The Long Road

[JIMMYS_FC_UTE]

G_DAY   ED
                  YOU  wouldnt have a contact number for the guy in redfern would you looks like a good place to go for parts . after seeing all the parts you have rounded up . hows the wagon going . nice pick up with the ute you got was worth the 14 hours trip i bet .  
                                     
                                               CHEERS,,,   JIMMY

[Fast_Eddie]

After two years of inactivity on the wagon, the build is back on in earnest.

To recap:

The original aim was to have the project finished by the Jindabyne FE-FC Nationals at Easter 2005. Despite a massive effort in the weeks prior to this date, the car was nowhere near being finished.

After the dust settled, I had the opportunity to review all aspects of the build. I came to the conclusion that although the panel work completed on the car was to an exceptional high standard, and the paint properly applied, a combination of factors had led to a lack of uniformity accross the paint finish.

Particularly, there were some areas that were a little dry and others that had too much peel.

Despite reassembly being at an advanced stage, the decision was made to pull the car back apart almost all the way to allow for the paint issues to be properly addressed.

Glenn Alderson, the proprietor of Hughes & Gibson Smash Repairs at St Marys (and brother of forum member CraigA) then took the car and expertly rubbed back, flattened and with the skill of master craftsman reapplied much of the paint to the car.

Here is the car earlier this year looking a little forlorn (and dusty) in the corner of the shop.



Glenn is an absolute gun with the 'gun (no pun intended), so much so that he is now undertaking the panel and paint work on my E49 "big tank" Charger. (But that's a story for another forum  )

Before


Stripped


Really stripped!


Now, back to more important things than rare factory muscle cars... FC Holden Station Sedans  

[Fast_Eddie]

Following the return of the wagon to my workshop, the first task was to install the NOS front and rear door rubbers that I had collected over the past couple of years.



These rubbers have a number of different profiles as you work around the door opening which ensures proper fit and sealing. Rares to a great job, but these NOS rubbers are something else!



You can see that the NOS rubber is actually formed to go over the rear door hinge. This is a major issue with repro rubbers - some people don't realise that they have to be cut and spliced over the rear door hinges as they are simply too thick to compress at this point thus causing the doors to spring and resist being shut.



This corner on the NOS rubbers is actually formed as an angle. This can be achieved in repro rubbers if you cut and splice the rubber at the correct angle - think of making a picture frame with mitred corners.

Supa-glue is very effective at joining the rubbers, and was used sparingly to hold them into the channels in this installation. The yellow glue you can see in the photos of the front door rubbers was from the previous installation. I'm not using this the second time around.

(NB WANTED - NOS side screen rubbers for a Station Sedan - I don't care if I have to rip these windows out again! As you can see the repro ones simply don't work at the corners. This is due to the fact that the corners in the rubber are square, whereas the window opening is more like a parallelogram)



I had also been fortunate enough to locate the original silver flecked - black windlacing, so the windlacing that had been previously installed was removed, and the NOS item installed.

[coolaride]

looking good there fast eddie..

glad to see your still at it . i cant wait to see it finished .

coolaride  

[Fast_Eddie]

Although the front end had already been built up, I decided to take it apart and detail it further.

As such, I've been spending a fair bit of time standing at the sand blasting cabinet returning almost anything I can find back to virgin steel so that it can be dispatched to the electroplaters.



Some parts shall be bright zinc, others nickel.

The front crossmember itself has been dispatched to Hughes & Gibson for repainting, while the control arms etc are being powdercoated.

[Fast_Eddie]

To date (and hopefully moving forward seeing I've made mention of him now) I've had an incredible amount of help from Craig Alderson who  has really been the driving force behind putting this car together.

Craig's attention to detail is second to none, and it is his efforts that are ensuring this car will really be a stand out.

As an example, I had a good set of second hand dust deflectors to reinstall in the car. Craig decided they weren't going to be good enough - so made the following ones up.



He also took to the tail light lenses with compound and polish to obtain the following result. Believe it or not, these lenses are all Holden ones, not repros and not NOS. They were the ones fitted to the car when I bought it.

[Fast_Eddie]

We are up to roughing in the wiring harness and installing firewall parts such as the NOS wiper control arms.

This is the second Vintage Wiring harness I have installed in an FC and they are really very good. We are going to change the plastic fuse holders for the original metal type, both in the engine bay and under the dash, and there are one or two connectors that are male but should be female, but otherwise, a fantastic product.



One of the most enjoyable aspects of this project is installing the new gear I have sourced in recent years. These wiper arm studs will be topped off by NOS wiper arrms.

[customFC]

Coming along nicely Ed.
Nice attention to detail.
I dig that Charger....wouldn't mind a ride in that ol' girl when she's done.
Regards
Alex

[tommo65]

I know this is getting off topic but being a Mopar man from way back I just have to ask why you stripped the Charger from the first photo it looks quite good, any chance of seeing it at Mt Gambier

Cheers Tommo

[Fast_Eddie]

Thanks Tommo & Alex.

The Charger is a "big tank" E49, one of 22 made in that configuration (most "big tank" Chargers were E38s which were the 3 speed cars). Much rarer than a Falcon GTHO Phase 3 but without the Bathurst win. I think they ran the quarter in the 14s in their day.

It was a very original car but was sent to the paint shop for for a tidy up - someone had redone the stripes in gloss and they weren't great. One thing led to another and it was decided to strip and rebuild the car to a really high level of detail.

The car had been mechanically rebuilt at least once before and had seen some club track days and hill climbs so it had some non-original suspension gear and a tailshaft loop. That shall be rectified.

Rust and panel damage was minimal but all is being attended to in the rebuild.

I can't imagine it will go to Mt Gambier, but I was hoping to get it to Summernats at the end of the year in the authentic muscle car class.

[zulu]

Looking great Ed, champion effort on those dust deflectors Craig.

Good to see such attention to detail on this build,a credit to all concerned.

[Fast_Eddie]

Thanks Gary.

Craig's been busy with the wiring. A new tai light loom was made up and the rear section of a NOS reverse light kit was added in.





I was fortunate to come across the original rubber wiring sheaths that are used on ute, vans and wagons to protect the wiring from where it exits the spare wheel well and re enters below the tail lights.

[Fast_Eddie]

A selection of front end, steering and miscellaneous parts back from the powdercoaters

[Fast_Eddie]

Recently I had the balance of the cargo area vinyl installed.



Slowly getting there...

[Fast_Eddie]

Took a while to clean it up though...

[Fast_Eddie]

A quick update from a few days ago:

"You've got your work cut out here Dad!"



Note painted dash!

He'll probably be able to drive by the time it is finished!

[Fast_Eddie]

It seems almost wrong to open these canisters... Hard to believe that these shocks have been waiting 50 years to be used.

[customFC]

Hey Ed.
Divert your eyes for a second and he will have a 5 o'clock shadow.
Those pics are a graphic indication of the time it takes to get these cars back on the road.
Be sure to hold onto those tubes, would make intesesting displays some day.
Regards
Alex

[Fast_Eddie]

Parts back from the electroplaters. A combination of bright zinc and nickel.

[Fast_Eddie]

Handbrake set up ready to build.



Vacuum windscreen wiper motor ready to rebuild. The genuine rebuild kit makes all the difference. The diecast components have been degreased, scrubbed and cleaned with a white spirit based polish - similar to Autosol. The plates and screws have been nickel plated.