My side yard.

[EffCee]

That taxi must have still been in service after decimal currency came in, or have you replaced the taxi meter. I suppose the rarer type of taxi meter would be one in pounds shillings and pence. I for one have never seen one. Even so it is an amazing example of a taxi

I don't know how you find time to maintain them all, I bet you can't wait to retire. You will never have been so busy in your life just driving all of them.

[cruiser056]

Robin,
         This is the first time we have seen the Taxi since we sold it.  My wife said it looks lonely! and that we should never had sold it.  Oh well, I guess everyone would like to turn the clock back some time or another.  Very nice collection of cars, happy retirement!!

Michael

[mcl1959]

Robin, do you have some shots of the paving on the floor?  I love the paving

Ken

[zulu]

Ken, have you been on the turps?
Nice collection Robin, I thought I had a problem till I saw your shed 
Your aims are similar to mine, retirement projects, only trouble is, I have to keep working to afford the hobby 

[JB]

You obviously haven't seen the floor Zulu! 

[Paul In Ireland]

So, is there a bunkhouse whereby fellow FC and FE'ers come to stay a while and help out a bit and drive a bit and talk a bit etc.? Sort of like an early holden retreat centre - you could retire now and make money from that!

So, if you have all those cars, I must meet your wife! My shared collection runs to 8 cars and I thought we were a bit mad. Just got back Sunday from collecting a 1967 Volvo 121 2 door Amazon. Gotta love the classics....

I still want to get a couple of more FE/FC's over here for my shed - money is the ONLY barrier!

[cajerridoc]

I have a friend who comes up and works on the cars with me. He is very good with old Holdens having around 40 of his own. His 2 specialities are wrecking and restoring. Very handy friend to have. He was at the Nationals with his FE sedan called Maybellene,with the metal flake red roof.

I don't currently have a bunkhouse, but I someone wants to come over and work on the cars I will work something out. There are a lot of talented people on this web site.

I do alot of the mechanical work on them and the local mechanic is also good as he grew up with them and tells me stories of what he used to get up to in the old girls.

I find the best way to keep them going and the most fun is a frequent drive around the block, which in my case is about 50km, even just into town and back is 13km. Works all the bits and stops them clagging up.

As for the floor of the shed I will have to get a new shot as the hard drive crashed a few moths ago and all was lost.

As for the wife, Caroline drove one of the cars to The Nationals and helped out with some of the events and registrations. She has even suggested that we should have one with adjustable height seats for her to drive. Well if you are going to change the seats you may as well do the motor to a 350 with a six speed and all the rest. I think that is what she meant.

I said right from the start that the cars were an investment, and this has been prooven to be true. I generally try to buy cars that are in top original or restored condtion so I don't spend too much fixing them up, but some a so rare that you just have to take what you can get. If I find one better than what I've got I will buy that and sell the other one.

Heres some more photos:

Parts cars

The Hawk Wagon


When I found it there had been a hawk nesting on the front seat. Entered through the missing quarter vent window on the passenger door. The nest was in the drivers seat and the hawk sat on the steering wheel with all round vision. The owner used the car to get from his plane to Adelaide when he flew over. One day it stopped and that is where it stayed for many years.

The FB
                                                 

Bought it for the scratch plates and a few other bits. If you want any FB parts let me know. I have sold a lot but there is still a fair bit there.

Restorers:

The Junee FE Wagon FE229



You can never have too many FE wagons. Hope to restore it one day. Too few of these around to wreck this one.

The Aunties car FE 215



Owned by the 2 unmarried aunts, of the guy I bought it off of, from new until they died. Covered around 53ooo miles. My guess is the dealer painted the roof green to make it look like a special.
                                                               


Robin

[customFC]

Hey Robin
Thanks for the extra pics.
Please keep 'em coming.
Regards
Alex

[nige and Jody]

Great pics Robin!

Please post some more, I like the little stories about how you came across them too.

Nige

[graham_fuller]

Hey Robin,
I agree with the others keep the pics and stories coming, very interesting.Thanks for sharing,
Cheers,
Graham

[cajerridoc]

There are still a few more to do. The photos are harder to get as they are packed in the sheds but I'll do what I can.

Robin

[Sideplate]

I agree, I find this very interesting

[cajerridoc]

This is what Ken was wanting to see.



There is also an "FC" at the other end of the shed but it is a bit harder to get to. Oh the things you do when you have 8 pallets of pavers to lay.

The oil spots are from my Ascot Grey FE.



This one came with a heap of paperwork including the Packing Slip.

                                                       
And The Warranty



There is also the "Customer's Service Record of Mobilubrication Service", a couple of old rego papers, "Good Housekeeping" book , Owner Manual and a card titled "Driving Instructions and Manufacturer's Warranty".

More pictures of the car:
                                                       



                                                       

The car has done around 35000 miles and was resprayed by the previous owner.

The dealer, Gilbert Motors, that sold the car was one that I bought several cars from, until they recently lost the Holden franchise and are now a Toyota dealer only. Sad really as they had been selling Holdens for a long time, but they were apparently asked to spend a lot of money to upgrade of get out. There have been a few small dealers pushed out like this and it only leaves the Mega dealers.

