FE 1957 - Breton Blue/Teal Blue - 327, T700, modified chassis - original body

[fe350chev]

I got some Torana flutes yesty.

[Frankiej]

Hey Deano my mate Luke does a great job with his sandblasting, he does all my work for me and it saves me endless amounts of hours...and your car looks Awsome mate a great body to start with that's for sure.
Cheers Frankie.

[fe350chev]

He is better than others around that's for sure. The only thing wrong with him is he is a cocky! Bahaha! Just kidding. I'm outnumbered unfortunately

[fe350chev]

Just a question for anyone who has service bulletins for colours. I would like for someone to please comment on when the colour and interior combo on my car began and discontinued pls. I would also like to know the colour mix for 2k or acrylic etc. Basically I thought through ignorance that the Breton blue was very popular but I was getting it mixed up with elk blue. Seems that the Fj was more common in Breton and teal. So I did some samples of newer metallic greys and blues and I'm thinking I like the interior in the original colours but it doesn't match the exterior. I don't want grey in a 50's car. So I'm now thinking of doing Breton blue but in the darkest shade of it possible without going outside of it being confused with other blues. I think some have faded more than others. I got thinking about all this when I saw a pie chart showing this colour is not all that common as I thought. I think as time goes on, retaining a true 50's colour will be better than going to modern colours but I'm pretty hooked on a new Toyota colour I found too. I suppose I've evolved from going retro tech to wanting a pre 70's mod job mainly on what you don't see but trying to retain the period body styling. I'm not sure why I am changing but seems like the way to go in my conscience.

[mcl1959]

Dean, I checked your car details in my computer and it dates your car to early December 1957 which places it very nicely in the range I described in the other thread you posted. That is Teal blue over Breton blue ran from mid September 1957 to January 1958.
Unfortunately I don't have the bulletin for the period January to May 1958. My database suggests that the combination did not continue past January because I have no recorded 1958 cars.
However I have found that the combo also ran for a batch in 1956 as well.
I have the bulletin for the list of colours that the first batch of FC's came out in

Anyhow that combo is quite common - I have 21 cars recorded. But not as common as teal blue over elk blue - 38 cars recorded.
ken

[fe350chev]

Yep, I remember when I bought the car thinking that it's not exactly the blue I was after thinking it was a sky blue but it wasn't until hoon posted his fe up that I realised that I had the one I prefer. It's all a matter of personal taste. I didn't realise how hard it is to find a good interior combo. But I've decided whatever I do I will now be keeping the original colours on the inside (unless the exterior clashes badly). It's good having the fc in complete opposite red and black too. I remember you saying about the fc having the later style rear seat pattern. When I take the fc seat apart I will be taking pics to ask Stinky whether it is original or whether it's been refurbished. I can't imagine it being a taxi so long without seat trouble.

[fe350chev]

I put the vs tank in the car today. It fitted very easy

[NES304]

It's backwards....

[fe350chev]

Lol. I'm majorly sorting stuff and preparing spaces to strip some more old panels etc. So it can sit in there for now. Just picked up the tank Tuesday. Is it easier to cut the straps out and graft them in or just get the straps and do the step. Are there a few ppl who have used the vs tank for a sedan?

[NES304]

Well I am one. NO room for exhaust between the leaves either

[fe350chev]

Yeah I noticed that. Did you do an exhaust exit behind back wheel? When I posted this I hadn't looked at the vs mount properly cos it's not here but it's fairly simple. I'm wondering if anyone has used just the vn syphone pump by itself or whether I'll need to run an inline pump too. If I do run injection it will be aftermarket and will have an inline pump used to be compatible with the injection system. I was just trying to be funny about putting the tank in.

[NES304]

Like this

[fe350chev]

Ok. Thanks for that. Sometimes it's a bit hard to keep track of all the builds. Sometimes btw yours and JB and Hoons various projects etc I forget finer details.

I have been busy though sorting my rack with a few mates down the road. So the vk rack shortening is underway in that we have one there nearly complete as a blueprint. So using their machining gear and skills they will cut the rack at each end, sleeve it in the centre (full length) and drill, machine and re thread it etc.

