Finally own a FC Wagon

[Airfireman]

After many many many years of looking and not looking for a FC ute or Wagon I have finally purchased a 59 Wagon.

The car is straight and all body work completed, the paint is good.
A 173 red motor has been fitted and fuel tank taken out and LPG in its place.

I was told the car from Vic then ended up in Toowoomba before I purchased here on the Sunshine Coast

 

[Airfireman]

I need to remove the choke cable that is hanging out (no carby fitted)
The wiper switch does not work (can you buy ??)
The front indicators lens are missing
Does anyone know if I can use the fuel gauge for LPG ??
Looks like a heater setup as well

[Airfireman]

I am happy with the purchase
Looking for venetian blinds for the back, maybe a sunvisor

[FCRB26]

Hopefully that car gets the love it deserves it has been for sale for a loooong time.

Pull the whole choke cable out inner and outer straighten the end of the inner and you may get it back into the outer when its straight.
If it was me i would get rid of the gas especially being a wagon i hate the thought of sitting in a cabin with a gas tank but thats me.
Venetians you can buy new off ebay they are good quality as per original.
There are sunvisors around i would probably have a spare one in nsw but you should get one closer to home easilly enough.
Indicator lenses you can buy new.
Also the wiper switch will probably be a dodgey earth as they need a good clean earth to work.

Strip half of those heater  hoses out and give a good tidy up looks like they have added and added extras assuming water for the gas mixer maybe..


good luck with her..

[FireKraka]

Hi Mate looks like a nice wagon you have picked up there with a lot of the hard work done.

As Pete said a little tidy up in the engine bay wouldn't go astray but on the whole very nice.

Good luck.

Regards
Neil H

[hsv-001]

Looks great . I'm guessing that it has FB-EK steering column . When I did that many years ago I welded the EK end on a FE-FC shifter to keep the original look . The key on the EK-FB horn button means that it will be upside down . Like I said it looks a beautiful vehicle . Cheers Haydn 

[Errol62]

Very nice. If the fuel tank has been removed and gas tank fitted in place it sounds like a tidy setup.  Motor can be tuned for optimal running on gas with significant compression increase due to the higher octane rating.  I have thought about doing the same. As you don't need the choke you could replace with an electric wiper switch from EK or later to switch heater fan or similar.

Just don't run out of gas or it's a tow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Airfireman]

Gday all

Thanks for the info

Yes after rebuilding a Kombi from scratch (3 yrs & $25k later) it good to have a FC that I don't have do any major work too.

FCRB26 - Thanks for info on the choke cable and yes I agree the engine bay needs tidying up, it has electric wiper connected to a separate toggle switch swinging under dash??? Why wouldn't they connect it to the original,,or is it something to do with the old vacuum wipers system

HSV-001 - How do you know it has a FB-EK steering column?? is it the steering wheel??? and why would they do this

Errol62 - I have never owned a LPG car before and was sceptical. I went to get Gas certificate for rego only to find out the tank has expired, I weighed up the cost of getting a complete fuel system (fuel tank, fuel pump, carby, fuel ines) and decided to stick with the under body LPG tank.

Will my original fuel gauge work with LPG???

Also the steering is super heavy, has the original front end so maybe some more air in the tyres and some grease in the king pins???

I look forward to learning more of the FC

Thanks

Tim

[mcl1959]

The shifter looks like a later model shifter rather than an FC shifter. An FC shifter would be fatter near the steering column. The steering wheel and horn ring is FC but the horn button is FB EK. The horn button really suits the car though.
The gauge can be made to work but needs a specialist to get right in my opinion.
Pumping the tyres up should fix the steering.
A good wagon fuel tank is getting hard to find nowadays so maybe easier to stick with gas.

Ken

[Stewy]

Welcome to the FE/FC owners club.
The horn button is FB/EK, but the steering wheel is correct FE/FC.
It looks to be an FB/EK steering column because it is closer to the dash.
The FE/FC steering wheel is flat, where as the FB/EK steering wheel is dished so the column is shorter.
It seems to be quite common on modifieds that the shorter column is used and the flatter steering wheel to give you more "Gut room"
I just measured the distance from the face of the dash to the front of the steering wheel.
The standard FE/FC column measured 420mm from dash to wheel and the EK column in our FC is 325mm from dash to steering wheel.
Hope this makes sense
Cheers Stewy    

[Airfireman]

Thanks Ken, Stewy

So maybe the shifter rod suits to column!!

