FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

through the clubs around australia
is there a rough figure on how many fe's are on the road
in australia compered to vehicles built

dont have a clue  , dale,  but this is prob'ly a good thread to ask the question....whats the lowest body no. fe & fc on record  (going or under restoration)

Tough question, there are 110 members in the Vic club with a number of members having more than 1 car.  But a lot of them are not on the road.  I would estimate about 2/3 of the cars in our club are on the road.
Maybe 80 or 90.
I would also estimate that there are at least the same number in Victoria not in our club.
So maybe 160 to 200 in Victoria in total
Anybody else care to hazard a guess?
Ken

i rememeber vw did a survey across australia to find the old vee dub ,it now sits in york car musuem
it would be great to know if the first fe which rolled out is still around.

It would be fascinating to find the very first FE - who knows where it ended up? For what it's worth my stock FE is pretty early; I don't think there are any older than mine in the NSW club, but I could be wrong.

Chassis Number: 6-4760-M
Body Number: FE-225-5678
Engine Number: L299940

This makes it the 3,760th FE assembled in Melbourne, and the 5,678th FE Special Sedan manufactured there (the difference includes the CKD units shipped for assembly elsewhere, and the standard and business sedans assembled in Melbourne).

The very first FE had engine number L283373, so mine has the 16,567th grey motor post-FE release, but an unknown proportion (unknown to me, anyway ::)) of those went into FJ utes and vans, so that's not especially reliable either.  But it dates my car to early September.  Ken might be able to give an even more accurate date.

cheers
RET

wow thanks ret
yeah it would be good to find the 1st one or at least the
top 10.
so ken keeps a record of all the id plates??
ok i think we should all quit our jobs and concentrate full time on finding the top ten ;D
so how many fe then were manufactured

155,161

Ken can give you a reasonable breakdown of that number into body-styles, based on his research.  I'd be interested to see it.

cheers
RET

Yeah, bring the information on!  Ken, what is the earliest you have for each state?

Ken, with all these requests for your research, do you get any time to work on your own car/s?

151161 fe made
ok i wonder where the 151161th is heheh
gee i got to get a life ;D
no to be serious i would love to know the numbers from each state.

Once Ken finishes telling you lot about the First Edition (FE) then maybe he could give us some info on the First Classic (FC) Holden. After all that is what FC stands for is it not.

8) ;)

Seem as though the WA Club has come along quite a bit since you have joined the faternity. Its great to see.

If only I had the time to complete the whole data search!!!! :(
Here are some snippets
Leon O'Brien - Victoria
FE-225-3687
6-3225-M
Ipswich Spare Parts
FE-225-446
6-1756-B
Barossa Wrecking Yard
FE-215-1651
6-2165-A
Stacy Andreadis
FE-225-290
6-1723-S
c/o Gary Stevens
FE-225-21884
7-4632-P
You will note that all the early cars come from the SA plant as early Adelaide bodies had no letter A stamped after them.  When the other plants started to come on line Adelaide started to include the letter A after the body number.
Here is the earliest FE I have which is from a booklet recovered from a Holden dealer- car probably does not exist any more
FE-225-1437
6-1126M
eng # L288613   the 5240th engine.

I do hope to get all the answers worked out soon.  I do hope to get them into my book as well.

Ken

Ken,

Thanks very much for that - I've learned something already this morning.  I thought the ID numbers with no factory code suffix were Melbourne, not Adelaide.  That's interesting, my car was manufactured in Adelaide, shipped to Melbourne for assembly, then shipped to Hobart for delivery.  It did some miles before it got purchased then!

cheers
RET

thanks Ken for that info
also thanks to everyone else for making me welcome
i live about 600km east of perth in Kalgoorlie
where im a spare parts mamanger for toyota
the WA club have been a great help to me
gary stevens found me the fe ute im restoring and trev
and mark have been great.im very proud to be part of the new club.
i love my FE'S and i love the history of the car
thanks again Ken for your time
regards dale kalfe

ok now we have the FE covered maybe we could look at the model down from the FE the fc ;D ;D ;D

RET, according to the parts book, Adelaide starting stamping "A" in Sept 1956, which is not so coincidentally when Dandenong production began.  So all cars made before Sept '56 were made in Adelaide and have no letter after the body number--------------I believe.
I'm pretty sure the Fishermens Bend plant simply assembled cars CKD from Adelaide as did the Sydney, Perth and Brisbane plants up till that time.
All the cars listed in the previous email seem to back up this theory except the car from Gary Stevens, but maybe he has missed the A or maybe the operator at the time simply forgot to stamp the plate.  Who knows.
For the FC number lovers, here is my favourite car of all time.
It is from a dealer sales record booklet retrieved from a tip.  The dealership was in the Rainbow Vic area.
The car was sold to E. Davies on 10/5/1958 (4 days after release of the FC)
The rego number was GUL 618
Body number FC-225-19-M
chassis number 8-51144-M
engine number L443418
This car has an FE chassis number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It went down the line I guess with the FE production as a pilot model and was sold later on with a new engine fitted as the engine number is 3911 after the break in production for FC
The car was Teal Blue and Skyline Blue which is also strange as this is not a standard FC colour combination.  I have no other record of these 2 colours together.  This is why I am led to believe the car was a pilot car - not really a prototype as the FC was only a facelifted FE, but a test for new colours for the FC range.
Given that this car is number 19, I guess all the FC's made before it were also pilots.  Maybe the first 20 or 25, I dont really know.  All these cars would have had new test colours for the FC range and some would have been accepted and others rejected - like this one.
Obviously GMH were having trouble getting enough cars to the dealerships for release day, so sent all the pilot cars as well - all probably to country dealerships like this one where it was sold into obscurity.  I would love to know what happened to this car, even if it is a wreck still sitting in a paddock on the Davies' farm in country Victoria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you guys find this stuff as interesting as I do?????
Ken

