FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

G'day all,

I went over to the museum on the barracks where I work because I had a feeling that they were displaying an FE or FC.  It ended up being an FC standard sedan painted in gloss Olive paint, with a dark brown saddle coloured interior.  Even the engine was no longer a 'grey' but a 'green'.  I took some photos, but starphoto is very painful   >:( so I will need to find another way to display them.  ID plate was as follows:

BODY - FC/215 - 4918M
TRIM - 81 - 766
PAINT - 253 - 5296
INSERT - ...........
TOP - ..............

I couldn't see the chassis number and I didn't think I would be allowed back if I started hacking at the inner guard with my pocket knife  ::).  The car is in an unrestored condition but is in reasonable nick and I guess the museum staff have other priorities at the moment. At least it is undercover and in a moisture free environment.

Nige

Nige,

There has been previous discussion about this car http://www.fefcholden.org.au/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=otherimg;action=display;num=1061179949;start=0

However it would be great to see the photos you took, and if you are so close to the museum, really interesting to find out about the history of the car.

Cheers,

Craig.

Bugger !

Here I was thinking I had a 'scoop' forgot Peter lived nearby  ;D.  The photos he took are much the same as mine although I will try to post the engine bay picture.  I wonder how many of these cars the Army had and where they are now?  The plate seemed unusual too, do you reckon they were pre-ordered from GMH as a limited build?  I know that Defence no longer paints its general use vehicles green due to the resale value issues (imagine a whole fleet of olive drab VY dunnydores and F*#ds :().
When I first started my apprenticship in 1987 our training aids were HQs and HJs and they were all painted green.
Also I will talk to the curator as he has been around the area and the Army for years, he may have some history or photos.

Nige

 there was an Army guy who was in our group of friends and he said the Puckapunual (not sure of spelling) base had huge underground storage with old FJ and FE-FC's down there with plastic still on the seats and trims that were never used or sold off along with hundreds of other cars and bikes,we told him he was full of sh*t but he swore it was true,over the next 10 years i heard the same thing mentioned by other people i met who were ex army but i have never seen any proof.

These vehicles were indeed built by GM-H as special order vehicles, like Yellow Cabs, Postie Vans and other unusual varieties.

Although information on FE/FC army vehicles appears to be scarce, Don Loffler has amassed quite a bit of information about the 48 and FJ Army sedans and utes in his FJ Holden book.  This has been mentioned in the link CraigA provided, so I won't repeat it here.

The Trim Code on that vehicle will actually read S1, not 81.  S1 is the exterior trim code for single-tone "Deep Bronze Green", the army colour.  The paint code 5296 matches this (that's the BALM code for Deep Bronze Green).  The S prefixed Exterior Trim Code is the identifier of factory purpose built vehicles.

Hope that helps.

cheers
RET

Nicko,

The old 'huge underground' storage myth comes up every once in a while here too.  Apparently there is a heap of brand new Harley Davidson motor bikes, all in crates, buried under the footy oval - you know the old WW2 type - When I was a young apprentice, me and some mates always had cunning plans to hire metal detectors and dig up the oval  ;D.  

RET,

I thought it was an 'S' but I also thought the old stamper guy might have had a bad day and not stamped hard enough..... :-/

Nige

Hey Nige, I've got my spade out and have given it a sharpen, when do we start digging?  ;D

These types of stories are fantastic, and really not impossible. What would you do with a large surplus of motorbikes at the end of the war anyway? Especially ones way in the country? Sure you could auction or sell off a few locally, but the cost of shipping them back to a major city may not have been worth the effort. And anyone who has worked in a government department, especially one as big as the Armed Forces, would know the type of waste that happens. Pretty easy to "lose" a few old cars here and there.

Great stuff.

Cheers,

Craig.

Hey Nicko,

I have a nephew that works as a storeman in despatch at Puka, I will talk to him and see if he can find somthing out about the mith of old cars stored on the camp.

My old man often talks about the army burying  a heap of BSA and Harley motor bikes along with Mack trucks and a lot of cars at the old Army camp in Echuca  Vic just after the War, he recons that some pits where dug up some time ago and they did uncover some vehicles.
The Echuca base was the main despatch site for Army vehicles during the war, so Im told.

Steve

The other one that I have heard lots of is that there is a heap of Wirraway and Spitfire fighters buried up near Woomera.  The story goes that they buried them up there during the war when it was thought the Japanese may land up North.  The desert air was 'sposed to be the best preservative around. Of course no one has ever found them  ;) - apparently.

Now if I could find one or two of them I could finance the FE project no worries  :D.

I reckon I might just buy me a Pith helmet, a safari suit, a little spade and a monacle and cruise on down to Pucka and start nosing around  ;D  anyone want to be a faithful assistant?

Nige

My father was at Puka between 1956 and 1959, in the engineers, he knows nothing about this, and would have been involved in any works on the grounds during this time.

My uncle was also there as a quartermaster, and I can asure you if it was possible to "lose" a vehicle, he would have found a way.

Every Army & Air Force base in Australia has rumours about buried treasure.  A lot of money and time has already been wasted on these urban myths.

Shayne
There is a treasure to be found under the dog kennels at the base in Richmond, althought it is not a treasure of cars just crappy old aircraft parts.

Jim

Howdy

Here is the engine bay shot

Nige

http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FE/MVC-283F.jpg

B*%%dy Hell !!!

