FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

hi guys,

here is a teaser shot of my project which is now complete and ready for blue slip.

it has passed its engineer inspection and is pictured here with Glenn's V8 FC.

more pics next week when it is wearing some plates.

Cheers

Ed
(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0770.jpg)
(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0774.jpg)

Teaser you say....more like torment !    Can;t wait to see the rest of the pics !

Do you have any idea of the number of modifications you've made ?

- Frenching the headlights, Venting the Bonnet, Grille ect

Looks like you've put a lot of effort into it...well done, and congrats on getting it all passed...a true credit to you !

I'm interested in the wheels and also Glens wheels......what type, size ect.

 :oWow, l like the bonnet look - usually I like the standard look of FE/FC's (bodywise), but that looks great - any modifications to the interior???  Cheers Hotlips ;)

Ed
     The wagon looks awsome! As you know I have checked it out in the flesh & its a credit to you.  Your attention to detail & persistents after do this project for so many years will be rewarded by the looks on people's face when they see the wagon for the first time.
The photos show a good blend of a modified wagon with stock lines & modified wagon with custom lines which ever way is someone preference jezz they look great together.
Birds of a feather flock together
Cheers
Glenn

That's a Harko modded bonnet.  Attracts alot of attention too.


here's a spec list on the car.

1957 FE station sedan

PAINT
Colour:  Castle grey 2K over Etna Maroon COB) PPG.

MOTOR:
Engine: Holden 308
Induction: 4bbl throttle body on dual plane Harrop Manifold.
Head: ported VN.
Cam: COME mild.
Exhaust: Custom extractors HPC coated into stainless twin 2 quarter.
Ignition: VN V8.
Cooling: Custom 4 row.

TRANSMISSION
Gearbox: TH400 shift kitted.
Stall: 2500 rpm
Shifter: B&M
Diff: 9 inch 3.25 LSD.

SUSPENSION BRAKES
Springs: front: Kmac 1.5inch lowered.
     Rear: standard.
Shocks: Monroe gas (f & r)
Bushes: Nolathane
Steering: Torana R&P to modified UC column,
Master cylinder: HQ on HK booster.
Calipers:  Girlock alloy

WHEELS & TYRES
Front: 14 x 6 GTS, 180 x 60 Yokohama.
Rear: 14 x 6 GTS,  252 x 65 Bridgestone.

INTERIOR
Seats: standard modified with armrests.
Trim: capri vinyl.
Steering wheel:  Billet specialties
Clocks: Classic
Entertainment:
Pioneer Head unit, 6 stack CD changer, iPod controller.
6.5” splits, 5” 2 way rear, 8” subs.
4 x 150 response amp, 2  x 150 Vibe amp.

Body mods.
Frenched headlights, blinkers, aerial
Shaved door handles
Welded seams on front guards, rear guards.

Interior mods
Armrests, speaker buildouts, consoles, dashboard.

Way kOOL 8) Ed!

More detail on the headlight surrounds and grille please.... I'm prepping my guards this weekend!

hey Ed ,
            holy sh*t what a sweet looking wagon, cant wait to see it in the flesh when your up this way. well done.

cheers........ paul

Nice work Ed ;)
I'm just wondering how do you lock the bonnet ???
Regards ACE  8)

Man, I was so close to getting a corvette grill.
Ed that thing has come up way better than I had imagined, very nice!!!

Very Very nice Ed.
Ill be one of the lucky ones to check it out in the flesh at the nats. The filler panels just missing is'nt it?
cheers
Scott

Awesome Ed,

See you next week hey!!!!

You promised remember:)

Well done on a great job mate.

JB

Awesome stuff Ed.  Can't wait to see it "up close and personal" ;D

When you finally get plates on the car I reckon the smile will be so big you'll risk giving yourself a flip-top head...

Can you believe this was only two years ago?

(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/ret56fe/other/gcrawl-ed.jpg)

cheers
RET

Looks great Ed, congratulations on your project, I too am looking forward to clapping eyes on it, maybe at the All Holden Day?
Cheers, Gary

WOW ED that looks absoloutely bloody f....n bloody brilliant ,WOW WOW WOW .
How good does the guards look (very quietly thinking they wouldnt do the car justice) They are the best custom guards on an FE I have seen or remember :)

And the grille is a work of art I dont just mean the grille but the effect and look it acheives on that car with that colour and stance - awesome.

