattern
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P009_1.jpg)
Marked out some 2 mm sheet, cut, bent, welded to make the inner sill section.
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P010_1.jpg)
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P011_1.jpg)

I rebuilt the lower cowl panel from the inside
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P012_1.jpg)
Made a crude jig

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P013_1.jpg)

And welded

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P014_1.jpg)

Fabricated the No. 1 body crossmember

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P015_1.jpg)

The left hand side wasn’t nearly as bad.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P016_1.jpg)

But it still needed a lower cowl panel replacement.
(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P017_1.jpg)

Blanking the hole in the firewall for the heater.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P018_1.jpg)

The inner sills were the most difficult repairs.

I realise now that the subframe on this FC was in very good condition considering.  The “dumb irons” were intact, and the front subframe tie member was rust-free.  A small section of the right-most lower subframe leg required repair.  The dumb-iron-to-tie-member welds had cracked on both sides, and I re-welded them.  Apart from welding up numerous extra screw holes in the inner guards, that was the full extent of repairs to the subframe.

How hard could the rest of the car be?  Try the doglegs.

Well sounds like you are sort of enjoying it  :P   :D

At least the story telling part anyway!

Well, it looks like you took on the FC and struck the first blow.
Nice work, looking more solid by the day.
Regards
Alex

Alex,

There's lots more to come yet.  It was only when I went through all my images and put them in sequence that I realized how much work goes into a restoration . . .

Rob

Hi Rob,
Bring on more pics. Even better bring the car tonight to the meeting.
Cheers,
Graham

Graham,

Your word is my command.

Rob

The doglegs are a story in themselves.

This, from inside the car

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P019_1.jpg)

And from the inside of the wheel arch

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P020_1.jpg)

Cut away three sections

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P021_1.jpg)

. . . and the inner wheel arch is rotten too

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P022_1.jpg)

I peeled away the weatherstrip retainer for safekeeping

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P023_1.jpg)

First repair

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P024_1.jpg)

Repair to the inner wheel arch

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P025_1.jpg)

Inner sill and gusset

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P026_1.jpg)

Rear channel section

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P027_1.jpg)

And finally, slam it all up shut.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P028_1.jpg)

But don’t forget the rear floor repair

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P029_1.jpg)


The right hand side went exactly the same (except for the inner wheel arch repair).  Even though the right hand side was less diseased than the left, I made the same-size repairs.  I already had the patterns, it was just a case of bending the metal the other way.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P030_1.jpg)

The inner gusset panel, on its own

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P031_1.jpg)

and successive stages in the repair

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P032_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P033_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P034_1.jpg)

Great work Rob, when you finish there you can come and give me a hand on mine.HE HE HE
Regards Jim

Great work Rob... Nice fabrication!!!! It takes me a week to do all that!
Keep posting!
Nick

Some neat repair work there.
Regards
Alex

Very neat indeed Rob, looking forward to seeing and hearing about the rest of the build

Gary

Thanks to all for the encouragement.

Nick - if it only takes you a week, then you can work way faster than me.  Each dogleg repair took me maybe a month of weekends . . .

Jim - I've still got a manilla folder with labelled patterns.  I can lend you them if you'd like   ;D

Rob

Nice work Rob,keep up the great work and the pics of course... 8)

Rob, pm sent. Thanks, Jim

Great job Rob, another one on the way to being saved from that big scrap heap.

Keeping the patterns that you have made is a great idea and one that deserves merit for future people to be able to access.

Rare Spares and others do a great job in being able to produce rust repair sections, but until they do the whole subframe or a complete chassis

there will always be a need for these little bits and pieces. Metal fabrication is not my forte (Carpenter and Joiner) but with patterns to guide

and some great pictures provided I would be willing to have a go. Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing more progress shots.

Cheers Stewy     8)

Great work Rob,
  Very neat welds and thankx for taking the time to post your re-build... even better you keep a copy of each repair you make +1 from me for wanting to share them with us on here...thumbs up from me Rob  ;D

thankx for sharing it with us

FE 4 ME

It's time to give my father a little credit.  While I was cutting, welding and grinding, my father devoted himself to the mechanicals.

Transmission first.  Just to be on the safe side, he took the sump off the transmission to check the internals.  Sure enough, the cluster gear had most of a tooth missing from first.  Alan Wall had a good second-hand gear, so Dad stripped and rebuilt the gearbox.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P035_1.jpg)

Oops.  Focus.

I asked the previous owner whether the gearbox made any noises in first gear, and he said it was perfectly quiet . . .

Dad stripped the generator down, trued up the commutator, lubed the bearings, bedded the brushes in, and reassembled it.  And did the same to the starter motor as to the generator.

And rebuilt the fuel pump, including a neat trick with valve grinding paste and the fuel bowl to grind down a distorted gasket sealing face because the bail arm had been over-tightened.  The vacuum section was a total mess.  Rust, sludge, ooze, corrosion, you name it.

And pulled the carburettor to pieces, and lapped the faces of the air horn and main body until they were both flat.  He found that the throttle butterfly was loose, and Loctited and staked the screws just to be sure.

I got to work on the distributor, but it was in very good condition anyway.

If you’ve owned a grey-engined Holden long enough, you’ll know what happens when the Welch plug in the back of the block rusts through.  With the motor out, now was the time to take some preventative action.  I punched the plug through, turned it around and levered it out.  And there was the normal amount of mud behind number six cylinder.   What fun a Gerni is.  Then enough reassembly to set the motor and gearbox up on axle stands and start it up.

There’s a Woody Allen movie where the hero discovers a 200- or 300-year-old VW in a cave underground, and he turns the key and it starts.  I wish.  I’ve been told that there are some Holden engines which start immediately after a long storage period.  This was not one of them.  It woke up slowly, one cylinder at a time, and took maybe a quarter hour before it would idle.  Despite its crappy state of tune, it didn’t rattle, didn’t leak oil, and didn’t blow smoke.  So perhaps some potential . . .

