Date: 02/01/05 Looks right at home here.
Date: 11/03/04 Me in my FC sedan project. Pondering next move.
Date: 13/03/04 This is how we found her. My husband was flagged down in his FC Ute on the way to a swap meet and was offered this car- who was he to refuse?
Date: 13/03/04 So $500 bought all this...and more....and more...and more. At this stage I had not laid claim to it.
Date: 13/03/04 The collection included a very nice well stored (over 20 years!) FC body and enough parts to fill My husbands already full sheds.( Yes he has several of them.)
Date: 13/03/04 Some of the spares. I wont be using any of the grey motor crap.
Date: 13/03/04 My car with some of its friends. HOLDEN HEAVEN!. These are just some of them, dont ask how many we have.
Date: 13/03/04 After considerable complaining of the limited workspace allocated to me I had Andrew build me a trolley that would enable me to move my car around.Even this he had to get carried away making.
Date: 13/03/04 Trolley fitted to the subframe mounts. At last I can move it out to work on it. His HG Ute project has been moved further to the back of the shed.
Date: 26/03/04 Here I am getting pretty good with a happy undoing job.This wasn't as fiddly as somethings of late. Notice the dash is ALL gone.
Date: 26/03/04 The car came fitted with seat belts which we will be re-fitting new colour coded to the interior. Also have spend alot of time removing all the old rubber seals , they are very sad.
Date: 26/03/04 Oh NO we have a holey floor but wait we also have the rust repair floor pan to fix it. Was I lucky or what? Couple of days no worries.
Date: 26/03/04 Well I got really X-cited today as I finally managed to wrestle all the glass out of her. Off it will go to get new stuff made.I've yet to carefully remove all the stainless trim and chrome from the body, next job ?
Date: 26/03/04 The boot lid has a bit of a dent in it , not sure what happened but whats done is done. It will all be OK.
Date: 25/03/04 I'm feeling like I am ten foot tall and made of steel so where would you like this rear windscreen ? Look at all the holdens I'm working around.
Date: 26/03/04 Yes I'm going to be re-fitting both of these items as I think the car will need them to help keep the sun off us and the interior.What a MAJOR fight to get the visor off, had to do a fair amount of jumping up and down to get some notice.
Thanks dear.
Date: 25/03/04 This was easier than I expected and I managed to undo the pedal assy too. Also undid one off another holden for the auto set-up.
Date: 26/03/04 These are still in the original trim , pity they are so stained with all sorts. The hoodlining looks really nice but don't think it will like being taken in and out much.
Date: 26/03/04 Just look at these , will like to have the black back on in all the original places. Kids aren't car friendly.
Date: 26/03/04 The rear door cards are near prefect but the fronts could have been saved if someone hadn't CUT the holes in them. The trim appears to have like a metallic look to it, it's a lovely shade of Blue.
Date: 31/03/04 Here we can see the floor and the fuel tank which has been removed now. We are getting a new stainless one made up by Marty , which is going to be of larger capacity. A bit of a job cleaning out the boot as this was where alot of bits were being stored. Have heaps of spare trim.
Date: 31/03/04 In my house keeping efforts of the boot have found these brand new rubber nicely kept in a plastic bag. What a BONUS.
Date: 04/04/04 Have got my carby now and manifold already, nicely painted . Have also got my radiator with the required mods done ready and waiting. Can't wait for the motor to come back from the engine reco place soon.
Date: 27/03/04 Under some trim I found this original paint , I do like blue but aren't sure about keeping THIS colour.May change the colour, still a FC Holden colour. I'm giving this some serious consideration. I won't be painting it up in a dark colour as this shows the dirt and is an instant hot box.
Date: 15/05/04 Here is MY motor after getting it back from the engine reconditioners. We learnt that this motor has a 179 steel crank , a yellow tella head converted to unleaded with hardend valve seats. Mild 25/65 cam.Its now been bored to 192. An EH sump allows for fitting in the FC .
