FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Here is my car a couple of days ago, rego due and the nationals around rhe corner its time for a freshen up.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fc1.jpg)

I started stripping it, I was given some suprise assistance by Craig Wilson and Zephyr Brad the other night who dropped in the other night with engine cranes and stuff however the next morning I started to inspect the rust and began to realise what a mission lies ahead.
I also plan to make a few custom changes to the car but am currently quit low on time and funds.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/DSC00312.jpg)

here is a couple of rusty photos, probly hard to believe it was the same car I had at the meeting earlier this week.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/pp1.jpg)

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/pdl1.jpg)

OK, i think you get the idea, I wont send any more rust pics or I will be here for years posting them.
with a shortage of time I had to cut some corners.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/cornerscut1.jpg)

And get the missus and kids welding and doing custom bodywork.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/michellewelding.jpg)

the hood now looks near ready, all I had to do was cut a few corners.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/cornerscut3.jpg)

I had another visit from craig and brad, more stuff to play with and a few hours of helping hands and the subframe was off!(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fc2front.jpg)

Leon,
At this point in time you have to be pulling our leg.

Cheers Jim

I think if I am pulling anyones leg its mine, I was driving the through the week to work, also had it at our club meeting last tuesday night. and there is definately no trick photography.
here are my new guards I plan to reshape to take cantered quads, craig wilson brought over a set of straight up and down quad light gaurds for a alternative but one was damaged.
these guards are a nightmare.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fcfenders.jpg)

This tailgate has me stuck, these hinges are being a real bastard, all the overs c ame of with some good ol cursing and muscle but this stubborn bastard is staying, I also need to do some rust repairs around it, another hold up.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/newrustygate.jpg)

leon,,,youve sure got some long nights ahead of you.
as they say "if it wasnt for the last minute, nothing would get done"
all the best with it
cheers trev

thats it robzfc58.

time to rock & roll(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fctip1.jpg)

 :o
You serious?

Is that car really going to be ready for the nationals????? If it does turn up you should change your forum name to the Magician!!

Bloody hell Leon, when you left the meeting the other night and said you were going to have a go at finishing it before the Nats I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING  :o

Unbelieveable - hope you make it,  cause I'm buying you a few bourbons when get to Jindabyne!!!

Cheers,

Craig.

Leon,
Great work mate and heres hoping you make it.
Cheers,
Graham

Well Leon, I think you may have no concept of what 2 weeks is. Good luck. Would be cool to have another custom in the club. A few of those resto guys and gals are gunna sh!t.
Regards
Alex

Thanks for the support guys, with whats to go sometimes its tempting to quit, I tore up the hoodlinning pretty bad today and also didn't make as much progress as I hoped.
The car is currently on its side in the front yard with bits hacked out every were.
I went to Ed Ho's today, his car is looking pretty good but still has a bit to go considering he only has the weekends (should I say weekend) to do it.
Im probably friggin nuts thinking I will finish this in time but who knows, maybe it might happen.
I will have a hell of a lot of rubbing and bogging to do on Wedensday and Thursday as I hope to take the jambs , body and interior back to bare metal.
So far I am pretty behind but I haven't hit panic mode yet, I dont know why but when I do I have a stash of V drinks for it wich hopefully will be better than the beer and bourbon it took to get this far.
I have had my uncle from up the road give me a hand as well as craig wilson and zephyr brad, also some stuff from Craig, Ed and my uncle who has owned a few FC's and even had some club involvement in the early years of the club.
I haven't been 100% well, hopefully it's just a flu but my greatest nusance is that I cant bang hammers or run power tools late at night.
my car is scattered all over the yard wich is probably not the best thing for potential buyers of the house next door wich is for sale. with any luck the only people that wont be detered will be other old holden people and I might end up with good neibours.
Any way I might go wash my greasy hands and arms and have a early night, ahh morning.

Talk about a glutton for punishment! I hope you make it to Jindabyne, but as one of the others said, you'd have to be a magician to pull this off!!

Good Luck

:-/ :-/

Leon
          I have seen cars totally rebuilt in a day by the Tech apprentices at the Bathurst races, but I thing they would be struggling to finish this in time. Good luck to you I hope you make it. Is there a award for the quickest rebuild ? if so its got to be yours.
Glenn

Can't see the problem, Leon.

If everybody's asleep, they won't hear you.   ;)

Anyway, what's a few sleepless nights? Coulkdn't you take the smaller bits into the lounge to work on to reduce the noise for the neighbours?   ???

Good luck, I hope you make it to Jindabyne - it will certainly be a talking point and should earn you a few beers (or bourbons)

Martin

 ;D

Once again I haven't made as much progress as I liked, spent most of the day cleaning the floor.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/frontside1.jpg)

here is a shot from the rear. I wish I was a magician but I am relying on the sanding faries to come in and strip my paint of.
I tried rubbing a door today and it took 3 hours to break through the blue. man I laid on some paint last time, unfortunately this is its first time back to bare metal, previous colours were white,green, light gold, darker gold, and black/red. all these colours are here with some primer in between in spots, I was going to hand rub the lot but I might have to look into alternatives.
As for using the hammer and power tools in the lounge room I dont want to wake my kids up but I have all my chrome next to my bed ready for polishing when I go to bed.
this afternoon when I was using the grinder my neibhour on the left had a jimmy hendrix cd playing so loud that it was drowning out my big qudraphonic set up in the garage, I couldnt believe it, he must have a nice hi fi but the hendrix that loud seemed quite out of character for the old fella. maybe my worn out supercheap grinder is a little on the loud side.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/rearside1.jpg)

here is a fresher pic, I think tommorow I will have to hit nitrous.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/frontside2.jpg)

here is a sticker that will be stripped of the fire wall, cut from a american auto's sticker wich i dont think they have anymore, new one probably has a vt commodore on it.
the way my car is looking at present it should be crawling back into the coffin.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/raresparescared.jpg)

Goodluck Leon - absolutely unbelievable mission ahead of you.

We thought WE were busy getting the Nats ready and have been hoping both wagons being finished by Ed Ho & Ed Singleton make it in time...  we've mourned the most recent "apologies" from the likes of Julius Goboly & Ken McLean who won't have their sedans ready and sadly, Bec and I even gave up with our own FC wagon.

AND THEN... we find your pics of the wagon scattered all over the front yard.  All I can say is that we really hope you make it mate, glad you have some help around you and hope you are feeling better soon.  Either way, gotta be proud of a gutsy effort like this.

Don't give up mate, see you in Jindabyne.  Cheers, Tim.

PS. Anyone know someone at Channel 9 to organise some kinda new "Restoration Rescue" tv show to turn up at Leon's place?

Yeah, I started taping in the beginig but the camera shit itself, fortunately it still takes still photo's but I was going to make a short doco on the rebuild.
I am starting to get rid of my flu, I think my diet was lacking vitamin C from the diet of beer and bourbon.
I haven't really made much progres today, almost looks as if i went backwoods, the holes are now bigger in the floor and there is more of them.
This sucker should be pretty rust free after this, I am also planning some structual strengthening since I have a hot six and stuff all suspension.
I finally filled the old hole in the floor from when it was a manual as the current hurst shifter is cable.
I am about 3 days behind already and was previuosly planning to paint on friday/saturday, weather has been perfect still and warm every day since starting I hope it holds out till the week end or Ill be stuffed with the painting.
I still have to shape the gaurds and shave my door handles as well as strip, patch and bog it all.
I need some pipes bent if any one knows any one with the gear in sydneys west.
I also broke a steel brake line the other day that I will have to fix.
My arms and legs are pretty impregnated now with grinding and welding sparks.
today arrived my new eelco lakes pipes caps, the pipes still need to be made,

I think I jinxed myself, heaps of metal changed colour today with rain. fingers crossed it will clear up tomorow.
you guys with nice big sheds don't know what your missing.
unfortunately my little garage is now that crammed with so much crap that I can't even work in there.
if there are any over glutten for punishment out there who would like to lend a hand feel free becuase after today my chances of making it are pretty slim.
here are some new photos.
this is the front that was set up in the garage this morning wich should be the front going on my car.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/front3.jpg)

I am lost for ideas to shape the front of the gaurds around the planned canted quads. original plan was to make the shape from rod and tack it on the patch around it, after buying the rod I realised I couldn't bend it so I tried to think up some alternatives.
I don't know if this will work but this is what I was banging up before it got to late to bang, it is folded steel bent around with slots cut on the inside of the curves.
does anyone know of any informative websites on custom body work?(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fenderfront.jpg)

these chrome knobs Arrived today, there is 30 in total to be spread across a expanded mesh grill.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/grillknobs.jpg)

here are the new old power window swithes, they were originally fitted to chev/ pontiac/ olds/ buick, they first apeared on the upmarket variety of cars in 1959.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/pwswitchchev.jpg)

here is a patch we banged up for the rear floor.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/patch2.jpg)

I was originally going to fit a 45 player, then I decided on a muntz 4 track but you can never find one when you want one.
this eight track is a bit modern for the FC but its all I have that is vintage stereo, one advantage of these is the range of tapes, as you can probably see the tape in this pic is brand new sealed in plastic.
I may put it in temporarily till a early muntz pops up avaliable.
at least there is a kind of vintage reason for the stereo speakers , how ever the car will also have a dvd player hidden that plays cd/mp3 etc.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/8track.jpg)

thick fencing wire bends pretty easy and its cheap from your rural store

cheers fatboy

Hey Leon.
The rod is still the best idea.
If the rod you bought does not bend, it is too thick, go buy something smaller. The rod I used to form my taillight extensions was only about 5-6mm thick.
How big are those chrome balls? 30 may not be enough to fill the grill cavity. I have 21 stars just in the center of my grill.
Good luck with the project.
Regards
Alex

Speaking of balls.... I reckon you've got 'em for trying to do this so close to the actual Nats mate.... Hope this Sydney rain dosen't slow you down tooooo much....

Hope to see you in the Snowies...!!
Good luck with it all!!!
Cheers
Les.....

yeah the rain has sure stuffed things, my only ready panel that was in etch primer is already rusting through. everything is sloshy or rusty, a couple of days ago I had lots of clean fresh steal and it's getting quite frusterating.
chances of making it get slimmer by the day but I am not quiting till its done.
to finnish it now I really would be performing the impossible but then again is anything impossible?
I really needed to make my car more while the sun was shinning, I tried to use the day the best I could by doing some of the running around.
On the way to getting the expanded steel for the grill I found the vinyl place I have heard about many times but never found.
I have been trying to find some vynil to match stuff I bought 8 years ago but never had any luck till today.
two different vinyls I bought from two different places in two different brands that I was worried would now be obselete were both in stock at the warehouse I went to in villawood. the place is called daileys and they had everything from that crappy stuff on tangara seats to genuine US made Nuagahyde. I was tempted to redo my whole interior when I spotted the pearl white vinyls and the Nuagahide seemed real cool too, iThe Naugahide is nice thick quality stuff but it's also soft and flexible. the vynil I use is capri marine and has the closest properties to Nuagahide but is half the price.
while I was out my uncle came over and strung a tarp up over the car but it was still really to wet and sloshy to start grinding steel and welding so we just looked and smoked smokes.
I had another play with the front in order to tackle it with the rod and start looking at shapes and stuff, man them customiziers of the 50's and 60's must have been keen guys. no wonder everyone now takes the simple path of stockers, and todays youth bolt everything onto their cars (apart from the new sports ute guys)
hopefully tomorow I will get some sun shine again becuase today was a big flop.
my balls are not actually balls but a flat knob, not completely flat but maybe like a squashed ball. the are actually cupboard knobs, they sell for about $8.80 each in bunnings but I got them for US98c each plus shipping, still cost a bit but hel of a lot cheaper than buying from bunnings.
I was nearly going to get 33, hopefully 30 will give the grill some effect but.
As for my own balls, they are massive big huge things.

You must be married too lol

A fascinating insight!

OK F#@K this, its time to call it quits.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fknrain.jpg)
anyone know the number for sims scrap metal so i can get this mess out of the yard

ok, so the sun is out, all I need is is the following-
4 sandpaper operators
a 2nd mig and operator
a big sewing machine
a carton of v drinks
a spanner operator
a custom bodywork expert
then there might be a slight possibilty if the sun holds out.
otherwise maybe a few weeks extension.

Leon, you poor, poor bugger...  that is a sad sight indeed with the poor girl on her side in the rain, goodluck mate.  We're all still cheering you on down here.

I hope you make a movie about all this oneday Leon...

I didnt really plan t o take it this far, 1 day was planned to patch up the floor. however my uncle who has a big grudge against rust went wild with the grider and just about got rid of the entire floors and sills so after all this time I am still stuck at day 1.
after hacking it to peices he decided to that the car should be reinforced with 50mm box section on each side, this is probably a good idea as the low suspension and hot six stress the poor girl out from time to time but I really wanted to just give it a quick hit for the nationals.
the box section sits pretty much were a chasis kit would.
I have started to avoid the floor section for a scares me a bit.
I started off over a week ago by filling in the hole were my manual shifter was and looked at the floor and thought it was nearly done, now it is just about all that exists under the car. as I am doing all the welding and he is doing all the cutting it seems never ending.
Just about every part I have removed from the car is broken., eg the pedal box is cracked in for different places, handbrake lever tube split, column tube split etc etc, everytime i got to clean something its stuffed.
I have just about finnished the subframe with seven patches so far, one side of the radiator support panel is done, some one has gone crazy on this thing to with the drill but it has come up extremely stiff compared to the old subframe.

