the risky shortcut to jindabyne (FCCOOL Tidy up)

[FC_Driver]

Hi Leon & Family,
Keep going & good luck.
I can"t  paint weld repair motors etc. wouldn't have a go.
Thats why I was 53 befor I got back into an FC again.
Had I had had a go earlier, like you I wouldn't have missed all those years without owning a FC.
Good luck and both myself & Jan look forward to seeing your car back on the road...However long it may take you!!    We admire your efforts......
Bruce

[fccool59]

Thanks for the boost along Bruce, I was going to call it quits and do something else with the last 2 days of my holidays but I kind of now have too much metal exposed now and have to make a run too the primer stage.
looks like ben (revhead fc) might be over on the weekend to lend a hand so If I can get as much as possible of the steel welded in prior to saturday we might be able to get into the striping and bogging (no I dont mean taking our pants of and doing a poo).
I had better luck today after repeating yesterdays work but with 8mm rod instaed of 10mm, this is pretty tricky and time consuming as it still is hard to shape but you need to make it fit the headlight surrounds as well as the car as well as matching on both sides.
now they are shaped I can trim up the front, tack the rod into place and start adding the steel from my now limited supply of rashons.
I also bought some pipe this mornig to make the twin ariels, It looked slightly bigger than what I wanted at 1 1/2" , when I got home I noticed some more suitable size in a stuffed pushbike frame.
I worked out my pushrod length last night and sorted that out today so soon the motor should get finnished, also at 9am this morning the new flex plate arrived from magnum wich I ordered on monday afternoon.
here is a fresh pic, the drivers side guars has been getting striped around the front with a chisel, its the quickest, cleanest way to strip it since its wearing upto 3/4" of bog around the lower front.

[customFC]

Hey Leon.
Some cool progress.
Are you planning a tube grill?
....or is that getting too far ahead!
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Alex

[greyone]

America might have there motivater but we got one better, keep plugin leon p/s where all praying for no rain
regards mal

[Blown_FC]

Greyone.....I was thinking exactly the same thing.  Leon there are a few things I have to say.

- I've only really caught up with your rebuild and have skimmed over most of the reports you have made and must say....your very first post back in March 2005 on this rebuild you said, " it's time for a FRESHEN up".....bloody hell.......if that's what you call a freshen up, I'd love to see what you call a full resto !

- I also have to thankyou for not only providing motivation for all of us, but for giving me ammunision to use against my wife next time she nags about me building my FC.
You are not only restoring a car, but majorly customizing it at the same time, all under a tarp and shade sails in the front drive of your house....and you have got your wife to help out ( with pics to prove it ).
My wife has nothing to complain about !

You are taking on a huge job ( bigger than most of us would dream of taking on ), without the comforts of a designated shed, benches ect ect and are doing a great job doing it.

Well done and I wish you all the best for the rest of the build.

You are an inspiration...truly !

Cheers

Mark

[smithy]

hey leon, your doing great.
i think mark has summed it up perfectly.  

its going to be magic when you finish.
dean

[julius]

Hi Leon

I have been watching your progrss over a long period of time and think you doing a fantastic job, I do like the way your headlights are looking.

They remind me a possesed car in a movie, the movie is 'Christine' Good movie have a look at the grill in it, if you cant find the movie I have a copy so if your going to the Nats I will lend it to you .

Julius

[fccool59]

Hey Julius, I have it on DVD, VHS and the novel, Actually its the only one I have read from start to end, all the novels we had to read at school were so unsuited to my taste in reading material that I refused to read right through in disgust. another stephen king favourite was sometimes they come back wich was about a man who cuased the death of 4 teenagers who tried too kill his brother in the late 50's, these guys come back to huant him 30 years later and they get around in a black scalloped flamethrowing 55 chevy.
I had to do a little running around today, I have a little problem with the head gasket slightly missing the O'rings so a new one is going to be custom made, I also picked up my pushrods wich still seem a little short.
aswell as that I picked up a 2:78 diff just for incase somehow this thing somehow is finnished in time for the  natoinals, the supercharger doesnt like constant high rpm so this should help when I need to do long trips.
I am still mucking around with the front, I have nearly finnished making the headlight tunnel parts for both sides and they are now tacked into the rod that will make the edge of the front of the car, these also hold the 58 edsel headlight bezels and the buckets that have been modified to fit them.
The holes are now also cut for the twin frenched electric ariels.
Tailights also are nearly ready to go.
I have to go and buy some stripping materials in the morning and get ben and my missus striping (paint) while I weld, weather has been pretty good but hopefully it will hold out for the weekend.

