Grandpa's FE

[craiga]

Here's an image of my Grandpa washing his recently acquired FE He's just turned 90 so he doesn't remember alot about the car, but LOVES going for a ride in my FC. And he still drives, although he's crossed to the dark side......

The car has Special type strips on the front guard and Special badges on the rear 1/4 but a non-Special boot badge - is this right?

Cheers,

Craig.

PS: The dark haired fella in the foregound is my old man - his son-in-law, obviously putting in the hard yards before marrying my Mum  

[craiga]

And another of him mowing the lawn with the car in the background. The pictures were taken in the backyard of their home in Hurstville(Sydney).

[RET]

Great pics, Craig.  Any chance of a hi-res copy of the first one for the magazine?

The missing trim off the boot is unusual.  Maybe a replacement boot-lid after an accident of some sort?  Was the car brand new?

cheers
RET

[craiga]

RET,

The pictures came from a DVD my cousin did to celebrate our Grandfathers 90th, so I have them a 1200dpi - that be enough??  

I'll email them both to you.

Not sure if he got the car new or not - he worked for Taubmans paint at the time and I figure it was his company car?? Will talk to him about it next time I see him.

Cheers,

Craig.

[air-chief]

Hey Craig

Cool pics, love the 60's style swing set in the pic.

Cheers a-c

[NO NAME]

ahh the good old days before washing your car was criminal.

[4hammers]

Hi Guys.
The VERY early FEs didn't have the extra trim on either side of the boot badge. Also, if you can blow it up more, you will most probably note the very thin trim around the rear window. This is what David Mitchells FE has. No boot trim, thin rear window strips, less reinforcement in the boot. That was all fixed when they did a little update on the FEs, due to the back end flexing a bit & the rear window would pop out. They also added the boot trim then.

Rob J

[craiga]

Hey Rob,

Here is a close up - looks to have a later strip like later FE's. RET's early FE doesn't have the thicker strip, but has the boot badge extensions??

Cheers,

Craig.

[craiga]

and a close up picture of the boot badge and number plate.

[customFC]

Cool pics Craig.
Worth hanging over the bar.
Regards
Alex

[RET]

Hey Rob,

Here is a close up - looks to have a later strip like later FE's. RET's early FE doesn't have the thicker strip, but has the boot badge extensions??

Cheers,

Craig.

Definitely a later FE / FC surround.

and a close up picture of the boot badge and number plate.

Tell your Grandpa if he's looking for his keys he's left them in the boot lock

cheers
RET

[Geoff_K]

Guys,

My FE Special (Aug 56 Build Engine No L300400R) has the narrow rear window chrome and the boot badge extensions.
Where did 4 hammers get the info that they released specials with no extensions, as I have never seen one, and all the specials on display at the 1956 Wagga Show had them.

Geoff_K

[RET]

Yeah, I've curious about that, too.  I had the best of intentions last night to check the "Preliminary Parts" catalogue - that predates the actual FE vehicle release - to see whether the stainless "Holden" and "Special" strips are listed in there, but never got to it.

Unfortunately none of the images in the FE sales brochure show a rear view of the car.

cheers
RET

[Hewart]

Great pics Craig...!
I love these sort of old family photos.... no-one in my family ever owned an old Holden when I was growing up, mine was the first!! Old-Holden family snaps will only exist in my family from now on I guess...!!

Keep 'em coming!!!
Cheers
Les....

[4hammers]

Hi Fellas.
I got the "Info" from David Mitchell, who has had his FE from new. His car never had the extensions. His also has the thin strip window surround.
Also, there is an FE Special wreck down at a wreckers here, which has the thin strip & again, no extensions, no holes for them.

Maybe ask Ken & see what he knows. If anyone, he will.

Rob J

[RET]

I've spent an hour or so researching this in my various books and things, and can find no evidence of FE-225s without the special trim on the boot-lid.  However, it is difficult to argue with the evidence of a one-owner car with full history known.

Here's what I can say with confidence:
- The Preliminary Parts catalogue shows the two trims (P/N 7410081/7410080) as specific to FE/225 and flagged as "New Parts".
- The Preliminary Parts Catalogue and the FE Illustrated Parts Catalogue both show two P/Ns for the Boot Lid: 7406166 (FE/215, 217) and 7406167 (FE/225).  Now the only difference between the boot-lids are the additional holes for the trim clips.  This is typical of Holden, which kept inventory like this while the vehicle was 'current'.  (After all, no point getting blokes drilling holes for trim clips on 100 cars a day.  You see the same thing in the books for guard P/Ns.)  However, once the model was superseded, the most 'universal' version was retained, and all others were flagged as 'Replaced'.  A quick look in the 48-HR MPC confirms this: 7406167 (Special) replaced by 7406166 (Standard/Business).  Which makes sense: it's a lot simpler to drill holes than fill them when you're talking about replacement parts sold for damage repair etc.

