G'day Ed,

That'll look pretty neat with the corners knocked off and a fresh lick of jam.

Thanks for the pics!

Cheers, Rob.

 G'day Ed, Thats similar to what I had in mind.

The engine I am using is from a VR statey so the factory brackets stick the alternator out half way into the lhs rail when dropped into an fe-fc. As you know the oil pump location doesnt help much either.

I took the aircon pump off so the alternator will go down there to avoid clutter on top of the engine.

I'd guess the best bet for a belt would be your local industrial drive or bearing joint. Should be a fair range of sizes there.

Just curious, what intake manifold you are running with the efi heads?

Thanks for the pics.

Cheers, Rob.

 G'day Ed.
I've always wondered what that little bugger was for myself.

Grinder should sort it out in short order.lol.

Looking at putting my alternator in the same spot. Never thought about knocking that lug off though.

I'd be keen on seeing some pics when you get your bracket made and set up.

Cheers, Rob.

 What a wicked find!

The unknown tourer is a 28 Chev.

 The car that was said to be a Chev master is actually a '39     Plymouth. I have one the same.

I don't think it's a shame at all that there are no Fe-Fc's there. Just means that there's more of them here for us!

Cheers, Rob.

 G'day John,

The torana disks will go on the hr drum brake stubs but you will need to make some adaptor plates to bolt your calipers on with.  Obviously you will need to fit an FE-EH outrigger to your hr crossmember.

It works ok but if you can find some disk brake stubs you will end up with a neater conversion.

Another thing to consider is that the LH-UC torana disks will widen your track by close to an inch on either side and causes guard clearance issues on lowered cars with wide (6"+) rims.

If I was going to put disks on an original grey powered car I would put new replacement hr disks on the kingpin front end with adaptors for the calipers.

The kingpin front ends drive pretty good.

Cheers, Rob.

 As far as vic goes, you can just about use any engine you want.

The real trick is shopping around for the right engineer.

Vic roads leaves everything in the engineers hands so if you can provide an engineers report and a rwc you can register it.

The biggest hassle is using later engines which need to comply (pollution wise) to the vehicle they came out of.

Pre pollution engines in pre pollution cars is a non issue and neither are cubic inches if you get the right engineer as some are very petty and pick the stupidest things.

I was going to run a big block chev in my car but eventually decided to go with a injected 5 litre for the sake of fuel economy if we end up using the fe as a daily driver.

Cheers, Rob.

 I reckon I know that car!

A mate of mine bought an FC sedan from Canberra around 1993-94.

It had been painted dark blue all over by the previous owner and had dragway wheels fitted.

There was a photo of the car as purchased by the previous owner in the glove box. It was the same colour as your photo depicts was wearing very wide stockies and the flared guards were exactly the same!

I wouldn't mind betting that this is the same car.

The previous owner (to my mate) threw a heap of coin at it as when Ian bought it it had a hr disk front end, a very fresh grey with a Repco CROSSFLOW head, twin 2 barrells, a floorshift synchro 3 speed, wilsonia guages, a Maxrob wheel and many other period accessories.
It had new paint and trim and was quite neat.

Unfortunately the car wasn't very well sorted and it took Ian a few headaches to work it out.

The dragways fitted were 13 and 14x7s and they scrubbed the guards badly both front and back so it ended up with Torana reversed chromies front and back. The back ones were full offset reversed rims and it was lowered even more. It looked pretty tough.

After a lot of mucking around he gave up on the crossflow. I think because the ports being as big as they are killed the torque in the lower and mid ranges.
The hot grey in his EK ute used to eat it alive! though this was a very well sorted combo.

After a couple of years of playing with it he still wasn't happy with it so it was sold off minus engine. I believe that someone bought the engine at a later date as no-one wanted to pay enough for the complete car.

I haven't seen nor heard of it since I saw it at the Shepparton swap meet at least 5 or 6 years ago.

I reckon it looks tougher in your photo with the US Racers though, thats too cool!

Cheers, Rob.

p.s, same mirrors too.

 Steve, your wagon looks Sh*# hot.

My old Fe is going for the nanna look so even if its got a v8 and wide stockies, the overriders are staying.
Sorry Ken.

Cheers, Rob.

  G'day Rev,
Was always keen on running a  carbied small block chev in my fe but excessive fuel consumption killed that idea.

Changed the plan to an injected 5 litre holden with a 4l60 box ( about 30% overdrive).

I am running 2.75 diff gears with 13" wheels which brings me back to about 2 grand at 60 mph with the o/d auto. Pretty close to standard commodore gearing.

With any luck we should get somewhere around 32-34mpg out on the highway which will work in with the plan to use it as a daily driver if need be.

The engine is stock bar the addition of a factory 195kw VS  HSV chip and a very mild camshaft chosen to suit it.

Minus power steering pump and with a decent exhaust should get a bit over 200kw and a shed load of useable torque.

The extra initial cost of an injected engine will soon repay itself in fuel savings if your'e keen to run up a few miles.

