FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Hi

Does anyone know of ppl who have original taxi's with books on the forum? I'm trying to gauge whether there are many around. I have seen themed ones but no originals in my travels. I would like to start a thread dedicated to themed cars but I'm not sure of which section to out it. I really like racv utes too.

There is an original FC Yellow Cab at the Sydney Bus & Truck museum in Leichhardt.

The museum itself is currently not open & is being refurbished after their move from Tempe.

I know the car's history & it's original owner. What do you need to know ?

Dr Terry

there is an original FC Yellow Cab in Toowoomba...it is owned by Yellow Cabs Brisbane and looked after by its original driver who lives in Toowoomba..have not seen it around for a while though, can only presume it is still here..   

That's correct Mike.  The last I heard of it a few years ago it lived in North Street.

Keith

I just wanted to see what taxi rail it has. I don't want aftermarket. So is that the only one ppl know of that's completely original. The guy who converted it painted the diamonds on with a brush and the car likely did over a million miles cos the guy used the fe even though he had more taxis like an ej and fb. I'm pretty sure he swapped engine probably when the others needed overhaul.

Mine has a depression in the middle of the roof where I presume they had a magnetic taxi sign so I wanted to know what they used on the other car. This fc I have was in service so long there's evidence of it adopting 1964 rules of certain things like a radio. Once I complete all the research I think it would be cool to have some separate threads on commercial vehicle stories and articles. The neighbour counfirmed that this bloke hated the city so had a rental in Adelaide with 2 or 3 cars in Adelaide but he loved the fc and it went home with him from the city to nearly old noarlunga 6 days a week.

Do the gearboxes and diffs have date stamps?

Yep - info here on how to determine the date of a grey crashbox:
http://forum.fefcholden.club/index.php?topic=22894.0

Cheers,
Harv

Holden grey  crash boxes do . There is a  cast circle on them that indicate month and year . Dont think diffs have anything other than ratio on them

Ok. Thanks. Interested to see whether it's a box and engine of same vintage.

I have photos of my old FE 217 - it was a one owner original car bought from a deceased estate. I have the full history of this car and the taxi rail is correct for the car. Car is now owned by Zulu.
The rail is the horizontal one - it is not angled up at 30 degrees like some you see.

Gearbox number should be in a similar range to the engine number but they were never matched. You hear American concourse people talking about "matching numbers cars". This does not apply to early Holdens as the body number, chassis number, engine number and gearbox number will all be different.

Most period photos I have show a taxi sign which is screwed to the roof and illuminated. Maybe if the taxi sign is not illuminated it may be magnetic.

Ken

Here is a photo of a typical taxi   (http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/11/03/9ce4944184903ac096a4cf3ba23061e9.jpg)
Ken


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Interesting photo Ken of the place where my taxi came from but it's an fc not fe. So one of these blokes was Stephen but I can't get hold of his adult kids. Trying to track down his wife who is in a nursing home.

(http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x448/fewithrb40/taxipic.png) ($2)

I've since found an old Neptune oil tin. They are quite rare. I noticed the new museum has Neptune. Was that a Holden thing do you know?

Ken, what's the front car.

I want to do it with the black roof stripe. Diamonds around over the white. I think I should use acrylic paint too and not do it too perfect cos the owner drivers painted their own, evidenced by his old neighbour who told me stories about the car, including the taxi company being pissed off at drivers having subtle differences on their colours compared to presumably company cars. Perhaps that's why it is a special too. The car seemed to have never stopped the old lady said. Her kids and his kids all piled into the overloaded car to noarlunga beach in summer many nights. His wife did the books. I looked on street view and there's 90's  modern building where this was.

Yeah Ken when. I said about the box and engine, I mean a few months apart. When they did rebuilds are there any updates the did on first gears or other components?

Others stories I haven't told you were that he was an old bushy and painted on thick oil under the car for rust protection. Looks like he filled channels with oil. I haven't got to the front of  the sills yet but the front cross member is in very good condition but it wasn't off the road long. He may have done this cos it was common at that beach to drive on the sand.

press modify to edit and then add..... instead of reply reply reply :o ;)

Unless you are replying to yourself ;D

Deano, if you are talking about the photo of the taxi's you posted then the front cab is a Ford Zepher. My older brother had a grey & white one , not a bad car for a Ford then he traded it for a new HG Monaro GTS 253.
Jim

Dad had a zephyr.

A bit of a step up with monaro.

Nes it's the tourettes lol making me press reply

I'll stop now otherwise you will get Shitty. I'm too lazy to use this properly on my own threads.

An FE photo, with the same roof sign. All the photos I have of period taxis have this same light. Possibly the owner operated taxis were built to a tight budget. Like being painted by the owners rather than a company paint shop.(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/11/05/ede0e7251d7cccde0fb820e30b12cf5a.jpg)
Ken


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C'mon Ken, would like to see your pics but the blood keeps rushing to my head. ;)


Cheers Stewy   8)

I don't put enough words into the sentences. What I mean is something like this.
The big taxi companies might buy a dozen or so new cars at once and have them all decked out with the best meters and lights and paint etc whereas the individual owners had to make ends meet on a much tighter budget, so things like the illuminated roof light would be replaced by a simpler sign, the special taxi painting would be done by hand, maybe even the car itself would not be a new vehicle but a 1 or 2 year old car.

This is all, just a comment on economics

Ken

Interesting how these taxis shots appear up-side-down in the post at this end, yet when I open in a new window they are right way up.
Is this what you mean Stewy? They may be fine when posted Ken's end.

Ken, that was the only reason given by the neighbour. He was a Bush bloke and did it his way and saved money. But he ended up with four taxi licences and a fair few properties so just frugal.

Ken why do u post pics upside down.

Ken the lady said they did all come out of factory grey or bland colours and then he painted them in the driveway. I am planning on painting it the same way. Nice to think the old car is out bush too the old owner would have liked that.

They preferred red and grey interiors in the 50's and 60's for some reason. In the Adelaide taxi's. There were rules about radios and lights in various acts. Many fifties advertising boast about powered wireless radio communication giving a modern persona. Very true about cars being a year old when converted too. Couldn't pin down a date enough to know that unfortunately.

I don't know why the picture is upside down. My screen shows the pic the right way up.  Maybe RET knows....

Ken

Neptune was another petrol company, like Ampol, Caltex, Shell, Total etc. It was owned by Shell for many years & changed its name to Shell around 1968/69.

Dr Terry