So where does this leave David's car?  It is absolutely identical to mine, September '56 manufacture in Adelaide, assembly in Melbourne and sold by Motors Pty Ltd in Tassie.  Mine has the boot-lid trim, and given that its original owner never even bothered to get the drip-rail fitted, I think it's very unlikely that my boot-lid trim was 'fixed'.

What's more likely I think is that it was just a mistake on the assembly line, and the wrong boot-lid was fitted and painted etc.  Perhaps the trims were thrown in the boot for the dealer to fix (not uncommon), perhaps no-one even noticed on the assembly line, and maybe not even at the dealers.  After all, these things were popular, you couldn't keep them in the showrooms!

[box]A friend of a friend used to work at Pagewood, fitting window cranks and door handles etc.  He recounts how if you were 'caught short', the line wasn't going to stop for you.  So you just had to grab up sets of handles, springs and washers and throw 'em in each car so at least they'd be supplied when they reached the dealer.[/box]

And after all that, I still found something surprising.  (It never fails, when you crack open those parts books, you learn something.)  The discussion about replacement parts above seems to apply somewhat unexpectedly to FC/225 boot badges: the die-cast job with the longer 'wings' (P/N 7403297).  According to the 48-HR MPC, this can be replaced if necessary by the FE and FC/215 version (P/N 7409984), with the addition of the two strips that started this whole discussion, even though they're FE only parts!  See for yourself if you've got one, section 12.182, page 595.

Hope y'all feel enlightened by that

cheers
RET

[mcl1959]

I tend to agree with RET, Apart from David's car I have not seen another without the trim pieces on the boot (and I have seen plenty of 1956 FE's).
It does seem a bit of a stretch that GMH "forgot" to put the stripes on, even if they were included with the car for the dealer to fit, surely the dealer would fit them?
Maybe some customers ordered the car without the strips?
Also seems a bit of a stretch to the imagination.
The pictured car does appear to be a later car, so the theory breaks down anyway.
The only plausible solution would be a repair after a rear end collision.  

Ken

[RET]

Thanks Ken.  I agree that it stretches plausibility that the trim was forgotten, but how else do you explain it?  The way I look at it, there's no link between Craig's Grandpa's car and David's - the boot trim similarity is just coincidence.  The history of the former is unknown (as is the wrecked car Rob mentioned), but not the Tassie car.  This is the car that David's father wouldn't accept delivery of until the dealers had fitted it with a crank-handle.  (David's dad must have previously owned a 48 or FJ - six-volt system in chilly Hobart )

But, being a single-tone special, it looks a lot like a 215/217.  Standing and looking at the car from the back the only difference between it and a standard/business sedan would be the skinny window moulding and the belt moulding below the rubber.  When you think about it in that context, it seems to me to be a possibility that the trim could have been overlooked.  On a car with a Teal Blue roof the missing trim might have been more noticeable.

But we'll probably never know...

Rob, what else can David say about his?

cheers
RET

[4hammers]

Hi Guys.
I will ask David the next time I see him, but I remember mentioning to David, that maybe his Dad had a prang at some stage. Man, I got a death stare .
He was adamant that it was never there. But hey, you can never really know, can you.
The odd thing was, that when David lost a bit of trim from his rear window, he asked me to source a NOS small trim rubber & another piece of trim. I got the rubber from the fella who had RETs FE, & then found another FE at the wreckers. I got the trim, & lo & behold, this car also had no trim on the boot. No holes either, & it was defintely a "Special". The paint on that car is all quite weathered, as welll as the boot. Weathered EXACTLY the same as the rest of the car. So I am thinking, if that car had a prang at some stage, the boot paint would age differently. You see it all the time.

As for getting his crank handle fitted, RET nailed it. His Dad had a 6 volt english car (Can't remember exactly what) & he had trouble some mornings. He just didn't trust a car without it.

Richard in or club (FE wagon with Dart flash), was telling me bout an FC he had, that also had the crank handle fitted. Nettlefolds (The Holden dealer down here) was alwys doing "Special" orders for customers.

Rob J

[Burnsy]

Although I really have know idea about the intricacies of trim and the like that you blokes are talking about it was not uncommon for people to leave a key in the boot lock if the boot had been replaced without being rekeyed the same as the car key.  Never use to have to lock their cars either back then.

This could point further towards a rear end repair :-/