Date: 15/05/04 186s WW Stromberg carby - (rebuilt), X2 Headers - restored and painted in special cast look heat proof paint ( not the spray can crap), The decals came from Rare Spares. All other motor accessories are new as well; (starter, alternater ,water pump ,fuel pump etc)
Date: 16/05/04 Here is where we start to do some minor mods to help fit an EH radiator into the FC and be able to fit a spacer and engine fan. We don't have too cut up the firewall for this to fit.
Date: 16/05/04 Here we enlarge the standard radiator opening just a little. Also trimming some from the top and bottom.
Date: 16/05/04 The bottom returned edge needs some reworking. After the trimming we flatten this area to allow the new radiator to sit lower.
Date: 16/05/04 Here I am re-installing the grille as this is very important as we have been cutting things up. After checking every thing lines up AOK again we weld a little on the support panel.
Date: 16/05/04 This is the finished item. For full details of this complete conversion go to streetneats secrets revealed sub- album.
Date: 19/05/04 Terrific Tuesday the 18th of May, 2004. Loaded ready to go to the blasters. Will the car ever be the same again?
Date: 19/05/04 Here are the doors which are completely stripped down. Neatly loaded to the back of this Hilux.
Date: 19/05/04 This is at Metal Prep, just waiting to go into the big dark blasting booth. What a noisy place to be, but someones got to do it.
Date: 19/05/04 The panels seems to have faired the ride in good shape, nothing came off the trailer or out of the ute. Nobody got car sick either.
Date: 19/05/04 Bugger me dead which one is going to be blasted ? The 58/59 model . Check out the FE which was there also , not nearly enough pulled apart. It still had the subframe attached and front-end ,steering column and still had the doors to the car. Red wasn't happy with the owner , as Red has to take this away and pressure clean this before he can pull this apart to blast. The owner will be billed out for ALL this extra time and work. Thats what you HAVE to do in business.Time is money.
Date: 25/05/04 Here 1 week later and she is completely bare, we are going to epoxy prime ourselves. A few minor repairs done before the primer goes on. You can see how well Red did his job, money well spent.
Date: 25/05/04 Here I am un-doing the front chains, getting ready to get her in out of the weather. We were very lucky as we managed to get this back without any rain which came later that evening.
. Date: 25/05/04 Just another happy snap of the inside, will be replacing the two rear floor pans. The trans tunnel will be replaced with an EK Hydro tunnel, as I demand an auto .
Date: 26/05/04 The roof had some major bum dents that needed some professional work done by none other than that bearded bloke.
Date: 26/05/04 More work being done here, isn't he good to ME.
Date: 27/05/04 I am sanding one of my front guards ready for some epoxy primer. Not really dressed for work but my best friend is Betty and she makes me feel great. That is a HD Premier in the background which we have somehow brought. You may even see this on the road soon.
(The finished HD Premier can be checked out in the 'gone but not forgotten album' under streetneat)
Date: 28/05/04 Here we can see the rust is pretty bad but with a new pan and some welding it will be a breeze.
Date: 28/05/04 Ok we have the replacement pan on hand , purchased at Rare Spares Brisbane. Now how do we find the time?
Date: 26/07/04 Here's the donor Auto bodied EK about to give up some resources. These cars share the same floor pans as FC's
Date: 26/07/04 Here we have one Auto tunnel to go. Includes Braces and members, which were suprisingly not rusty.
Date: 27/07/04 One fillet 'O Tunnel freshly descaled and unboned. My lovely husband made a special trip to the blasters for this. Cost me $40
Date: 28/07/04 My what a large hole I have. All the offending bits have been removed. A shame as the previous owner had done superb job repairing this area b4. Something rarely seen in this game.
Date: 29/07/04 Here the bearded bloke was only supposed to stage the shot - not start welding without his Helmet!. The subframe has been re- introduced to the car to make sure that the new section containing the inner subframe mounts would line up again. The fire wall is being re- attatched first.