Indubitably Ken, I'll have to check all my numbers again to see if I have any early girls.
Gary

Hey Ken.
Yeh, I find this stuff interesting.
I'd be interested to know what the earliest FC still around on or off the road that you have in your records.
Mine is fairly early, being # 2202 in Sydney. I have only ever seen 1 earlier.
Regards
Alex

Alex,  Chris Bunt on the forum has FC-225-179-S.
There is an FC-225-337-M reg in Vic "MY58FC" and FC-225-205-A belongs to Mark Hughes in WA.
Also Gary Revell in the Vic club has just bought FC-225-10-A with chassis number 8-1352-B.  The car is currently not registered but he is planning on a full restoration.

Ken

Ken,

yes, Yes, YES.....bring it on....I can't wait for your book!!

Brad

 ;)hey ken what number would this one be FC 215-56-a(fc wagan). ???COL58FE 8)TALKING OF I.D I'LL HAVE SOME MORE  ON THRUSDAY WHEN I PICK UP THAT OTHER FC I WAS CHASING UP THE OLD BLOKE WANT $200.00 AND I SAID SOLD ,SO UNTIL THEN I HOPE YA CAN GIVE ME A NUMBER ON THIS FOR NOW .THANK'S... 8)

Here you go Ken
I now have the numbers for the lowest numbered FE in WA so far

FE-225-1283  
Chassis   6-1239-P
Engine    284106
Paint      253-16258
Trim       4-682    

gee im glad i asked the question
it has been a interesting topic and i hope there is more to come
thanks again ken

Col, FC 215 is a standard sedan, not a wagon.
Wagon is either 229 or 219

The thing about body numbers is that it is fairly easy to find low body numbers for the low build number models like 215, 219, 217 and 2104
If the 56A car is a 215 sedan or a 219 wagon, it is surely a low body number but not necessarily a low chassis number.  When you find out exactly what it is I can let you know a bit more about it.

Gary, sorry - Mark Hughes' car is lower.
Ken

Col, now I remember your other post.  Car is FC-219-56
Therefore, body low body numbers are not hard to find.
I have so far.
51M
89A
44M
and yours, 56A
A chassis number would be handy for this last car though.

Regards  Ken

hi ken
did holden themselves keep any of the earlier models
i know alot of dealers who have had there dealership for awhile  do collect cars along the way
kalfe

Gee I love talking numbers, although I'm surprised how low mine is ( Mark Hughes WA ).  for those interested in numbers, as you've read, my FC is number 205 from Adelaide, but also has chassis number 8-1169 P , making it number 169 assembled in Perth !

I'd love to know how low it is out of all the known WA cars.

I reckon you could almost make a book on this stuff, but the only problem is, that new cars keep popping up, so you'd have to make it a monthly magazine..........BLINK.....now there's an idea !

Mark Hughes
WA

hey mark
i agree i think its a great topic
a monthly update would be needed though your right
i found a bloke who has 3 fe sesdans and 2 fc sedans
im going out to get his numbers this weekend
kalfe

3 Fe's and 2 FC's hey ?    Well that beats mark bone's 4....maybe we could start a new topic on who owns the most amount of FE'FC's ...........naah....better not......it could get a bit out of control !

Interesting though, to know who has what and how many !

It's funny you know......I love to look at show condition cars and restored classics, and I have been there and done that, turning my old 64 Cooper from a wreck to a show contender....but....the funny thing is, when I was finished restoring the Cooper, I felt sad that it was no longer OLD ?????

It's almost like, there is something special about finding an old un-touched classic car on some farm in the middle of nowhere.  That's why I now own 2 FC's...one to be restored, the other to sit there and get older !
In fact, my illness has gotten worse, and I'm now looking at creating my own Holden Graveyard....lucky I've got 5 acres, heaps of room for unwanted FC's !

Restored cars are great ( EYE CANDY ), but there's somethig about an original farm wreck.....don;t ya think "?

Mark

hey mark
i think its great
that fe ute i found in the bush was a great site
under the trees
very nice resting place
i reckon its a great idea to have a graveyard
this bloke i was telling u about has 5 cars and not one restored but he wont part with them
he just loves them

Most dealerships sold off old display cars when times were tough for Holden in the 80's unfortunately.

My favourite farm in country Victoria is owned by a family friend, he has 115 cars on his property all lined up ranging from a couple of dozen FE/FC's, early Falcons, Cussos and Mainlines, Vanguards, vintage Dodge, Chevies, etc, etc.

Ken

that be be a great site
have u any pics
is there a spot on the web  site where you can look at old graveyard car sites
i find it very interesting

Try these couple.  They are American sites, so you won't see too many FE/FCs. 8)

Maybe we should have a section in the forum for wreck photos, and a section for old magazine pix since Norm has been submitting a few recently.

http://www.classicsandoldwrecks.com

http://www.carsinbarns.com ;D

hey shane
i reckon that would be a great thread
there must be alot of memebers out there with graveyard pics
i know gary stevens had some
thanks for the sites shane
dale kalfe