The front suspension was next.  The previous owner had told me he could never get the front wheel alignment right.  When Dad disassembled the front suspension, the reason became clear.  The right hand lower control arm shaft had come loose in the crossmember and had enlarged the hole maybe 1/8”.  Repair.  Do not replace.  It sounds nuts, but I set to work on the crossmember with Mister MIG and a file, to restore the holes to the specified diameter (finally achieved by starting the shaft into the crossmember with a large hammer).  The shaft tightened into place with >40 and <250 ft.lbs torque, as specified.  But I noticed that the FC lower control arm shaft inner threads are straight, whereas in an HR they’re tapered, which is much more tolerant of a loose initial fit.

The front springs had broken coils.

The car came with a large box of steering knuckle supports, steering knuckles and king pins, and my father amused himself by selecting parts until he achieved a good, close fit.

The steering box was essentially shot.  The case-hardening had gone off the worm shaft and ball-nut.  In years gone by, if I needed a good steering column, I’d have gone down to Holton Spares in Dee Why, and Steve Williams would have let me go through his stock of steering boxes until I found a good one.  But that was about 20 years ago.

Forum to the rescue.  Unbelievable!  There was an ad for FC steering column and front suspension, lower Hunter Valley.  The donor car was a low-mileage FC.  On disassembly, the steering box internals were in perfect order.  You beauty.  And the front suspension yielded a good pair of springs.

FC gearshift tubes have only two weak points, it seems: the top, where the gearstick engages the roller; and the bottom, where the lower lever bolts on.  The original gearshift tube had broken at the bottom, which led to the Speco floorshift conversion; while the Hunter Valley gearshift tube had broken at the top.  I chose to repair the original, as it was just the brazing for the lower lever which had broken.

More to come later.

Next major step:  the sills.
I took a fairly careful look at the sills, and found that it would be easier to replace them, rather than attempt repairs, and bought a pair of sills from Rare Spares.  Rare Spares sills . . . how to say this . . . they are a good starting point.  That’s all.  They need a lot of extra work before they even go close to fitting.

I made a Masonite profile of the old sills, and my father shaped a two-foot length of four-by-four into a form of the right profile, and I spent much time making the metal conform to the form.  The rear of the sills took a nip and tuck to get right, but the front, where the subframe bolt goes through, was a cut off and make-from-scratch effort.

And, of course, there were many spot welds to drill.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P036_1.jpg)

A sharpened piece of power hacksaw blade makes an excellent spot-weld separator.  It’s inserted between the panels and hammered along.  Some welds separate cleanly, others go “ping” if you’re not a good shot with the drill, and there are some which require extra work with the drill to separate.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P037_1.jpg)

And some long cuts, and the point of no return is passed.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P038_1.jpg)

The inner sill took some cleaning, and some repairs of its own.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P039_1.jpg)

Prime and paint both inner and outer sill.  Drill the outer sill for the plug-welds.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P040_1.jpg)

Tip the shell the right way up.  Put the subframe back on.  Swing the doors.  Put the front guard on.  Trial-fit the sill.  Get the gaps right.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P041_1.jpg)

Tack the sill in place.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P042_1.jpg)

Satisfied that all is good?  Weld in earnest.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P043_1.jpg)

Now that one side is done, how hard can the other be?  At least I had a better idea of what not to do on the right hand side.  This is what the right-hand inner sill looked like after removal of the outer.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P044_1.jpg)

I had to weld a three-quarter-inch strip of metal along the whole length of the bottom edge of the replacement right-hand sill to get enough metal to overlap the inner sill.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P045_1.jpg)

Note use of self-tapping screws to hold the sill in correct alignment before welding.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P046_1.jpg)

Plug-welds dressed off.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P047_1.jpg)

Rear end of sill showing final dogleg repair

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P048_1.jpg)

Welded and dressed.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P049_1.jpg)

Great job Rob,
You certainly know your way around a welder.
Cheers,
Graham

Do them logs have a load rating stamped into them..

Poor bloody tressles..

work cover would be proud... ;D

Hope you have your steel toe thongs!!

That's GREAT! ( envy)
Gives me a great insight into trying to do mine!!!!
Unless you want to.... :P

Sill repairs look very familiar,even the dog leg repair is the same...Seems like forever since I did mine.Hang on....it was forever ago and it's still not finished!!!!Keep up the good work and the pictures,they are great for inspiration.Unfortunately I don't require the inspiration,I have that.Just don't currently have the time or the cash.... :'(

Thanks to all for the encouragement . . .

It's amazing how much more . . . sanitised it all looks when I post photos and a story on the Forum.  Swear-words and hours of labour just don't translate.

One thing I should mention was the fantastic case of welder's sunburn I got at the base of my throat after I finished the left hand sill.  I made certain to tie a damp tea-towel around my neck for the right-hand sill.

Rob

Now for the rear quarter panels.

This car had had a long and hard life.  The left-hand rear quarter panel had been replaced early on (accident?), and, as is always the case, the metal mice set to work.  There wasn’t much left of either the inner or outer.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P050_1.jpg)

Rare Spares didn’t have much in the way of replacement sections, so I fabricated them out of sheet metal.  This shows the inner sections repaired.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P051_1.jpg)

I now had to reproduce the shape of the rear wheel arch, using the right hand rear wheel arch as the prototype.  I used a big piece of stiff cardboard to make the wheel arch pattern.  This is the first repair section (and inner wheel arch repair).  I tried making the repair section complete with wheel arch return, but I'm not good enough at "puckering", and ended up warping the repair section.  In the end I cut off the return, and just started the rolled edge.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P052_1.jpg)

Tacked

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P053_1.jpg)

And welded into place

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P054_1.jpg)

Rare Spares were out of rear quarter panel repair sections, so I fabricated one out of sheet.  I made profile templates at four locations along the rear quarter panel, which explains the ruled lines.  This is the bottom section, formed and tack-welded.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P055_1.jpg)

So far, this is almost exactly like how TTV6FC did his rear quarter panel repairs in "It has begun, but will it continue?", p.5.  The last part of the repair was to fabricate the wheel arch return, drill, weld to the outer and then plug-weld through to the inner panel.