Date: 29/07/04 Under every good man is a better woman. My task is to get covered in hot sparks and hold the steel dolly against the floor pan b4 the weld cools so he can hammer weld it. All welding is done with the oxy except for the plug welding through the crossmembers which is mostly done with the mig. Some plug welding from the top into the cross brace is brazed through pre drilled holes.
Date: 29/07/04 Its a worrry letting him on top with an oxy torch. I am wearing some of those sparks.
Date: 29/07/04 And at this point underneath is where my dolly starts to overheat. I have to place this on the still molten weld while he beats away - Thus making the weld far stronger than any other form of welding. This is called forging the steel. Or so I am told.I just know its a lot of hot work - but it looks pretty good to me. better than some of the attempts at welding I have seen others do.
Date: 30/07/04 Looking down my tunnel after it's been freshly squirted with black etch. This is the factory look we are trying to achieve. the welds will be dressed down later and smoothed over.
Date: 30/07/04 The inside view. This should accept the dimensions of the trimatic Auto - which we just got a new one today! Actually it was just a rebuilt unit that we had lying around.
Date: 16/08/04 Time to rectify the rusty rear floors - here the bulk of the rust is being taken out to clear the way for trial fitting the new pan.
Date: 16/08/04 The problem we have is the new pan is not large enough to fix all the rust so a section had to be sourced from a donor car. It's been blasted and primed.
Date: 16/08/04 The chalk line shows where the extra bit is needed. It has been cut just inside the line to allow for adjustment as its being welded.
Date: 16/08/04 The new section has been fitted and the rusted bits removed. The welds had to be drilled out and unpicked . Lots of dirt in these channels and braces!
Date: 16/08/04 Welding the new floor in . Doing this along the edges of a brace makes it easier . Also means less sparks showering me underneath - as I dont have to do as much dolly work.
Date: 16/08/04 The trick to welding these pans in is to leave an overlap of new and old - as its being welded a small section of the old pan is trimmed away with the 1mm thick cut off wheel on the grinder. This allows for movement while he's welding and means we dont have big gaps in the pan. The other side has been done for a streetmachine feature thats upcoming (DEC ISSUE 2004) so keep your eyes out for this and learn more about it in greater detail!
Date: 19/08/04 This is the HR X member we are about to adapt into the FC - even though we have a few of these lying around already done - Andrew thought it best to set one up in the car himself to make absolutely sure it will fit. More on how do to this conversion in streetneats secrets revealed album.
Date: 13/09/04 We are trial fitting the motor and gearbox here , everything is fitting fine.A new reco box with 2 years warranty was purchased from Metro Ford.Have done heaps to this since this pic so will not dribble on .
Date: 13/09/04 The HR frontend bolted in , notice the new outrigger bush. Have got new disc's for the front but as you can see not fitted just yet. Have a nice big heavy duty sway bar for the front too. You can also see how lucky we are to have a hoist, it is a must have thing for this type of work.
Date: 13/09/04 Have got the Koni adjustable shocks ,springs reset 2" lower retempered and new insulators fitted.
The handbrake is there too as well as the modified LH Torana gearbox "X " member.Are using the old rear sway bar from the FC Coupe which was replaced with airbags .The Coupe was that is. But the BEST thing is the LSD 2.78 rear which we got for nix, a thick shaft (tail-shaft) is also the order of the day.
Date: 13/09/04 One week of interuptions and 45 minutes later we have the brakes all rebuilt.
Date: 13/09/04 Here we have the new ROH rims nicely painted. Have got the tyres fitted which are Goodyear ( Made in New Zealand, must be good. Like ME lol )Ducaros 185/65/13 and the rears are Nankang 205/60/13.
