My old mans FE - Now mine.

[Neat_FE_Wagon]

Here are some pictures of my dad's FE.  He got it in 1985 with 65,000 miles on it.  He did it up and had it on the road 2 months after I was born in 1989.  He hasn't driven it much over the past years, (83,000 miles now) and now I drive it.  It has a red motor and 3/4 chassis kit in it.  These pics show the white LED dash I fitted today.

[NosFEratu]

Welcome to the forum - very nice ride you've inherited!

Is that a pearl steering wheel? How about some more interior shots for us!

Glad to see you are getting enjoyment from your dad's work - you should both be very proud of it!

Kathi 
F4+ =^{^^}=

[customFC]

That's 1 sweet looking wagon.
Hand-me-downs like that would always be welcome.
Your Dad did a great job.
Regards
Alex

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Damn, that's one sweet ride! 

[mikey]

Welcome to the forum with what is a very nice set of wheels.

About 15 years ago my older sister had a very nice Escort with the number plate DUX 414, only 340 away from yours. What does that mean you say.......... stuff all actually.

Just got this stupid thing in my head for remembering useless number plate combinations

I bet there will be more pleas for lots more pics if you have them.

Cheers   M

[FC427]

Welcome to our family ..... All I can say is, You must have been real good for the old boy to hand it over to you .... Nice Ride enjoy it ......FC427.......

[Geoff_K]

Great looking wagon. Looks like a 'Standard' wagon, with some 'Special' extras/trim etc, is this so?
Are the paint colour and trim original, and could you give us the numbers off the ID Plate as along with Ken McLean, I gather this information to trace the uniqueness of the vehicle.
I would love to see some pictures of the interior and engine bay.
Cheers, Geoff_K

[graham_fuller]

Great looking FE Wagon. Very rare cars FE wagons. And as Geoff said more pics please,also welcome to the forum. Have you joined the Vic Club?
Cheers,
Graham

[zulu]

As Geoff mentioned, it does indeed look like a Standard 219, a rare beast indeed, even if it were a Special 229, still uncommon.

A nice bequest and an appreciating asset.

Gary 

[Rabbitoh]

Welcome to the FE Wagon Owner's Club !
(We may small in number, but we're very proud of our cars).

[Rabbitoh]

(We may small in number,

We may be small in number (is what I thought I typed)

[Neat_FE_Wagon]

Hi
Here are some more pictures.

The interior is original as is the roof lining. The colour is Shannon Green and the steering wheel is Pearled.
Fe-219-1781-a
TRIM 15-738
PAINT 253-7475

[Rabbitoh]

That is the rarest of the rare, an FE Standard (219) Wagon!
You really hit the jackpot there

[ridgey_didge]

Now that is a car worth having and really looking after.  It looks in great condition.  You are one lucky 18-19 year old.

Cheers
David

[Geoff_K]

Thanks for the ID Plate details:
Paint Color: Shannon Green
Trim Color (PVC): Cool Green

Your FE-219 Standard Wagon is very rare, but the most unique feature is to have such good and rare ORIGINAL trim.
If it were my car (and I have 2 with the PVC Trim), and if it was a daily drive, I would be very quickly getting a trimmer to make up a seat cover to protect the (somewhat fragile) material as it will start to crack and tear along the seams very soon without added protection.
(and this would be a shame, because there are lot of guys out there, including me, who would crawl over broken glass to get our hands on this trim and headlining)
As far as trim and headlining are concerned, maybe the only one left in this colour. I can't find this colour trim on any other original car recorded (Ken might, but I don't).

If you could provide the Chassis Number (on the inner guard) and the original engine number we can date your car and know where it was Manufactured.

Great Car
         

[Neat_FE_Wagon]

Chassis Number8-52729m
Original engine number  L445538

[Neat_FE_Wagon]

I thought you might all be interested in the story behind this car.  Firstly, some of your replies make me sound like I have died or am very old.  I'm very much alive and 43 years old.  I bought the car in late 1985 off a bloke who had found it stored in a shed from 1973 until 1983.  He then sold it but 1 year later saw it sitting in North Melbourne with no rims and full of wood and rubbish so he bought it back again.  He then put a 149 red motor in it, leaving it column shift so as to not touch the interior.  He also had fully rebuilt a EH front end (new kingpins etc) and put that in there.  An EH diff with 3.36 centre went in so it had (slightly) better brakes than standard.  His wife liked the car although one night he was drunk at a party, and she couldn't drive it home because of no heater or demister in the middle of winter and with vacuum wipers and so told him to sell it.

I picked it up for $1500 dollars and drove it for about a year before I decided to do it up.  I realised that the interior was too good to fiddle with and made sure I kept that.  I also was newly married and money was an issue.  Later in the rebuild my wife, whilst pregnant with Peter, lay under the car scraping the floor.  I bought a HT Monaro for the 186s engine and threw the body down the tip (I wish I hadn't seeing monaro prices now).

The engine was machined and rebuilt with the best parts I could afford at the time.  The yella terra head got screw in studs and roller rockers.  Duggans did all the balancing, the rebuilt twin carbs were from Bendigo swap meet on a holden manifold, Wade Camshaft, Ignition Developments new dizzy and XU - 1 headers.

I did a spray painting course at night school and for 2 slabs got 8 litres of Shannon Green paint from the teacher. It is not a perfect match, but very close. I had to buy Special windscreen trim as the rubbers in those days were not done for standards only specials, therefore requiring trim to be fitted.

I used a HK crash box so I could keep it 3 on the tree, again being mindful of the interior.  I also put a Hadfield 3/4 chassis kit in it, intending to put a 350 chev in, but Peter coming along changed that. 

I have all the original purchase receipt, government owners certificate and stamp duty receipt.  All up , I spent about $9500 dollars over 3 years, which at the time people said was madness as "its not like its valuable like a FJ or EH".  I had it on the road about 3 months before Peter arrived, and we used it as our second car for many years until about 5 years ago when I had several rounds of spinal surgery and lost interest in it.  Peter always liked this car and cleaned and polished it once he was old enough and just kept it beautifully clean ever since.  I thought he may have had trouble driving it, but looked like he had always driven 3 on the tree, crash box cars.

The only thing that we changed recently was to paint the roof white with a green pearl overlay.  I will scan some photos of when I did it up if anyone is interested and also try and talk Peter into showing the tattoo of this car on his arm.

[customFC]

Thanks for the story Peter's Dad.
Would love to see some earlier pics. Do you have any from before the resto as well?
As mentioned on here, you have a rare car, but by the sounds of it, it is in good hands.
Now Peter.....about that tat.........
Regards
Alex

[Neat_FE_Wagon]

fe tattoo

[Ed]

cool story.

love the wagon.

Cheers

Ed