Now that I'm around to the rear of the car, I can attend to things like the fit of the taillights.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P056_1.jpg)

And the boot.  A hot-shrink or two to fix unresolved accident damage.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P057_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P058_1.jpg)

The right hand rear quarter (blessed relief) only took a small rust repair, and some panelbeating.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P059_1.jpg)

Time to turn motor body trimmer.  The FC’s previous owner never threw anything out, and among the spares were the original Fall Red door trims, and a Special front seat.  Over time, Holden front seat frames crack and they need welding.  The front seat frames for a Special and a Standard are different (mainly at the top of the frame); but to convert a Special seat frame into a Standard seat frame just takes an angle grinder, a welder, and some bog.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P060_1.jpg)

Supertrim in Melbourne had the patterns for an FC Standard interior, and they made an entire interior for me.  I also sent them the door trims, and they repaired them, replaced the backing boards, and re-coloured the trims.

Between my father and I, we turned motor body trimmers for a while. This is the front seat frame, repaired, modified, and etch-primed to be on the safe side.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P061_1.jpg)

Nice work Rob although your repairs are far neater than mine.... 8)

That's fantastic work. Keep it up Rob 8) 8)

"Body-In-White"

Eighteen months into the project (December 2009) - a huge sigh of relief.  All the rust repairs to the body shell are finished.  Now the task is to fit all the panels up and perform a series of "gentle adjustments" with hammer and dolly, or more usually large rubber mallet and sandbag.  It’s a lot easier to discover the panels don’t fit properly before they’re painted, rather than afterward (been there, done that).

I asked the previous owner how far the FC had gone.  He reckoned it was up to about 400 000 miles.  As well as the replacement LHR quarter panel, the front guards both showed the evidence of accident damage, back in the days when repairs were done with oxy, panel file and wiping lead.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P062_1.jpg)

Making the front valance, the subframe and the lower front guards line up was a fair challenge.  And the front-guard-to-bonnet gaps needed adjusting as well.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P063_1.jpg)

Not only was this the time to get the panel gaps right, it was the right time to test-fit the bumpers.  I got the bumpers and overriders (selected from many examples) electrolytic-stripped, and then set to work on the dents and rust holes, because the first place I went to said, “We don’t repair, we just electroplate.”  I chose to repair the sections I had, rather than find replacements.  And it’s much easier to repair rust holes in an otherwise straight bumper section than try to straighten a bent one with no rust holes.

Thus – large hole, inside

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P064_1.jpg)

and outside

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P065_1.jpg)

welded

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P066_1.jpg)

and dressed

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P067_1.jpg)

And so I could trial-fit the bumpers and make them line up correctly before they are chromed.  One thing that doesn’t photograph so well is the swearing, grunting and brute hammer work to get the bumper brackets into shape.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P068_1.jpg)

The bottom grille bar was a similar story, except that it’s made from much thinner sheet.  After electrolytic strip, I silver-soldered the rust holes, filed them smooth, knocked the dings out, and ended up with something that (I hoped) the chrome-platers could work with.

Major Breakthrough:  Electroplating Technology in Queanbeyan.  Turns out I need not have done the electrolytic strip and repairs myself, because they are quite happy to do that work.  Here are the bumper sections, overriders and lower grille bar in their carpark, after some exposure to a stinkingly humid Sydney summer.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P069_1.jpg)

Meanwhile, another thing dear to FE/FC restorers: front guard eyebrows.  As usual, they were shockers, the right side worse than the left.  This one had several generations of dodgy repairs.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P070_1.jpg)

See what I mean?  This is the inner eyebrow section/headlight flange, after removal.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P071_1.jpg)

It seemed best to fabricate new sections, rather than repair.  This is the replacement top eyebrow section.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P072_1.jpg)

Grafted into place

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P073_1.jpg)

And finally finished.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P074_1.jpg)

“What’s the lump of wood for?”, I hear you ask.  It just happens that the inner section, where the headlamp bucket goes, is a cylinder, of exactly nine-inch diameter.  My father turned a piece of firewood to size.  It made an instant form to shape the inner section over, and I held it in place with screws through the headlamp bucket mounting holes, so that the screw holes would line up after I finished welding.

Looking good, I like the liberal use of wood throughout your build.. fantastic!

Cheers

Ed

Dont think you can actually weld  "iron bark" .  ;D

Iron bark?  Sydney Blue Gum more like  ;)

The fun bit was putting the flames out.  Didn't take much work with the MIG to start a fire . . .

Rob

The photographic record goes a bit sketchy by late 2010.  Restorations usually go through the following stages:  first love (alias wild optimism), tempered expectations ("Hmm.  This will take longer than I thought"), initial successes, stubborn perseverance ("I don’t care how long the bloody thing takes"), the black hole of effort ("S**t.  All that work, and this is what’s to show for it?"), and then despair.  The last phase is triggered by having to do things twice, and La Nina conditions, in Sydney at least, are perfect for that.

"Come to Sydney, the Mould Capital of the World.  Watch metal parts rust before your very eyes!"

Things were not helped by the fact that this car had sat, in primer, for eighteen years in a damp garage.  The roof was fairly deeply pitted in places, and it took a lot of work with a Clean and Strip disc and Deoxidine to get rid of the rust.

Things were also not helped by the fact that I couldn’t do the body repairs fast enough to keep up with my father, the wielder of the spray gun.  Again the body sat in primer far longer than it should have.  And when it came time to paint, I had to take the roof, the rear quarters and the doors back to bare metal, for the second time, and start again.

Nonetheless, by April 2011, the paint was complete.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P075_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P076_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P077_1.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P078_1.jpg)

Are you working in the middle of the Botanic Gardens  :P
Nice work though  ;)

Nice work Rob.This is how I wish I had done my thread so that hopefully I could actually get to the end result whilst still having a generous amount of content and pictures and without people getting bored shitless and thinking I was never going to finish the project(maintaining the interest of the forum members).....if that makes sense....yes I've been drinking..... :P

@stinky:

If you can believe it, what you see in the photos is our back yard.  It's one of the few remnant blue gum forests left in Sydney.  Most people have a lawnmower.  We have chainsaws.

@TTV6FC:

This is one of the few advantages of doing a retrospective - you can choose the way you present the content.  But nonetheless I wish I'd taken a few more photos of the swinging panels in preparation.

