FC 2104 Ambulance

[pedro]

Coming together nicely Gary, she'll be something special when she's finished, is that two pack paint you are using.
 
Hey Bazza, don't suppose you know my brother Ray, he runs the local carpet shop at Boonah.
                                       Pedro

[graham_fuller]

Keep up the great work and pics Gary. Its great to watch.
Cheers,
Graham

[Darren J]

Just joined your forum today. Very interesting this ambulance.
One of the reasons for using a panel van instead of a station sedan is because with a panel van body, you can access the spare tyre without interupting the rear load.
With the special purpose of an ambulance and the way it is fitted out, it is not practical to unload the patient on the side of the road to fix the tyre. Further more the floor will have been fitted out differently for the stretcher.
Also the reason why the third door is behind the driver and not the pasenger side as is normal practice for a three door wagon, is because you can fold the front seat forward and place the patient along side the attendant and the driver. If you had the attendant on the other side this would not be possible. FC panel vans and wagons are not really long enough without doing this for a tall patient, trolley etc.
Hope this helps.
Darren Johnston

[BAZZA]

Apart from the surface rust that's pretty well what it looked like back when I used to see it as the paint was pretty faded. The photo of the old ambulance station is in Park st and we lived just a little bit further up the street when we first got married.
Pedro I'm a bit out of touch with the Boonah news but if he is a local I would know him. We left for the big smoke of Ipswich 20 years ago and don't go there much. We only go to Kalbar to see friends and family. My sister and brother in law still work in Boonah.
Bazza

[customFC]

Great progress Gary.
I was very excited upon hearing you had started this project.
Any help I can give you, just shout.
Really looking forward to this ol' girl hitting the blacktop again.
Keep the progress pics coming.
Regards
Alex

[NosFEratu]

Was only wondering the other day if you'd started on this - and obviously you have.  Look forward to seeing it at Orange.

Kathi 

[4hammers]

Niiice,
Great to see this happening Gary Brilliant. Would love an Ambo. There are a couple of early ambos down here...an HD & an EH. Both beautiful cars. But the FC is something special.

Regards,
Rob J

[zulu]

Well, thought I'd better give an update on the progress, or lack of it, our work keeps us busy from October till about half way through January so I have not spent a lot of time on it

Made these dust deflectors up to Craig A recipe to go under the rear bars


Just fit them & I hear some bloke in the club (Maco) decides to go into production & repro them


Rear bars fitted

[zulu]

Front end jigsaw



Squeezing



Squoze

[customFC]

Hey Gary
Any progress is good progress!!
Brightwork starting to go on....gotta be happy with that.
Looking forward to more progress and pics.
Regards
Alex

[fe-ambo]

Great to some progress on the ambo.
Cheers
Paul

[hrpremier]

Great to see the progress shots.  Must be getting close now and the good news is its all down hill from here, but Orange is fast approaching.

Jase
http://gallery.oldholden.com/hrpremier/

[zulu]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, fingers crossed, if not at least I have other options.

[EffCee]

Zulu,

Great to see some progress on the ambo. I am sure it will look great when finished

Keith

[zulu]

A little more done, front suspension & steering in





Steering box felt & turned ok (easily without the wheel attached) so decided to remove the lid, had a bit of a look inside  while the lid was off dropped in a couple of glugs of Penrite steering box lubricant.

Bolted the lid back on & low & behold it was binding about midway point, so backed off the lash bolt on top & seems to be fine now, I must have disturbed the adjustment when I removed the lid

 



All painted up and back in, now I can moove it around again, so took it back to the painter today to be cut / buffed or whatever it is he has to do, expect to bring it back on Saturday & then the push will be on to have it ready for Orange.

Still a lot to do but I have most of it ready to bolt / screw back on, was going to fiddle around with one of the (as is) engines in the shed, but bit the bullett today & took one of them up to be rebuilt, should have it back before the end of this month





I had John Dennis re do the seats, I found a very close match to the "Mesa Tan" seat vinyl & he has done a great job considering how poxed they were.

I cut some new back boards for them using the old ones as templates

[EffCee]

Zulu,

Looking good so far, you must be please with the progress to hopefully make it to Orange. Hope all goes well and we can see it in Orange

Keith

[FC427]

Gary did you take your engine up to Norwest for reco Ambo looks amazing .......FC427......

[customFC]

Hey Gary
That's what we like to see, more progress, and with pics.
Thanks for the update, looking forward to the next.
Regards
Alex

[fe-ambo]

Sure hope you make it to Orange. The two ambos side by side will be a great photo shoot.

Cheers
Paul

[GOA350]

Making great progress, keep up the good work and enthusiasm. Theres nothing like a Nationals to get the cars progress along, if there was no nationals then alot of cars would remain stagnant for a long time.