Date: 27/09/04 New stainless fuel tank installed - Brakes all done front and back - just waiting on the exhuast and I can take it for its first spin! If you want a Stainless fuel tank for your early Holden up to EK ( and LC/LJ Torana) Contact Streetneat on (07) 3206 0340. Price is as of this posting $695 with everything you need supplied - its a direct replacement for the original and holds 58 litres (as opposed to the original 43)
Date: 27/09/04 Front sheetmetal trail fitted - This is necessary in making sure its all ok prior to pulling it all apart for painting. Be a bit of a bugger to find something needs metal surgery after its painted! Starting to resemble a car for the first time in 20 years.
Date: 27/09/04 Rust repairs happening. All oxy hammer welded- he hates doing bog work. This mudguard bottom was salvaged from a previously repaired guard.(actually on old guard from the FC Ute-he chucks NOTHING out!)
Date: 27/09/04 Pedals set up for the Auto - We used a brake pedal from an EK and fitted it to the FC pedal box - after removing the clutch pedal. The go fast pedal is from a HQ- they are good for something it seems. The steering column is also EK and the shifter is raided from a HG - which suprisingly is the right size for the column. The shifter linkages underneath -Andrew spent days fabricating - works well.
Date: 27/09/04 These guages are additional to the early warning system the idiot lights provide. These guages are custom made from some new VDO guages that Able Instruments had lying around. They also rebuilt the speedo and supplied a new cable.
Date: 27/09/04 As I want the dash to look stock - we built a new glove box -from the remains of the old one as a pattern. Material used is sign white- a 0.6 mm thick pre painted white metal by BHP colourbond. This gives a sturdy base from which we can mount my new MP3 Player. Speakers will be hidden and built into the upholstery later. JB HI FI in Capalaba did us a really good deal on this equipment. We use JB for all our sound gear needs.
Date: 12/10/04 Here the new front coils for the HR front end are noticebly different to the stock HR units- they are heavy duty and two inches lower, may need some more minor pruning to get the front of the car down a little more to match the rear- but we will test drive the car first to see if they settle.
Date: 18/10/04 Seeing as Andrew was in the swing of things with rusty '57 Chev doors - he tackled the one rusty door on my car. As you can plainly see - sand blasting dosen't get it all.
Date: 18/10/04 The lower of the door skin removed shows how bad it really is - luckly for me Andrew knows his stuff.
Date: 18/10/04 The door inner has been blasted and left overnight with a coat of acid - to neutralise any left over rust. The lower has been fabricated from a EH aftermarket door skin- some what re-modelled of course. Andrew hates aftermarket skins - as most wont fit - so he uses the steel out of them and re-works to skin his liking.
Date: 18/10/04 And all this got welded in with the Henrob torch - this presented severe problems as Andrew had lots of trouble dressing the welds and warpage in such a limited area. He wished he had migged it in place and even threw the door out in disgust - It returned into the work shop the next day where he repeated the repair by opening it up again and panel beating it for half a day - the end result - after building the edge up with brazing -was a very good solid repair. Even the professionals get rattled. But he is a patient man and perserverence and my calm approach meant the job got done.
Date: 29/10/04 All minor dents panel beaten and smoothed. I am just going over some of the minor bits here - I am playing quality control and helping where I can. As you can see the filler is used sparingly.
Date: 29/10/04 The car finally in its first lot of high fill primer - as applied by Doodle - (Graham) The car is fully masked and dropped masked - as we want to protect all the new bits.I think the car IS too shiny for primer !Must be all that smooth body work we have spent hours doing together. Yes I did some body work but must admit that Andrew did most of it as he's pretty good at this.
Date: 29/10/04 The front view. The car will be rubbed down and then completely torn down to every last nut and bolt for painting/plating and powdercoating, but not before I take it for a spin around the farm first!.
Date: 29/10/04 Finally after waiting for many weeks we convinced Marty to come and fabricate the Stainless exhuast. Its a two into one mandrel system and will be two inch through out.
