Messages

67 hour week??  sounds like more money for RUDD and some more for the FC 8) 8)  looking real good jamie.  I bloody gave away a set of nos sills a few years ago, Im trying to get them back, hopefully I will.  Your work looks like its going real well, keep it up!!!!!
                                                                                                      Paul

Jamie,

Where did you get the sills from? I got some from RS but they do not have the end sections or the cutouts like yours...

Neil

Hey Guys,

I am looking at the floor pan replacement sections (I will need to do all 4)... there seems to be a couple of suppliers on eBay. The prices seem similar. Does anyone have experience with the quality of each? From reading the forum, and speaking with some guys, the fit will not be perfect (far from it I am lead to believe), but if I can find the better option it might make it a tad easier.

Cheers,

Neil

Mud? I think you mixed the 'u' with the 'a'... $405 with 9 bidders!!!!!  ;D

I'm looking forward to some rust repairs too :)

I am willing to tackle the panel rust, and floor pans etc, but not the structural bits and pieces... I am looking for a body builder on the southside of Brissy to tackle that stuff.

The Shed was built for the FC, or so it seems :)

Cheers for the reply,

Neil

Update 3rd May...

Haven't posted for a while.. you all know the reasons - time, time, time, so no need to elaborate :)

All but stripped down now. Have made a rotisserie that seems to work OK. I have posted a question in the Restorations section re rust in the wishbones, so I won't go on with it here.

The panels are in good nick, with bits of rust here and there around the boot edge, windscreen, all the floor pans and some odd other bits here and there. Now that she is up on the rotisserie, I can get a better handle on what needs to be done. I didn't get time this weekend to roll her over, so I will wait til next week.

Other than that, I am looking for someone in Brissy that does rechroming and I am keeping an eye on eBay for the odds and ends that I need.

Here are some pics of the latest work session...











Cheers,

Neil

Hey Guys,

Been a while since my last post and update on the project... it is all but stripped down to the basics. As expected, the rust is of some concern, but the main area for me is the ends of the outer wishbone sections. I almost know the answer to the question before I ask... can these be repaired? do they do a rust replacement section or am I better off looking for rust free sections from a donor car?







As always, your assistance is appreciated.

Neil

Neil,

You also asked about sourcing door rubbers.

I did mine recently - got them from Rare Spares.  They are not the correct shape all the way around - over the hinges on the back doors and on the front doors at the door catch mechanism and at the curve over the top of the front mudguard.

I bought some lengths of rubber of various profiles and made up the special sections for the rear doors, and cut and inserted the different profile sections for the front doors.  Super glue works well to joint up the rubber sections - but make sure you have some solvent on hand. I ended up with thumb & finger on one hand, finger on the other hand and a piece of rubber all stuck together on one occasion.  Had to get my wife to apply the solvent so I could "unglue" myself.  :-[   ;D  Much to her amusement.

Have a look at this thread for some great tips.  http://fefcholden.org.au/forum/index.php/topic,16394.0.html

After a bit of trial and error I got what I think is a reasonable job - it's easier to close the doors now if one window is wound down a bit.  For me, it takes the practice of doing 5 doors to get it really right - pitty there's only 4 doors on the car.

Martin

Many thanks Martin,

As I get closer to that section, I will look into itin more depth. In the meantime I will keep on reviewing the forum for the best way of doing it...

Cheers Guys,

Neil

Good luck and Go the Tigers!...Yeah lame joke.I love looking at disassembly pics cause this is the easy part.All the rust pictures are pretty normal but not quite as bad as what some have faced (me)...Keep up the photos.I'm hoping to paint in the next few days...Wish ME luck... ???

yep, good luck... I hope the weather is kind to you :)

N

Day 3 of the restoration, well 1/2 a day really by the time I got going.

Managed to get the engine out... took 1 hour 22 minutes.Didn't think that was too bad for someone who had never taken one out on his own. Went well





So much easier with a hoist.





Decided to give the engine bay a bit of a degrease. As I did it answered a question I had about the original colour of the engine bay. It was painted black when I got it, but using the water blaster revealed the original colour was Graphite Grey, so happy with that.



Also found the chassis number stamped on the drivers side front section. It was covered with the paint. Someone had tried to stampit above the ID Plate at some stage, and did a dodgy job. I could hardly read it, and realised that the number was FC 225-9336-S.On looking the first 3 had been stamped backwards, and the second 3 was stamped sideways, no wonder it was tough to read.



So tomorrow is finishing removing interior, and if time permits I might tackle the front end.

Wish me luck... more later.