I don`t know what to sayat this point other then please please don`t throw saftey out the window. Please make sure that your car is safe to drive . Better miss the nats and  finish your car to a safe standered. You can travel to the nats in another car this year and treat us to seeing your car at Phillip Island in 2006. I do admire your determination.

I dont think it could ever be any more dangerous than it was as a few repairs have been done here and there.
here are a few things i found when pulling it down-
front right shock broken from shock tower.
pedal box broken everywhere.
firewall cracked.
subframe cracked.
cow vent hinges non existent.
hanbrake cable clip missing.
handbrake lever tube cracked all yhe way and spread.
subframe bolted to a loose floating peice of steel on bottom right leg.
front rail in subframe that was replaced 7 years ago is so rusty you can almost fold the subframe in half.
wiper motor seized.
radiator top tank brackets are both seperated from the radiator.
steering column outer tube almost cracked all the way around.
about eight wires were found melted together.
the plate holding the shifter was severly cracked explaining the floppy shifter.
sway bar link rod snapped.
handbrake cable braket missing.
speedometer seized

I could probably list alot more but this is what comes to my head at present.the body matches in fatigue and cancer.
the car has well and trully been run into the ground and run in hard.
I bought this car ovet 10 years ago as a parts car for a FE sedan i had, the day i went to pick it up i found it had 9 months rego so instead of putting it out of its missery then i painted it up, chucked in a hot red and flogged it for another 10 years.
It has been pouring for the last couple days and evrything is saturated and rusty, the ground has turned to muddy puddles and working on the car has become to unpleasant to continue for the time being.
when I applied for holidays to do my car i had a bad feeling the weather would be crap and man has it.

Hey Leon.
Looks like Murphys Law.
Take your time and do it right. Remember the kids have to travel in the ol' girl.
Hope we still see you at the Nats regardless.
Regards
Alex

Hey Leon....
Sorry to hear about your car... I don't reckon the rain has stopped all week which was bad timing for you!!
I remember the first time I saw your wagon... if this is it, back in July 1997 at the Camden Valley Inn... she sat a lot higher then too eh...
You had a nice looking ride before the pull down I reckon...

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v145/Hewart/extras/fccool.jpg)

Hope to see you at the Nats anyway...!
Cheers
Les...

wow I think I had better save that pic as I hardly have any in all white, it was like that for about a year.

currently it's on it's death bed after a attempt to remove cancer that had spread throughout it's body, there is shitloads of welding and patching to go and I have given up on gas as it is costing a fortune to keep replacing those silly little cylinders. perhaps it's now time to disconnect the life support (earth lead) and say my goodbye's so it can go were it belongs. (FC HOLDEN HELL)

man this car should be called murphy's law.
everything I go to do the worst happens or is it just bad luck.
I have learned one thing out of this-
EASTER SHOULD BE IN APRIL NOT MARCH

ok the FC is dead.
time has run out and finally the weather is perfect.

Never say die and never give in. You gave it a shot, but the weather sounds like it had a lot to do with the result thus far. So sit down have a breather for a day them start planning for Phillip Island 2006. Look forward to seeing you and your car there. ;)

Cheers
Sarge

P.S OK the breaks over now you have work to do ;D

FC COOL
dont ewe dare give up now back outside and start grinding welding etc  ;)
remember what hilda looked like when sarge started  just goes to show nothing cant be fixed and fixed well
you now have 364 days and 16 hours to complete it
which means you probablly still finsh yours before mine is finished  ;D :'( :'(
dont make me n sarge come down there or there will be big  trouble  ;D ;D ;)
ps thanks for the weather now we got severe thunderstorms torrential rain and 5 people dead on the roads allready yep just another normal easter weekend
in kiwi land


cheers kiwi

ok, i went back out, I have found the problem with the mig gas consumption, the handpeice is leaking pretty bad. not bad for a mig I bought new a few weeks ago.
I was going to go today but I might be better of taking advantage of this perfect weather that has come way too late.
Its hard to decide what to do after paying for entry and meals for the family.
I will take some pics and stick em up here today.
it's pissing me of knowing everyone is out the having fun with there FC's down in FE-FC heaven at jindabyne.
if I bring this thing back from the dead it's gonna have to be going sooner than next year as after 6 years of begging for a drag racing run we finally have one coming up in a couple of months.
after that is winter sun, I went last year in my wifes calais and felt pretty out of place so this year it has to be in a 50's custom.
hey Kiwi, if you and sarge want to come over and jump in on the job I will put up with the trouble, as long as it doesnt mean losing more than one arm or leg. be warned that there is a bit of modyfiying and custom work happening with it as some restorers would cringe at what I am doing. if you are that way inclined I also have another FC wagon that is going to be more stock, even grey powered, it will recieve alot of parts from the FCCOOL car like the recently chromed grill.
I might start on that one 3 weeks before the next nationals instead of two.
As for the short time I gave myself I thought i would make it easy.
I spent three days getting the car ready for a formal once that included body repairs and a full respray.
for our wedding I was given less than 3 weeks notice that one of the wedding cars was not going to make it due to new odd coloured panels and primer patches, I gave it a full respray and was still buffing half an hour gefore the wedding started, some of those that went would remember how late I was but the EK looked good.
any way, I better go out there fire up the mig and see what I can do.

Here is a pic from the other night when the rain stopped for a while, this subframe has taken a bit of work and is now about half way there, it is the only part of the car I worked on today.
It has had about 35 holes filled, 9 patches, wire tabs removed, new tabs on the underside, radiator support opened up to accept the bigger radiator, front cut and tabs formed for the new custom grill as well as some straightening and tidying up.
see how much crap I have to cart out to the front yard everytime I do something, I use 2 grinders, one to cut and one to grind but I want a third to run the cup brush, if you are doing up a car and you haven't used a cup brush you should give one a try, they are excellent on subframes and door jambs or any were rusty, they remove paint and polish up the steel without ripping it away. don't be scared of the hard feel of the brush as it is quite gentle. you will notice a power board full of leads, you can only see one in the photo but I had two running, you cant run the mig ona board with the lights as it near instantly trips out the circuit breaker.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/subframe.jpg)

here is a pic of one of the holes waiting to be filled, notice the inner, outer and guts are not there(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/frontpasscorner.jpg)

here is a pic taken from under the rear were a bunch of bits of steel come together and have tuned to flakes of rust, one of those repairs I am not looking forward to but am going to have to just eventually grit my teeth, jump in and do it.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/reardriverside.jpg)

The more I see of your car Leon (and Emu's), the more convinced I am that I can eventually revive the old FC wagon I have in the back paddock.
Keep it up and keep posting pics of the good work.

well, today I didn't touch the car, Easter shopping ate the day, the egg hunt did include the daily run to bunnings and I also took advantage of the 20% off sale at supercheap, I now have 4 brand new headlights for the quad headflight set up.
hopefully this will improve my old dim lighting, along with the new 75 amp alternator and beefy new battery.
in its previous life it became unreliable in the starting system, always a stuffed battery or alternator or starter or ring gear, it was never ending so I also have lashed out on a brand new 1.4 kw mini starter. now I just need a brand new ring gear and battery cables and hopefully all that will be eliminated.
Today I also looked at another shell, better in some parts but more work in others, kind of looks like about the same amount of work required but worth a bit more looking into.
the body has already passed through a few members hands.
looks like I will be heading down to jyndabine in the crappadore so that is the rest of the weekend consumed.
The kids have been waiting to go on holidays and the meals are already paid so I better go, hopefully this will pump in more determination so I dont end up with more days like today were I do stuff all.
it's gonna suck going in a crappadore to the FE FC nationals as I even hate driving a late model to work, it's going to be a boring 6 hours getting there.

Leon
I was in Jindabine all weekend awaiting your arrival  ??? did you end up making it there.

Cheers Jim

PS How is the car going.

does anyone know about the progression of this vehicle, as it is a very interesting process of which he is restoring this wagon and i would like to know if it has changed from its previous state of which was shown in the previous pics

now that was confusiong for me to write

cheers
torque

how do you think we feel trying to read it?

 :o ???wow, i just re read it and i dont think it makes that much sense  :-/

I think I get what you mean, I have become pretty slack and wasted just about the whole of the sunny weekend. With daylight savings gone its not much fun anymore.
there is a teeny weeny bit of work done underneath but my mig has been a real bastard consuming most of the time I have spent on the car with wire feed problems, I think this was started by a shit spool I bought from bunnings.
I was going to paint the subframe but want to make sure I have brackets, holes and tabs every were they are needed.
here is a photo of the old subframe, the SC14 supercharger and the motor that will be rebuilt to suitable specs for the supercharger. I was at this time checking for clearances between the subframe and supercharger wich is just sitting there with no brackets.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/blo1.jpg)

hey mate is that one of those belt driven turbos???

you could almost say that as that is basically what a supercharger is but I don't think it's what you are thinking of.
This is a roots style supercharger, it works like the usual type you see on most V8's, eg GM 6/71, the air is pumped between to rotors.
it would probably look more natural on a manifold with a carb on top but the ignition side of the block is more apropiate for this unit.
For best efficiency a manifold with a box or plenum chamber should be used, A vk efi inlet manifold is a ideal manifold and saves making it yourself and has this box incorporated on top. A pipe then runs across the top of the rocker cover and down to the outlet on the supercharger.

It should turn out looking a bit like this.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/customfc2/Holden/blown.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/customfc2/Holden/blown2.jpg)
Regards
Alex

HOLLY SHIT

that is one nice looking motor, hmm i wonder if the old grey will come up that doog ???   :P

kool engine
fatboy

thanks Alex, thats a better pic of that car than the one on my mobiles pissy little screen, I saw that thing the other day next to me in the traffic and was nearly going to pull him over for another good look.
have a look at this one, its one wild looking 202
http://www.boostcruising.com/forums/index.php?act=section&entryID=6761&sectionID=6&st=15

That is a nice looking motor Leon.
That drive belt is a bit of overkill IMHO.
Can't help but wonder why he polished the manifold but not the blower.
Regards
Alex

yeah the belt is excessive as some people run these fine on a single V belt, but man does it turn it into a beast, it would have quite a whine to it.
the blower case is full of deep squares that would be a pain to polish and keep polished, you would probably have to spend days with a dremel or something.
I think it does 410-420 hp, not bad for a 202 street car.

Thinking back to the progress I was making in the begining it might be time to pull my finger out again with now the nostalgia drags coming up, maybe the quarter mile will have to be the place to run it in.
its amazing how quick weeks go when you are short on time.
I am still chasing a crank, efi manifold, rods, head and pistons before I can start on the motor.
fortunately a long week end is on its way.

Its ironic you should find trevs posting here ,He's working in his mysterious ways ...

When I first read that post I went to the garage and sculled a V drink and got stuck into making progress, it reminded me of when I lived in newcastle and a bunch of us would get together in my mates old mans backyard that seemed more equiped than a car manufacturing plant and work on our cars for 48 hours straight then jump in our cars and drive to the summernats covered in paint, grease and with red eyes with big bags hanging under them doing all the things to our cars we could have done weeks ago but always left till the last couple of days before the nats.
I like the way trev put it and it got me phsyced as it did again this weekend after having a read through this thread.
Unfortunately the neighbours didn't like it and complained to the police about the noise but finally the drivers passenger side of the floor front and rear is now finished and patches for the inner and outer passenger side are coming along.
When the police arrived they asked if I went to the drags today and they were dissapointed that my car was of the road and on it's side, they said not to stress, just get what you can done each night till they get a call and then get around to coming out.
they also suggested replacing the banjo diff with something stronger.
I also got a VK injection manifold today and sussed out a few bits and peices on cars at the wreckers, as well as getting a 3rd angle grinder for the cup brush that was on specail at supercheap for $14.95, it is pretty comfy and smooth compared to the others and I now have one for cutting, one for grinding and one for the cup brush so I dont have to waste time swapping over the attachments, and with the $2.50 powerboard I dont even have to swap plugs, every thing is always plugged in, pretty cool.

keep up the good work mate, looking god :D :D

cheers
torque

here is a pic from last weekend with front and rear floor sections in place,  these are not bought ones, they are hand formed using vices, bed irons, hammers, and variuos bits of steel and rod to make the pressings.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/floor5.jpg)

looks like you could do with a passenger side sill ive got a spare if your looking for one
cheers fatboy

I will keep that in mind, is it a outer. the lower half of my sils have copped most of the cancer with the only upper half of the sill being at the front, making the lower section is heaps easy, the only hard bit is making the top and bottom in one peice there at the front becuase there is so many different folds going both ways.
here is a pic of the mess accumalating at the computer were I do all my research for the car.
I pretty much have spent every minute since I started either working, sleeping, looking for parts and info on the net and working on the car.
I cant wait to finish it and do something else for a few hours.
last night I had a bit of a break with a bbq here with Craig Wilson, Zephyr Brad and Ben Wall  (aka Revhead FC) so this pic now would still look the same but with more woodstock cans.
PS notice the red band has gone from the new cans.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/mycomputer.jpg)

full outer sill from front to back
cheers fatboy

I have been waiting for this long weekend, I thought it would be just what I needed to get this thing finnished and painted underneath and back on its wheels.
even with perfect weather unlike the crap the weather man predicted and 3 days straight of solid work and about 50 cans of woodstock bourbon I have only really just about finnished of the front passenger section of the floor.
some extra stuff and modifications have been made to make it a bit stronger and stiffer for the new supercharged motor, as well as taking precuations and doing a bit of redesigning to reduce future cancer.
here is a pic after the long weekend showing the car straight from the Holden backyard engineering division.
It now has the passenger side inner sill section in place wich I made by hand and has circle pressings unlike the patch the last owner made, the inner sill is different from standard as this is were some of the structual redisigning has been done.
the front rail is now a 50mm box section that has a 50 mm box rail welded to the end pretty solid to grab the outer subframe leg while a rail further up extends to the front mount of the rear leaf springs, further up again is were the inner leg of the subframe bolts on then a little further is another rail wich will hold the new gearbox cross member, this rail was boxed off and has tubes inserted to reinforce were the bolts will go through in the same spot as a rare spare gearbox cross member, this should help stiffen things through the centre and take some of the stress out of the inner front floors under hard acceleration.
after that the front rail bends a bit to the front and is then boxed of on a agle for clearance around the tight fitting Auto transmission, here it has a rail meeting it on the inside of the floor to reinforce the tunnell.
I probably could have just bolted up a chasis kit but I have saved hundreds hear making it out of scrap.
I hope it all lines up and works.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/floor6.jpg)

how much do you want for that outer sill fat boy and were are you located? just incase I decide to replace the whole outer sill.