Rob

Assembling a car after painting is a straightforward business, you might think.  I reckon that an irreversible change happens when you pull a car apart.  You disassemble a mass-produced item composed of interchangeable parts, but yet when you put together the same car out of the very same parts, they’ve lost all memory, and you’re hand-building a prototype.  In short: it beats me how they made hundreds of Holdens every day.

In this rebuild, everything grew around the accelerator pedal.  I assembled the throttle linkages to the firewall before putting the subframe on.

Trial-fitting the front panels gave me practise at removing and installing the front subframe.  Here is the subframe ready to line up.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P079_1.jpg)

And bolted up.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P080_1.jpg)

Pedal set, firewall panel, cowl vent, wiper linkages, steering column, dashboard and wiring harness in order.  And it is much easier to connect the wiring harness to the dash first and install it all as a unit, rather than installing the wiring and dash as separate items.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P081_1.jpg)

Amongst the many little tasks, the clutch pedal required re-bushing, and even the hole for the master cylinder pushrod had worn oval and needed welding and reaming to size.

The wiring was in a fairly sorry state, but once I removed all the extra tacked-on bits, I figured I could re-use the original harness, with some repairs.  The dome lamp had suffered a short and smoked the wire up at some stage, so I replaced the dome lamp wire.  I rewired the body harness to “late 1959 spec”: orange indicators, and used the EK ute/van wiring diagram as the reference.

In the main harness, the ignition wire had been shorted out and cooked.  I unwrapped the harness and replaced the ignition wire, and also the oil pressure and starter solenoid wires, as they’d gone brittle with engine heat.  Vintage Wiring Harnesses sold me harness tape and the different-coloured wire I needed, and other bits like bullet connectors, adaptors, and the old-style in-line metal fuseholders.

When I’d made the repairs to the wiring, I set up a ping-pong table and laid out the wiring harnesses.  I plugged in the switches, gauges, fuses and lamps (lots of alligator leads to provide the negative connections), connected up a power supply, and began to power up each circuit in turn.  Again, it’s much easier to discover wiring problems when the wiring is out of the car.

Because the FC’s a Standard, I made all the indicator wiring as a separate harness, and taped it onto the main wiring harness.

One other detail was to have the indicator/parker/stop/tail lamp sockets zinc-plated.  That way I could be certain that they’d make reliable contact with the indicator and tail-light housings.

Interior trim came next, starting with the headlining and windlace.  There is definitely an art to installing a headlining.  Actually, give me a felt FX/FJ headlining and a jar of tacks any day.

And then the fixed glass.  I find installing windscreens and rear windows a stressful business.  The curved FE/FC rear glass is difficult.  The lip of the seal pulled over the body flange (just) along the top and bottom, but along the C-pillar it didn’t “take” at all until the glass was bumped more into position, and then I had to use a wooden ruler to pull the lip of the seal over the C-pillar flange.  And finally the glass wanted to stay in position rather than pop out.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P082_1.jpg)

What’s the trick?  I started pulling the cord through at the bottom.  Do you start at the top and bottom at the same time?

The boot hinges are worthy of mention.  The hinge spring pivots had broken and been replaced (badly), so during body repair time I installed a pair of RET’s patent adjustable boot hinge spring pins and resized the holes in the boot hinges with Mister MIG and a file.

I bought a new laminated windscreen, and I was really afraid of cracking it during installation.  Fortunately the windscreen was much easier to fit than the rear window.

Definately! I don't like doing these in the least, never done the FX/FJ but the FB/EK ones are a doddle compared to the FE/FC.

Wow! Great work and the tips are fantastic.  :) :)Please keep them coming. Are you in the Turramarra area with the blue gum forest?
Nick

Great work Rob, it's all starting to come together looks fantastic, all that hard work and welding has paid off. With regard to the screens I always start at the bottom and work my way around (thats what I do for a crust) I have found that the aftermarket rubbers are not quite the same size as the origninals thats why they are a bit of a pain to install. Nice to meet you last night and thanks again for the template.
Regards Jim

Doors and seals.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P083_1.jpg)

The window winders and door locks (front particularly) were essentially worn out.  My father sacrificed an old polyethylene chopping board to make up a set of rollers for the window regulator lift pins.  The major thing that helped was finding a set of four, badly rusted, EK doors at a swap meet that I could then rat for their internal hardware.  Still I had to do some major rebuilding of the driver’s door window regulator.  As it turns out, you can convert a rear window regulator into a driver’s by swapping over the lift arm and (if needed) tipping the sector gear upside down.  Now there’s an idea for another forum thread . . .

Ralph Moore Autoglass had supplied me with all new side glass, and Rare Spares sells bailey channel kits.  Except that the rigid channel (for the division channel) is 26” long originally and Rares sells it in 24” lengths.  I found that Spectrum Rubber sells the rigid channel in 8’ lengths, which means you can get three 26” lengths of channel, and then you have a useless 18” left over, which means buying a lot more than you need to get it right.  The flexible channel that Rares sells is long enough for a rear door, but about an inch and a half short for a front door.

For reference, here are the lengths of bailey channel needed for sedan doors:

Front door top bailey channel - 500 mm
Front door rear bailey channel - 740 mm (total length 1240 mm, which is 40 mm longer than the Rare Spares channel)

Rear door top bailey channel - 530 mm
Rear door front bailey channel - 670 mm (total length 1200 mm, which is exactly the length of the Rare Spares channel)

I first swung the doors with no seals to get the striker plates in the right position, and then removed the doors to put the door seals in.  There was no fast way to go about the job, just followed the instructions on the forum and got a satisfactory result.  As they say, Rubber Magic and shut door for two weeks.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P084_1.jpg)

I couldn’t swing the front doors before installing the door seals.  Before installing the front door seals I wanted to have the front guards on, and I wanted to have the driveline in place before putting the front guards on.  Short detour through DriveTrainLand coming . . .

I put new lower control arm bushes in the front suspension, and then assembled everything up.

I faced a choice with the rear axle though.  Since the car’s first major outing would be a trip to WA and back for the Nationals, I would like the car to have slightly longer legs than originally.  I figured that a 3-1/8 bore motor would have enough extra torque to make a 3.36 diff practical, and I changed diffs over, along with the rear uni-joint.  I then put the rear axle in the car, and suddenly, it’s a rolling shell.

