Vern,

I've sent you some contact details for Steve.

GMH made 191,724 FCs in 20 months. Assuming no ramp-up in production (since all plants already making FEs), roughly 9600/month, or ceteris paribus 3200/month/factory. But all vans and wagons are made in SA until November 1959 which means comparatively more sedans at the other two, and FC-225 most popular body, so with a licked finger in the air and taking away the number you first thought of, I reckon around a month separates them.

Of course, if Ken offers an age difference, I'll defer to him. He's the Guru.

cheers
RET

Comparing the chassis numbers will be more precise, because that tells you the sequence off the line regardless of body-shape.

But their birthdays will be way closer than three months apart. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, closer to 3 weeks than 3 months separates them.

cheers
RET

Had no idea it was on, was there any cars for sale there.

Well, yes, if you're in the market for a Kia or an MG. 

The club was there to take some photos under the Holden signage before it all disappears.

The strengthening ribs in the parcel tray were part of a suite of changes made in late '56, after complaints from customers who had back windows fall out. Real early FEs (like mine, and apparently yours) neither have this ribbing, nor the braces that extend from the top of the wheel arch to the parcel shelf. On Specials, the stainless trim around the back window was also modified.

You will also find the rear wheel arch is only a single skin, whereas later cars have a double-skin here. This was also about reducing flex in the body.

cheers
RET

I have a small number of bootpin kits available.

$68 including postage (they're quite heavy, and pickup at club meetings etc obviously out of the question at the moment)

PM me if you'd like a set.

Well, we weren't able to make this announcement at Wangaratta as we'd expected we would, but here it is.

It is too early at this stage to book accommodation, but we'll let you know just as soon as that changes.

Found a pic that shows the front one quite clearly. (The photo was taken during the trip from Sydney to Hobart, so it's not as clean as it could be.)



For what it's worth PJ was making these long after his involvement in OARC ended, at his place in Berkshire Park.

Hi Vern,

I'm not sure who has the best, or even who makes them these days.

The ones on my car were made in about 2003, by Peter Jackson (formerly of The Old Auto Rubber Company). I don't know whether he still makes them or not - tbh I don't know if he's even still vertical, it was a long time ago - but I reckon they are the best I've seen.

They are white, exactly the size of a standard 6 letter black on yellow plate, with the holes in the right places (bottom of front plate, top of back) to fit the plate where it's supposed to be. Opposite the long side with the holes is printed the club name (so it appears above the front plate, below the rear plate).

The actual historical plate is fitted centred to the backing plate. The rear one has short bolts fitted from the back and secured on the visible side with chrome acorn nuts at all four corners.

The front has longer bolts, also fitted from the rear of the plate in the same configuration. The plate is secured by regular nuts, then there is a perspex cover the same size as the backing plate, which is secured with the acorn nuts through holes that match the corners of the historic plate. This is easily removed to clean the plate and frame.

I'm sure we put a pic of them in Sideplate when they were first run and made available. I'll see if I can find that, or take a new pic. I'm sure that's worth these thousand words!

cheers
RET

If my memory is correct the FE has the parker light in the headlight?

Yes, that's correct.

That old door may have stopped giving, but this is the thread that keeps on giving.

Excellent work Rob, both the attention to detail on the Found Object, and the documentation of the process, the techniques and the tools for those that come after you.

You're an asset to this forum.

cheers
RET

The contents of that email are also posted on the official Nats Website.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of the event who have been dealt a massive blow. Running a Nationals is a huge amount of work for about 3 years, and all signs pointed towards this being a great event. For it to suddenly not be occurring must be heartbreaking. To the organisers - and you know who you are - look after yourselves, first and foremost.

Noticed some had no front parker lenses. (These must be early make models?) &
one with ol oil bath air cleaner.

Hey DDog,

All FE Panel Vans left the factory with no front indicator chrome. Only the Special Sedan and Special Station Sedan had those. All others (Standard Sedan, Standard Station Sedan, Business Sedan, Ute, Panel Van) had NO blinkers as standard equipment. (FE parking lights are in the headlight, like the 50s Beetles.)

Even the standard FCs had no blinkers. But on those the parking lights were integrated into the grille, so it's less obvious.

You could buy an accessory kit to fit blinkers to standard models.

And ALL FEs had oil bath air cleaners. Almost all FCs have them as well. The paper element was introduced in late '59.

Hope that trivia is helpful!

cheers
RET

Hey Mal,

Welcome to the Forum. Looks like you figured out attaching pics!

Lots of friendly and helpful folks here, and lots of previous build histories to check out.

Good luck with your project.

cheers
RET

Looking good Vern.

Now where have I heard that phrase before?



 

I use a free Imgur account, drag photos in and it gives me a compatible link to copy into my post.

This is how I do it as well. Start with two browser windows open - one on the forum, one at imgur.

When you drag pics into imgur, one of the "share" options is a link suitable for bulletin boards and forums. Just copy and paste that into your forum post where you want the picture to appear. Use the "Preview" button before posting to check it's doing what you want. It will look like this:

Code:

[img]http://imgur.com/blah/blah/ab1cs7gh.jpg[/img]

PRO TIP: if it previews the picture at some ridiculous size, you just amend the img tag code you just pasted in as follows:

Code:

[img width=800]address of pic[/img]

note the " width=800" addition. That ensures the pic is scaled to 800 pixels wide.

Flappers (aka "turkey gobblers") are not recommended for radial tyres, something to do with conventional versus radial sidewall construction.

Vern,

185/80R13 is the way to go. The driveline in my car is absolutely stock. I switched my TomTom Satnav to show miles per hour and tested the speedo against it, and it's as close as dammit. (Closer than the same test done on our other more modern cars, actually!)

I would counsel against 70 profile tyres. The difference in rolling circumference (according to this site) is

185/80R13: 1966mm or 820 revolutions/mile
175/70R13: 1862mm or 866 rev/mile

... it's about a 5.5% difference.

The Harold Holt base is not actually a naval base but a listening station with a large antenna array originally American run.

Sorry not trying to poo poo your fun there 
Neil

That may be so, but there's a swimming pool named after him in Melbourne. Australian sense of humour..

Great article, Terry. Thanks for sharing it.

cheers
RET

Happy 61st Birthday to the FC Holden