FC 217 Army sedans.

[Ex Army FC 217]

Hi everyone,  new here.
I have a couple of questions regarding FC Army cars.
Can anyone tell me how many 1958 FC 217 Business sedans were made for the Australian army as staff cars?
I hear there were around 800 Business sedans made in total but im interested to know a rough estimate of how many were actually ordered as Army sedans and how many are left / survive?
Thank you.

[mcl1959]

My research would suggest closer to 300 FC 217's made.
All Holden's old records (that weren't thrown out) went to the Adelaide library. There does not appear to be anything there which indicates how many of each model were made or what colours etc, so my research analyses what vehicles are still remaining and by recording ID plate details and chassis numbers I can statistically analyse what was originally made. Of course there is an error margin that has to be factored in but better than no info at all.

Little known fact is that the FC 217 was discontinued either late 1958 or very early 1959. No GMH correspondence found as yet to indicate a date. So this makes the model a very short run. There are many more FE 217's around than FC 217's

With very little Holden records available it is not possible to know how many staff sedans were built by the factory. I'm betting that the information would exist somewhere in the army records though!

Here are the facts as I know them - two are known to exist, I restored one of them and another is currently for sale needing restoration. I don't know of any that were wrecked.
There is a FC staff sedan in the army museum in Wodonga but it is a 215 model.

I would expect that there were more than two made, but how many is just speculation.

Ken

[Ex Army FC 217]

Thank you for the information Ken.
I just purchased the unrestored car that was for sale in Kyneton.
It is being delivered on Wednesday.

[Ex Army FC 217]

Could you please explain the general purpose / use of the FC staff sedan??
What sort of duties would it / could it have been used for?
The previous owner claims the car i just bought FC 217 65M was sold by the Department of Defence in 1970 to the old guy he got it from.
That would seem quite a long time to hold onto such an early model??
Thanks in advance.

[mcl1959]

That is good news! Do you plan to restore it?
I am quite happy to help you with details that I have found out for the car.

I believe the general purpose would have been pretty much the same as today. That is, the general transport of officers on or off base to the various business meetings and arrangements of the day.

I have the original auction invoice for the 217 I restored when the department of supply sold the car. The date was 25/3/1965. It may be possible that the 1970 date is correct, but I agree with you that it probably does sound about 5 years too long

Regards.  Ken

[zulu]

Hello Ex Army 217

It's probably not so unusual for it to be sold on by the army so long afterwards

Our FC ambulance was not sold by Queensland
Ambulance until 1969

Welcome aboard

Gary

[Ex Army FC 217]

Thank you for the replies.
My initial idea was to restore the FC but when i looked at it on the weekend i found it to be in very original condition.
It has original paint and its original brown interior in very good dusty condition so i thought maybe get it home and carefully clean it, get the surface rust spots of the paint, fix a few dents and carefully polish the paint, blend some paint where needed, clean the seats and door trims and headlining , fix any structural rust and get it going. Replace windscreen and all perished rubber etc etc and leave it.
Any thoughts?
Thanks Damo.

[mcl1959]

Absolutely, the trend at the moment is very much towards keeping cars original if possible. Rust is the biggest issue though, if the sills have rust they will need to be replaced, guards and doors are also very prone to rust and hard to fix without major paintwork being involved.
Your plan sounds good to me, clean it thoroughly and ascertain whether it is good enough to leave original.
Ken

[mcl1959]

Just as a side note, the Victorian FE FC club has brand new standard rear screen rubbers to suit sedans. These are not available from Rare Spares but we had them made by Rares just for us.
At last count I think we had 13 or 14 left.

Ken

[Not Happy Jan]

Welcome aboard Damo,
You won't get any better information from this site and especially from Ken and Gary. Good luck with your restoration process love to see some pictures soon.
Nick

[riger45]

Thank you for the information Ken.
I just purchased the unrestored car that was for sale in Kyneton.
It is being delivered on Wednesday.

That sounds a good purchase! My uncle is looking at an Army FC 217, hope all goes well and take her home. We are excited to work in this car.