The motor, though, took a bit of work to get right.

Rob

Great work and great info Rob.

I thought hydraulic systems were straightforward until . . .

The FC's previous owner had bought new brake slave cylinders and linings just after taking the car off the road.  More for the sake of originality than convenience I decided to re-use the original master cylinders and tin-plate reservoirs.  Burt Bros stainless-steel sleeved the master cylinders and supplied new hoses. Electroplating Technology zinc-plated the metal reservoirs.  I connected all the brake hydraulics up, started to fill the reservoir and watched the fluid leak out of it.  The zinc-plating process revealed all the pinholes in the reservoir, and there were very many.  By holding the reservoir up to a light I found them, and soldered them up – this took hours.  The reservoir now held fluid.  But every other joint in the hydraulic system leaked.  This is Sod’s First Law of Hydraulics.  Most of the leaky joints came good with repeated tightening.  But there were two stubborn ones: where the front brake hoses met the brake lines.  They leaked slowly, no matter what.  I pulled the hoses off, and examined them under a magnifier.  In these hoses, the internal cone was made for a smaller diameter pipe, and the brake pipe’s flare was not seating on the cone.  And because I’d tightened the fittings up so much, I murdered the nut on the RHF brake pipe trying to undo it, and cut the pipe off in disgust.  I took the hoses and the pipe back to Burt Bros, and explained the problem to them.  “We’ll sort it out,” they told me.  Sure enough, they did.  They made up some copper inserts to go between pipe flare and hose, and made a new brake pipe to replace the one I butchered.  And finally, I got the brake hydraulic system to seal up.

After the engine and transmission went in, and I bled the clutch, the clutch hose swelled up shut.  I could disengage the clutch, but then the pedal would stay on the floor before coming up in its own good time.  A new hose, a new slave cylinder, and the system worked.  Sod’s Second Law of Hydraulics: any part that is good enough to re-use will give trouble when you attempt to re-use it.

And by the way, Sod's Law of Hydraulics applies equally well to fuel systems, as I discovered.

This is one of the big problems working in the car building industry. The customer brings in the car plus all these bits which "were working when they were removed so they should be OK". You get abused if you won't use them because you know they will go wrong if you do, and if you do decide to use them, the customer will want you to replace them at your cost when they do go wrong, because somehow it's your fault they don't work. You can't win :P

Ken

My fe has beem back on the road for 12 months and i hate to say it im still rooting around fixing bits and pieces that bloody handbrake is a bastard and is still being tempremental..

Good luck

Pete

Pete,

Maybe a fixed thread called "how to get your handbrake right, first time" would be an idea . . .

I thought I'd got the handbrake pretty good, until I put the car on its feet for the first time and used the handbrake to pull the car up from walking speed.

"Sproing".  And then it didn't work any more.  I thought I'd pulled the rear cable outers through the mounting clamps, but no.  And so I made all the adjustments again - shoes, eccentrics, equaliser, clevis, front cable adjuster, and now it seems to be ok.

Rob

Just after I pulled the FC apart I set the engine and gearbox up on axle stands, which allowed me to start the motor and get it running.  But it didn’t seem entirely happy, even though it ran quietly and had hardly any blow-by.

The manifold gaskets were leaking, and I pulled the manifolds off to discover that the faces no longer lined up.  Rather than risk breaking bolts I had the machine shop at work mill the faces true.  Then I did an old trick with the manifolds off: Squirt a tablespoon of kerosene into the inlet and exhaust ports of each cylinder at the beginning of the compression stroke, and turn the motor over by hand.  Badly seating valves will make a bubbly sound, and this test is way more sensitive than using a compression tester.

After I tested just one cylinder I realised that the head needed to come off.  This was a good thing.  As well as the valve seating problem, the head gasket showed leaks between the centre four cylinders.  I cleaned up the head, and it showed repaired cracks and valve seat inserts in the centre four cylinders.  The guides were good.  I ground the valves in nonetheless, and did the petrol-in-upturned-combustion-chamber trick to confirm that the valves were well and truly seating.  Oh, and I got out the Dremel and carefully blended the inlet valve seats to the combustion chambers, as the edge the valve seat cutter left was shrouding the valve heads.  The bores were in very good condition, and the vernier said it was a 3-1/8 bore motor.

I was about to bolt the head back on when my father suggested caution: “Why don’t you lay the head on the block, no gasket, and check the fit?”  This also was a good thing.  I put the head on the block, and it rocked.  The left-hand back corner of the block was holding the head up.  It gets better than this.  When the block was decked at the reconditioner’s, they didn’t run the cutter all the way along the cylinder block, and it left a stair-step arrangement on the left hand back corner of the block.

In situations like this, you’re supposed to strip the motor down completely, and get the block decked (again).  But who knows if the place you go to won’t make a hash of the job like the previous place did?  My father is a geologist, and one thing we do not lack at home is polished, flat pieces of granite.  With a large flat file, granite, many sheets of wet/dry, and bearing blue, I set to work on the mating faces.  I took off the “staircase”, and the head sat on the block at all four corners.  OK, so the head is shaped like a barrel vault.  I worked up the head and the block, and the contact patches slowly grew, but always in the areas between the bores, and not beside them.  So the cylinder block was like corrugated iron.  I could see that with a straightedge and a light.  More work, and when I couldn’t slip a .0015” feeler gauge in anywhere, I figured that was good enough.  The purists will say, “But the faces aren’t necessarily flat!”  Who cares?  I have matched the head to the block.

I asked the guys in the machine shop at work what caused this problem and they said, “Oh, that’s easy.  The reconditioner used blunt cutters.  Between the bores, the cutting head would rear up under the load of removing material, and then come back down in the middle of the bores because there’s less metal there.”

Now I was worried about what nasty surprises there might be in the bottom end.  I tipped the motor upside down, pulled the sump off, and lifted the two middle main bearing caps and a couple of big-end caps.  The bearings and journals looked good, because the previous owner was very good at changing oil.  There was a little cavity in one main bearing surface, so I interchanged the two bearing shells so the one with the void was on the block (no-load) side.  By the way, it was a 30/30 regrind crank.  I thought you could only go 0.020 before you had to bin the crank.