here is a close up pic of the front corner, you can see in the last pic that the front drivers floor is now chopped out, this will be a hole to fill next weekend, then I will start on the rails for that side.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/DSC00360.jpg)

you you you crazy man.  that is all.

i live at batemans bay south coast nsw $60.00 plus freight

cheers fatboy

another weekend, another fresh peice has replace a big peice of rust, thanks to ED Ho for this floor section that was origionally destined for the V8 FE wagon.
man this car is taking forever, I lost a couple of hours when I couldn't find my bourbon but it has advanced from last weekend.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/floor7.jpg)

Your neighbours must freak!

 youre neighbours must freak with seeing that

our neighbours freak when they see and old car  in our driveway when its on 4 wheels, and yours is on a couple of blocks of wood and by the looks of things some tins

hey new storage solution, now we can fit twice as many cars as before

thankz for the inspiration now we can bring home them other 7 cars ;) ;) ;)

cheers
torque

yeah srvlives, the old guy across the road is alright, he says he wishes he was younger so he could help, but the rest of the neighbours I think are pissed at me, one of them called the cops, ive put up with their dogs barking and renovations so they can eat my s%$t.
I see them looking and when I look back they quickly turn away, one even shook their head.
next door has had some open house inspections so lots of people get to see me work on my car.
there is a snoby guy that visits next door accross the road with a ek215 who just turns his head away when he gets in and out of his car.
I myself dont like it sitting like this and cant wait for it to get on its wheels again but I have to finnish early so the neighbours dont call the police, so I guess there are still a few more weekends of grinding and welding to go wich could have been nearly finnished now if I could work till 8:30 instead of 5:30 and a hour after work each day.
plan is to compensate for this by starting earlier like 7am on sundays but I keep sleeping in on the weekends, maybe next sunday.

Do you mean you are going to store 7 cars on there side, if so paint the inside of the roof on the side that is down as soon as you tip it over, mine has gone all rusty.

Just keep in mind Leon that you are not aloud to undertake any work or repairs on a motor vehicle within a residential block in NSW Not even change a flat tyre technicaly so give them a little rope on a sunday because if they know or find out about this law your lifestyle will  be the only thing suffering .
I always say theres too much red tape and hoops to jump through in this game but when it can be turned against you it can get pretty frustrating.
I hope this saves you some frustration in the futre mate.

I heard something about that from our last real estate we rented through but then when I mentioned it was my own car I worked on they said it was ok, apparently next door contacted the landlord and said something like I was doing up cars on the side like it was for a income.
it happened over a weekend I spent working on my other FC in the garage, it was the only weekend I spent working on it in the whole time I lived there.
we had spooky neighbours their, only came out to mow their lawn, their kids were in their late teens and wore pyjamas at 6:00pm almost everynight! They knew who we rented through and rang the real estate on a weekly basis, apparently this was part of the reason the previous tennants were only staying for a couple of months.
here in sydney there is strange people everywere, you always have to watch your neighbours and be on the ball about what they are upto, everyone is worried about what each other is doing, we got a complaint here from our real estate about a washing machine in the yard, we booked a clean up but they said 2 weeks, we only had a week to get rid of the washing machine so after a week we put it out the front to keep the real estate happy, next day we got a call from the council saying we had to put it back in the yard.
That afternoon I was getting out of my car when the cow up the road came into the yard and said she had to ring the council becuase if she didn't she would have to look at it through her kitchen window when she did her dishes.
I didnt get it, why did she have to look at my washing machine, why couldnt she go to her luandry and look at her own.
As I said before I have put up with renovations using power tools and dogs barking through the night and never complained once, I am not as low as them or maybe just not as bored.
The big test will be the day I paint, the limit is 7 minutes an hour but I will offcourse have to stretch that a bit, from memory it takes me about 45 minutes to paint and I dont stop for nothing.
I guess if I get neighbour hassles with the primer I might be best to find a booth.
The neihbour who is the main suspect has karaoke parties sometimes, its tempting to get them squares a visit from blacktown police next time they start warming up, they sing like CRAP.
I dont really get annoyed by noise unless I am trying to listen to the drags when something is on over there, the only thing that really gets me is these inconsiderate clowns playing with flowers in there garden, they make me sneeze like mad and can genuinely ruin my day, a hell of a lot worse than the noise of someone working on there car and it still hasn't been outlawed.

Hey Leon
     "Go West Young Man"  (mm, pun there somewhere)
Here's the type of yard you need , only Units across the street , Neighbour on the left , hardly see him . We've got room for our 6 cars , trailer & caravan , 1 fire tank , 1 plough , 1 x  2,000 lt fuel tank and still got room for another 10 cars   ;D . As you can see , we have 'No Rain Problems"  these pics were taken only days ago (we've been in drought here for 4 yrs) .  Neighbour on the right , well , he's always wanting me to give the FC "a rip up the street"  and always comes out "with a Beer & a Big Grin" when I start it up  8) , looks after our dogs & mows the lawn when we're away .  Guess thats "Country Hospitality"  ;)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/normd/yard-1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/normd/yard-2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/normd/yard-3.jpg)
  Norm  :)   (Notice , the FC gets the tarp  ;D)

Bugger me Norm ,I hope you do get some rain soon so it rusts out all those bloody Fo!&$.
I want a yard like that but Id fill it with half finished projects hehe.

Thanks for jinxing me harko, real estate called us today and has had complaints from the landlord who had complaints from the council who had complaints from my neighbours.
bunch of non car enthusiest wankers.
they are coming out tommorow to suss out the situation.
that looks like a pleasant place norm, you can see why so many show cars come from places that seem to be in the middle of nowhere. but lifes pretty tough here in the big city.
I had a mate living in a little town just out of tamworth, last time I stayed there he took me for a lap around the block and told me what evry residents project car was, a few hot rodders, restorers and a guy with sleeper looking chev powered FJ.
it was 10 minutes to tamworth shopping centre and 110 kph the whole way there, NO TRAFFIC.
when I first arrived at his house people kept stopping in to look at my car, it was like how things are when you live in heaven I suppose, but now at least when I get back out of this hole called sydney, I can tell people I came straight from hell, will that sound cool or what?
another gripe about this holewith thousands of businesses around and industrial areas everywere, I wasted half a day on saturday trying to find somewere that sell a range of high tensile bolts, in newcastle I walked to a supplier from home and then from work and then when I went to get my car engineered I walked to one to get the last four so I could get it passed. this place is a pain in the arse to live, very restricted and inconvenient and it only gets worse when you leave the western suburbs.
The wreckers hear has one burnt out EK and everything else is late model. up there I would cross the road, walk through a lane and I was at a wreckers that specailized in old holdens, when someone finnishes a car here themselves you have to appreciate what they must have gone through to do it.

Oh Geez mate sorry ! Not my intention at all .I was just trying to save ya some greif.
But in all seriousness I was looking at your pic of the beast in the front yard on its side with a beer bottle next to it and just had to laugh "No offence intended" I guess once youve finaly beaten all the odds you will look back and have a good belly laugh.
And another thing sydney dont got is short film festivals hey !

Hey Leon, Got a TENT? out of site out of mind.

Now ive got an image of Leon running around the yard with his grinder and hot melted tent all over everything hehe.
Atleast youve still got your sense of humour Leon.

Zulu is on the right track there, when I was in my teens working on my torrie at my parents place, I had a makeshift garage made up of a truck tarp.
The tarps are so thick it deadens the noise of the grinding and hammering.

Leon
       Sitting here reading your last comment reminds me why when I was posted to Sydney my CO got sick of me in the first week as every morning I would put in a request for a transfer. It took him four years to wake up to the fact I hated it there so he posted me from Woolwich to Randwick a whole two suburbs away. Thats one place you can have all to yourself. May-be the tent idea is not such a bad one, If they cant see it then how can they know what to bitch about. Anyhow keep the chin up mate if the truth came out they are probably just pissed that they dont have an FE/FC of their own to restore.

Cheers
Sarge

Well yesterday the real estate came around who we rent through.
they photographed the car, then they went around the back yard and found a neat stack of FE-FC bumpers in a corner behind the garage as well as a hadfeild chev conversion front end and then photographed the kids small plastic see saw. its amazing what stuff you aren't allowed to have in your back yard.
these photos were taken to be submitted to the council.
I have never stuck my head over the fence to see if anything is in the neighbours back yard as I never thought it was my business but I might on the weekend.
real estate says my car has to go, they dont seem to have a clue what they are looking at, its already had over 400 hours go in since I took it off the road and a lot of money.
If I told them they had to throw out their car it wouldn't really be the same but they probably would still not be happy about it.
I have never complained about anything my neighbours do or how their house looks or their horribly ugly late model puss boxes being in my view and this crap makes me sick.
no more trying to keep the noise down when people come to look at the house next door on weekends as I nolonger have time to be generous george, I have to get this sucker finnished and on its wheels before it gets to the tribunal.
Its amazing the crap you have to go through for the crime of historic motoring and a interest in maintaining Australian automotive history due to idiots with no idea or respect good vintage aussie steel.
the yard may have been a mess before the nationals when I took my holidays but some low life around here is really against me getting my car back on the road.
anyway, what comes around goes around, he he he heee.
No shitter gets between me and my FC!

Sorry Leon, I didn't catch which country you were living in? Did I hear Cold-War Russia? or was that Communist China?

Bloody Hell, makes me appreciate my semi-rural setting.
2 1/4 acres, almost a footy oval out the front, big back yard, go-kart track in the "back paddock" and my own mini wrecking yard.

wow, sounds like there really is a heaven.
go cart track and a mini wrecking yard, it would be a big no no here, you would be less of a crim if you were a mass murderer, go kart track wouldnt suit families around here as their kids only go outside once every couple of years.
it never used to be this bad, I remember as a kid around here riding my bike, I would pass houses all the time were people were working on cars in the front yard.
our house has a fairly tall wood fence out the front but its still not enough to keep the neighbours eyes out.
I was thinking of putting a banner across the fence for the weekend saying"if you cant appreciate what you see DONT LOOK" I dont know if I should wait till more progress is made but incase s%$t hits the fan.
I reckon the neihgbours will spew when I fininsh this sucker without them being able to stop me, as long as they dont find a way.

thats the way, dont give in, youll find a way

any new progress shots, if theres been any

cheers
torque

Hey Leon
   That's why we moved out of the western Sydney   area in 1990    ,  wouldn't go back there for "quids"
  When we built at Erskine Park we had to "cut a tree down"   you'd think we were going to level the suburb, heaps of paperwork.  :-/   Had to cut a tree down here a few years ago , Council didn't want to know anything about it . :D

  Nothing like "good old country air"  mmmmm  8)

  Norm  :)

Hey Leon,

Sounds like bad luck.  I can empathise with you.  Being at uni full time I bought my wagon in march last year and put it in a mates garage near uni who doesn't own a car.

I work on it maybe 2 or 3 hours a week, usually an hour or so before rugby training, or maybe on sunday morning when I can get one of my mates to give me a hand or at least stand round and have a chat and a pie while I fiddle around and talk about mechanical things they have no idea about.

In essence, I've probably used a power drill once or twice, a die grinder once and work with the garage door down.

My mate got a letter from body corporate of the units saying that they had passed a by law stopping all "mechanical work" in any garage.  I had no idea that a ratchet on a socket could be so loud it could be heard from a concrete basement.

Now I've got nowhere to work on my car, just cause someone has nothing better to do with their day.  In 18months I've probably turned the engine over once a month or so to keep the battery charged.

I saw one of the old blokes with a flat battery in his garage the other day - the funny thing is I would have given him a jump start or a push, but unfortunately there was no mechanical work allowed anymore.  So he had to call RACQ and be late to where ever he was going.  Karma...

Its unreal how pathetic some peoples lives are.  I can't wait to finish it so I can park it out the front and rev the ringers out of it at 11pm at night.

Good luck with your troubles.  I find the best thing is to keep your mouth shut and wait for the tide to turn.

I agree that a tent or some type of barrier could be a good option in your case.  Whatever the result don't be too hasty, as it is a registered motor vehicle that is garaged in its rightfull street address.  It may well be you don't have to move it at all, as a "mobile mechanic" may well be coming to do so "repairs."