Date: 29/10/04 The entire system is painstakingly made up from small bits and tig welded. Those collector plates are the most expensive bits of the sytem - we had these custom laser cut in stainless to match the rest of the sytstem - These are needed so we can drop the system out for repairs and maintenance and also so we can fully remove everything for painting.
Date: 29/10/04 The finished articles- this is split into three bits for ease of fitting - the second collector is over the diff. I know its not a show car but Marty ran a polishing mop over the stainless to shine it up a bit.
Date: 29/10/04 A date to remember the 25th of Oct 2004, we have had the car running BUT have a few adjustments to the shift linkages to get the auto to stay in drive. Keeps popping out, we can go backwards no probs. A bit like learning to walk b4 you can run.This has now been fixed and I got to drive this around the farm on the next day. This baby can go ! I'm Xcited.
Date: 13/11/04 After carefully building the car, we now strip it completely.The car was fully built and driveable just a few hours before this shot was taken. He works very quickly,with my help of course to achieve full strip down. These cars are like one giant model - very modular.
Date: 13/11/04 The easy way to take the mechanicals out . The engine stays together but the front end has to be dismantled for powdercoating. This time around we used powdercoaters that nerw what they were doing - not the local rip off merchants!
Date: 13/11/04 We had to figure out where the speakers were going to live - we did not want the ugly sight of speakers in door cards so Andrew has cleverly made these brackets that sit flush with the door cards.
Date: 13/11/04 -which will have some holes to let the sound out. We hid the stereo - so may as well hide the speakers!
Date: 13/11/04 We removed the subframe for powder coating and we spent a whole Saturday getting the firewall holes and other bits welded up. I did the small amount of bog work on the firewall.
Date: 13/11/04 We spent a week getting the body right with all the surfaces blocked back with 80 grit on the speed file and then gone over with 180 grit on a block. I let Andrew tackle this as we only have one block (my excuse any how LOL). The car is now ready for final primer and we have to repeat this process for all of the individual panels
Date: 17/11/04 A bit of colour at last - the adobe beige has been applied to the lower bits and firewall. The dash and inner bits have had their share of colour as well. A real multi colouring in job so far!
Date: 17/11/04 After working around the clock to keep the momentum going - the body shell is ready for its final painting of the final main colour.
Date: 27/11/04 And the shot you have been waiting for.
Can't believe my luck, it's not my birthday or Christmas yet and we have colour. Andrew is now convinced this is the right colour combo- Terracotta over adobe beige- the pics in the booth dont do it justice.
Date: 17/11/04 And the other end- the dash top has been painted satin black as per original. This car will be sporting a 1958 first series paintscheme - even tough it is a series three FC- or late 1959 car. Some may say the paint scheme is back to front- it isnt - this is how the first of them came out.
Date: 22/11/04 Here you should be able see the subframe and front-end is now powdercoated, top job done . When we first put the sub-frame on it was a huge effort/fight but Andrew managed this without my assistance.:-)
Date: 27/11/04 This is the easiest way to install both the motor/gearbox and front-end. It's a simple matter of lining it up and lowering the car over the top.But having the hoist is what makes this task a breeze.
Date: 22/11/04 Here installation is complete and this didn't take long at all.The steering column has been painted nice gloss black and also installed .
Date: 05/12/04 The doors have been trial fitted - again!This is because the rubbers have to be fitted to the car first and Andrew thought this might make it easier once all the necessary adjustments have been made to catches and the like.
Date: 05/12/04 Parked beside the Ute we are seeing how close we got the guess work on the spring lowering -not bad so far! All mechanicals have nearly been fitted for the final time.
Date: 05/12/04 The spare has been painted and trail fitted using the original hold-down brackets. The colour is weird - it changes around to all different shades depending on the light - and its a solid colour!
Date: 05/12/04 Just got to get my car looking a bit more like this ute and I will be happy.