Im totaly in awe , And now I dont have to pester you for pictures anymore hehe.

Just promise me you dont plan to ride/drive this one across the desert ... You might look good but you might scratch it :)

Awesome awesome stuff mate - come visit soon so I can brag to all the neighbours that I know that guy who drives that wicked FE wagon .

:o :o :o ED  WHAT CAN I SAY, MATE I AM ABSOLUTELY GOBSMACKED :o :o


seriously speechless, this is the first time i have seen the front complete and i love it simply love it. been watching the build with interest over the years knew it was going to be good but this is just magic.

well done you deserve top marks mate.
so when you coming down this way?
i wanna go for a ride ;D
dean

Congratulations Ed, very well done, looks fantastic.


       Cheers, Glenn.

Ed,
     A work of art, congrats to you.  Can't wait to see more pics, please keep them coming.

Michael

gee you modified guys really know how to tease,looks grouse and makes me think one day jest one day.
nats cant wait
regards mal

Well done Ed on the Completion of a Awesome job! i lean to the stockies but that does look sweet look forward to seeing it at the Island.
Brett

Is it just me, or does Ed's car look like it's had a mild chop?

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0770.jpg)

That will be the best thing ED will ever hear
He contemplated doing a mild chop but held back .

And your asking if it has a mild chop "Awesome"

Thats what customising is all about ,flowing lines ,stance, individuality ,and just plain "Nailing it to the wall"

Hey Ed.
Fantastic result using totally individual ideas.
Can't wait to see it in person.
A credit to all your hard work.
Thank you for sharing it's progress with us over the years.
Regards
Alex

Hi Ed,
Great to see it finished, you should be proud of your efforts as the wagon looks tops.Can't wait to see it in the flesh.
Cheers,
Graham

Ed,
       Your wagon looks sensational!!!!   I love the grill and frenched head lights, cant wait to see some more pics.  Its a real credit to you, cheers

                                                      Paul  (TAYZ)

Hey guys/girls,

I'm totally blown away by the responses here.. and these were just the teaser shots!.. lol

The car has made it this far because of all the...
long weekends,
weekends away from home (at the shed),
too much beer,
good mates who loaned me their cars to collect parts or who surrendered their saturdays to spend with me hopping around wrecking yards (i'm sure they were having fun?!),
also my old trusty GSX1100 parts collecting/gopher machine (most sane people use a car...)

on chop tops...
I was going to attempt a chop, the bracing was in place, roof braces fabbed up and all marked up..  at this point i stepped back took a good long think and decided No.. In retrospect I am glad I didn't.. would I do it?.. maybe.

on headlights...
Big thanks go to Alex.  I was contemplating how to french the lights and Alex gave me a big idea on how to do it.. with his blessing to use the idea I proceeded to cut up some perfectly good guards.  phew it worked... doing one was easy matching the other was difficult.


on the grille.
years ago i was given the "little book of hot rods and customs" a cool little picture book of all the coolest customs in the US. A trick of the day was to use a Vette grille... hell why not.. and so it was. I did play around with cutting down another Holden grille.. the results weren't too bad either.

on the bonnet..
was strolling thru AHD one day and saw the Mongrel Dog chopped EK ute.  Far out I thought that is Kool.  Turns out it was Harko's and he's a dab hand at making louvred bonnets.

I will post more pics, a few little things in the interior are to be finished before shots will be posted.

ahh yes the bonnet lock panel was missing in the shot, I discovered it was bent out of shape, so i had to get a replacement, thanks Fatboy for picking one up for me.

thanks Ret for posting that garage crawl pic.

here is another of the car in its former guise.

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/4db34ec0.jpg)

thanks again.. not many jobs to do now.

off to the exhaust shop for some minor tweaks.
then a blue slip.
it should be wearing plates at the end of this week.


Cheers

Ed

G'day Ed, after seeing your completed pics I'm so dissapointed, :(






Dissapointed that you started your project at about the same time as I started mine and now yours is completed and on the road and I've still got heaps to go!

Congratulations on a great result, and on the effort put in to get there.

cheers, George.

Hey George,

was getting worried there mate when I saw disappointed  ;)

i started this car in July 1997, so it's been almost 9 years!

years ago I was talking to ACE and he was telling me his car took 8 years or so.. at the time I thought it sounded a long while but as we all know on this forum time is irrelevant when it comes to re-building a car, add more time if you want to modify it too!