Dave

huh, didnt think of that mobile mechanic thing but it is bloody pathetic, next thing people wont be allowed to go to the toilet if they like cars.
how do we start at having the law removed, a petition in every parts store, wreckers, events across nsw plus through every car club.
why are they letting grannies still knit, what would happen if they got nasty with someone with a knitting needle? what about those noisy home renovators and people planting flowers that others are highly allergic too?
how are we supposed to keep our cars roadworthy and safe, you cant book it in at the mechanics every week and they dont usually know what they are looking at.
and these sad bastards that have nothing better to do with their time than ring up and winge becuase they spotted someone actually doing something constructive need to get a hobby.
I can just imagine them sitting inside with the phone in their hand and the other in their pants as they watch everyone from their window.
they probably would have difficulty working out what to do with a spanner let alone hand forming intricate rust replacement sections.
I remember one night when some guy came into a car park in newcastle and called the police and complained about people hanging out in cars, he wasn't as much of a coward as some and did it were he could be heard.
a ambulance collected him before the police got there.
hopefully he has learned to mind his own business and let things be.
I dont know why society is turning against car enthusiests, most of the sooks would be stuffed without cars.
should tool stores, parts suppliers, wreckers, tafe, hardware stores etc be punished also for aiding the crime of people fixing their car?
is it just banned becuase the govt cant claim services taxes on the repairs?
when you have built your car from scratch to your personal specs isnt it a bit ridiculous to have someone who knows nothing about it try and repair it?
why do tafe run a home mechanics classes? thats training people to do illegal activities.

Leon..
mate its good to see that floor pan found a home at last.

Neighbours who needs them huh?
I have major run-ins with mine, as they dont understand a garage is used to work on things... albeit motorbikes or anything else i wish to do.

as payback I often leave big blackies through the garage, fill the garage with 2 stroke smoke.  its juvenile, counter productive but hey it makes me feel good.

Needless to say we are selling up and moving out after a few big blues with my dickhead neighbour resulting in the attendance of the police... is it considered much of a threat if i told a person I was going  to break their fingers if they touched my belongings??  I didnt think so but apprrently it is.

and im a quiet kinda guy... just dont touch my belongings without my authority. heh heh.

the best kind of neaighbour is one who looks you in the eye and tells you how it is I reckon.

back on track... u can get a big car port portable from supercheap at the moment I think which are reasonably priced.

neighbours who needs em.....

Im blessed with a property to work on my car... im cursed by the tyranny of distance it takes to ge to my car.. can't win em all!!

*BRAINWAVE*.. we should get a few ppl together to rent a warehouse somewhere.. have greater access to tools, help and klnowledge..


Cheers

Ed

I beg to differ...

i didnt have  to get the neighbour to complain about the noise my missus complained so i went and rented a 3 car garage and office in the industrial area of town it has a fridge  tv toilet shower. best of all we get to make noise on a tuesday night till when ever (only night i get to work on the car finished at 1230 last tuesday and no one was whinging you should move down to batemans bayon any tuesday night there could be between 5 to 20 people keen to work on modified cars . great atmosphere

cheers fatboy

I know that there are probably proceses in the works at present against me, but as I said what comes around goes around.
I recieved a letter today from the council about a complaint about offensive light/noise emitted from my premises while operating a welding machine.
to resolve the matter they sent me list of the times
I have to use power tools.
these are-
8am-8pm on sundays and public holidays
7am-8pm on weekdays and saturdays.

looks like I can start using my lights again.

also one of the suspect neighbours was taken away in a ambulance yesterday, doing dagerous stuff in the back yard she stuffed her back, this is one that has admitted to me about complaining to the council about me before I started on my car.
she needs a safer hobby, like old holdens.

LMAO

Leon
       Well a small victory is a good victory. May-be when your neighbour get back from hospitail you should offer them a ladder so they dont injure them selfs trying to gig of the fence.hehe

Those car port that ED mentioned are around the $200 mark, with a couple of those blue elcheapo tarps as side the car is out of site.

Cheers
Sarge

OK, tommorow the real estate come to see if the car is gone yet, being mothers day I didnt go to flat out, not becuase I am a mother, not becuase my wife is (She had to work today) but becuase I was trying to keep it down a bit.
I did however start yesterday at 7am, he he hee.
this friggin floor is taking me forever.
there is mega rust at the back of the floor (Fuel tank area) wich I am trying not to think about yet.
I was supposed to take the motor this weekend for mahining and head but wont now be taking it till next weekend as I am still trying to decide on a crank.
here is a pic of its current state.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/fcfloor8.jpg)

well a whole rain free saturday passed and I didn't touch the car once, I still havent even sent the motor of for machining.
I pulled the motor apart, everything was clean except for the valves, combustion chambers, exhaust ports, and piston tops, these had heaps of shit built up on them, it's been running for the last two years on pulp, the piston tops have 1-2mm thick barnickles growing on them, the rest of the motor had not a spot of sludge and drained out to look new without even cleaning anything. modern oil must be good but the fuel must be crap.
I went to the wreckers to get the head, crank, and rods out of the boot of a efi vk, only problem was the car was gone.
now I will lose another day pulling out a motor at the wreckers and pulling it down. bugger.
I spent a large part of the day looking for .06 wire and some tips for the mig, I had no luck as this weekend everyone is sold out of both except bunnings who had a roll of wire for more than triple what you normally pay, stuff them rip off bastards.
the local welding shop had no c02 argon bottles, wire or cutting wheels left as I bought them all in the previous weeks and they still havent restocked, to top it of they were also out of tips, I know there is one new one somewere in the garage but I dont like the chances of finding it.
usually it is quite pleasant to hear sounds coming from the western sydney drag strip but to day it was just a big strip tease, hearing all those cars thundering down the strip while nothing was going to plan with my car that I am itching to get there in.
The strip is nearly 25 mins away from me but I still got to feel the rumble, even when I was at the wreckers and inside shops, it must have been a good day at the creak.
I now have 4 weeks to get rego before my 3 months run out and things aint looking good.

hi fccool
u on about yards and stuff heres a pic of where i live from my driveway!
the landlord dont mine some cars there but with no shed that i can use  it a no win prob

ps good work on ya car

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/SCUMMY/StevesLookingNorth.jpg)

FCCOOL,
               I must say i do sympathise with over this.  I actually never knew Sydney was this bad(had heard rumours)  It is differnt if you statrt a wrecking yard in your front yard but to date all I see is a passionate bloke working on his old FC to get it back on the road.  My job unfortunately takes me to these jobs every day of the week.  A couple of my mates live in a court and are old holden freaks. when they first moved in the neighb ours were calling the police to noise, etc etc, so what I did was cruise around there every know and then and park out the front in the icecream van(if you know the vehicle im talking about) and go in for a couple a minutes, then leave.  Well the neighbours loved this thinking I had gone in there to give them a blasting.  Now there is no problems in the court at all.  I felt it was a good way to fix a problem that was never a problem in the first place, just blokes who loved there old cars and kept them out of site in the back yard.  Anyhow FCCOOL good luck and dont let them beat you!!!!
                                                        TAYZ

yeah Tayz, thats kind of what the police were like, they told me to keep up the good work and they are keen to see the finnished product.
I must be the king of bad luck, I went to the wreckers again to get a crank and rods, 1 lucky thing I suppose was that I ran into Greg Gleeson with the red FE V8 panel van that is always at the summernats. He gave me a hand to cart my tools and engine crane into the wreckers and then a hand to remove and pull down a engine.
after going through everything that had a holden six I spotted a torana with a black block( I assume this as the number started with VL) I was a little worried about it having a red head but it had a blue dizzy, blue sump and black block with a JP HV oil pump, this made me think it was a hotty using a black bottom end with some blue stuff.
we pulled out the engine from this car becuase it had no gearbox and looked easy, I then removed the harmonic balancer and timing cover, what, how silly they put in a fibre timing gear.
next it was of with the sump, s%#t it was a red crank and rods.
what a friggin waste of time for both of us.
I ended up taking the head and block to cambletown were they had to wait back for me to get there as I had spent so much time through the morning for nothing.
It looks like nitrous will be out of the question as the forged pistons I wanted arent available for holden sixes and would have to be custom made adding another grand to the engine.
The pistons we decided on are ACL race series dish top with the dish further machined to bring the compression down more.
I also have dropped the rod polish as the engine guy reckons it wont be to necassary for my application, so these will only be closed, honed and shot peened.
the block will be decked, chem cleaned, bored and O ringed and the head will be ported (mainly in the exhuast) have larger stainless swirl polished valves fitted and the VK efi manifold match ported.
Due to cost and set backs with time and progress on the car it looks like I wont make it to the Nostalgia drags.

Well another day, bit more welding and grinding till eventually I cought on fire.
not much damage just a few hairs gone from my stomach, after this there was a cold breeze coming in through my new big hole in the front of my shirt so I called it a day.
When I started It was stinking hot or pouring rain, now its just to cold to start till 12:00 and the sun turns of at 5:00.
I had planned to go to the wreckers and pull a motor out this morning but woke up lazy so my crank and rods wont make it to the engine shop for another week.
hopefully someone this weekend will buy a transmission or tourque convertor from one of the commodores at the wreckers so I can pull a motor out quicker and easier next weekend.

I cant show pics of this weekends progress as I am having a pain in the a$%e time with photobucket.
Anyway you guys are probably getting sick of looking at my floor pics, I sure am, I have every inch of a FC wagon floor permanantly in my mind.
I have the other subframe mounting point finnished and front inner sills in plus a rear inner sill, also the firewall has been modified to allow for the vk efi manifold and the tunnel is split at the rear waiting to be filled making more room for the tailshaft.
some cracks have been repaired in the firewall and a couple of bits welded in here and there.
I also gave it all another scrub 1st using a alkaline degreaser and then I went the other way for a balanced ph and sprayed it all with acid and scrubbed it again with a scourer.
I bought a packet of scourers from bunnings, they were a brand called edco but the font looked simular to that used in the Eelco speed equiptment name so I thought "cool" I'll get it.
Then when I got home I realised they were from indonesia, bugger, next time Ill make sure I get ones from china.

man my car is cactus, I started cutting the rear today, went from a little hole, then a bigger one then a bigger one then another, then another, then another layer, then another layer and before I knew it half the back of the car was little peices of rusty steel all over the ground.
why is it that every weekend the job gets 10 times bigger than it was the week before?

AH the joy of restoration

you should cut your loses and buy mi 219fe wagon shell less to fix then your wagon and mines rare

cheers fatboy

the thought crossed my mind a few times, but FECOOL plates are taken by RET

I am back in action with photos, some paint has been applied to the underside to give it some protection, inside the floor is now painted with POR 15.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/floor13.jpg)

Hey Leon
Check out this site for supecharged red in FJ.
http://gallery.oldholden.com/daves-supercharged-fj53
Regards
alex

Leon I was having an attempt for the all Holden Day but admitted defeat early on in the piece when I decided to do more than I had planned.
I had it at the Nostalgia Drags (Best day ever) and here it is now.............

Hey Harko.
I hope that's just a strip down for paint.
You have enough "projects" awaiting you attention.
Regards
Alex

Couldnt agree with you more alex .

Just a retrim n paint and a few other mods, I hope  :-/.

Sorry to Hijack ,Leon

well things have been pretty slow through the colder months but I haven't come to a complete stop. even if I have only been welding in one peice each weekend.
here is a pic of some of the rust now exposed at the back of the car, this killed the inspiration a bit but is gradually turning back to fresh steel instead of rust.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/DSC00381.jpg)

here is my most recent pic taken last sunday.
the box section that continues down from the rear pillars has been recreated and some of the back of the car is stuck back on.
I now smother everything Ive done in paint at the end of each day so that everywere is painted while accsessable, that is why the new stuff is grey.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/DSC00407.jpg)

i have the repair sections that go around the light
cheers fat

this weekend I set up a $10 gazebo from go lo and got a little bit further on the car.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/rear5.jpg)

I guess this is how they once would wack up sills in a emergency in the bush when you couldn't get to a rare spares, This will complete the drivers side sill but the other side is too hard to access now so it will be done when the car is on all fours again.
I am now thinking of painting the underside in 2k for better durabillity. I will buy a pssenger side sill as Im getting sick of making stuff.
A hassle will be getting the sill on without destroying to much of the paint under the car.
some times I envy those fancy indoor rottiserie jobs

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/sillsection.jpg)

Nice bit of sill you've made there Leon,

that $10 gazebo is a good idea too, I may get one as well, since my work space is outdoors like yours.

keep at it.. remember slowly, slowly the bird builds it's nest :)

Cheers

Ed

Hey Ed, that peice of sill is just about the last peice out of that sheet of steel I got of you.
The gazebo was on clearance down from $29, its been well worth the $10, they seem to frequently go on specail for $19.95, I cant believe it hasn't cought fire while being showered with sparks all weekend.
It shure has been a slow build, I am still dreaming of the day it will be sitting in the driveway painted.
this is followed by the two over specail days I guess, you know the one were the motor starts and the day it hits the road for the first time.
I finally found some 2" SU carbs on ebay and one the bid, now I just need to figure out how to jamb them in between the supercharger and subframe prior to painting the subframe.
Something you may know a bit about Ed that I have to also do is jamb the battery somewere, I have no room in the engine bay and no boot, do you have any pictures of your battery install?

Hi Leon,

amazing how much steel you rip thru doing rust work huh :)

battery relocation.

I cant take credit for the idea, it is Glenn's (FC-V8's) idea, and a good one too!

The battery is sunk under the floor.  I made a recess using angle and the battery box sits in this.  the lid is made from signwhite, with foam strips underneath to prevent accidental shorts.

glenn has some pics of this somewhere on the forum from memory.

i can snap a few on the weekend anyway.