Date: 05/12/04 and his work is amazing. The car is getting all new wiring that has the appearance of the original ,but with some modern inclusions like a fuse box and relays. The wiring is encased in really neat sheath material that expands in the same way as a carpet snake that's swallowed a rat
Date: 05/12/04 With the wiring partially done the trimmers wanted to do part of their job, so early one morning its off to the trimmers. Much happier to be sending the car minus its panels - less chance of something getting damaged.
Date: 05/12/04 And here it is at Annvids. As we have been doing quite a few of Annvids customers jobs and have built up a healthy reputation with them we decided to take our FC here to see if they make the grade for us on all fronts. Plus they are just down the road.
Date: 05/12/04 These guys here are very thorough- The seats have been eliminated of all broken springs,all foam and coverings and...
Date: 05/12/04 Rodents...many other shops would have left a lot of this in place. I think this little bloke may have ended up in someones lunchbox b4 the end of the day... wont eat much though.
Date: 05/12/04 The hoodlining and windlacing installed. So far Annvids have left no doubt in our minds thay are up to our expectations.The work is great! The steering wheel shown is only temporary while we paint the original. Board in the back is a nice original touch as well.
Date: 05/12/04 The parcel tray is trimmed and the speakers mounted up from underneath. This gives away the colour for the vynil inside - its a man made leather and is very soft yet durable. The primary colour inside the car is called rust. Mixed with some bone and some black.
Sounds old eh?
Date: 05/12/04 A close up of the hoodlining material. This stuff is very expensive - about $400 worth just for this car! Not quite the same as the original but has a similar effect. Looks great we reckon and worth every cent. Thanks go to Gary at Eastern Auto Upholstery in Victoria for sending this lot up.
Date: 05/12/04 A better view of how the speakers are hidden. This same treatment will be done in the front door cards.
Date: 05/12/04 The Chrome has returned and only two bits of diecast have minor imperfections and have to be redone. The rest has come up a treat.We use and reccomend Traditional Metal Finishers at Caboolture. (5428 0066) Here Andrew has started to assemble some of the bumpers.
Date: 15/12/04 After only a week the car came back home from the trimmers- they did a fantastic job- as you can see. The annoying part was trying to get the car home between all the rain we were having.
Date: 15/12/04 Tom from windscreens for cars - our trusted windscreen fitter - is wrestling with the back screen and rubber...
Date: 15/12/04 The Mouldings have all been refurbished by our good mate Val Neil and they have come up like new. Here Tom is fitting the moulding to the rubber b4 installation.
Date: 15/12/04 The front screen is being persuaded into place- again the mouldings have been fitted to the rubber prior to fitting the screen.
Date: 15/12/04 Hard at it - the painting of the front continues while Andrew is busily assembling the rest of the car. I didn't mind getting wet today as it was just so hot! Oh to live in Qld.
Date: 15/12/04 The Panels have already been through quite a bit of the rubbing process prior to me getting to finish them off. Here I am doing the very final wet rub with 800 paper and plenty of water. One guard almost done and just the other to go!
Date: 15/12/04 ...and while Im slaving away - check these bludgers!
Date: 17/12/04 Finally the front sheetmetal gets the paint!
. Date: 17/12/04 Just b4 this lot leaves the booth as with all the other parts - its treated to a light de-nib and buff while the paint is still relatively fresh, and a quick hand polish.
Date: 17/12/04 Starting to take shape - Andrew has been quite busy assembling the car. The doors have new Pilkington glass - with a slight green tint and with all the other new parts looks ....well new.....
Date: 17/12/04 There is still a lot of assembly to go. Andrew has concentrated on a lot of the large bits and has aimed at getting the car to a lock up stage.
Date: 17/12/04 The rear inside in all its glory. Yet to install the seatbelts, but otherwise is nearly complete. The trim is just beautiful
Date: 17/12/04 One last look at the naked front b4 we add the fresh front sheetmetal. The insides of the guards have been treated to a good dose of stone guard and are just out of shot and drying in the sun.
