Finally underway again.......

[JOX515]

At last, after 3 years, I found my FC under the dust and accumulated rubbish in the garage and after a quick dust off, out came the wet and dry paper to get the body ready for paint.......

Aiming for the Perth Nationals, so fingers crossed.









Unfiortunately I have lost all the pics of the work done prior to starting again, but it has been a bare shell rebuild.
Will get some detail on the car here soon.

Cheers, Graeme

[snuff69]

Good luck with it Graham  The dash looks real neat   Keep the pics comin   Dave

[JOX515]

Thanks Dave.  The dash was made up of 2 fc dashes and fitted with the VL commode instruments. 

Car is now running all VL running gear - motor, auto, diff, loom, steering colomn (although might change back to an early column), 60 litre stainless tank.

The wagon belonged to my grandfather who bought it when it was 6 months old in early 1960.  I inherited the car when he died in 1987 and it was my daily driver until I started the rebuild in 2006.  Unfortunately I got crook (depression) during 2008 and have done nothing on the car until a couple of weeks ago......

Will certainly keep the pics coming as progress is being made - only took the above pics tonite.  Will get some better ones in daylight at the weekend.

Cheers, Graeme

[zl296]

yes the dash does look real good.
keep up the great work....

[JOX515]

Still cant find all the photo's of the build, so here is a brief run down on what has been done.

What started off as a relatively quick strip down and tidy up has turned into a bare body, front frame off rebuild.  Usual rust sposts in the front subframe all repaired with fabricated pieces, radiator support cut and shut to suit VL radiator had a couple of inches out of the height and an extra core installed for compensate.  Sills were suffed, so had a local firm roll some new ones aned cleaned up the inner sills (still in excellent shape) and welded new outers in. A trip to CRS to get engine mounts, sump and trans tunnel.  Rear floor pans replaced, front were done 15 years ago and are still excellent.  Welded new tunnel in and trial fitted VL motor and box - all fitted perfectly first go.  Made up some brackets for the radiator, plugged everything in and bugger me it started first time.

Pulled it to bits again, finished off underneath with sound deadener, paint etc, put the reco'd and reset rear springs in, rebuilt the HR front end included HZ discs/calipers, bolted the narrowed VL diff in then back on 4 wheels.  Motor, box, new tailshaft bolted up, plugged some wires in and a quick drive around the block with no doors, guards, bonnet, glass etc but it was nice to drive it again after 2 years off the road....  Had a mate roll up some door patch panels, welded them in place, fitted them to check door gaps etc and they were all good.

Then I got sick and lost interest in everything - not a good time for a few years, but happily back into it now and hopefully on the road for Perth.

Doors are at the blasters being cleaned up and etched, am about 2/3rd's of the way thru wet rubbing the body ready for some minor repairs, putty, rubbing, more putty, more rubbing, paint then even more rubbing......

Will post pics later when I can get the beast outside for better pics.

[FCRB26]

Nice car
 glad to hear you are all better (i had a similar situation for a few years)

And another RB powered FC on the road.

Keep the pics rolling.
Did you have any old pics on this forum if so there are a few photo hoarders that might be able to drag them back up for you.


Pete

[JOX515]

Thanks Pete, still not 100% but can recognise the signs when things are going sideways now and can deal with it.

Thanks also for comment on the car - I love it. 

Yours is a very impressive piece of machinery, and look forward to seeing it in the flesh one day.

I didnt have any pics on the site, had them stored on pc for uploading and now cant find them.  I must have them on disc somewhere.

Graeme

[jack_fc]

Goodonya, JOX
Love the dash! 
That's shaping up to be one cool wagon
More info, more pics please...

cheers, jack

[JOX515]

No worries Jack, more pics at the weekend and more info once i post the pics 

[FCRB26]

With your speedo i went to all the same dramas to fit the VL guts behind the original facia and after years of the odometer not lining up properlly only just a little i found out that running a manual box you dont need the speed sensor signal.
But now im running the RB26 and a powerglide i will use the original speedo for it.


Pete

[JOX515]

Doors back from the blasters - clean and primed and bugger all beating/bog work required

http://i.imgur.com/k1oioh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/onIY6h.jpg

more pics over the weekend.....

[Old_Mt_Isa_Boy]

Well Graeme good to see you back with us. Those doors looks good. Hope all goes well now that your underway again.


Regards

Wayne b

[JOX515]

Cheers Wayne.  It is good to be almost normal again, and really good to be back in the garage with the FC.  I really miss not being able drive it, late model cars are nice too drive but ohhhh sooooo boring.....

Doors are pretty good, little bit of mud work to finish them off,


Graeme

[Stash]

Doors look great!!.
You are setting the path for others, can see where I am heading next!

Glad to hear your getting well. 

Cheers

John

[Not Happy Jan]

Hey Graeme,
Looks really good. Glad to hear that you are doing well. Love the dash
Are You going to keep the original colours? Looks very straight!
Nick

[JOX515]

Thanks again guys for your comments, much appreciated.

Nick, I was contemplating a color change but have decided to stick with original colors. Wont have to change the interior trim then, apart from trying to find a similar original material to cover the bucket seats with.  Could be in trouble there I think........

John, the doors came up a treat and will only need minor work with the mud pack to finish them off.....

Cheers, Graeme

[fcwrangler]

Graeme, just keep ploding away, you will get there in the end. The trim should,nt be much of a problem,most trimmers can get almost anything.If in doubt talk to stinky thats what he does for a living. Look forward to more progress shots.
Regards Jim

[JOX515]

Time for a long overdue update.......

There are not enough hours in the day anymore, so progress has been slow.  Half the fun of building a car is doing it yourself rather than paying someone to do it, but man, is it time consuming......

Anyway, i have board filed everything, put the first coat of putty on, and am ready to start filing it off again.  Doors needed a bit more work that I first thought tho.....











Board (bored!!!) filing has got to be the most over rated past time in existence lol.  I have been using the AFS boards - remove the rods one at a time to get more flex in the board for the curved panels.  They certainly make life a bit easier.

Still trying to decide on a color combo tho.....

Cheers, Graeme

[FCRB26]

Shes looking good.

Rubbing back is like painting a house i really really hate it . A whole car anway.


i use Durablock when i do have to rub back stuff really nice blocks up to 1mtr long.

Colours are so hard to decide always like the stock colours not a huge metallic fan
Blues are always popular but pretty common same with two tone green lots of them around.

I always wondered what cream front and a taxi yellowy orange colour for the flash would look like something different ..
Keep the pics coming.

Any dramas getting the RB going give me a yell i still have my full conversion here that i use to run.
Pete

[JOX515]

G'day Pete,

Two tone grey is winning the battle at this stage.

Definitely no metallic paint or fancy colors - they look great on a hot rod or full on custom but not a "stocky"....

Thanks for the offer of help with the RB to, much appreciated.