You can never be too careful with grey motor timing gears.  I took the harmonic balancer and timing cover off, inspected the gears, removed the lube fitting, blew it out with compressed air, replaced it, chucked a long screwdriver bit into the drill, engaged the oil pump drive (sump on by now), and wound the drill up, just to check the oil delivery.  Satisfactory.  Timing cover and harmonic balancer re-installed, with a new seal.

5000-character limit exceeded.  Where were we?

The old head gasket (copper/steel shim) cleaned up well, so I Hylomar’d it liberally, ran a tap down the head bolt holes, and bolted the head on.  The valve gear was in good order, and when I bolted it on, the valves had negative clearance.  That means I would have removed at least 6 thou of material from head and block.  I reset the clearances (cold) to 0.010/0.015, and started the motor.

It was way better, but still unhappy off-idle.  I selected a good coil, replaced the points, found that the central HT lead was shot, and replaced it.  The motor was still unhappy around 1500-2500 rpm.  And no, the timing was not over-advanced.  I put an oscilloscope on the ignition, which told me the problem was not ignition-related.  Mixture perhaps?  Float level checked and adjusted.  With the engine running at about 2000 rpm, I slowly slid my hand over the air intake so it was partially covered, and at one point the stumbling and missing went away.  Lean mixture.  I figured I’d go up one main jet size at a time, and ordered a 52 and 53 main jet from Carburettor Service Co.  With the 52 jet, the motor run well.  By this stage I had built up another distributor with a Pertronix electronic ignition module, so I swapped them over.  A little messing around because it seems you can’t time a Pertronix module statically, and then I got it right.

The motor ran like a clock.  Even from a cold start it needed no choke and idled smoothly.  Good to put back in the car. (Hmm. Photo missing from Photobucket)  (No, found it. Out of order.)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCbuild/P085_1.jpg)

Engineering at its best - I love it. ;D

Ken

Hey, your engine mount seems a bit soft  :D :D :D

Great rebuild, love the storyline.

Cheers Wayne

A great read Rod... Love it ;D
Nick

With the motor in, the front panels could go on, and then the front doors.  The boot was last to go on, with a day’s delay to learn how to pull the boot lock cylinder apart, fix the mess it was inside, and reassemble it.

Then the bumpers, and the seats, floor mats and seatbelts, and I have a vehicle.  (Sequences compressed, as they say in the phone company ads).

With the car mobile, a front wheel alignment was next.  It seems you can never put too much caster into a king-pin front suspension.

It was about at this stage that I discovered Sod's Law of Fuel Systems, and had to correct all the weeping pipe unions.

The final hurdle to overcome was the dreaded (in NSW anyway) blue slip.  The main struggle, I find, is in finding an inspector who understands old Holdens.

And then,

TA-DUMM

December 16, 2011

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCphotosJan2012/P102.jpg)

Hmm.  Focus not as good as I'd have liked.  But you get the idea.

And a little later, on a shakedown trip to Canberra, I couldn't resist the Martian Embassy for a backdrop.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCphotosJan2012/P710.jpg)

Rob, the car looks fantastic!!!! Hope all went well on the shake down cruise, it must feel great to be able to drive it after all the work you put into it. Are you going to Perth with it, if so are you driving.
All the best, Jim

wow that went fast!

enjoyed the blog too.

Car looks great.

Cheers

Ed

Ed and Jim,

Yeah, it went fast, I know.  I wanted to finish the story before I leave for Perth.

And yes, I'm driving there and back.  I took the FC to Parkes a couple of weekends ago, and it just went.  So I'm fairly confident about the long drive.

Rob

Rob,

That is an amazing story, it is a credit to you & your dad.

Your dad is an inspiration to me, I hope I am as active as him at his age.

John

Well done Rob,you give me the hope that I too will one day have a "Ta-Dumm" picture at the end of my thread..... :-\

Top story Rob, and what a result.

Congratulations to you and the old man!

Is it a Standard or a Business Sedan?

Gary

Gary,

It's a Standard, not a Business.

Rob

Hi Rob,
Great job its also great that you could do it with your dad.Have to employ you to help me with my rebuild. Have a great trip to WA keep safe.
Hope you can keep us up to date as you travel to WA
See you on your return.
Cheers,
Graham

The story doesn't quite end with getting the FC registered.

The speedo stopped about ten minutes after the blue slip inspection.  The square drive end, where the cable engages in the drive, had worn round.  It was easier to silver-solder and file the cable than find a new one.

On the first long drive I noticed the rear wheel bearings were a little noisy; but after repalcing them, the car was a whole lot quieter.

Door seals are a constant source of frustration.  Particularly the portions of the front door seals which are on the B-pillar from the waistline down.  I had to put the seal in the channel at an angle, so the lip would come forward enough to bear on the door, and then hold it in place with clear Silastic.  It's a similar story with the rear door seals on the B-pillar too, except that it's a lot more difficult (read next-to-impossible) to move the seal with the door in place.

It's taken a couple of attempts to get the front wheel alignment right.

And I changed over to a Bosch generator and regulator yesterday.

I'm starting off on a long drive into the sunset tomorrow.

Hey Rob,
Best of luck with the trip hope you can update us as you travel. Hope you and your dad have a great time stay safe.
Cheers,
Graham

A Perth update:

The car ran like a clock all the way over to WA.  OK, so it had a slight tendency to overheat on hot days - we had a 39-degree day crossing the Eyre Peninsula (shades of childhood Perth trips again), and I replaced a hose clamp and the radiator cap in Ceduna.

In Perth I noticed the top radiator outlet had a fractured solder joint at the tank, and Stirling re-soldered the outlet, and I put another bottle of radiator flush through the cooling system.  When I filled the system with water to check for leaks, I saw a little stream of bubbles come out of the water when I ran the engine at a fast idle . . .

Damn.

I've got a crack in the cylinder head.

I pulled the plugs out, and none of them was wet.
I turned the engine over on the starter with the plugs out: couldn't see any mist coming out of the spark plug holes.
I put the plugs back in, ran the engine at a fast idle, and disconnected the HT leads one at a time: the water still bubbled.
I took all the plugs out save one, which I moved between cylinders, turned the engine over and watched the radiator: no bubbles.
I looked at the plugs, and Number Three was slightly cleaner than the others.  I put the other five plugs in, and started the engine.  No bubbles.

