Messages

Thanks Hayden, I'll just leave it on the firewall and paint it with the rest, that's the way it came out.
I have rebuilt the sill ends to take the subframe ends, thanks to the photo's of "FCwrangler" Jim. They helped out immensely.

Thanks for that. Plate is still on the firewall so I'll just paint it with the rest. Doing a few dints now and about to undercoat the body.

Thanks Jim, that has helped me out immensely. Looks like the people who put the sills and outer cross members on have made it up as they went along. Rust repairs are bad enough but fixing up some one else's balls up makes it crap work.

Any shed has a few Huntsman in the dark corners, they tend to grow out to full size down here. They scare the crap out of me even though I know they can only nip you.

Seems a lot of trouble to go to just to get all that grief? Is there any big advantage to a later model front end? Drums aren't as good as discs but as with most of these old cars you drive accordingly and all's good.

Got  bit more done on the FC during the week.
Finished up the crossmember, are most rusted there? I took it you can't get repo's for that one so I built a new side.

The subframe end was a bit rotten. Before.


During

And after repair

Next is a fit up of the subframe and body to see how the new ends mate with the sills.

Thanks Stewy, I had thought the plate would have been natural aluminium. I have about 2 days left on the rust work on the body then it's the front subframe and then the front guards. At least with parts off the main frame you can work in a reasonable position, laying down welding being showered with sparks and getting arc burn on the top of my bald head has knobs on it.  ;D

Interior is a bit ratty, will need a tidy up. Unless you go full tilt at a big job like this it usually takes twice as long as you think it would.

Helping a friend with his FC, only just started. A rust repair, panel and paint is a big job, bigger if you have limited time to work on it. I hope to have the rust work done in a couple of weeks, there is a fair bit of repairing the repairs that have been done before. 
Panels are pretty straight. I like the two tone blue, classic late fifties style.

Engine is a reco, colour looks original in engine bay except the plate on the firewall has been painted.

Crossmember has a bit of rust, couldn't find a replacement so I had to fabricate bits.

Nearly closed up, I used to do a bit of panel beating in the olden days and only ever used oxy. We have a loan of a Mig and it's the best thing ever for panel work, takes a quarter of the time and no where near the distortion.

You don't have to imagine if you've ever seen the Daily Telegraph or the Herald Sun  :-\

Or watched any of the Australian commercial TV channels, the tripe they call news with special interest stories involving major sponsors.

Thanks Neil

Could somebody supply some piccies of the end of the subframes where they attach to the body? I also need to see what the body looks like where the subframe hooks up to the body at the sills. The machine we're working on has a fair bit of rust damage at the end of the subframe and I need to see what the original looks like so I can replicate it.
Thanks. OF

Thanks for that

I'm after a build date for an FC.
The numbers on the firewall are FC/225-17XXXM and RPO 256-2XXX, there is also a number on the right front engine bay which was FC34XXXM. Is there anywhere I can look up when this machine came off the line?
Thanks

Bewdy, thanks fella's.

What about the aluminium tag on the firewall, was it painted the body colour as well? It doesn't look right to me but the paint looks to be original. The subframes are painted body colour back to where they bolt underneath onto the body. I'll chase up the body number to see when it was produced.

Thanks for that, it didn't look right being light blue.

Back in the olden days when I was working on cars I have a vague memory of the engine bay colour (Apart from the firewall) was black on older Holden's like HR's and FC's. I'm helping a friend with some work on an FC and the paint inside the engine bay is the same colour as the lighter colour of the two tone.
So Black or colour?