I agree that the horn button suits the car but I will change the shifter knob

What is original? Can they still be found??

Where is a good place to source aftermarket parts??

Also is there a parts catalogue online that you can reference too?? (I do this when I rebuild my vintage Suzuki RM,s and RV's)

Thanks

Tim

[mcl1959]

The forum is a good place to find all sorts of parts. Ask and you never know your luck.
There are a few repro and aftermarket suppliers around, depends what you want.
I don't know of an online parts book for FE FC.
Workshop manuals are easy to get.
Parts books are a little more difficult.

Ken

[DJ]

There are some scanned parts catalogues on CD for a small outlay on eBay. The page quality is quite reasonable. These are saved in a PDF format with bookmarks to chapters only. I could never get the Acrobat search function to work as it does on a doc created in Adobe, so finding specific parts can take a while until you get used to the numbering scheme.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HOLDEN-48-FJ-FE-FC-FB-EK-EJ-EH-HD-HR-HK-HT-HG-all-models-FACTORY-PARTS-CATALOGUE-/252251774063?hash=item3abb609c6f:g:xXkAAOSw9r1WDM~d

[Airfireman]

Ken & DJ .. Thanks for that

As a new FC owner I am unsure as what is an original part and what isn't.
Like the Gear selector knob what is original, what does it look like??

My big delay in buying an FC was that I have looked for original as possible, what I have found looks great with the exception of the red motor.

I am keen on the idea of building a grey motor that will run on LPG and be able to tow a trailer (small teardrop & motorcycle trailer)

Any suggestions on this???

Any particular long motor I need to find??

Thanks

Tim

[DJ]

Like the Gear selector knob what is original, what does it look like??

"Maco" (John) from this forum may have what you need.

[Maco]

"Maco" (John) from this forum may have what you need.

Hi Tim,
I have sent you a PM.
Cheers
John

[Maco]

"Maco" (John) from this forum may have what you need.

Thanks DJ.
Cheers
John

[hsv-001]

Sorry I don't always answer everyone's questions right away . How was it that I know its not a Fc column? Where do I start ? There was a time when I would buy the parts for a total engine rebuild on these while traveling home from work ,ring my boss to ask for the following day off and assure him that I would be back at work the next day . Because I spent years as a parts guy at a holden dealership . Because I paddocked these back in the sixties .I pumped petrol at my brother in laws workshop in the seventies . Would it be because my son shakes his head and walks off when ,he can name any  part anywhere on an early holden and I will tell him what spanners he will need to take it off ,what problems he should look for ,what other parts he should look at , what size bolts hold the parts on and what type of thread the bolt has . Ok its a common replacement when us old guys get too fat and need a shorter column but the selector tube requires you to use the ball ended selector from the FB-EK or do what on occasions I have done and cut and swap both selector below the pivot pin and swap . Although screwing an eight ball [ or whatever] on the end of the selector was common in the day ,I drove way too many early holdens that jumped out of second gear to recommend this . Yes even had a FC wagon in the nineties that was purpose built for LPG ,192 red with 4 speed 308 diff and disc brakes . One thing I would often do was to find a FB-EK front seat before getting reupholstered [often with cloth inserts] .Why cos' summer in Qld ,vinyl will burn your but and also the plastic ends on the FE_FC front seats will crack and bite your scrotum when you get in and out .Eventually ,like my Dad I am starting to consider myself an alien in this world as it has changed so much I am struggling to recognise anything .

 
Took awhile to find this photo from around 25 years ago ,and yes original paint on this one .An amazing find and I wish I had never sold her .Cheers Haydn 

[Airfireman]

Gday HSV

Thanks for the post, as a FC newbie it will take me a while to gain the knowledge of the model.

Sounds like you have been around these models for a few years

I am still hoping to get to Toowoomba and seeing other members cars and talking to fellow members will be a fun experience.


Tim
 

[Billy Blackarrow]

Spotted your wagon today at the Kurri Kurri festival spoke to your lovely wife but you where away get icecreams when I came back to let myself known you had left sorry I missed you .the wagon looks great in the flesh hope you have many hours of pleasure out of it
Billy Blackarrow