I'm counting the sleeps now until it's registered.

just got the greenslip and insurance.
blue slip is thursday morning, so check in on thursday afternoon or friday morning for the pics of somebody grinning ear to ear!

Cheers

Ed

Nice one Ed (bit of an understatement) ;D

We are all excited for you, I bet you don't post pics on Thursday or Friday because you will be too busy out cruising.  The years taken to build it will all seem worthwhile.  

Can't wait to see more pics or even better- in the 'flesh'.

Awesome looking FE Ed...!

Congratulations!! It looks fantastic! Great colours, excellent engine, fab mods... the whole package is awesome!

Like everyone else, I can't wait to see it, and hear it, in the flesh.

After 9 years I bet you can't wait to just drive it.....

Looking forward to more pics too...!

Well done!!

Cheers
Les...

Can someone try and flag Ed down?... I'm dying to know if it's rego'ed or not.

Hi SRV,

mate the car needed a little work before I could get sign off on the blue slip.

the rear left brake cylinder had clogged up with rubbish in the lines and the cups had jammed.

the brake test showed this up, was fairly un-noticeable without this bit of equipment.  (over 30% difference between rear brakes).

i rebuilt the rear brakes and cleaned out both brake cylinders, so with any luck im in business tomorrow.

i took the day off yesterday and it took me the good part of a day to get it assessed then home to fix.

inicdentally the guy i took it too, has a cool FJ ute with TPI injected Chev.  gold in colour featured in ASR and Street machine etc some tine ago.

Cheers

Ed

Hi Ed

Congrats effort ell done Im glad you have finished your car and in the images you have posted of it look fantastic, I'm looking forward to seeing it at the nats in the flesh. Have you had it pasted yet.

Ed,
Your a legend! You should be knighted as a Motivational Officer for all Early Holden Fans! I have thoroughly enjoyed your updates throughout the rebuild. I thought it would be a pretty righteous wagon upon completion,but the final pictures just blew me away.I've never been game to tackle the customizing side of things,but after the overall look of your wagon it wouldnt suprise me if theres a surge of new (or old) ideas resurfacing.
Mines been 5 1/2 years in the making & after a 6 month MUCH-NEEDED break from it,I'm just attempting a few finisjing-off jobs & (hopefully) it will be on the road cruisin!  Onya ED! ;) ;D  

Hey Daz,

Funnily enough your car shots also gave me motorvation..

quick stop.. i'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

here are some more shots of the wagon taken on the first day of rego.

enjoy.

Cheers

Ed

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0848.jpg)

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0849.jpg)

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0845.jpg)

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0844.jpg)

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0840.jpg)

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0839.jpg)

It looks fantastic Ed, a credit to you those that worked on her.
Looking forward to a closer look at the Nats.

 hey ED thats absolutley awsome the looks GREAT but the question is have you done your first burnout yet ;D ;D ;D

Ed,

Love it,

Great pics, All that hard work definitely payed off for sure :)

Cheers Dags.

Hi ED
    Great job can not wait to see it will you be coming to our next meeting next tuesday or do we have to wait untill the nats to see it.
WAYNE

Wow, looks fantastic.  Even parked in front of bay 229 ;D

cheers
RET

Top job Ed looks fantastic.Can't wait to see it in the flesh.
Cheers,
Graham

thanks guys,

Would you believe i had not even noticed it was bay 229 until you mentioned it RET.. spooky.  it just looked like a good spot for a photo.. incidentally it is at Clovelly looking across to Coogee.  nice little spot.  I was trying for a pic at La Perouse but the amount of people and traffic made it impossible for a nice clear pic.


I will be at the next club meeting, so I can finally put "YES" under the column titled "with car".

Cheers

Ed

nice work there ed

i`ve been following this thread for a while now and its great news that its finished..
look forward to seeing it up close .. nice one !

cheers

coolaride

Yeah, how good is it going to look parked next to this:

(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/ret56fe/other/059.jpg)

JW is bringing his wagon, isn't he?

cheers
RET

Great looking car in a great location.

There have never been that many empty parking spaces whenever I've gone to Clovelly.