I think the crack is in Number Three combustion chamber, and it's very small.  The motor still runs perfectly.  Hey - I drove across Australia with a cracked head, I'll do the return trip with a cracked head.  I've put a blade of grass across the filler neck of the radiator so the cap can't seal.

Rob

Interesting method of diagnosis.
A blade of grass.....really.....how interesting!!!
Good luck on the return journey.
Regards
Alex

We return from WA, with car (and sanity) intact.

7440 miles in all.

The cracked cylinder head gave no trouble at all, just as long as I remembered to put a pint or so of water in the radiator every couple of days.  Stirling's radiator repair has held up.

The starter motor went lazy on me after the Kondinin-Kellerberrin trip, but that was just a dirty commutator and badly seating brushes.

I had dirty fuel troubles after the Murchison - Wooleen section, but the old hand-over-the-air-intake trick cured that problem.

The speedo seized up outside Kalgoorlie on the return trip, and the end of the cable is now stuck in the speedo driven gear.

Over 5000 miles of motoring I lost all my gearbox oil out the rear extension housing oil seal (the same thing happened when I did a WA trip in my '48 series five years ago).

And every time I parked the car it dripped about a teaspoon of oil out of the crankcase breather pipe.  Yes, I know what my tagline says, but this says to me that a hone and a set of piston rings is indicated.

I figure that's not bad for a car I finished rebuilding three months beforehand.

Since I've got to fix the head, the speedo driven gear, and get the rear extension housing re-bushed, it's probably easier in the long run to pull the motor out, and hey, then a set of rings is straightforward.

I'll post some photos "real soon now".

Rob

Great build thread. Love the car

Hey, it's only taken five months to get around to fixing the cylinder head . . .

I decided to have another go at finding out where the leak was coming from: fill the radiator up full with water, take the rocker cover off, loosen the locknuts on the exhaust rockers, start the engine, and then one cylinder at at time, tighten the adjuster until the exhaust valve is held well and truly off the seat.  Hopefully when I do this, on the "bad" cylinder, the bubbles will stop coming out of the radiator.

Wrong.  This test was splendidly inconclusive, so there was only one thing to do: remove cylinder head.  And on the head gasket I found the marks of two big leaks - the first between No.2, No.3 and the water passage; and the second between No.4, No.5 and the water passage.  So I had four leaky cylinders, which was why isolating one at a time wasn't going to show anything up.  But the good news was - the head wasn't cracked, it was "only" a leaking head gasket, caused by incredibly crappily machined mating faces.

I then had an attempt at fixing the problem in-situ.  The joy of lifting a cylinder head out of the engine bay fades after the first attempt, and I lost a weekend stuffing around.

October Long Weekend.  Remove engine and transmission from vehicle, and set to work.  The wise approach would be to strip the head, strip the block, send them both off to be machined flat, and rebuild.  I am not wise.  I figured that with two full days I'd have a half-way decent chance of matching the two surfaces.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCheadOct2012/head.jpg)

Instead of bearing blue, I drew a cross-hatch pattern on the block with a Texta, laid the head on the block and rubbed the head back and forth a bit.  The areas which make contact rub the Texta marks out.  I bought a new oilstone, and set to work on the high spots.  Not much happened.  My father made a sort of sanding float out of a flat piece of 3/4 plywood, with some 60 grit al-ox paper contact-cemented to it. Slowly the contact patches between head and block grew, but oh, so slow . . .

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCheadOct2012/block2.jpg)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCheadOct2012/block1.jpg)

Time for the heavy artillery.

Warning: Do Not Attempt This At Home.

Angle grinder, with a backing pad, and a new 120 grit sanding disc.  A single, very light pass over the high spots, followed by a minute's work with the oilstone, and the sanding marks are removed.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/FCheadOct2012/grind.jpg)

Clean surfaces.  Mark block with Texta.  Apply cylinder head.  Observe contact marks.  Gauge both surfaces with a straightedge to keep faces reasonably flat.  Repeat many times over.
I really didn't want my father to take this photo.  "I'll become the laughing-stock of the Forum", I said.

Finally I achieve contact all over, including the gaps between 2 and 3, and 4 and 5.

A new (old-stock) head gasket, and I set the motor up on stands, and started it.  Success! No bubbles out the radiator.

While the rest of the country was glued to the screen watching Whincup win, I was doing my patriotic duty assembling a grey motor, test-running it, and putting it back in the car.

Phew.

if in doubt chemiweld it  ;D

if it works do it.


pete

Very clever Ardiesse,

I often flatten out surfaces using wet and dry on a piece of old window... but these are generally small motorcycle parts made of alloy.

cant say Ive ever tried something as large as a 6 cylinder engine!

great result.

Cheers

Ed

The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away.

The wind blew on Monday, and a tree blew down onto the carport, demolishing it.

My father's Commodore is good for the bin.  My mother's i30 is most likely good for the bin.  My three cars were further inside the carport.  The Monaro and the FC might be repairable, but the tree and the wreckage of the carport will have to be removed first.  I think the FX has escaped with minor bruising.

Here is the ever-present dark side of restoring classic motor vehicles: you never know how long your work is going to last.

Rob

Rob,

Not good to hear, hopefully the damage is not too substantial & they are careful when removing the tree.

Dean.

Bugger sorry to hear that one damaged car is bad enough.
Hope something good comes out of it.

Pete

That sucks bigtime,you seem talented enough to rebuild anything,good luck,Gaz!

Hi Rob,
Sorry to hear that. Hope they are repairable.
Cheers,
Graham

Rob,

Hope all is good,

Cheers
John

Sorry to here that Rob, Luckily you were not under the bonnet.....

lets us know if you need a hand cleaning up...

Craig n Shaz

Sucks to hear that Rob.
I hope the damage turns out to be less than would appear.
Regards
Alex

So sorry to hear this Rob after yours and Dads hard work

Hopefully they can be saved, I shudder every time the wind gets up here as well

Regards, Gary

To the Forumers,

Thanks for your kind wishes.  The ironic "skin-of-your-teeth" thing is that my parents had been in the carport not fifteen minutes earlier getting the Commodore ready for its registration inspection.