[fccool59]

Thought I might add some new pics all though not much yet looks different.
my holidays are now over with only the weekend left, I am no were near were I planned to be wich is kind of dissapointing after going flat out for a year to get to the next nationals.
On the good side it's pretty good to see the new look coming to shape, I kind of thought this up on the bus on our garage crawl run while reading a book in between garages called Custom cars yearbook vol 1 1963, I gave up on the idea I was dreaming about all day when I began to think more about reality things like time, cost and effort but then months later I thought stuff it and borrowed the book I was reading on the bus wich I still havent returned and is still studied daily.
the plan then was to do what I could prior to the jindabyne natoinals and get a new coat of paint on it.
When I missed the natoinals I decided that with a extra 52 weeks up my sleeve I might go a little further, finally we had the nostalgia drags begining wich then was going to be annaul but still worth building a motor for.
In order to to get a motor done I started by looking for engine shops involved with the build of holden 6 altereds and rails, a supercharger was bought and a black motor stripped out for all its goodies.
looks at this stage body wise I am not to far behind stinky with nadias ute, hopefully at the end of the weekend I will
be able to show some pics with some more noticable progress, as long is this good weather holds up.
in the pics you will notice even the kids are now being put to work with sanding, etc

[customFC]

Hey Leon.
Good to see your enthusiasm has not subsided after all these weeks.
Something to consider before final welding the lights.....make sure you do not lean them too far forward as you will not be able to adjust the headlights. I had to muck around afterward with spacers etc to get mine to stop pointing at the road.
Keep it up.
Regards
Alex

[fccool59]

Alex, that has already been looked at, I have the part that screws to the bucket on a funny twisted leaning angle that hopefully will compensate, also the top lights sit out further.
I couldnt get as much lean forward as I wanted becuase the rod wont allow it without looking to funny.
this stuff is what chewed half of the time, serious head scratching, hope I can make it all fit together

[fccool59]

here is the end result of today, now the problem is that I have to return to work on monday and I have a lot of bare metal waiting for bog and primer.
Ben came and stripped for a while but hadn't slept last night as he was working on the road, I dont know if the 4 cans of JD he threw down before he started helped much, it was pretty hot today and even if he didn't get heaps done it was good to get some outside help for a few hours.
I also had a bit of a go stripping and made some frenched ariels, my wife went to work on some panels with the cup brush around the jambs.

[fccool59]

well today was my last day of my holidays to get this thing welded up, bondo'd and primed but at the end of it all I am still at about 1/3 of the way through the welding.
Batman droped in expecting a finished car and was not impressed.
I set my alarm and jumped out of bed early and spent the whole day sitting in the sun welding in one tail light, when I finnished welding I took a photo and looked at the clock and it was 5:58 meaning I had 2 minutes left I could use power tools before the neighbours would freak out.

[TAYZ]

My hat goes off to you Leon, you are doing a great Job!!!!   Keep it up and cant wait too see the final product, cheers
                                                              TAYZ(Love the Kustom Look!!)

[normd]

Geez Leon
    I thought Harko's post was for "motivation"  (no offence Harko)  but I reckon you blow that guy "out of the water"   persistance +   , good onya mate, stick with it .

 Norm  

[Ed]

Leon,

that is starting to look SWEET!

thanks for taking us though the build warts and all!!

those tail ights are very cool.

Cheers

Ed

[steamman]

Keep at it Leon you are an inspiration to us all.
Regards
Deano

[Phantom]

I have been watching this great thread with lotsa interest , you are doing a fantastic job , must be a hard slog hard without a garage and poxy neighbours , stick at it mate , and you will end up with a fantastic custom(it will be worth all the hard work when she is registered) you are a real inspiration
               Cheers Rusty

[fccool59]

another weekend has passed, the front is taking on its new shape, pretty slowly but its happening.
This weekend the concierge from my work ( Mercedes-Benz dealer) came over to lend a hand, he had more determination than me and despite the thick layers of paint piled on my roof and the hot sun, he was determined to keep powering till the eintire roof had not a spec of paint and he did.
the rear quarter is waiting to be striped again, it only has etch on it and I am thinking of removing the filler on the lead and using a different brand.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Are the cantered quad mounts totally hand made or is there some kind of factory gear in there?
Just thinking ahead to a "fun" project for the Mt G nationals