David

Ed,
     congratulations on finishing it off-it looks absolutely amazing!!! i love the stance on it, also the wheels, they totally suit it!!! keep those pics coming ;)also love the dash, really sets off the car !! ;D ;D

RET they should look good together and yes John is bringing both the timeless wagon and the Convertible to the island. Should be good to see a few cars that have not been around for a long while,even that FC/FB prototype grey and white sedan will be making a apearance for the 1st time since Glenelg!!!
See you soon for a lot of DRINKING!!!!
Brett

Ed its pretty good to see plates on that thing, cant wait to see it, as ben said, have you put down some rubber yet or are you stiil running in.

(http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/FE%20Holden/100_0845.jpg)

Man, you musta been upset to finally finish it, only to discover you'd forgotten the door handles! :o

Yet more questions to follow from me.....

it looks great Ed.   ;D ;D

Well done, and its a compliment to yourself to have the finished article......  well almost finished article - just needs a sunvisor!  ;) ;)

I love sunvisors   ::) ::) but being a new sensitive new age guy, I can understand if you dont like sunvisors.........what the.??....I must stop drinkin'.... :o :o

Congrtulations ED !

A fantastic job, and a real credit to you.

I bet when you are about to be passed by a family driving down the highway, the Dad says...." Look kids....it's an FE Wagon, just like your Grandad used to have. "  then just as they pass you and the Dad is reminiscing of when he was a little tacker, he looks back in the rear view mirror and thinks to himself...."Hmmm well I think it's and FE Wagon, bugger, maybe it's not...best not tell the kids that."

In other words Ed, you have custom modified your car to a great extent, yet still kept the charm of an FE.

Well Done !

Mark

Hi,

The first rubber has been put down.  Glenn and I took it for a little drive round the block :)

on sunvisors.  I have a visor laying in wait for the car, but I'm not sure if i want to drill through the roof to fit it up.  It had previously worn a visor (see original pic) but the damage in the roof line was quite bad.

I'm undecided.... I do like the look of a visor,but worried the drive to Phillip Island will make it flap about???

SRV, it goes so well the door handles blew off :) look closely it has buttons.

looking forward to seating her next to her fellow FE wagon brethren too.

Mark,

Pulled up to a servo on sunday. an elderly gent walks up and says "wow this is tidy.. and look it's all back to standard too!"  "thanks.. it is"

we both walked away with big smiles :)


Cheers

Ed

Ed.......nothing like spending $50 000 and a decade of your life building a car for someone to say..."this is TIDY".

Good thing we all build cars to impress ourselves and not anyone else, cause some people just have no idea!

Great story !

Reminds me when I was in a desperate search for a MINI to restore a few years back......couldn;t find one anywhere, until a girl at work said...." There is one down the road.  Its in really good nick and she works at the bank...go and talk to her "

SO, off I went all full of excitement.  

Let's just say, that I never realised that Sir Alec and John Cooper ( Mini Designers ), were germans, who designed a car with the motor in the boot !

Cheers ED

Mark

And it sounded fantastic!! This car sounds the real deal, nice and fat sounding. Even better when its turning the tyres - hey Ed ;-)

Well done Ed, your car is proof that perserverence pays off, and is rewarded handsomely.

If you get to see this car in the flesh, take note of the little trick bits here and there. And then tell him to show you how it does a burnout :-)

Cheers,

Craig.

Ed, your wagon looks GREAT! Looking forward to seeing it & you at the island.
Colin

G'day ED,
              now you know what it's all about, many years in the making and even more years to enjoy. I cant wait to be side by side with you at the nats then we both decide to lay a patch (i hope someones got a video when it happens). Good stuff mate see you at the island,
              Cheers Scott

Hey Ed
   Seemed like a long time waiting for this but it all came together in the last 6 months ,  shows how much work goes into the "unseen" parts .
   Looks really TOPs , mate . Worth waiting for .

  Norm   :)

Laying patches definitely sounds like fun, but have a few teething issues first.

the engine is dropping alot of oil, and it looks like a rear main seal.  on closer inspection (trans inspection plate off), the sump gasket (3 piece Holden type) appears to leak profusely from the join depsite me gooping it up when I installed it.

the flex plate is devoid of any oil so I am hopeful it is not a rear main.

Does anybody know if the HX red 308 had a neoprene or rope type rear main seal?

My Gregorys tells me it is possible to change a neoprene type with the crankshaft in.

also does anybody know if a later model one piece sump gasket will fit?

Cheers

Ed