Cheers

Ed

Leon
         With the battery the recess needs to be made on drivers side. The best battery to use is a DIN 66 its a euro type battery that sits low enough to still go in a battery box & it also has a vent tube so no battery fumes inside the car.
Glenn

well this is the most recent picture I have, there are more trapped in my phone but my data cable only seems to work on rare ocassions.
I still have a fair bit of work to do on the passenger side but It cant be done with the car on its side as I cant access the outer sill, also the dog leg on that side inside and out is near non existant with the bog gone.
hear is the primer, it was done 3 time due to weather issues and rusty rub throughs, I now have worn through the skin on my finger tips.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture60.jpg)

well this is the most recent picture I have, there are more trapped in my phone but my data cable only seems to work on rare ocassions.
I still have a fair bit of work to do on the passenger side but It cant be done with the car on its side as I cant access the outer sill, also the dog leg on that side inside and out is near non existant with the bog gone.
hear is the primer, it was done 3 time due to weather issues and rusty rub throughs, I now have worn through the skin on my finger tips.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture60.jpg)

Due to a upcoming real estate inspection I took a couple of days of work to get the car ready for turning over.
I also had rego due in the ford and spent half my time of looking for some tyres for it, turns out the ford has metric wheels, they are not 15 or 16" but 390mm.
the paint copped some runs and sags, I have to start setting up my gun better beffore mixing the paint, also some areas of the firewall got fry up's on a bare metal/ etch/high fill/ color job.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/ef01ac2c.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture058.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture024.jpg)

inside I now have solid brackets for consul, shifter, acc pedal, and heater.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture024.jpg)

oops, wrong pic.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture053.jpg)

You have my admiration for your persistance and passion. Here I am complaining about the mutant cement floor in the my garage that is flaking away!

Leon, you started with a rust bucket - now you've got the bucket.  Good it see it the right way up.

Haven't heard anything about the neighbours for a while - you obviously beat them into submission.

Keep plugging along.  I wish I had your body/welding skills.

Martin

Good on you Leon, good to see her right side up!

I had a pretty lazy weekend, got my F%$d pink slipped finally after spending heaps of time last week trying to find tyres to fit metric rims, I gave in and put 15" Mt druitt mags (the ones they call chasers) on it to finally get rego after a week with no transport, still didn't make it though, rta shut 5 mins before I got there.
When I got home I looked at the job I had ahead of me on the FC, a totally rotted out dog leg area.
I ended up looking at it till it got dark and did nothing.
Today was a bit slow to, my gazebo blew over a few weeks ago and the kids attacked it while it was down, so now the sun becomes a little discouraging.
here are some pics to show what got done.
I sat one of the new seats (still waiting for me to buy a sewing machine) in the car, this makes the car seem near complete but there is still heaps to go.
obviuosly the inner sill area is going to have to be painted again, I new this would be the case before but there wasn't much I could do about it while the car was on it's side.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/dog2.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture083.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture088.jpg)

some more
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture090.jpg)

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture085.jpg)

And more, I forgot to put in the peice at the rear that goes between the inner sill and outer, this is going to be a pain to do now. also, check out the sill at the bottom of the back door, maybe a little to far forward. fortunataly due to some subtle custom changes happening in these areas it wont be too much of a problem to fix. The car will have minimal seems and joins showing to help give more of a sculptured look than a bunch of pressed steel panels joined together.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture086.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture087.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/Picture084.jpg)

how should I tackle these?(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/rust004.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/rust003.jpg)

not much progress due to mega heat and lots of tricky slow bits to make up that I havent been very motorvated to do.
Finally the engine is back from machinning after spending 5k wich also included some parts.
some things are a little different to how it was going to be done.
It ended up with a camtech cam  custom ground made to pull upto 6000 rpm with around 9 psi boost.
the block has been decked, O' ringed, tunnel bored, plugged and bored.
Head was cc'd, ported, new big stainless valves, double valve springs, yt series billet yella terra rockers, yella terra guide plates and ARP studs.
3.3 black crank was machined for a 179 and balanced and has a ARP main stud kit to hold it in.
pistons are ACL race series with extra machining to reduce CR and black rods wich are balanced, closed honed and shot peened with ARP bolts.
head gasket is a ACL race series copperhead copper gasket.
when I went to pick it up they still hadn't modified it to fit the black head to a red block, they said they had done alot of red heads to black blocks but not the other way around, we ended up with the red block holes tapped and plugged and some water holes drilled in further towards the bores, hope this is the rite way.
They recomended that I bring the motor back to fit the rings, dial in the cam and fit the head gasket, guess that will just about mean the lot, apparently it needs a 18 thou ring gap for each piston and I have no way to file the rings if need be.
scariest thing is that they said I should do 1000 k's around here on cheapo valvaline xld oil before I hit the freeway, if I get this ready in time for the nationals is there a back street route?

leon,
       i take my holden hat off to you x10 mate,is there any rust you can't fix i don't think so.good on ya,and i'am sooking over red lead and pin holes and a few dent's. if you don't get best effort trophy at the nat's i'll  stop restoring my fe. ;D ;D ;D.
                                                   cheer's col.

these bits are a pain, fortunately this side isnt to bad and only needed minor surgery inside, making these patches to fit perfect I have to make them in a few peices, maybe a panel beater could do it in fewer peices but I am not a panel beater
I hope this is gonna work out alright.  
If they arent the right shape there will be ugly gaps showing.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1022.jpg)

I had to stop and think here as just about all the pillars have rust, should I chop it?, however there would be a hell of a lot more involved in it than just cutting down the pillars.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1014.jpg)

here she is in her current state, there couldn't be any thing more fun than being showered by sparks while rolling around in the mud in the stinking hot sun every sunday.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1002.jpg)

here is a picture of the block now set up for the 12 port head,  see, it has extra water holes and the old ones are plugged.
O rings are also fitted too help keep in high pressure.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1017.jpg)

here is a pic showing the chambers that have been cc'd to drop the compression.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1018.jpg)

my new YT series rockers.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/a1019.jpg)

today I started to patch up a pillar, I had thought about grinding the weld earlier in the day but by time I got to weld it I had drunk quite a bit of beer and made a big messy chunky weld rite were I couldnt get in with a grinder.
Does anyone know how you clean welds in spots like this?

oops, here is the pic of the weld I cant get to with the grinder, its in the bottom corner of the windscreen.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/weld.jpg)

die grinder ,very handy tool to have in your air powered set ups

Leon
       The car is coming along very nicely. Please keep the pics coming. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words. With the fabrication shots you are posting we can all benefit.


Cheers
Sarge

Leon, you should be able to get a tungsten/carbide bit or one of the stone bits to get in there with a drill to grind it down. I have some of both and the tungsten bits seemingly last forever.

if you have a compresser ,then invest in ,say a supercheap die grinder,they come with a useless stone kit but you can buy the carbide tungsten type from most tool shops best bet is to have a pointy one and a rounded end one and you can do heaps of work  with them ,my one ive had for 3 years cost $49 minus 20% on one of supercheap's big special days.bits cost from $25 to $60 each but they last for years.
you can grind in hard to get ares,enlarge holes,reshape steel in hard to get to areas, port your heads (plenty of detailed books)mate i cant stress highly enough how useful they are.

Ive tried cheapo stones and they instantly chew up, I might try some dearer ones and if that doesnt work I will get a die grinder, ive been looking at buying one for years.

If you are chewing up the stones, then go the carbide bits. You don't need the die-grinder a drill will do, but the die grinder can get into tighter spots.

Leon,
       Its absolutely awesome to see
some progress on your wagon- its
really quite hard to believe that you
started it back in march last year,
time flies aye? . i bet you must be
pretty excited to finally get the motor
back from the shop, can you tell us
what has been done to the motor?.
i cant wait to see it when its done,
by the looks of things it looked to
be a really kool custom, i guess it
will only look better this time round.

Anyway keep up the good work Leon,
its really great to see a wagon being
Customised :)

of the top off my head here it is, the invoice took up 2 pages.

chemi clean block.
bore & hone
tunnel bore (for minimal crank friction)
ARP main stud kit.
3.3 counterbalance crank machined to 186
Block O'ringed
ACL cam bearings fitted
balance
3.3 black conrods shot peened, closed & honed
ARP conrod bolts
ACL race series pistons
piston dish machined.
red block drilled and plugged for 12 port head.
ACL race series copperhead head gasket drilled to suit  
black/red combo
12 port head striped and cleaned.
chambers cc'd
ports ported
pep pro valves fitted with double springs
ARP head stud kit
Yella Terra YT series rockers
Yella terra guide plates
crower adjustable straight cut timing gear set
and this cam-
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/camspecs.jpg)
The engine shop has recomended that I bring it back to have some of the assembly done, Apparently the rings may need filing to get 18 thou on each one, also a dial indicator is needed for fitting the crank gear and the head gasket is supposed to be tricky to get rite, also measurements need to be taken before the pushrods are ordered so I am going to clean it,, stick in the welsh plugs and crank and give it all a paint then take it back to the shop, hopefully it wont be there too long this time.
Also my ignition has arrived, it is a crane cams hi6 trc digital multi spark cdi ignition with timing retard control, with this I can adjust the timing from the drivers seat.

I priced a burr and they were $60, they had about 40 to chose from, I chickened out at the price.
It's getting pretty close to the Nationals, Ive drained my bank account dry and the neighbours are probably near their limit to get the cops back out here.
I am thinking of entering but will be totally amazed if I actually make it.
I had the day of work today due to a eye infection from another grinding spark I picked up days ago.
I had a little bearing Issue were the engine shop supplied duralite instead of race series when race series was asked for, the shop told me that there was no difference with the two types but after sending a email lastnight I recieved a lengthy phone call from ACL and a email full of info and related pdf's, ive never seen such customer service for parts, they even contacted a performance specailist rep to go to the engine shop and explain the differences in there products.
This shop actually seems to have worked on about 90% of the sub 15 sec holden 6 cars that are racing at wsid.

The engine has been degreased, washed with detergent,  cup brushed, wire wheeled, lightly sanded and breif deburring on some obviuos rough spots, deoxidised, scoured, prepsoled, masked and etch primed with 2k etch, timming cover, rocker cover will be polished and painted with a por 15 alloy resto kit
.(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20062012.jpg)

Yes officer, its a GREY motor!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20062032.jpg)

thats a great list of internals in that red or should i say grey, triple webers would look nice hanging off the side scare a few smallblocks too

trople webers would be good but the compression ratio now is only suitable for a turbo or supercharger, it will be supercharged with 2x 2 inch SU carbs and water methanol injection.
At first I wanted to go a darker grey like Ed Singletons motor but I ended up woosing out of that at the last minute as I thought with the black motor head that people might instntly think its a black motor.
Its basicly a red HP motor painted grey with everything out of a black motor, eg. crank, rods, hea. now depending on the situation I can say I have a 179 hp or I can say it has a grey six or I can say it has a supercharged 208 all without really lying.

I dont know how the thing was staying together but it seems everywere I take paint of I just end up with heaps of rust holes.
Since the front will have frenched headlights I want to smooth up around its tail as well, I was thinking of getting tail lights out of something else but everything seems to big for the little holden, also a shortage of time and money makes the idea off frenching the standard tail lights sound good.
Once you take away the chrome you have a pretty short lens to fill the hole so it seemed apprpriate to raise the bottom of the tail light area up, I dont know exactly what I will do here yet but heres the start.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20062004.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20062006.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20062008.jpg)

Cant complain about the weather this weekend, slight drizzle and it did get a bit hot for a hour or 2 but was a nice overcast weekend, ended slightly early after my youngest son split my older sons head open while I was out the front.
As usual everytime I remove paint the steel under the filler looks like swiss cheese, I trial fitted  the pass side doors and and cut the curve on the lower rear corner of the rear door. Then I cup brushed the back door arour the curve and noticed under all that nice paint was a bunch of holes. This is one of the last panels I was going to keep that was on it before as it looked like the only good one but it was just good bog.
now it looks like I am in the market for a new pass side rear door.
while in the mood to strip I then moved to the top of the dog leg but that just led to more dissapointment with a 2" hole in the outer and large swiss cheese area on the inner
I then decided to stop so I wouldnt throw anything.
The door jambs are pretty time consuming, one tricky bit I am not looking forward to is the windlace retaining strip that curves back at the bottom, it was non existant and needs to be remade, small bit but fidly.
The engine is slowly coming along but is currently stuck in my boot and become to heavy to get out by my self. might have to take the bootlid off the LTD and crane it out on the road.
I finaly got the outer lower pass side dog leg on but needs some slight altering. The one on the otner side was done while the car was on it's side and after looking at the pass side one I think I will cut up the drivers side again and re do it.
I guess I am nuts as I went and entered the nationals, I guess at least I will get a goodies back and t shirt and there was some good goodies last year.
Then also there is the chance like ahh, 1 in a miillion that I could get this thing driving and take it down.
I thought I had 2 weeks holidays but recently found we were over paid last year and they corrected it by deducting a weeks holidays, ouch
I guess this means I will be having another week like last year of working flat out on the car, hopefully it wont rain this time.
In these pics the car looks nearly finished but it is just sitting together, the subframe has been wire wheeled, sanded and acid treated already twice and now is again covered in surface rust and still awaits brackets for the brake booster, water / methanol pump ( its a big pump)claxton, washer tank and methanol tank, the metahanol is injected to help prevent detonation under boost without retarding the timing.
The front door is a good spare I was trying to sell awhile ago for $45, glad I didnt as it looks like a smick door, I had already preped a door with all the modifacations but ditched it due to rust. the doors will take a bit of work having power windows, central locking, speakers, push buttons to open outside, power window switches, curved lower corner and the front door mould holes filled on top of usual preperation for a door.