At the moment I've got both diffs adjacent each other and I borrowed a vy ss 18" x 8" wheel with 48p offset just to see how it compares with the 15" interceptor and the latter seems to be the go as in central with the original wheels but it's more to satisfy myself to check that it goes together well and measure. I've got so much stuff everywhere doing 2 cars and a truck, so have been sorting all the trims and started cleaning them up but the handy thing with 2 cars is that I have the taxi down the road at the workshop as a roller to trial fit the scalloped and strengthened hr front end and rack/column etc. So got new bearings for the diff and starting to think about handbrake setup. I'll put the b pillar nut in too, using the one old 'old oldens' in Lonsdale use. I had a tour of their customs workshop and got some cool ideas.

Frankie is trying to get me the Austin wiper motor so attention and I found a VK intermediate shaft and the guy wouldn't separate the rack so I scored it for a fair price and now one less thing for him to find.

Focus has also turned to the booster setup which I picked up a good xb master for 10 bucks to go on the Gemini booster. The picks above help cos I need to sort all the brake and fuel lines out. Might get some of Pete's or whoever's clips, so cleaning those up. Trying to get some body work finished on my acco tipper and finishing any earthworks with the kobelco on the new block so I can sell them. That will free up some funds to progress the taxi ahead of this one. The taxi will be ok cos I can use the stuff I don't need from the low km fe on the fc. I reckon I'll just slap a cheap bottom end together myself just to get it going for rego but using the Weber and sonic setup. Tomorrow I will look into getting the axle sorted on the shortened side and from a guesstimate it's gotta be about 45 to 50mm (just a rough check with a golf cart tube he he) longer but the wheel fitup is what I was eager to check myself.

Starting on the tank mount too. There's too much to mention btw the 3 projects. Been up til 5am the last 3 days cos kids are home on holidays. I have a much better idea of what I want out of the builds now. But I got too many things . So selling the caravan too cos the kids are older now and we will just hire them when we want that style of holiday.

[NES304]

Ok. Thanks for that. Sometimes it's a bit hard to keep track of all the builds. Sometimes btw yours and JB and Hoons various projects etc I forget finer details.

No worries.

Tip: Although some questions are appropriate in the modification help section you could ask the question in this thread to keep all Your stuff in one area and to show how you got from one idea to the next or how it evolves telling more of a story within your thread like above.

PS, you only have a 5/8 and a small tube on top of the VS tank. This is what I have with all the reduced number of lines up and down the fuel neck. There is an earlier varient with another small pipe from the top of the tank going to three small breather tubes on the neck and to canister.

[fe350chev]

Yeah and yeah. I need sleep tonight!

[fe350chev]

I did some pics for people who are doing their current builds and are considering a shortened BW diff for the rear. I set it up with the old diff on same table to demonstrate to some of the guys who can't grasp the technicalities of various offsets etc without a visual. So here I have the diffs centred to each other as if they were a mirror image in relation to the spring mounts. The first pic demonstrates how much bigger the long side was before narrowing the housing (using the original long axle).
Note when doing these comparisons and sending people pics that usually on phones the camera lense is offset so you must centre the camera lense to the intended centre points on your wheels.

This is a standard interceptor rim, fitted with the usual 28p for IRS. I don't wanna get into the specifics of what it's from, it doesn't matter cos it's demonstrating much better than rear shallower dish steel wheels in this comparison anyway. So with everything centred and even, the first pic is the 205/65 r15 steel rim with 28p offset.
I put a standard hr 13" wheel on top of the rim to demonstrate better how the tyres line up at the bottom.

Here I have a borrowed VZ SS Commodore wheel that's a 235/45 r17. The offset of this very shallow dish mag is 48p.
I hope this can help people who were trying to visualise what the different offsets translate to in real life. If you want to get the wheel further towards the diff end inside the guards, you just have to choose rotors that allow for this (just one way of doing it) but if you want to set up a steel wheel closer to the inside, then most should be able to get more modern BMW, Land rover or VW wheels that have bigger offsets than both VS/VL or VT steelies etc. Hope this helps.

[fe350chev]

Ok, this is the front end I will be using for this car. It's gusseted inside with 1/8" plate for the vex part. I'm going to blast it and put the new springs in that I have in previous pic.  It's going in the blasting pile.

[FireKraka]

So you are going to use a front mounted rack reports say that they are not a very good conversion even though I know a lot of people have done them there disadvantages have been discussed many times.

Neil H

[fe350chev]

No I'm not having a front mounted rack. I'm using the centre of this one. We are currently shortening the vk rack and about to make the brackets for the rear.

[Ol_Girl_58]

So you are going to use a front mounted rack reports say that they are not a very good conversion even though I know a lot of people have done them there disadvantages have been discussed many times.

Neil H

My front mount is great