Injected engines are becoming real cheap these days, a vn 5.0 L went for $900 on ebay recently!

Cheers, Rob.

  The Eh van is running 8.5" centerlines with the 285s and weve got about 3/4s of an inch clearance on the outside and about an inch on the inside.

My Fe sedan on the otherhand has stock wheel arches and will probably stay that way, I am running 13x6s on the front (probably a 205 tyre) and 13x7s on the back with a 225 tyre.
It's a pretty tight fit.

I'm going for the 60's hottie look but with a more tasteful stance (Lower). Stock looking interior (bench seat, stock wheel, column auto) and with around 200 "gigawatts" it should be fun.
Plan on posting some photos soon after I finish repairing the subframe and put a stock firewall back in (over the next few weeks).

It's a pain having to borrow a camera from the better 1/2s work.

Look forward to seeing more pics of your van as she comes along.

Cheers, Rob.

 Mate that van is looking grouse.  

Did you notch the rails when you put in the mini tubs or did you just take the tub in flush with the rail?

Seems like a lot of work just to gain about 1/2 an inch or so,
but I suppose if thats all you need to run the wheels you want, ya gotta do it.

I'm mini tubbing an EH windowless van for a bloke at the moment. He wants to run 285 tyres so I had to notch the rails about 3/4s of an inch. Reinforcing it (to make the engineer happy) has been a pain.

Your engine bay and firewall look real good, can't wait to see her finished.

Cheers, Rob.

 Cool,
I'd do the brakes and register her as she is.

"Do" a panel at a time and when the time comes "lick her".
It looks like a fairly straight forward "rolling resto".

Wish mine was!

Plenty of top folks here who can offer advise and make your project go much smoother.

Good luck, Rob.

  Shoulda read the post properly first time, Doh.

All depends on how tough the engine is.

In Vn onwards sticky rubber and 400 odd hp will tear the trailing arm mounts out of the body if you can get it to launch hard enough.

I think the axle strength would be the least of your worries.

Cheers, Rob.

  Hi Dodger,
Vn onwards axles are tuff as. Plenty of tuff cars run them with no problems.

For obvious reasons I assume that you are talking Fe-fc wheel arches, if untubbed would mean a 225-235 tyre max.

You'd be surprised how well an lsd banjo would cope in there.

A  lsd 9" with vn axles or a late lsd borgwarner would be near on indestructable.

Cheers, Rob.

   G'day Fatboy, sorry it took so long but it turns out that my mate doesn't have any hinges.

Have you tried Slim via this site?  Ph. 0401 303 998

Also Kerry Park (Parkey Parts)  in Wodonga should have some.
Ph. 02 6024 7384 or 0419 364 996.

Cheers, Rob.

  A mate scored me a set of stubs yesterday.

I take it you are after tailgate hinges for the ute?

If so, I think I can get you a pair, I'll let you know in a couple of days when I'm off work.

Cheers, Rob.

  Thanks Fatboy,

If you find some you're happy to part with, just let me know how much $.
Other wise, If you're after anything your self I might be able to help out/ trade, whatever. Your call.

Cheers, Rob.

  Hi all,
Still looking for some Hr disk brake stubs for my front end.

Cheers, Rob.

  G'day Ed,
I have got the SM article with the "Rods racks" set up,  it's fairly similar to what I am running.

The combo was worked out by a mate over the course of heaps of rack conversions.

I think (from memory) Rods racks shorten the torana housing to utilise all of the teeth, thus making a better turning circle.
This pushes the pinion further inboard and necessitates the engine sit higher?

The rack I intend to use has the pinion mounted further outboard and has more teeth to begin with so you can mount it up unmodified.
You can easily get your sump down to 10mm (Vic min clearance) from the rack.
This is about 15mm above the cross member.

I will post some pics when I finish putting it together,        I still need some Hr disk brake stubs to finish it off.

I will be running 13" wheels and vented disks, so I reckon there may be a few other guys keen to see how it goes together.

Cheers, Rob.

  G'day Ed,
I'm going to run a Vr 5ltr with the factory electronically     controlled auto.
There is a couple of ways to set it up but only one way that gives the auto the correct shift points and converter lock-up set point.

You need to run a VN/VP cable drive from the extension housing to a drive "splitter" that drives your speedo cable and runs your sensor for the computer.
you need to source a speedo drive "card" pcb from a vr or later dash (just cut off the wires that drive the speedo needle)  and wire this between the trans sensor and the ecu.

This way the trans and computer interact as if they were still in a commodore and the converter locks up when it's supposed to, vastly improving fuel economy and trans life.

Using the electronic ecu/auto requires that send the ecu away and get the imobiliser disabled also.

If you were starting from scratch I'd suggest you use a Vn/Vp auto as you don't need the ECU to control it.

It's a bit of a tradeoff, either more mucking around to get the kickdown right with a VN style auto or a bit  more expense to set up and wire an electronic auto properly.
 
Cheers, Rob.