(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20063001.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20063002.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20063003.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/20063006.jpg)(http://URL)

Keep going Leon, the trials with my car and now the ute seem trivial compared to the tin worm you are battling. Can't wait to see the finished product!

please tell me your not putting those disgustingly ugly twin headlamps on front?theres already one to many around.
theres good mods and then there is joke mods,
please dont do it. :o

Hey Leon,

Keep chipping away mate, funnily enough the passenger side rear door and dog leg were the most problematic areas on my wagon too.

cant help with a door unfortunately or a dog leg as I used them up on mine.

Love the headlights.

Cheers

Ed

And which one would that be?

Leon's car, Leon's hard work, Leon's choice to do whatever the hell he wants with it.  I don't recall seeing a poll seeking opinions from the crowd.  Maybe you should keep yours to yourself. :(

nah I am used too this stuff from visitors, you know, your doing what, dont do that, do it this way but if you dont do what you want you get haunted for the rest of your life thing what if?
I learned last time to block what input you want to block after giving in to my self and doing things over again my way.
I know this car is a little out of the common and will get all kinds off comments, good and bad but one thing is it will stand out and be remembered and that is kind of cool.
I better also add these are FORD head lights!
They are from a 58 edsel and were a popular choice with kustom show car builders in the early sixties over in the US were the scene was biggest.
Ive had the picture in my head for to many years to stop now.
hope I dont upset you guys too much but really this car was ready to be melted into hyundai excels and probably shouldnt be getting this second life with all the rust repairs required.
Last time I built the car the thing local car nuts were getting upset about was my choice in colour and wheels
They reckoned you cant have hubcaps on a hottie and the colour looked gay, I didnt give in and when I finnished I was happy with my decisions to listen too myself and not really worried about what other people thought.
This time everyone is telling me not to change the colour, critics are so hard to understand sometimes but the colour will be near the same.

Ahhh Nicko.
Im the newest member of the....
'I hate Nicko because he's the biggest wanker on the board club'.
I was going to say something that involved your mutha, but she doesn't deserve it as she has had to put up with her dumb as dog shit son for all of your life.

Leon....you are going to get wankers like Nicko making closed minded remarks about your car on a regular basis. You have the right attitude, do what you want and only value the opinions of those who can understand why you did what you did.

Oh and Nicko, perhaps you would be happier in the Singer restorers club.

Regards
Alex

Leon,

I haven't been posting much here lately, a little bit over the whole thing. But I just wanted to agree with Alex on both fronts.

Leon, row your own boat any way YOU want. I cannot understand for the life of me why Nicko or anyone would put a post up that so blatantly degrades a fellow enthusiasts efforts, especially one so dedicated (and crazy :-) ) as Leon's. This guy deserves your admiration, not your derision.

And for the record Alex's car is a personal favourite of mine, its a great reminder of the fabulous customs of the sixties.

Power on Leon.

Cheers,

Craig.

leon you are truly an inspiration as to what can be achieved, considering what you had started with and even more so what you found on the way, it still hasnt deterred you from your vision, also from what i have seen in the pics the conditions you have been working in at times would crack a lesser man. keep at it and i cant wait to see it in the flesh, maybe not these nats but certainly the next!!

and alex for what its worth i to like your headlights in fact the whole car, as craig stated it is great to see a reminder of where customising all started from, for in my mind without someone prepared to go out on a limb and try something different we would all be driving around in identical little shoeboxes.

keep at, both of you deserve high praise for what your doing.

cheers
dean

Well you were'nt wrong there Alex

Thanks for the comments guys, very motivating, guess I am gonna have to try and get this thing to phillip island.

No offence taken by me Nicko I am used to it, but that was a pretty harsh on Alex's car, may even upset all those people that love the style of Alex's car and there are alot of them, I ve seen this thing pop up all the time in variuos magazines.
I could think of ugly mods but canted quads dont seem ugly to me.
Prior to 1958 canted quads had been seen on a few kustoms and detroit noticed, from 58 on quad headlights were fitted to all but poverty cars in the US wich then gave kustomisers a good range of headlights to use, yep chevy, ford, cadillac, chrysler all of a sudden brought out all there new models in 58 with quad headlights and some uppermarket cars even had them canted to add class and style to go with there bigger price tags.


any way, check this top secret webpage out about the coolest ever restyling trick.
http://www.theroadagents.com/Canted%20Quadspage.htm

Keep up the good work Leon.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it progress in the next few months.


Cheers
Dave

Good on you, Leon.
You must be the most determined & tenacious person on this site. The rust bug has NO chance when you are about.
Style is you own choice & I love Alex's car, so it is great to see someone who has the nads to do exactly what they want, without bowing to the pressure of armchair critics.
I have seen a quad light set up on an FB that was in an old "Modern Motor" Magazine & although not canted as yours & Alex's, I would oneday love to do it (But being crap at metalwork, I would proabably get someone else to do it).

Looking forward to the finished result.

Alex,
I love it when you are angry! You tell them my man! It is the quiet ones you gotta watch :o :o ;)

Rob J

ok ive done it again,foot in mouth disease.
yes i dont like those canted HLights as i think the FE and FC's are great cars and i love modded ones also, i personally just dont like mods that make them almost unreconisable.
i dont mind if you hate my comments that could have been written a bit more tactfully,ok, a lot more tactfully, :-X
and i have nothing but admiration for all the good (read Hard)work that you have done to get it back on the road, and as i saw one normal guard and one canted guard in last photo,i thought you were at a crossroad on which way to go and spoke my mind (even if that mind is dumb as dog shit)lol.maybe it is ,i dont think so though :'(

everyone has different tastes it makes the world a bit more interesting,  it would suck if everyone drove their earlys as they left the factory, no offence to the restorers (I love originals to) but when you can add some personality to your car it sets it appart from the rest.  

Its funny how many people will say "don't do that", then comment on how good it looks afterward.

Go tha wagons

gee, i have seen that wagon before fcwgn, any chance of a few pics.
I worked back a little tonight but still got a patch in wich was the inner top of the rear pass side wheel arch, went slightly over the 8pm grinding and welding curfew the council gave me but the guy across the road is still grinding, hope I dont get the blame.
overtime brings good money but takes time away from the car, the balance currently is evenly bad, I used all my 5c peices to put fuel in the car today. payday tomorow, more parts and materials food and bourbon, woo hoo.

hey Leon,

I just uploaded some of my car pics from my phone to photobucket the ute is waiting on some loride stubbs

http://photobucket.com/albums/e273/benfcwgn/



ben

Very very nice wagon Ben....
you should start a new thread with some larger pics of it and a bit of a story about it, so it doesn't get lost amongst Leon's post...


Nick

looking forward to hearing more about it  ;)

What?! :o :o
A Tassie wagon in that scheme & I don't know about it. Must be getting old. Are you based North or South, Ben? Wagon looks great.
One of my Pastrychefs was telling me of an FC wagon in Green & creme the other day, but I thought she must have meant my old wagon. I am in Hobart & keen to see more of that car.

I apologise about the thread hijack, Leon. :)

Rob J

I know you guys are probably expecting too see filler and primer stages beginning but I am stiil gutting out rust, The nationals are starting too look out of the question, Ive been working pretty slow probably coz I am now completely sick of doing rust repairs after 12 months with 2 sundays off for the nostalgia drags and every other weekend doing rust.
I no longer think about what the new engine will sound like or how cool the finnished car will look coming down the road, I just think of all the things I have missed through the year with all my time and money going into the car, I dont know how you guys do it.

Any way, enough sobbing, I now have about 95% of the motor here and am stuck on working out my pushrod length with the new rocker, lifters, cam and head,
I bought the steel yestrday to make the supercharger brackets.
here is the latest pics.

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4007.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4009.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4006.jpg)
Its amazing how much shape in these things are lead, at the bottom of its rear pillars it was nearly 1/2" thick
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4010.jpg)
Here is a recent repair, looks rough but there will be another peice welded her to attach the guards to the cowl andmake the curves up around the bonnet corners
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4008.jpg)
In the picture of the tailight area you may be just able to make out the frame for the new frenched tail light openning, not yet happy with the shape, needs more tweaking.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4001.jpg)
rear pass side weel arc is done
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/4001.jpg)
I wanted to do this car by myself, its good in the end to say you did it yourself but at this stage and with what is left< If any one has any time Up there sleeve I could probably do with a hand, welding, stripping (paint)bogging, etc, it would be good to start squirting some primer around it soon and get it rolling again.
once I get it in the shed I should be pretty rite to bog and sand through the night without too much hassle from the neighbours.
car is currently drowning in the rain with all the weekends fresh welds and steel, the tarps have become pretty holly from sparks.
Rain Sucks

Its on again, 12 months ago I took of a week for a tidy up, now 12 months later I seem to be behind were I thought I was 12 months ago thanks to all the hidden rust and extra stuff I decided to add through the year.
A bit out of plan I put in for my holidays late and next week was the only week I could get off.
This means I would have to form up the tail light areas, headlight and grill area, finnish the rust, sand, clean and bog the lot, do seat belts, finnish the motor, fix all the transmission leaks, make a crossmember and handbrake link, make the exhuast and source some efi extractors to suit a FC, sort out the brakes and steering, wire everything, primer, white on top, prep and paint subframe with washer and methanol tanks hidden but acsessable, rebuild and paint front end etc, etc all next week to attempt to get this thing to the nats.
I had planned to get into a booth to paint the lower half on the 19th of march, a near impossible target since I was going to drive it there.
any way, I thought the bottom of the back was finnished for rust repairs but I spotted a small crack in the lead, I decided to investigate and found what I find 100% of the time when I do this, rust holes on the outside skin and parts behind, I remade all this on the other side, should have expected the same on this side and taken a better look.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/45009.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/45010.jpg)
Looks like this sunday will be a flat out day, after last year my fingers are crossed tite as a nuns rusty nuts to keep the rain away for the week off.

Good luck with the rain, I am praying too, with next week off to do the ute, panel, rust and paint work.

I apologise for hijacking your thread Leon,

Rob, I believe that Ben is in Launceston, or close to it. Bugger me if I didn't see that FJ ute today, whilst I was walking down a street near Launceston's City Park.

Once again, I apologise Leon.

Ol Girl

Man this is taking forever, Today I finnished of the rust below the tailgate opening but then when I went to look behind I found more rust in the part behind wich extends from the rear pillar, I had made up a patch for the back of it as you can see in the previous photos it had rust aswell, however I didnt give it a thourough enough check and must have poked out a hole when I was cleaning it out and just didnt look probably because it was getting dark. on the other side this whole bit was remade back when the car was on its side.
Being totally pissed of with rust I took a break from it and started doing a bit more tail light stuff.
The passenger side bucket (?) is about 2/3's done and in the pic it is just sitting there not completely in its right spot, this is the inner tunnel kind of part with the lense screwed in to do a check up and make sure its not getting ugly.

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/1002.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/1003.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/1001.jpg)

didnt get very far for 12 hours work, sick of the back I worked   on the front today so the pic will not be for the faint hearted
any way, I just put paint stripper on my doors and now cant find the hose connecter to wash it of, its set hard after a bit of a scraping.
I want to go over the hole thing with striping discs, I bought the discs but cant find the rest of what I need to fit them to the buff with all the parts and dtuff packed into the garage.
by today I wanted to have all the bog in the top half and subframe ready to prime but it didnt happen, guess its getting more on the definate side that she wont make it to the natoinals but I will give it a few more days before I chuck it in and finally take my boat out instead, tomorrow is the first day of my 5 day holiday break.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/1007.jpg)

1 holiday day down 4 days left,  sure chews time fast, my understandably hasnt been real happy with all the time and money going on the car but today she came out and gave me a hand for about 45 mins going around all the edges with a cup brush.
A little has been done on the front again and a little at the back.
Weather has been good, a little sunburn, still crossing my figers as its now a little cloudy and windy, a day like today is what I wish I could save for the day I prime it, If that ever comes.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/2001.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/2002.jpg)

If nothing else, at least the car is smiling  ;D, I can't wait to see those cantered quads.

today was a pretty crappy day, I just about destroyed my tailights I spent most of yesterday I was working so I changed to the front of the car. I was upto the stage of shaping the leading edge around the grill and headlights but ended up stuffing that too.
I decided to go for some shopping therapy, hundreds of dollars later I bought some more vinyl, piping and windlace as well as some thinner rod for the front (8mm) wich should be much easier to work with. I also bought some threaded bar for my home made adjustable pushrod to figure out my pushrod length.
hopefully tomorow I will get something done.

Hi Leon & Family,
Keep going & good luck.
I can"t  paint weld repair motors etc. wouldn't have a go.
Thats why I was 53 befor I got back into an FC again.
Had I had had a go earlier, like you I wouldn't have missed all those years without owning a FC.
Good luck and both myself & Jan look forward to seeing your car back on the road...However long it may take you!!    We admire your efforts......
Bruce

Thanks for the boost along Bruce, I was going to call it quits and do something else with the last 2 days of my holidays but I kind of now have too much metal exposed now and have to make a run too the primer stage.
looks like ben (revhead fc) might be over on the weekend to lend a hand so If I can get as much as possible of the steel welded in prior to saturday we might be able to get into the striping and bogging (no I dont mean taking our pants of and doing a poo).
I had better luck today after repeating yesterdays work but with 8mm rod instaed of 10mm, this is pretty tricky and time consuming as it still is hard to shape but you need to make it fit the headlight surrounds as well as the car as well as matching on both sides.
now they are shaped I can trim up the front, tack the rod into place and start adding the steel from my now limited supply of rashons.
I also bought some pipe this mornig to make the twin ariels, It looked slightly bigger than what I wanted at 1 1/2" , when I got home I noticed some more suitable size in a stuffed pushbike frame.
I worked out my pushrod length last night and sorted that out today so soon the motor should get finnished, also at 9am this morning the new flex plate arrived from magnum wich I ordered on monday afternoon.
here is a fresh pic, the drivers side guars has been getting striped around the front with a chisel, its the quickest, cleanest way to strip it since its wearing upto 3/4" of bog around the lower front.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/3003.jpg)

Hey Leon.
Some cool progress.
Are you planning a tube grill?
....or is that getting too far ahead!
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Alex

America might have there motivater but we got one better, keep plugin leon p/s where all praying for no rain
regards mal

Greyone.....I was thinking exactly the same thing.  Leon there are a few things I have to say.

