FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Here's some pics sent to me by a buddy. These were taken at the weekend at Wintersun on the Gold Coast. Drew a lot of attention. Don't have the details, just the pics.

Regards
Alex

Interior.

Interior...another angle.
Regards
Alex

   certainly a different fc         where were the lhd ones built for?         no black instrument bezzel!
looks to be in very nice nick!

I saw this ute at Wintersun.  Going from memory (which obviously isn't great since I thought it was an FE!), it also was fitted with an automatic transmission.

The bloke who owned it didn't give away a lot of information, but he said he was from Brisbane & had only just finished the car, and it wasn't yet registered.

I asked him if he may have gotten the vehicle from Alice Springs & he said it wasn't far from Brisbane when he found it.  

Sorry about the airy fairy details, I didn't even get the basics, like the owners name.

Alice Springs had a lot of LHD vehicles because of the yanks at pine gap.  

Amazing, if it wasn't for the upside-down steering column I'd suspect I was having my leg pulled by a Photoshop job.

The first factory-built LHD export from Holden was the EK, IIRC.  Might have been FB, but not any earlier.

I'd love to see that thing in the flesh, not least to see where that back-to-front gear-shift and steering column link up to the rest of the mechanicals, the gearbox in particular.

cheers
RET

Maybe the guy got sick of unlocking it on the LHS and sliding across.  You'd have to think putting a lock barrel in the other door would have been simpler tho ;D

cheers
RET

My wife & l made our annual trek down to wintersun too, l had a quick look over it,l never met the owner,but l heard from a mate that  the owner built it to be different,not ten minutes later l heard that it was a factory build! looking through the window ,just above the glovebox lock there was a slight imperfection,which looked to me a lot like a welded in piece to fill in where the bulge for the speedo used to go ? I also noticed the headlight rims had rubber gaskets on them,never seen them before!

Yep, my boss was at Wintersun as well and took photos of the car as well.
He seemed to get more info from a friend of the owner.

Claim is that it was found in a shed in LHD form about 15 years ago and recently finished restoration.

My boss also saw the weld mark above the glove box lid and suspects it is not genuine.  He says column is EH Auto going from the PRINDLE and other clues on the column.
He did not get a look at the firewall which would have been a giveaway.

Ken

I was wondering why there was a mirror on the passenger side, but not the drivers side...?

Cheers
Les...

Apparently the car had a red motor, trimatic and HR front end. Re the welds. You gotta remember that the dash would have needed to be modified as they would not have pressed a LHD version. The poor welds could be due to age and the test of time. Also the welding may have been done as part of a aftermarket conversion, or perhaps when the guy restored it he did not spend the time in getting it back to showroom. (If it ever was) The car was rebuilt as a daily driver, not a show car.
Regards
Alex

Interesting Ute, :)
It's a shame the bonnet wasn't open to see the bonnet catch and accelerator linkages wiring etc. I wonder if it had a left hand seat adjuster.
I've just done some measuring and if the LHD steering box was a reversed casting to the RHD steering box it would foul on the exhaust manifold and i wouldn't want the job of taking the starter motor out either ;)
The first factory built LHD Holden was the FB in mid 1960. ;)
Does anyone know how Holden overcame the problems of the clearance between the steering box and the exhaust manifold and starter motor.
I'm guessing this ute has a Steering Rack  ???
ACE 8)

There seems to be a bit of discussion on the 'General' board regarding this ute.....so I brought it back to the top for those that may not have seen it.
Regards
Alex

This months Street Machine asks similar questions about this car on page 9.
Regards,
Trevor_B