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

These books were designed to be leafed through by people at the spare parts counter. The PDF version of it is actually a little harder to work with than the printed original, in my opinion.

There are 3 different types of numbers in it, and once you get the hang of it, you'll be looking things up like a boss. Or, like the guy at the counter, anyway!

Part number: generally 7 digits, but nuts and bolts etc can be 5 or 6 digit numbers. Most FE/FC specific parts have a part number that looks like 740XXXX. If parts have a left or right version, the left will be an odd number and the right will be one less (and even, obviously).

Group Number: generally a number with 3 decimal places, between 0.000 and 15.534 (at least in the one I'm looking at, they may go higher in later versions. That's not important.) The Group Number describes the general area or component of the car that a part belongs to, eg Group 0 is Engine, Group 1 is Oiling/Cooling. There's a "thumb index" on the inside front cover (arrows which point to a black square printed on the first page of that Group. Completely useless in the PDF, but if you bend the physical book, you can see where the black square is.) Fortunately the PDF has a bookmark index that achieves much the same thing.

Illustration Reference Number: a number from 1 upwards, that relates to a reference on an associated illustration. This tells you the "proper name" for the part (what GM-H called it), and the Group Number where it can be found.

If you know the proper name of the part, there's an alphabetical index at the front of the book that will take you straight to the Group Number. I rarely use this.

If you know the part number and want to check what model it belongs to and/or its purpose, that's easy. Look up the index at the back and find the number, and it will tell you what Group it belongs to. If you don't find it, check the immediately preceding index of replacement part numbers, then look that up instead. (Replacement part numbers are for things that were superseded by a later model's version of the same thing.)

Find the Group, then scan through it looking for the part number / replacement part number. When you find it, you'll see what model / body, any special details and how many are required.

If on the other hand you know what the part is but not the number or the proper name, you identify the appropriate section. Then, using the exploded diagrams and pictures, find the numbered part in question. Under / next to the image will be the legend linking the Illustration Ref Number to the Group Number where it can be found.

So imagine someone was asserting that wagons have bumperettes like utes do. f I wanted to find the part numbers for the various bumper corners:
1. If I know GM-H call them "BAR - End" (as opposed to "BAR - Centre"), I can look that up in the alphabetical index, which takes me to Group 7.831
2. Otherwise, I find the Body section, and the illustration of EXTERIOR BODY PARTS, and identify the part on the picture. On the Front View, it's either 30 (back), or 50 (front). Either refers to "BAR - End" and Group 7.831
3. I go to Group 7.831 which is "BAR - Bumper face", and in there I'll find END - Front LH and END - Front RH, suit FE,FC part numbers 7408745 and 7408744 respectively.
4. I'll also find END - Rear LH and END - Rear RH, and here a note that there are parts that suit all EXCEPT 2104 (van) and 2106 (ute) models. Further down are the rear bumperettes for utes and vans, all explicitly numbered and described.

I hope that's some help. Once you'd done it a few times, it gets easier.

cheers
RET

What an amazing thread. I dips me lid to anyone who takes the Holden Hippocratic Oath and brings a car like that back from near-death.

Great work. Keep it up.

cheers
RET

Just went to google up a pic of them for Vern, and found you can buy repro ones. I did not know that.

http://www.aussiespeedshop.com/product/as0025p-holden-48-215-fj-rocker-cover-polished-finish-h-bolts/

There's only one size (FE-FC don't have the high roof that FB-EK vans have), but there are a couple of versions just the same.

The most common is the one designed for Special models, with a stainless strip across the front. There is also a plain version for commercials that doesn't have this.

And of course there are all manner of weird and wonderful aftermarket jobs with mesh and whatnot.