- I've only really caught up with your rebuild and have skimmed over most of the reports you have made and must say....your very first post back in March 2005 on this rebuild you said, " it's time for a FRESHEN up".....bloody hell.......if that's what you call a freshen up, I'd love to see what you call a full resto !

- I also have to thankyou for not only providing motivation for all of us, but for giving me ammunision to use against my wife next time she nags about me building my FC.
You are not only restoring a car, but majorly customizing it at the same time, all under a tarp and shade sails in the front drive of your house....and you have got your wife to help out ( with pics to prove it ).
My wife has nothing to complain about !

You are taking on a huge job ( bigger than most of us would dream of taking on ), without the comforts of a designated shed, benches ect ect and are doing a great job doing it.

Well done and I wish you all the best for the rest of the build.

You are an inspiration...truly !

Cheers

Mark

hey leon, your doing great.
i think mark has summed it up perfectly.  ;)

its going to be magic when you finish.
dean

Hi Leon

I have been watching your progrss over a long period of time and think you doing a fantastic job, I do like the way your headlights are looking.

They remind me a possesed car in a movie, the movie is 'Christine' Good movie have a look at the grill in it, if you cant find the movie I have a copy so if your going to the Nats I will lend it to you .

Julius

Hey Julius, I have it on DVD, VHS and the novel, Actually its the only one I have read from start to end, all the novels we had to read at school were so unsuited to my taste in reading material that I refused to read right through in disgust. another stephen king favourite was sometimes they come back wich was about a man who cuased the death of 4 teenagers who tried too kill his brother in the late 50's, these guys come back to huant him 30 years later and they get around in a black scalloped flamethrowing 55 chevy.
I had to do a little running around today, I have a little problem with the head gasket slightly missing the O'rings so a new one is going to be custom made, I also picked up my pushrods wich still seem a little short.
aswell as that I picked up a 2:78 diff just for incase somehow this thing somehow is finnished in time for the  natoinals, the supercharger doesnt like constant high rpm so this should help when I need to do long trips.
I am still mucking around with the front, I have nearly finnished making the headlight tunnel parts for both sides and they are now tacked into the rod that will make the edge of the front of the car, these also hold the 58 edsel headlight bezels and the buckets that have been modified to fit them.
The holes are now also cut for the twin frenched electric ariels.
Tailights also are nearly ready to go.
I have to go and buy some stripping materials in the morning and get ben and my missus striping (paint) while I weld, weather has been pretty good but hopefully it will hold out for the weekend.

Thought I might add some new pics all though not much yet looks different.
my holidays are now over with only the weekend left, I am no were near were I planned to be wich is kind of dissapointing after going flat out for a year to get to the next nationals.
On the good side it's pretty good to see the new look coming to shape, I kind of thought this up on the bus on our garage crawl run while reading a book in between garages called Custom cars yearbook vol 1 1963, I gave up on the idea I was dreaming about all day when I began to think more about reality things like time, cost and effort but then months later I thought stuff it and borrowed the book I was reading on the bus wich I still havent returned and is still studied daily.
the plan then was to do what I could prior to the jindabyne natoinals and get a new coat of paint on it.
When I missed the natoinals I decided that with a extra 52 weeks up my sleeve I might go a little further, finally we had the nostalgia drags begining wich then was going to be annaul but still worth building a motor for.
In order to to get a motor done I started by looking for engine shops involved with the build of holden 6 altereds and rails, a supercharger was bought and a black motor stripped out for all its goodies.
looks at this stage body wise I am not to far behind stinky with nadias ute, hopefully at the end of the weekend I will
be able to show some pics with some more noticable progress, as long is this good weather holds up.
in the pics you will notice even the kids are now being put to work with sanding, etc
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/3009.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/3007.jpg)

Hey Leon.
Good to see your enthusiasm has not subsided after all these weeks.
Something to consider before final welding the lights.....make sure you do not lean them too far forward as you will not be able to adjust the headlights. I had to muck around afterward with spacers etc to get mine to stop pointing at the road.
Keep it up.
Regards
Alex

Alex, that has already been looked at, I have the part that screws to the bucket on a funny twisted leaning angle that hopefully will compensate, also the top lights sit out further.
I couldnt get as much lean forward as I wanted becuase the rod wont allow it without looking to funny.
this stuff is what chewed half of the time, serious head scratching, hope I can make it all fit together

here is the end result of today, now the problem is that I have to return to work on monday and I have a lot of bare metal waiting for bog and primer.
Ben came and stripped for a while but hadn't slept last night as he was working on the road, I dont know if the 4 cans of JD he threw down before he started helped much, it was pretty hot today and even if he didn't get heaps done it was good to get some outside help for a few hours.
I also had a bit of a go stripping and made some frenched ariels, my wife went to work on some panels with the cup brush around the jambs.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/8005.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/8004.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/8003.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/8001.jpg)

well today was my last day of my holidays to get this thing welded up, bondo'd and primed but at the end of it all I am still at about 1/3 of the way through the welding.
Batman droped in expecting a finished car and was not impressed.
I set my alarm and jumped out of bed early and spent the whole day sitting in the sun welding in one tail light, when I finnished welding I took a photo and looked at the clock and it was 5:58 meaning I had 2 minutes left I could use power tools before the neighbours would freak out.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/9003.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/9004.jpg)

My hat goes off to you Leon, you are doing a great Job!!!!   Keep it up and cant wait too see the final product, cheers
                                                              TAYZ(Love the Kustom Look!!)

Geez Leon
    I thought Harko's post was for "motivation"  (no offence Harko)  but I reckon you blow that guy "out of the water"   persistance +   , good onya mate, stick with it .

 Norm  :)

Leon,

that is starting to look SWEET!

thanks for taking us though the build warts and all!!

those tail ights are very cool.

Cheers

Ed

Keep at it Leon you are an inspiration to us all.
Regards
Deano ;D

I have been watching this great thread with lotsa interest , you are doing a fantastic job , must be a hard slog hard without a garage and poxy neighbours , stick at it mate , and you will end up with a fantastic custom(it will be worth all the hard work when she is registered) you are a real inspiration
               Cheers Rusty

another weekend has passed, the front is taking on its new shape, pretty slowly but its happening.
This weekend the concierge from my work ( Mercedes-Benz dealer) came over to lend a hand, he had more determination than me and despite the thick layers of paint piled on my roof and the hot sun, he was determined to keep powering till the eintire roof had not a spec of paint and he did.
the rear quarter is waiting to be striped again, it only has etch on it and I am thinking of removing the filler on the lead and using a different brand.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/9005.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/9007.jpg)

Are the cantered quad mounts totally hand made or is there some kind of factory gear in there?
Just thinking ahead to a "fun" project for the Mt G nationals  :o

 The chrome bits are from a 58 ford edsel, the part between that wich is attachetd to the rod that the chrome part screws to is hand made and probably the most complicated part of the lot, it also attaches to the parts the headlight screw to wich is a factory part from stuff knows what and has been cut in half and welded back together to bring the headlights closer together.

Leon,
Keep up the hard work.Hope to see the car in the flesh at the Nats.
Cheers,
Graham

Graham it dont look like its gonna make it, but as I said last time I saw you, I am just going to keep going till the time comes.
The roof is now in primer but still needs a few areas rubbed back and bogged and then I will re prime it, rest of the car is almost completely bare metal except some bits in hard to get spots mainly in the door jambs, I was using a wire wheel on these but the method is chewing drills., there is still heaps of welding, bogging and priming to do, and the natoinals is dam close.
I have had our concierge from work over in the last 2 weekends striping paint and he is running out of paint to strip, I am trying to keep up with the welding but I am a bit behind.
after striping and welding I straighten what I can and sand with 120 and 80 were the filler needs to go in,  then wipe with acid, then a damp rag, dry rag, damp rag, dry rag, metho rag, prepsol rag then a dry rag, then fill, then sand with 80 then 180 and again with the prepsol, then 2ketch primer, then 2k hs primer.
its pretty hard to get a area preped in time to prime it early afternoon and seems to end up more night time.
I cant believe I finally got etch primer on something without the rain hitting as soon as I mix the primer with the catylist.
I bought one of those prtable carports at k mart for $42 on clearance with 15% off on top wich I still havent got a chance to put up. I also got my new electric ariels with the 15% off, cool.
the car is now short again with the subframe back offand I am still trying sort out a back door, looks like I might have to cut cut 2 doors up and make a good wagon door, also still have to make the push buttons for the doors.

I hope I'm not hijacking the thread here but, in the picture here I've circled the box tubing that has been welded to the floor ??? I would imagine that is for added chassis strength, is there any set rules or guidlines that I will have to follow if I do this and judging by the size it looks to be about 40X40mm box, any guidelines here would be a great help

(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f161/troopie87/redcircles.jpg)

Yogie, There probably are some rules but silly me didn't suss it out first, I still need to add some bits with bolts but I want to fit everything up underneath first to see were I have room.
I noticed the other night that on streetneats site he has something that is like a cross between mine and a bought chassis kit, he had some good detailed pics too.
I think I used 50x50.

Hey Leon,

fFom my backyard engineering skills, if you have already welded the rails in place, the addition of bolts will not improve it's performance by much at all.

from the far away view of the pic it would appear you have probably welded in the rails and the shear forces present with this design would render this shortlived.

the circled area half way down at the rear floor, could probably do with the addition of some angle welded to the rail and then bolted through the floor using a plate (if it hasn't already).

this means your twisting forces would be spread across the face of the plate rather than just your rails twisitng against the floor and welds which would lead to failure around the welds in the floor itself.

where the rails meet the front floor x-member.  Make a C-channel that slips over the x member and rail join.  seam or stitch weld it in for ultimate strength.
once again if that is just  butt join it will just tear away under load over time.

your rails are resisiting the torsional twist of the body under load.

the side arms at the rear are good but I would slip a c channel over the join just to be sure, similarly with where it attaches to the sill I would plate around the area using 3mm plate.

personally I see no real gains in attaching to the sill, knowing how flimsy they actually are, it may lead to cracking of the paint or filler on the outer sill. (my 2c)

these are just my backyard engineering obs and designs I would implement if I were to do it again.  Hope you find these comments constructive.

other methods include setting the rails through the floor itself and fuly welding them in.. much more work but they sit higher.

Cheers

Ed

I cut slots into the front rails and left toungues on the end of the front to back rails to slip into the slots before I welded it, at the rear the box rail goes inside the origonal rails, hopefully this way if the is any breakage nothing can drop.
I may even cut it out and put a chasis kit in down the track, looking at it, it obviously wont do much without adding to it, maybe it will stop the middle of the car from bouncing up and down a little.
My uncle insisted on me doing the rails this way all but that he also wanted me to extend the middle rails from the trans crossmember back further, I wanted to fit a chasis kit.
He only lasted a couple of weeks with helping out with the car as we both wanted to go completely different ways and nothing seemed to be getting done.
He frequently visits and cant help himself but to knock everything I am doing to it and how I am doing it as soon as he gets here.
In the beginning he wanted me to weld squares of steel to the back of welded pinholes wich he said would give it strength but I thought it would just create rust holes down the track but I still had to do it. He also comes down in the day and bags my work out to my wife, yesterday my wife stuck up for me and there was a argument wich nearly involved the police, man this car cuases some people to do strange stuff.
Any way he reckons I have been taking all the credit for the work on the car on this forum and havent given him any credit for the loan of the vices, ruler, work on thinking up the rails and a patch in the floor he made,    Well I will let yous know now he did that, aswell as cutting some big holes out of the car were I just wanted to weld some pinholes.
Although he hasn't done anything on it since about this time last year he has been coming down everyday with advice, its a real pain when you are waiting to grind or weld but you have to listen to someone going on for ages about how they think it should be done.
I gave up on his advice near the beginning as I find it easier to do things how I think they should be done and I dont see how someone who has never used a mig or built a kustom could have loads of advice.
maybe he is right and I am wrong but I just want to do it my way and if there is something I need to know I will ask someone who has succeeded with what I want to do.
Here are some of the tricks he tells me to do but I ignored wich he wasnt real happy about, you guys can try them but I dont want to experiment.

-bare metal being left over night outside should be rubbed with soap or wd to stop moisture.
-You should only strip your paint of with sandpaper on a cork block becuase anything else will damage the metal, rubber blocks are also no good.
-a peice of metal should be welded to the back of pinhole repairs for strength.
to sand the curve under the tail lights you should by a broom stick, cut it down and wrap sandpaper around it, other than that a tennis ball should be used.
-All panel sanding sould go only in one direction and the metal should the be polished with soapy steel wool.
-all chrome and glass should be cleaned with steel wool.
-Speed files are a waste of time and money as a cork block will do their job better.
-As many as possible drain holes should be drilled in the floor to allow water to drip out of the carpet.
-The best thing to wash your car with is steel wool and rust convertor (That scares the shit out of me but he does it)
- Enamel is the best paint to use as you can spray anything over it if you need to touch up and 2k is crap.

well they are the common peices of advice I get nearly daily and I feel like a bastard for ignoring his advice but I feel more comfortable with my methods, after yesterdays drama while I was at work it looks like I wont have to listen to his tips for a while and can get on with some work.
If anyone else feels they have done something on the car and I have taken the credit for it on the forum please pm me as I do try to put in everything everyone does in, even if it's a couple of strokes with a peice of sandpaper. what I havent put much up on the forum is stuff like all the times I have put the doors and subframe on and of by my self with the car up in the air.
Any way my uncle has been saying for the last six months I wouldnt be able to finnish it for the natoinals and he may be rite now but it would have been dam good to get it finnished in time.
any way, guess I better drag myself back to the car and find some quite work to do on it.