Neil

G'day Neill, I would suggest to keep all the doors and have them repaired. If they fit now then they will fit again later. The chances of getting another door and getting it to fit like the old one, is normally very unlikely.
Cheers Scotty

Thanks Scotty, that's the sort of feedback I need and very much appreciate... makes the path a little less fuzzy :)

Cheers for that

Neil

Aaaaah a shed one can only dream, one day it will happen.

Neil, keep up the good work.

Cheers Jim

I only built the shed for the car  ;D

Neil

Love the colour scheme. If you repaint it the same colour you need to put a taxi light on the roof to finish it off ;D

Cheers
Paul

Then we could go into business together... I can take the walking ones, and you can take the ones that can't :)

Neil

Regards
Alex

Thanks Alex... that is what she will be then... :)

I don't suppose you have any pics of the dash?

Neil

http://www.fefcholden.org.au/techinfo/idinfo.html  ;)

Thanks for that, I had already been there but still struggled to work out what style it meant. Ken has given some insight, so I will go with that unless I discover something new.

Appreciate the feedback.

Neil

This is an early tag. It stopped early in 1959 and was replaced by a tag which had 3 lines for paint. However the plate was not changed at the introduction of the 2nd body style (I guess they had stock which had to be run out)
Therefore it is impossible to tell from the plate alone when the FC changed from 1st style to 2nd style but since this tag has such an early body number then I am confident that it would belong to a car with roof, boot & flash all the same colour.

Ken

Great, thanks Ken... I have been on the forum and the web for about 5 hours trying to sus out which is which...

Neil

Hi Guys,

Below is the tag from my car.



I think I have sussed that it was India Ivory over Granite Grey, but can't work out whether the roof and boot were India ivory, or just the top of the doors and rear guard,any hints?

Engine Number is L493358.

I will need to replace all the rubbers as they have perished... where is the best place to source these?

Cheers guys.

Neil

Restoration Day 2

A bit quieter today mainly finishing removal of the driver door, guards, grille etc. No new surprises.







Unfortunately work will interfere with the work... so probably no more til the weekend.

Cheers,

Neil

Take a heap of photos of small things Neil. They will come in handy when its going back together. Try to save door rubbers etc, you might find that parts of the old rubbers will come in handy when the repro stuff doesn't quite fit. Door belts ,things like that you may need old fasteners in the replacements. Dont just rip shit out,you may need it, oh yeah,good luck.
Gary

Cheers Gary,

Yep lots of pics, and all the bits are bagged and tagged. I have saved all the rubbers in as close to their original condition as I could...

Appreciate the guidance.

Neil

Day one of the restoration.










Had to clean up the shed to make the appropriate room for the old girl. Moved away all the woodworking stuff, gave it a good blow out and put down a tarp.







When we went to push the car into the shed it wouldn’t budge, pushed, pulled, rocked and shook… no way no how was it going to move. As the previous owner took his battery back, and I didn’t have one handy, it was off to Autobarn to do some father and son bonding. Picked up a battery, a couple of stands, a work light and a floor jack and floor trolley. Came back, threw the battery in and first kick it started and purred like a kitten… very impressed. Into reverse and she still wouldn’t move, so gave it a few more revs and felt the front wheels let go and away she went…into the shed.





Started at the back and worked forward… seats, boot lid, rear bumper, rear doors (stripped down), front passenger door out and called it a day. Found some minor rust around the lower boot sill where the rubbers fit some in the wheel well of the rear guards.




Just before heading inside I had a dig around in the front drivers pan and just where the cross member runs there is a ton of rust, but that was already known from the initial inspection so no surprises there.





There is some in the top of the rear passenger door, and I am wondering if it is worth repairing or better to look for another door??? Thoughts????

The chrome strips are in good nick which is nice.

Most of the window channels and mechanisms are rusted beyond reasonable, so will have to find some of those.
All in all a great day… always fun pulling things apart.





Tomorrow will be finishing the interior stripping, and then onto the front- bonnet, bumper, guards etc. Might get around to de-glassing it, will see how we go.
OK, that is it so far… more later.

Neil

OK Guys,

Following on from my posts in the Restoration section... it's official I have the old girl home!!!!

Picked her up this afternoon pics below.

My first order of business is to buy a new nail brush, I forgot how much dirt gets under your nails :)

Second order is to give her a hit with the water blaster and strip the interior, carefully cataloging as I go. I am outstanding at pulling things apart, but crap at remembering how they went together :)

I'll post as often as I can to keep all the information hungry members appeased. I will also be asking many gumby questions in the process.

OK, thanks for reading.

Neil

Link to previous posts...

http://fefcholden.org.au/forum/index.php/topic,17018.0.html