FC wagon

[TTV6FC]

Hi John,very nice looking station sedan.Excuse my ignorance but did you mention somewhere what the greys are?Is it Wangarra/Ascot grey?I have a sedan in those colours.Cheers,Jamie.

[Johns]

That's correct Jamie.

She was built in February 1959, Engine number L540520.

Among the info I received with her is the little blue cardboard card headed "Driving Instructions and Manufacturers Warranty", a quaint "Good Housekeeping" booklet and a booklet headed "Traffic Regulations of Kerr's School of Motoring". The booklet has an FC on the cover. You can phone them at Warwick 1428 .

I also received a photo of the day of the release of the 48/215 at Shelley Motors in Warwick, where Thelma was purchased. I will scan the photo and post it.

Cheers
John

[TTV6FC]

Mine comes up as built in March 1959 with engine number L549821 with Riff red and black interior although I can't pick the difference between that and the Fall Red and black interior of my Black FC.

[customFC]

Hey customFC dig the little green smileys, how did you do it

Hey Pedro.
Stolen from another site and added as pics.

Hey John.
Sorry to hear the car won't be at Berrima.
Can't wait to see it.
Regards
Alex

[Hewart]

now that I've got the wagon. One of my, so called, mates saw it and immediately told me he knew the colours. Since he knows sfa about Holdens I asked how he knew. He told me it's easy, dark primer over light primer

Cheers
John

LMAO!!
Still looking foward to seeing it

[Johns]

Patience, Grasshopper

She will registered today Les, hopefully she will be out on the 15th.

Cheers
John

[Johns]

In the light of recent developments, my last post was wishful thinking

Thelma has been off the road for around 12 years and looks as though she hadn't seen much use for longer than that.

The recommissioning went smoothly enough, new handbrake cable, engine mounts, nsf king pin, rear shocks, tyres, pretty much the usual.

The motor had a miss in it, which we fixed with correct timing and made up some new black plug leads ( can't stand those blue horrors on old cars). The original motor seemed fine, it was quiet, if a bit fumey.

As we were wondering about the fumes we noticed there seemed to be some moisture coming out of the breather. A leak down test confirmed a problem in No 2 cylinder. So off with her head to fix the gasket. No 2 was a problem alright, there is a chunk missing from the piston top, no wonder the compression was low and the plug a bit oily.

To avoid another rebuild that morphs into another resto, particularly since Nev, my FE, isn't finished, we decided to repair number two and since the bores looked ok, slip a new set of rings in.

That was until we took the others out. Five of the six pistons have broken rings and it is clear a rebuild is the only sensible thing to do. These are tough old engines, the only real give away that all was not well was a slight low rev misfire. If I'd started to drive it the damage could have been much worse.

I have been gathering parts to build a warm grey motor and I did think about it but I've decided Thelma isn't the right car for this, I'll probably do this to my EJ.

While we're there we'd better tidy up the engine bay a bit. The rear pinion bearing in the diff is a bit noisy as well, so I suppose with a new engine I may as well put a taller diff in..........

You know how it goes

Cheers
John

[Hewart]

Move over Nev, we've got another resto on the way

Beryl isn't the jealous type is she? She trusts Nev right?

[customFC]

Hey John
Sorry to hear the new wagon is playing up.
I guess you will be able to feel a bit more comfort knowing the motor has had some attention for those long cruises.
Regards
Alex

[Johns]

Ken,

Here are the ID plate details:

229-13079-A
254 658
253 7773
253 5300

Chassis No FC 14384B
Engine No L540520

regards
John

[Johns]

Hi everyone.

I'm not sure whether this is of much interest, nevertheless here is a photo of the three worst pistons from Thelma:

 

It's hard to see here but the middle one is No2, the first No 4 and the last one, No 3, isn't damaged but has no compression ring left. Goodness knows where it went

Compression was 110, 87, 95, 90, 115, 120.

As I said earlier it ran really well despite this damage.

regards
John

[Ed]

certainly very interesting John,

No compression ring...

any shrapnel in the sump?

what would cause the pistons in a stock motor go bang? detontation?

Cheers

Ed

[TTV6FC]

Hmmm,where can/does a compression ring go....? .I just can't get my head around that....

[simins]

 Out through the exhaust system ?  Sorry couldnt help that.  cant work out how to put smiley faces on the end of comment
                              Simon Addison

[Paul In Ireland]

Left off by a dozey apprentice mechanic in the past???

[KFH]

Probably broken by someone when fitting new rings. "she'll be right nobody will notice"

Keith

[TTV6FC]

Hee Hee...But seriously,once it's in the bore how can it get out?It's not like there's a lot of room between the piston skirt and the bore wall.Or has it degraded and broken down into tiny pieces?

[Johns]

Hi all.

Thelma arrived back from her spruce up today. When we took the engine out, as you can imagine, the engine bay was a mess. As I did (do) not want this to become another resto, Glenn at Hughes and Gibson again worked his magic, he pressure washed the engine bay, rubbed it down, carefully masked it up and applied some satin black.

I think it looks great and is fairly sympathetic with the rest of the car. It appears that at least half the paint is original, so it was very carefully buffed and brushed touched. The wheels were badly surface rusted, so these were painted. Lastly I added some whitewall 185/80 13 radials (Maxxis) to give it a lift and make it pleasant to drive.

The rebuilt and detailed engine was re-installed today. It is a fairly basic rebuild, 40 thou oversize, bearrings, hardened valve seats, new everything else.

Before we knew the engine was crook, we had rebulit practically the whole front end including the crossmember bushes. It has new shocks and out back new shackle rubbers and U bolts. The originals were corroded. The diff is a bit noisy and I intend to fit a 3.55 shortly.

From 20 feet she looks great and should drive well. I haven't driven her since I bought her in May so am looking forward to it. I now need to thoroughly clean and detail the interior. Its worn but fairly good. The biggest problem are the window rubbers, they are all shot. I really shouldn't replace them unless I paint her, which I wont do. I may bite the bullet and just replace them, if they have to come out again later too bad.

Here are some photos. I will post an engine bay "before" photo tomorrow.









Cheers
John

[graham_fuller]

Looks great John.Did any other paintwork get redone?
Cheers,
Graham

[zulu]

Does looks greyt John, can't wait to see it
Cheers, Gary