It looks like the tree will be taken away next week, so we'll have a better idea what's going on after the Temora weekend.

Rob

(http://i46.tinypic.com/2akzts.jpg)

sorry to hear of your misfortune, good that you're all ok.
we can feel some of your pain.
two years ago we had an out of control driver write off our family car and narrowly miss sons cl valiant and end up in our house.
good thing all our FCs are kept elsewhere.
phil

That's very bad news Rob and as said,hopefully it is not as bad as first thought.Hey Phil,what a surprise there is a P plate on that one.... :P Glad to hear you are all ok.

Definitely feel for you and your family in this situation.  Just remember, cars can (usually) be replaced/repaired - fortunately no-one was hurt.  :)

faark

The rest of the story can now be told . . .

One complication for me was this: Dad kept bees, on the carport roof.  I'm allergic to bee stings.  I couldn't go anywhere near the wreckage until the hives were patched up and moved.  That was about a week.

Cleaning up was slow and painful.  Getting rid of the tree branches was easy enough, but the tree trunk itself and the remains of the carport had to be propped up enough to "make safe".  Both my parents' cars were written off.  My three were in the back of the carport, which made extracting them a challenge.

The 48 was at the right rear of the carport, the part which didn't collapse.  Mum's i30 shunted it into another tree, dinging the rear bumper; and the i30's front bumper snagged the 48's LHF overrider, and bent it when removed.  But - no panel damage.

The tree hit the FC's LHR quarter panel, and one of the carport roof beams came down on the FC's roof.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/treefall/car_tree_zps548a8326.jpg) ($2)

The only practical way of extracting the FC was to jack the tree up enough to free the car, then winch the car out sideways.

And once out of the carport, we could gauge the extent of the damage.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/treefall/rearqtr_zpsffd4b396.jpg) ($2)

The rear quarter panel was way beyond my abilities to repair, but the structure of the car didn't seem bent.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/treefall/roof_zps4ed66096.jpg) ($2)

The roof was pushed in quite a way.  Maybe if you got something like a giant swiss ball and inflated it inside the car, the roof would pop back out, and need only minor work to get rid of the crease.

And because the car sat in the rain with sodden covers over it for a few days, the paint humidity-blistered.

Time for a complete strip and rebuild.  Again.

Rob

Ouch. At least your alive. Are the cars covered with insurance in any way?

What about an exhaust air bag jack thingo inside to push the roof up and

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-GENUINE-FE-FC-HOLDEN-1-4-PANEL-LEFT-HAND-REAR-COMPLETE-1-4-PANEL-N-O-S-/271211031555?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f256fec03

Fortunately the cars were covered by insurance, and I found a very good panelbeater . . .

More images to come shortly.

Rob

I did when I was a young fella using my feet inside the car laying on my back... Probably not appropriate for this repair though

The next part was finding a repairer.  One of the guys in the FE-FC club suggested I should go talk to Hawkesbury Valley Smash Repairs, so I took a USB stick full of photos and drove out to Windsor.  First impressions count.  It was a large, well-equipped shop, and very clean.  I showed the photos to Gary, who runs the business, told him the sad story, and explained as much of the car's history to him as I could.

This is where I discovered the value of having a well-documented build thread on the Forum.  I showed Gary this thread, and that answered most of his questions.  Gary then said to me, "Can you bring the car out to us and leave it a few days?  We'd like to take a good look at it."  I said that wasn't a problem, when would be a suitable time?  "How about tomorrow morning?" - This was about 3 pm on a Friday afternoon just before Christmas that I went to see him.

No sooner said than done.  Next morning, a Saturday, I brought the car out to him.  It only took a few minutes for Gary to say, "I think we can repair it."  I was concerned that the LHR quarter panel would need replacing, given the amount of rust repair work it required, but Gary was happy with the standard of my repairs.  And the roof didn't even rate a mention.

Hawkesbury Vally Smash only refinishes in two-pack; but I'd painted the car in acrylic.  We agreed that the whole car would be repainted, and I'd pay for the refinishing of the undamaged panels.  I'd be somewhat out of pocket, but then I'd get a paint job that'd be good for at least fifteen years.

And so it was, a week out from Christmas 2012, that repair work started on the FC. Again.

You must have been gutted to see the damage. If you need a good straight boot lid let me know I'm sure i have a spare I can help you with for nix to get you going again.  Martyn

A week out from christmas

Im guessing shes finished now you are just teasing now...


Pete

My money's on you Pete  ;) ;) ;D ;D

Tease

Your like an old girlfriend -tease

Um, yeah, I didn't note the dates involved.  :-[

I hope your old girlfriend looks better than me!  :D :D :D

A couple of weeks later - it may even have been the week of Christmas, I got a call from Gary saying, "We've made quite a bit of progress, would you like to come out and take a look?"

And the car was basically straight.  The roof and LHR quarter panel had been stripped of paint, straightened and file-finished.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/HawkesburySmash/ATR719_030_zpsc270d9d0.jpg) ($2)

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/HawkesburySmash/ATR719_041_zps14b7285e.jpg) ($2)

And with the aid of an Easy-Beat, the dents in the boot had been pulled out, so that only a very slight crease remained.

(http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s487/ardiesse/HawkesburySmash/ATR719_042_zps3ae6127a.jpg) ($2)

From this point onwards, things looked pretty straightforward.  Insurance covered me for the repairs to the damage, and refinishing of the roof, boot and quarter panel.  I was paying for the remainder of a full repaint.  It was just a question of dollars.

Rob

Thats a credit too them.

Beutiful

You're right.  I'm really impressed with the quality of their workmanship.

Rob

Good to see things are on the mend. It's hard to find a repairer rather than a replacer. I'm keen to see the finished product, but not as much as you I imagine! Martyn

Martyn,

(spoiler alert)

Believe me, it's good.

Rob

I'm so happy it worked out in the end for you.

I can testify to that, the end result is fantastic, the panel shop did a top notch job the old girl looks like new.
Jim