I think what you've done with the chassis will be fine.
If you continue the sections forward to the sub-frame you'll have the normal chassis kit anyway.
This forward section can be atached to the rear grey engine mounts which bolt to the y-frame.
As for your uncle, most of what he suggests sounds like crapp, but good luck with putting up with him. ::)

 "Leon said" the circled area half way down at the rear floor, could probably do with the addition of some angle welded to the rail and then bolted through the floor using a plate (if it hasn't already).

this means your twisting forces would be spread across the face of the plate rather than just your rails twisitng against the floor and welds which would lead to failure around the welds in the floor itself.

where the rails meet the front floor x-member.  Make a C-channel that slips over the x member and rail join.  seam or stitch weld it in for ultimate strength.
once again if that is just  butt join it will just tear away under load over time.

your rails are resisiting the torsional twist of the body under load

Good points leon, but (please correct me if I'm wrong because I DONT really know) But if the car was running a six cyl, wouldnt the stresses be mininal regardless and there fore the need to use angle to bolt it to the floor for added strength, would be a bit of over kill?  And I just cant imagine the floor/chassis ripping it self apart due to stresses, put on it by a torgue of a 6cyl, Now I'm NO expert on chassis's and these are just my thoughts on it, I've made a lot of trailers over the years without a single one bending, only because I use 3mm box thickness  ::) So keep the info comming guys, this a great help, because I'll be doing this soon enough.

one of the reasons it isnt stuck on everywere is that I dont want it to rip out rust repairs or seatt braces. I was thinking of bolting through a spacer between the floor and the rails but on rails going across and bolted to the rails going back but I need to sort it out more as well as fit everything up under it.
if you are looking for ideas for your own car dont forget to suss out this car here.http://gallery.oldholden.com/Streetneat/EK-Van-Chop/?g2_page=6

did you notice in one of streetneats pic, how he scalloped out the rhs section on the curvy part of the floor, to bring it level and there fore bracing the seat bolt sections at the same time, he's a very clever chap, And lets face it not many guys would let everyone know how they does things, great stuff.

errmm  Leon...

didn't wanna tell you how to suck eggs but only put up some info because your post inferred you didn't follow any rules for the chassis kit.  apologies.  If you like I can come over everyday and supervise  ;).

PS I think your uncles advice is best left as that.. advice.

back to the build... show us more pics.

Cheers

Ed

Hi Leon.
Tell Unkie to bugger off. What he has suggested sounds ALL bad to me. Soap or WD on bare metal? Soap is usually full of "Lanolin" & WD40 is MADE to penetrate metal. This is a really BAD thing to have penetrate the metal, especially if you intend to paint it. Oil & paint do not mix.
Cross hatch when rubbing back, as if you go one way, you will get lines & impressions that will show up in the paint. Enamel? :o ::) Man, I think he may be getting too many enamel fumes.
Go your own way, Mate. He sounds as if he likes to think he knows what he is doing, but in actual fact, makes it up as he goes.

But, I am only a ex-Sydney painter (Used to do the Porches, Mercs & any other big $$ cars), so I suppose I am not really qualified to say. Hmmmm, I suppose that Glasurit I was using was crap.

Rob J

 Yeah 4 hammers, he does seem to make it up as he goes along but half the time he thinks its right becuase some old guy up north who was panel beater told him so, when ever I tell him I heard different he says some old painter told him not to believe every thing I hear.
Thing is I dont, if I like the way someone did something I will ask how they did it but I dont need some one telling me I should do it different everytime I do something.
Then there is the story about my uncles paint job, imperfectoins and blisters came up everywere, he didnt know what was wrong but then he saw on the news that all the panel shops in the area went broke because a bad batch of paint had gone out, I am starting to doubt that story, or at least that it was the cause.

Dont worry Ed, I already was thinking simular stuff and wont be hooking into any bends to fast till I sort it out more, I had doubts about its design from the begining so I made it all kind of clip together before I welded it with slots and tongues, I would like to make it more like a chassis that would hold together without relying on the body.
I have been thinking of building a sedan on something like a crown chassis with a v8 that has enough power two run 2 AC compressors to keep a interior cool enough to run twin bubble tops instead of a roof but I am probably dreaming to much, building cars is a pain, lots of time and money and I cant wait to get my life back, car must be finnished first though before it becomes another one of those sad unfinnished project stories.
Ed, if you want to come over with your deck chair and megaphone thats fine, I just dont like taking advice from people all the time who have little to show for the results of  their advice.
As of last night I now have a pretty pro set up here, I have put up a portable carport, its almost like working in a garage or shop.

Hi Leon.
If you want to F**k him right up, just when he is in the middle of a rant, telling you "This OLD GUY told me this & that". quickly Pop the question, "What was this old guy's name? Where did he work?". You watch him, he will stop, try & think & either make up some bullshite, or say, "That doesn't matter".
It is funny how many "Old Guys" are out there. All the self proclaimed legends, refer to the mythical "Old Guy" when quoting some babble. I am sure there are some which are truth, but you have to wonder.
I find, that most don't seem to be able to recall this OLD GUYS name, but can quote verbatim every single bit of advice they apparently gave as if it is gospel.

Like I said, you are doing a hell of a job, with the resources you have. Makes me feel like a slack shit, when I moan that I only have a double garage & no booth to paint in :-[ :-[ :-/

Keep it up mate, you have all the support & advice you need from the people here.

Rob J

hahahahahaha.
Leon, I just had a great idea! If he is so taken with what "Old Guys" advice & what they have to say, then maybe get one of the "Old Timers" from this forum to come around to your joint next time & tell him to bugger off ;D ;D ;D.
He seems to take their advice for gospel, so you may be rid of him once & for all!..

Norm D, you interested ;) ;) ;) ;D

Rob J

I doubt he will be around for a while as he had quite a argument with my wife the other day over my work on the car, apparently when my wife didn't agree he started getting pretty pissed of and looking for things I had done to pick on and complained about not getting credit on this forum for lending his vices and ruler, he took his vices and junk he had sitting around here like his motorbike and made some threats, wow, this car can really have a major affect on people, he reckons I would be F$#ked now he has taken his 2 vices but I cant be F*&ked that easy.
Its funny, I was at work the hole time this went on, I wasnt really pissed of about it, more amused although after he left my wife was in tears, there are all kinds out there.
as for the old guy thing, I think he thinks the older you get the more you know about everything and that a younger person couldn't possibly know what he knows or better. If he disagrees with a old guy he just says they are silly old geriatrics and the old guys he knows up north know better so its hard to win, thats why I try to ignore the crap and stick to what I know as I have already proven to myself it works well.
Its funny how when you go to build a car people all of a sudden become a shit hot show car builder with all the secrets to do the best car, on there own car they were probably lucky to figure out how to change a radio.

Hahaha.
Good on you, Leon. Shame he made the wife sad, not very nice at all >:(
I for one would be happy to donate to the "Get FC-Cool a new ruler & a couple of Vices fund", just to get you rolling again. Go to the shops & send me the bill!! Gotta keep you rolling.

Family, Huh? My inlaws drive me insane!

Rob J

well the vices were only small but not real cheap, the ruler also was a metal one dearer than plastic but not to dear, infact I spotted one at the shop down the road for $2
They were old 2nd hand vices wich seem to be better than affordable new ones, with the remaining work I only need a vice 3 ore 4 more times, one of those jobs is to flatten the pushrod guideplates, another is to make a peice of curved windlace retaining strip for the bottom of the front passender door jamb.
another couple of days and it would not have mattered that the vices were gone, any way, atleast I can now work on it without being constantly told I should be doing everything different.

hey Leon.

Try scouring the local cash convertors for cheap tools.  There are many people that hock things off like unused vices.

During my build as well, I didn't have a vice for large part of the time, I made do with G clamps on a cobbled together hardwood plank which sat about 30cm off the ground.. that was my "bench".  eventually the legs broke and it sat on a few old pavers.  my other bench was  2 stacks of tyres with a plank.. you can see these in my build up shots.

Things like concrete blocks are very handy to have around too as substitute benches.  They are great to bend steel rod in.

Once i got a decent welder I made a table with a 50cm square top.. it was such a mess and out of square because I didnt have any sash clamps to hold it and cut the steel with a 4 inch grinder... what was I thinking!?  this became the paint table.  able to hold drums of thinners, guns, and all sorts of knick knacks.

also my car sat under the shed verandah, rather than in the shed, so a garage was merely a set of tarps hung from the rafters..  the EH has now moved into this "garage".

I remember being embarrassed by the primitive conditions I had to work in..  my Dad refused to let me build racks and benches in the shed, because he was so worried I would just fill it with cars... to this day it is full of milk crates of car parts.. no racks you see!!

those panel stands you have were made from baby change tables picked up from Council clean ups, and modifed with a small length of chain bought at the hardware.

... i'm rambling now....

to build a car is to overcome adversity.  One of the most difficult things I have achieved in life was to build my car.  I once read, once you have built your first major project, everything is easy...

oh.. forget about re-claiming your life, by the time you are finsihed you will be too far gone!

Cheers

Ed

I'm with Ed, Forget your life... when the car is finished it will still own it.

I had a brother in-law just like your uncle... Seen and done it all, but had not a single decent thing to show for it... I think it was called a lack of pride!!!

Jason.

here is one of Ed's beefed up change table stands in use and a panel ready for bog.
Also a speaker hole is cut, hopefully I wont get too much crap in the bottom of these doors. Speakers are Cerwin Vega 4x6 plate with 50w rms, I might add a couple more drain holes to the bottom and spray out the area with rubber compound deadner to take advantage of the vega's.
till I find better covers I will use perforated steel for covers wich kind of looks like a EK dash speaker grill.
I did a bit of running around today and not much on the car.
I went to American Autos today and noticed the old building was demolished wich was kind of sad, when I was a kid in the back seat of my mums car I would look out for 2 things when ever we drove to the city, one was American autos with all the hot car parts in the window and the other was the rare guitars shop.
Some bad news when I went to get needles for the sewing machine as I found out that I should have got a walking foot machine, any way the guy at the sewing shop  sold me some beefier parts to help it sow and feed the upholstery aswell as lots of info and photocopies.
I got a cheap vice for $19.95 and a ruler for $1.50
I also bought my rear wheel cylinders, front caliper kits, bits of rubber and nuts & bolts and stuff.
I am now trying to get paint out of all the areas the rubbers sit in around the doors, I have a wire wheel on the grinder that is a bit thick to get in and wire wheels on the drill that seem to kill drills when used for this work. I also tried the die grinder but it keeps running out of puff.


(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/10005.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/10002.jpg)

some more picse pics from the weekend, fibreglass filler is on over all the welds at the front to help prevent moisture leaking through pinholes in the welds, I noticed Alfio uses ecth primer under his fibreglass so hopefully I am not doing anything to wrong by ising it directly on the steel. This is done becuase normal plastic filler absorbs moisture and fibreglass doesnt, ideal way would probably be to go over epoxy primer but I am flat broke again.
there is a pic of the drivers side sill, since I welded the floor upto it I noticed a big dip in it, I still dont know how I am going to get it straight but it is more the top that is bent, length of the dip is about 1 foot long.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/11001.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/11002.jpg)

After 242 posts and well over a year, I'm starting to think that the terms "shortcut" and "tidy up" in this thread's title are perhaps a little misplaced :D

Leon, you are an inspiration to all.  Keep up the good work.

cheers
RET

thanks ret, I might have to change the name to suit the next natoinals or the one after.
I have today and tomorow off work but it just aint enough time to cut it as the car would have to be primed tommorow at the latest.
as for the natoinals but, I am still going to go down to catch up with every one, I am totally spewin but that the car aint coming.

here is a pic with the dash sitting in to work out were I can fit the ignition box. The box needs to be away from the radio, near the coil and dissy, away from splashes and I dont want it visible due to its hi tech appearance, I found a spot but it is about 1/4" from the back of the headlight switch so hopefully no shorts, some modificatoin was also required.
the whole rear end is now ready for bog.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/11006.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/11008.jpg)

Time has come to bolt the subframe on for good, its sitting in place but I cant remember were I put the screwws and bolts, I bagged and labeled about 80% of the parts but these must have got left out.
I still have lots of bolts and hinges to strip and paint or replace.
I will update the pics tonight.

 Missoin failed, this is as far as I got, no were near finnished,
even with the kids helping.
I got some sags while putting on the 2k white in the engine bay wich was pretty dissapointing but this stuff is hard to spray on a cool afternoon. Also about 5 minutes after I finnished a quick breeze dropped in a whole lot off permanant guest, it sucks when you spend over a year on a car and things come up worse than they were. At least the rust has gone from the front of the car, Amazingly the previous 2k on the subframe had lasted longer than the steel under it so it looked fine but you could poke your finger through the bottom rail
Looks like we will be driving down in my $600 LTD or my wifes calais. I think we are tenting next to Ed Ho, hope he can handle the noise of 3 kids for 3 nights, they are not very quite campers.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/12013.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/12011.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/12010.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/12012.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/FCCOOL/12007.jpg)