FC Wagon Resto

[Firezone1959]

Hi all,
My name's John, and I'm from South-East QLD. I might be a young bloke (19), but I grew up in and around old cars. My FC is particularly special to me for a number of reasons. My great-grandfather owned a similar FC wagon to mine, which was passed down to my grandfather. My dad bought his wagon from its original owner in 1982 when he was 17. He drove it for about 4 years, until it had an incident with a pole. After it was mostly repaired, Dad lost interest and moved on to bigger and better cars (off hand: an EK ute, a HK Monaro, a couple of early Falcons, and a series of Customlines and Mainlines) It was parked in my grandparents shed, and there it sat for 14 years until it was swapped to my Dads youngest brother for his 1963 Fairlane. It was pulled out of the shed, hosed off, had the firewall painted black, then pushed back into the shed. 10 years later I finally got my hands on the FC and while I was staying at my grandparents, I got the wagon running and my Nan taught me how to drive a 3-on-the-tree manual. I think I spent two days puttering around the back paddock with my cousins in tow. Unfortunately, my Nan passed away in 2011 and the FC (along with Dads collection of 50's Fords) were moved to a family friends paddock after my grandparents house was sold to my crooked uncle. Eventually the FC found its way home, and is now parked beside the house awaiting it's restoration.

The FC in 2000:




The FC now:




The November '86 Rego slip and unused sticker:


Apart from some parts of the front end and the engine, it's an original car. All the door cards and seats are in good condition, and even the crayon "OK"s on the doors are intact!


At the moment the wagon starts and runs (and would probably move) but the brakes are shot. Fortunately I have a second FC standard wagon for parts, and a fairly complete EK ute wreck in a creek bed down the road. The rear bumper and original engine are probably still at my grandparents old place, so I might have to negotiate with my cousins and see if I can get them. I hope to keep this car original, and one one day pass it on to my own kids.

[Old_Mt_Isa_Boy]

Great to see you on the page. Welcome John.

Good luck with the build.

Regards

Wayne b

[camxsmith]

Welcome John  Love the story behind the car and best of luck with the build.

What are you plans with the build 

Cam

[Firezone1959]

Welcome John  Love the story behind the car and best of luck with the build.

What are you plans with the build 

Cam

I'd like to keep the car fairly original. I have a pair of dual-carb manifolds, so I'd like to put one of those on. I'll probably also lower it and run a set of black stockies and whitewalls. I'm not sure what I'll do about the paint, the original stuff is pretty good in most places. It does need some rust and dent repair though. I'm thinking that I might just polish up the paint that's still on the body and lay some clear on it until I can afford a proper respray, and primer the front end and bonnet since they're mismatched anyway.

[Stewy]

Welcome to the forum John.
If the engine number on the rego is the original, you have a fairly early FC wagon.
FC was only released in May 1958 and your engine number dates sometime in June 1958.
Always great to see another one get back on the road.
We like to see plenty of progress pictures.

Cheers Stewy   

[Firezone1959]

Just ran the codes I have through the decoder, they wouldn't have built 20,000 FCs in May alone would they?

[mcl1959]

My database gives a date of August 1959 manufacture, so engine number would not be correct for the car.
The chassis number would provide a closer date.

Ken

[Firezone1959]

I think I may have to make a concession on the factory resto after going for a ride in a family friends FB. Even with a HR diff and a hot grey it was gutless, and was just about out of steam at 70MPH so I'm thinking about swapping my pair of 250ci Ford 6s and a BW35 for a mates worked Red and Trimatic from his HZ project ute.

[NES304]

Maybe a 180kw 304 5L V8? With bench seat etc to make it look stock 😉

[hsv-001]

Mate, welcome to the forum . Before you go ripping that old girl apart to fit something oversized in it could you get in touch and we can share some ideas. Just saying that I only have a small 6 in my old FC van [173 block]with borg-warner 5 speed ,varijet carby ,headers ,HR front and rear ends ,Torana radiator ,Nissan brake booster and some smaller mods and it runs fairly free up to around 100 mph until she runs short of fuel .Your in the same part of the world as me S.E. Qld so might be worth an exchange of some ideas .Cheers Haydn

[Firezone1959]

Mate, welcome to the forum . Before you go ripping that old girl apart to fit something oversized in it could you get in touch and we can share some ideas. Just saying that I only have a small 6 in my old FC van [173 block]with borg-warner 5 speed ,varijet carby ,headers ,HR front and rear ends ,Torana radiator ,Nissan brake booster and some smaller mods and it runs fairly free up to around 100 mph until she runs short of fuel .Your in the same part of the world as me S.E. Qld so might be worth an exchange of some ideas .Cheers Haydn

The Red my mate has is a 138 out of an LC (I think) Torana, he bought it off eBay thinking it was a 202.

Exchanging ideas sounds like a great plan, I'm fairly new to working with GM stuff.

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[Firezone1959]

I got a few hours alone with the FC this afternoon. Pulled the carpet up and I was pretty surprised.


Passenger side floor is alright, and the sills are pretty solid. The drivers side is a bit rougher but there's still more metal in the floor than there was in my XB ute.
Also tidied up the Thornton under-dash parcel shelf.

I don't know if I'll use it or not, but it's original to the car. Tomorrow I might head down to my mates place to pick over my standard wagon wreck for the handbrake parts. He's also bought a complete FE ute for scrap (unfortunately) that he said I can go over and grab what I need off. It has a pair of early brake and clutch cylinders with the tin resevoirs, which I need because I broke the plastic brake resevoir and the clutch resevoir leaks through the cracks. I also need another brake line to the L/H front drum as mine rusted through and burst.

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[Firezone1959]

Attacked the floor with the grinder before it got dark and saw why the passenger side floor was that little bit better.


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[DJ]

There goes Sunday & next weekend.

[Old_Mt_Isa_Boy]

There goes Sunday & next weekend.

I'm not sure we should tell him what happens when the bug gets ya 


Regards Wayne b