Date: 23/12/04 Here I am surrounded by Holdens, just giving the front bumper bar a bit of a clean. As you can see we have now painted and fitted all the front sheet metal and it's looking like a real car finally. Andrew has been working very long and hard at this as he (we) would like this car registered before Christmas.
Date: 23/12/04 Still polishing some of the chrome, are waiting for the "HOLDEN " letters to be sent from Melbourne which arrived today and are fitted !
Date: 23/12/04 This is our excellent engineer friend Tim Bartrop who has helped us with all our projects.
He is giving me the engineering paperwork required for rego and of course that blue plate.He was very kind to drop this into us after hours, as well as rivot the plate to the firewall. There has been a lot of wiring done to get the car finished.
Date: 23/12/04 This say's it all, Mrs Streetneat !
LOVE IT.
Date: 25/12/04 Here it is the day it was registered- 24th Dec 2004. Build time - under four months! We have been out and done a little bit of Xmas Shopping and thought we had better get a few pics together for posting. This view BTW is what we have from our house. - its sort of the back yard.
Date: 25/12/04 The cover shot. Got to love these overcast days for neutral lighting - really brings out natures colours...
Date: 25/12/04 The colours are Terracotta over Adobe Beige; original Holden colours. We have added some extra trim, namely the 1/4 panel fin extension trim and the stainless FE gutter moulds as well as licence plate surround on the front bar
Date: 25/12/04 Ok time to explain the number plates - how do you say 'Kim' if your a Kiwi?....right? (or Kim's Ultimate Machine) '66 is just the vintage of the gal in question...
Date: 25/12/04 This shot gave a few dozen meat ants the chance to nibble on Andrew... so enjoy it!...er the shot ...not nibbling on Andrew.
Date: 25/12/04 There is still a few minor things to address. At least we have it tuned and Andrew did a home wheel alignment. (giving 2mm toe in). This car is incredibly tight to drive - feels very new! So it should everything IS new or reconditioned.
Date: 25/12/04 This should give punters an idea on how our stainless fuel tanks sit. (Phone 07 3206 0340 to place your order for yours). Andrew had to restore the existing boot emblem. New ones are just not available yet. The inside of this emblem is candy apple red as per original. Its the fine details that count.
Date: 25/12/04 First the dash is FE- we hate the plastic surrounds on the FC dashes. The hoodlining is the part we are most proud of. That material is available through Eastern Auto Upholstery in Victoria. It comes from the UK and is a close match to the original style of headlining. The horn ring is new old stock ( we have a seperate horn button hidden under the dash) the horn emblem is NOS......needless to say these items cannot be bought for love nor money. Ironically its that horn emblem (we had b4 we had the car) that convinced us to go ahead with this project- its got to be the hardest part to find!
Date: 25/12/04 If you look closely you will see the stainless scuff plates - another new product that comes form the house of streetneat- these are direct replacements for the originals. This shot shows off more of Annvids beautiful upholstery work, Note the sunvisor is green on the underside - as per the era.
Date: 25/12/04 The MP3 player - from JB HI FI - the entire package cost $400 - for everything. sounds the part too! Also note the original Handbook that came with the car. The Glove box inner is a faithfull reproduction of the original made from signwhite. This allows the installation of the stereo and cig lighter for recharging stuff like phones atc.
Date: 02/01/05 Time now for Andrew to tell his part of the story of the reasons behind building this car- This may seem like a pointless picture - but this is where the memory started- When I ( Andrew) was 15 I bought a camera and took a similar shot to this (when I get the picture dug up I will post it for comparison) This is how I remember seeing the Neighbors FC....Theirs was a wreck that sat in this same spot. Shot taken from one of our feedbins.