I am a dead set computer idiot !!  :-[

How the H*%ll do I link to Photobucket without the entire world being able to change my user options etc?  At the mo I can only seem to link to one picture at a time unless I do this.......

http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FE/MVC-281F.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FE/MVC-282F.jpg

http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FE/MVC-284F.jpg

I know this is off thread, but I was looking at Utey's great wagon pics, registered with photobucket, and when I tried to link my pictures, my link screen ends up totally different to his as my thumbnail pics have the 'move' 'edit' and 'delete' buttons showing.  PLUS all and sundry seem to be able to access my account details (or is this only because its ME looking at MY account through the link?)

Thanks

Nige

Cheers Nige dont stress buddie - alls absolutely fine from this end  :)
Great shots too mate ,love it.

in tunnels under queen st in auckland city you will find old chevs and fords still wrapped in plastic im told and i f dig up at north head at the devonport navelbase thats were the nz air force buried there planes im told but if you go to the wreckers at horitu just out of hamilton ther actually are old planes etc left over after the war they were parked up in lines and just left pretty sad condition now but must find out where the nz navy buried the excess ships we didnt use  :P :P :P :P

So that's why there's no NZ Air Force.

They buried all their planes!!

Nige,  I would be very keen to see a photo of the firewall area under the ID plate.  This area on my car has been all welded up and this is where the wireless holes and such were drilled.  Just trying to find what's original.
Also would you have any idea of the banner used on the front of the cars signifying the battalian or whatever?
Any help would be appreciated.

Ken

yep thats why kiwis dont fly emu but
WHY DONT EMUS FLY THEN ????????????






KIWI -BIRD THAT MAY FLY

Ken,

Will head over there again Monday and take some more pics.  As for the banner, its known as a TAC plate (or they are now days anyway)and as you said it used to signify the unit or command that the car belonged to.  The FC in the museum didnt have a tac plate but there are heaps of photo albums etc I will have a squiz through them.

Nige

Gday All,
             I was stationed at Bandiana back in 1998 and I actually did some some work on the FC at the museum.  I replace the clutch slave cylinder, although I don't really know why as they didn't really drive it, they used to move it around in the museum every now and again.  I asked the question about the history of the car as well as some of the other vehicles and was told it was just donated locally and put together with what ever is available to look good for the museum.  That is why the FE bonnet.

Michael

Michael,

You are dead right.  The guys at the museum are pretty much volunteers and rely mostly on donations of equipment for their displays.  I guess the main thing is that this particular FC is out of the weather and just waiting for that day when somebody 'volunteers' to restore it properly.

Although upon saying that, god knows what the Army mechanics of the time actually modified on her during her lifetime as it was certainly well before the days of fleet management and outsourcing and therefore she may be an 'Army' FC as she is ???????

Nige

G'day,

Slunk over to the museum again today to try to delve into the history of the FC staff car.  I found out a couple of things, like the Switch on the far RHS of the dash is actually the pump for the NASCO window washer.
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Washer_pump.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Washer_bottle.jpg

Ken, here is your picture of the firewall - sorry its so crappy, the camera is an older model.  Hope it helps and I am all too happy to crawl over the car for more pics if you want them.
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/LH_Firewall.jpg

Also the vehicle would have been fitted with TAC plates as I found a heap of photos of FB utes and an HD staff car and they were all fitted.  There would have been one either side, front and rear and they identified firstly which unit the car belonged to and secondly which command it belonged to.  Here are some examples from the same era - the easy thing is you can just about paint any numbers on the TAC plate as FCs would have been issued to all commands in Australia
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Tac_Command_ID.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Tac_Unit_ID.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Tac_Plate.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Tac_plate_base.jpg
I suspect that they would have been attached to a bracket that was drilled to either a bumper hanger or part of the body behind the bumper.

I spoke to the guys in the storage shed and they said there were no more FE/FC there but I did find the original log book !  The car was enlisted in the army on 18 Jan 1960 and first issue to 103rd Company of the Royal Aust Army Service Corps on 28 Sep 1960.
The log book was amazing, it had every service, repair, adjustment, and replacement the car had during its life.

Including the replacement of the speedo - I guess the FB one was considered better ??  ???

Heres a sample of the log book (if it turns out)
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Log_book_sect_1.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/Log_book_Sect_2.jpg
http://img67.photobucket.com/albums/v204/nigelb42/Army%20FC%202/d5ec7bd4.jpg

Plus I found a heap of photos from the 1950 - 1970 era which have some FE/FC in them.  My next task is to convince the guys to let me scan them.

Nige

Thanks heaps Nige, I have one only TAC plate and I like the kangaroo with the crossed swords and crown.
I will try and do a copy of that one and put it on the car.
I hate the sight of that great big plate screwed over the firewall, might give that one a miss and leave the firewall as stock.  Will think about it anyway!!!!!
Very late FC indeed - about mid Dec 1959
This is why it is a 215 and not a 217, the 217 was dropped in mid 1959 and thereafter all taxis and commercial cars were made from 215's
Mine is an early 59 car so it is a 217.
I love every bit of info you have found - well done.

Regards  Ken

Nice work Nige.
Very interesting reading and viewing.
Do some fast talking and get them pics scanned.
I will have to put that museum on my 'to see' list for the next trip down the Hume.
Regards
Alex

Really interesting reading keep up the info and More More Pics.
Cheers,
Graham