FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

This post is for Ken so that he can get his records straight. I purchased an October 59 FC Sedan and I could never read the identification with any surety because someone had painted over it with bitumen paint. I have had a day off and spent it removing the paint from the tag. I have the correct numbers for her now.  There were three coats of paint on the id plate being India Ivory, engine bay black and bitumen paint. No wonder I couldn't read the numbers. Were Holden so backward they had to paint their cars twice?

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FC26197B

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Thanks for that, I'll add these new numbers to my database.
Ken

Regarding the double paint colour on the firewall.
Your car's body was built in Sydney and the firewall would have been painted in body colour.
Once the car had the subframe added in Brisbane then the whole engine bay would have been painted in black as was the style of the late 1959 cars.

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Ken

Thanks for that Ken, Im glad I could finally get you the correct numbers. Did the cars that stayed in Sydney get their firewalls painted twice too or was it just the cars they shipped to other areas? Im pretty sure Holden should have known what colour they needed to paint their cars and their firewalls as they came down the production line?



Regards Rod.

The numbers are interesting.  Mine is, I believe, a September 59 Sydney body with the number 1388 lower than this car.  The chassis is Sydney.  The Brisbane chassis number on this car is 28 odd thousand lower than my Sydney.  Each assembly plant must have had their own chassis numbering system.  Mine only had one coat of black over the ID plate.

Keith

Wow Keith, that is interesting. It appears to me that the identification plates were attached to the bodies before they were built or even painted. It must have taken them a while to work out to put them on later so they stayed silver. Unless it was their intention to make the numbers as difficult to read as they could by filling the numbers with paint.

Regards Rod

Keith, first you are correct, each plant has there own chassis number system so trying to compare a Sydney chassis with a Brisbane chassis is not possible.
Sydney assembled cars would have the firewall painted after the subframe went on, so no double painting (apart from some overspray)
Rod, you also are correct, Holden did know the firewall would be black once finally assembled. But which is cheaper, to run the body colour over the firewall and the body is ready to ship to Brisbane, or change the paint to black, mask the car, paint the firewall black and then ship to Brisbane?
Traceability is difficult without ID plates on bodies. To eventually get unpainted plates must have meant Holden had an alternative system to maintain identification.
Ken

So to keep mine completely original I should paint my firewall in India Ivory the colour she left the factory in rather than the after thought black it was retro fitted with?

Do you suspect Brisbane was the only plant to double paint or do you suspect Adelaide did as well?

Also did the FC ever come out with a coloured firewall and the rest of the engine bay in black?

Rod

No, a late 59 FC has an all black engine bay - this is how your car left the Brisbane factory.

1958 and early 59 FC had coloured firewall and skirts black.

Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney all made and assembled cars so no double painting
Brisbane and Perth are the two assembly plants where bodies had to be freighted in.

Ken

I don't know if this has been mentioned previously re date of manufacture.
There  is a stamping on the top of the steering box in my cars case it is stamped 13 J 7 which codes 13th day 9th month 1957 and the car was delivered on the 2nd of October 1957.

Mal.

I'm finding this all very interesting. Re painting of engine bays, my car is a 1958 ( October '58 we believe) with a Melbourne body number. it has never been restored. The whole engine bay, including firewall, skirts and back of radiator support panel are body colour. The colour has faded over the years but is obviously original. I have scratched a few places to check and there is no other colour under the original crystal blue. There appears to be a red oxide primer under the colour paint. the I.D plate was painted over.  Fraze

so a Nov '58 Sydney built FC Special Sedan had body color engine bay sides and a black firewall ..was the black satin ?

My8thholden I think, if you read the above posts the 58 didnt have a black firewall. It was body colour, the skirts etc were black, In the late 59 the whole lot was black.

Fraze on the other hand, thats interesting. Ill be interested to see what some of the Guru's say.

Regards Rod.

Fraze, that's very strange. Whilst I don't particularly take note of every car I see, I don't recall having seen another FC with all colour engine bay. These were the realm of the 57 FE.

Ken

My FC was all colour engine bay when it was 2 tone green.
Early 58 Sydney build.
Regards
Alex

My first FC was a '58 Olinda Green over Adobe Beige Special Sedan. The entire engine bay was beige. (Well, the bits that weren't faded or worn back to primer or permanently sealed in congealed engine fluids!)  ;D

Hi guys. This is another area which seems to vary from plant to plant. My Granite Grey/India very 57 FC has an all grey underbonnert which seems to be common for Pagewood built cars, well at least the 57 model.

It could be that most cars that mcl1959 sees are Dandenong & Woodville built cars.

Dr Terry

Hi Guys;
My Sedan was a Sydney built body with subchassis assembled on it in Brisbane, I believe it was a late 58 model.

When I purchased the car in 1996 the firewall and the inner engine bay were painted black but when I cleaned the black paint off of the firewall plate there was the original blue body colour on the plate underneath the black??

Because they had changed the original body colour I assume it was easier to paint the engine bay black.

Neil