Date: 02/01/05 Not a very clear pic - but this is taken from an old slide and is the only one I have. This picture was taken in the about 1982 - from the same feedbin. The EK wagon was pulling into the drive and I was ready to take a picture of it. If you look closely you will see the original FC wreck rusting in peace. I was taken to school once in the very early '70s in that car!It was a barely driveable car then. Observe that the rear window, seat,boot and tulip panel was removed( with an axe!) - this was for feeding the cows silage - anther ingredient that hastened its demise. About 1989 the scrap metal merchants took this wreck away.
Date: 02/01/05 And this car now recreates that memory and promise to myself that 'one day I'm gunna fix that old car up!
Of course the Car is not the very same car - but it sends shivers down the spine when I see this memory finally recreated.
Date: 02/01/05 This is the pair of Tribute FC's. The neighbors had many Old Holdens - and these were the two main cars That I remember. In truth the ute was retired long b4 the sedan - and the original cars were far from this pristine. The neighbors are now long gone and its a shame they didnt quite get to see these two cars together again. However if you visit the FC shop ute album under streetneats sheds galleries, you will get to see the neighbors with the original ute and this tribute ute.
Date: 02/01/05 Another shot of how it used to be....The ute is parked close by to where the original one was - it was taken away when the new owners moved in- and now a old water tank sits in its place.
Date: 09/01/05 Looks like one of those early Holden adds.
'See the country in your new Holden.'
Date: 09/01/05 The collection of FC's - so far.....
Date: 09/01/05 Good thing we've got a 'big back yard'.
Date: 09/01/05 You clearly see here how much the coupe profile has been changed from stock.
Date: 09/01/05 Miles of smiles.
Date: 09/01/05 Hmmm.... which 'C' today?
Date: 09/01/05 A view to a Coupe. Note the canted 'B'pillar on the Coupe and the use of the Ute door frame on the coupes door.
Date: 09/01/05 The end......for now.
Date: 14/03/05 Seems I over looked taking a picture of the completed engine bay earlier . This shows how it looks now after being driven for over 985 miles.
Date: 14/03/05 Tidy wiring , very nice original look achieved here.The engine got a couple of paint marks when getting re-fitted, yet to be touched up.
Date: 14/03/05 Hmmm........sweet !
All those original decals really finish this off.
Twelve months on the road, I get my offical "Chrommettes" decal with lips for my rear windscreen. Had a minor hiccup with my towbar which got caught leaving the wreckers, bent like a banana so no longer have one. Date: 27/12/05 Twelve months on the road, I get my offical "Chrommettes" decal with lips for my rear windscreen. Had a minor hiccup with my towbar which got caught leaving the wreckers, bent like a banana so no longer have one.
Here be Me changing the battery lead. As the last one was a cheap and nasty piece of crap. Not ONLY did I pay $20 for this I fitted in a few minutes while Mr was hunting for the Camera.It was a race! Date: 22/01/06 Here be Me changing the battery lead. As the last one was a cheap and nasty piece of crap. Not ONLY did I pay $20 for this I fitted in a few minutes while Mr was hunting for the Camera.It was a race!
All good things come to an end- in this case the FC will be starting a new life in West Aussie. Date: 04/03/08 All good things come to an end- in this case the FC will be starting a new life in West Aussie.
The only way to transport cars is door to door - This company is Auto Trans and they tell me that the car will be fully enclosed in a container on its journey west. Date: 04/03/08 The only way to transport cars is door to door - This company is Auto Trans and they tell me that the car will be fully enclosed in a container on its journey west.
The car is held down by its wheels with straps - the only way to ensure that no body work is damaged and the car wont shift. Date: 04/03/08 The car is held down by its wheels with straps - the only way to ensure that no body work is damaged and the car wont shift.
Well thats it... The FC has left the shed. Date: 04/03/08 Well thats it... The FC has left the shed.
[-]
Stop   Pause   Back One Image   Show More Info   delay:   direction:   max size: