Standard Wagon

[58mintwag]

well i thought i would start a new thred as this is a project, i will hunt down some photo's of my progress and try and put them up.

[58mintwag]

here are some photo's of the fc how i bought her.



the motor in there has been blown there is a conrod poking outside the block.


they bought the body with nothing on it, they had repaired all the rust with new sections


previous owners had put a hadfield chassis and hr front end on it

[58mintwag]

[58mintwag]

when i got her, i put in a 186 that came with the car, whilst that was in i took it to tafe and painted the roof





this is my son sai enjoying the new roof colour hehe

then i came to realise that the 186 was no good had terrible compression and was quite tappety, so i hunted around on e-bay and bought a rebuild 202 for $100


the new motor


my state of the art workshop

[58mintwag]

so i drove around with the 202 for about a month made it down to phillip island kustom nats in 09, had a great day. but then shortly after i was driving down the freeway and it just started to klunk in the bottom end quite badly, also before that i had to borrow an ausiie four speed off a friend as mine started to develop quite a bad bearing noise. so i pulled it off the road.

back to my daily drive


76 hj kingswood. painted it matt black and lowered it, runs a mild 202 and aussie four.

[58mintwag]

so whilst off the road i painted up my visor at tafe, found some brand new 14" hg ht stock rims and hunted and hunted and hunted for a new motor and box on e-bay, finally i found a 186 and aussie four speed not too far from my house and for only 500, it came with absolutely everything, radiator pedals clutch setup and all accessories.

so i picked up the motor with a mate and it looked great, got it home put it on a stand and pulled the sump and head off, when i pulled the head off there was a pleasant suprise, it looked although it had had a recent rubuild and it had 30thou over acl flat tops in it. and it was a high comp head.

here is the motor put back togeather and all painted up with some nice shiny bits on it.

heres the visor i painted up at tafe




i mdae up a kustom great with a whole lot of pearl and metal flake in it, pitty you will never see it in the sun hehe

[58mintwag]

i have also been collecting a bunch of stuff to build a couple of mad holden reds, i picked up a complete black 202 from my mechanic for $50 also i have that tired 186 that came with the car. my plan is to make a nice lump sounding 186 for the fc and i also have an hq prem sedan i will start soon, plan is to make a pretty quick 202 out of the black block.

here are some bits and peices i have collected

picked the triples up from a guy at work for $300


standard bore 186 acl flat top, arp conrod bolt set. so i dont have one poking outside the block again.


federal mogal forged flat top's, 202 +60thou over size piston's on balenced and shaved starfire rods, picked them up from e-bay for $250, and a acl race series gasket set


here is my stage 3 yella terra head low compression, i also have another head that has double springs hoooge valves and is high comp.


my friend also has two yella terra heads he is giving me, so i will take the best two for the job.

[58mintwag]

when i put the new 186 in i took it down to the local tire joint and swapped my dragway's for some new tires and got the 14's put on.

[58mintwag]

so recenlty i have been working on it alot doing lots of little things to get it roadworthy again, when i baked the car after i painted the roof there was a coating on the fueltank that kept the rust holes at bay, it all got melted off. so i patched the tank and painted her up.

i started by stripping it then wire brushing the whole thing





then i plugged the wholes with a two part putty, after going over the whole thing with a rust converter and primer.
then primed and painted it.




and put it back in

it seems to be all good, no more fumes in the cabin.

[58mintwag]

Some shots of the interior, am in the middle of screwing down the shifter rubbuer, i had to move the carpet around as the previous owners had put them in the wrong spot, thats why there is a foot mat under the shifter boot...to cover the extra hole cut.





here is the motor in, sits pretty tight in there


not much room between the water pump pulley and the radiator. not even enough for a fan, has two front mounted thermo fans.


there is a very tight gap between the sway bar and the balancer, does anyone know of another sway bar option i can run that will make more room? not sure what this one is

new rear shocks in

also, when i am in full lock towards the right the steering arm hits the sump ( am running an eh sump on hr front end )
ive noticed that the middle steering arm is not straight, does anyone know if i am able to get a straight one that will bolt straight in?

[pedro]

G'day 58mintwag, nice looking wagon I've been following your build with interest being a fellow wagon owner, from what I can see of your engine clearance problems it looks to me like the engine is sitting too far foreward, normally with a red you would still have enough clearance to run a fan on the engine without it hitting the radiator, are your mounts right at the back of the crossmember?
                                 Pedro

[FCRB26]

Change them extractors and i reckon i would go back 50 mm more.
But with thermos and no fan = more power for the big red girl.

[Gary C]

I have just been through a fairly similar situation with my recently purchased fc ute ( killing time) . I noticed you have a modified hr outrigger still attached to the hr crossmember, it is common to change the outrigger to fb-eh they will attach perfect to the crossmember and also to the standard front mount (yours has been modified to suit the front mount ) You can then fit the fb sway bar. Pedro is right you need to have your engine mounts as far rearward on the crossmember as possible to help stop the steering fouling with the sump ( eh sump is correct and lc-lj torana will also fit ) Im only guessing but your trans floor hump also looks standard. If it is this could also be the reason the rear of the engine is too low. There are larger replacement floor humps available to accommodate the non standard gearbox. When I replaced mine the rear of the engine was able to be raised and also once raised it left more room at the firewall to move the engine rearward. There are a few things that need to be considered with pinion angles etc but you will find heaps of good posts about trans humps,outriggers,pinion angles etc in the forum. Good luck with the wagon, that new donk should go like stink,
Gary C

[FATBOY]

Eh sway bar with hr front end
regards fatty

[FC427]

HR sway bar but the outrigger needs a notch and a little welding can post picture if your interested ....FC427....

[58mintwag]

yeah the mounts are as far back as they can go, it has had a hq hump welded in, the radiator is not standard, pretty sure it is from a hk-hg. thanks alot for your help, i would love you to post a photo of a modified outrigger, that would be a great help, also are there many options for a heavy duty sway bar?

thanks for your help.
regards tom

[pedro]

G'day Tom, have a look at my project I've just finished modifying my HR crossmember and put up some pics.
          Pedro

[TTV6FC]

Nice work Tom.Love the heater,I've got one just like it...

[58mintwag]

yeah i love that heater, works so much better then the one in the kingswood. cheers

[mcl1959]

Tom, the outrigger works best if you follow the tried & true method. That is - use the outrigger off an FB EK EJ or EH and simply weld it straight on followed by a heavy duty sway bar from the same models. The sway bar from these models is narrower than FE FC so fits the HR front end correctly but it is straight all the way through, just like an FE FC bar.

Ken