As I said the colour is Ascot Grey and I actually bought it from a guy in Ascot Park. I saw the car advertised and put off calling for 2 weeks as I was giving the other buyers a go. When I rang he said he had been waiting for me to call and if I offered $6500 for it he would take it. He was asking $8500 from memory. He had 24 cars and was moving to a retirement home and was only allowed 2 cars.

It is a great old car and I love to drive it. I find the two tone gery FC's a bit bland (each to their own) and it seems, rather comon but the FE in the single colour grey I like and I have had several people comment that the Grey FE is there favourite of my collection.

We have taken it to Mt Gambier on 2 club runs and have had to replace the head as it developed a large crack on one of these trips. The kids also did some damage destroying the plastic seat surrounds as they were bored on the way to Mt Gambier. Thank God for Nintendo DS's.

Robin

PS: If you were wondering what was in my back yard, I'll show you:



Nothing but room for expansion! (the first fence is not the back fence)

[mcl1959]

Robin, The delivery docket appears to be the docket the body shell carried when completed to CKD form. This docket should then have been removed & completed by the manufacturing plant when the vehicle was assembled. I can't remember seeing another one of these dockets in a car.
It's interesting the car wasn't completed until a month after the body was finished.

Ken

[graham_fuller]

Hi Robin,
What is the interior colours of the Ascot Grey car?
Cheers,
Graham

[Geoff_K]

Graham,
Interior Colour Scheme is: Fall Red & Parchment Ivory
Robins, collection is truely amazing; all those cars, all those stories.
I will certainly be watching for more pictures as Robin gets around to it.
Geoff_K

[cajerridoc]

This is my FC 219 Standard Station Sedan.

I had to borrow the tailgate badge for my ute for The Nationals.


I had been scouting around for one of these for a while and approached a couple of people that had one, but they were not ready to sell yet.

Finally one appeared on ebay. It had a 179 and trimatic but the conversion was very much a backyard job and the floor had not been modified to take the auto so it hung down a lot at the rear. Because of this it would be easy to refit a grey and gearbox. I was the only bidder and won the car. There was a heap of parts with it but they could not be sent with the car so I had to work out a way to get them from VIC.

Loading the car was difficult as there was an offset muffler mounted sideways to make up for the weird angle the motor was on. The muffler fouled on the trailer and stopped the car. With a better run up it was on but getting it off was also difficult.

I had won the car on ebay on a Saturday, and the club newsletter arrived on Monday. "FC Standard Wagon for sale". DOH! It was local and mostly original. Even the same colour. I went and had a look and but it was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other as it had bucket seats fitted and for some reason the vent in the cowl had been bogged up. The handle is still connected though, so one push and it will pop up. I did not buy it but I bought 10 bumper over riders in good nick for $50.

Time passed and the guy with the second wagon rang me up and offered it to me for $1000 off. It was just after Christmas so money was short and I had to decline.

Then it appears on ebay a couple of months latter and it does not meet its reserve. He re listed at a lower price with no reserve and it was now getting tempting. I won it by 10 cents due to the quirk of ebay. When I spoke to the owner he congratulated me and reminded me to bring the 10 cents.

Anyway I now had both, deliberated for a year or so as to which one to keep, removed some goodies from the one I was selling and sold it on ebay and it went back to VIC.

So this is the second one. As you can see there must have been an issue with brake lights as there are 2 in the back windowand 2 below the bumper as well as the original ones. Maybe the Tamworth sticker has something to do with this. It also came with lots of spare parts and about 5 sets of keys. There is a CB radio and dymo labels under the bonnet of the engine and chassis number. There is even a light under the bonnet.



The story of how I got the parts that came with the first one is an adventure in itself involving a road trip, a HR and a car trailer.

Robin

[NosFEratu]

Very interesting reading Robin - please keep the stories coming.

Kathi 

[mikey]

Loading the car was difficult as there was an offset muffler mounted sideways to make up for the weird angle the motor was on. The muffler fouled on the trailer and stopped the car. With a better run up it was on but getting it off was also difficult.

Don't want to go off track from your wonderful post, but this might help others. 

Did you happen to try and get the car onto the trailer with the trailer hooked up to the tow car at all?

This caused me grief only once and quickly learned my lesson, from now I always unhook the trailer from the tow car and chock the rear wheels of the trailer. When you drive/pull the car onto the trailer the front end of the trailer goes right up in the air and this gives a better approach angle for the car to roll up. If working alone, as it gets near to near level, yank on the handbrake and drag the car through the brakes so it doesn't go to far forward and tip down. Time to reverse the tow car to the trailer (hard bit if alone)
Was taking my daughter to a play center a short time ago, it is in a industrial area and drove past a mechanics where this young guy and his Mum were desperately trying to get his broken down car onto a car trailer. (was going to cost too much to fix, so were taking it home) It was stuck halfway up, poor young bloke was dripping with sweat after trying heaps to get it on. Pulled up and asked if they needed help, they said yes of course.  Rolled the car off, unhooked the trailer and pulled it back on. 10 mins work and I pulled the car on for him and didn't even raise a sweat.

cajerridoc back to lots of pictures after this short interruption. 

Cheers  M

[nige and Jody]

Great Stories Robin,

Keep em coming!

Nige