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!)
