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Home in Adelaide

Peter — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:09:00 GMT

Arrived home safely on Saturday. The trip was great but its still nice to be home.

Went up to the All GM day @ the Barossa yesterday. There was some very nice FE / FC's up there as well as other GM / Holden cars.

Cheers
Peter.

Surprise reveal Video

Peter — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:21:20 GMT

Video of the moment the FC arrived at my grandparents. The video captures their surprise.

Cheers
Peter.

Fc racing around bathurst

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:00:42 GMT

Fc racing around bathurst..........well not quiet racing. As part of the 2010 FE FC nationals, we were able to do a parade lap of the bathurst car racing track. I had daniel from sa in the "race" fc with me as 150 odd FC's went around the track in a break during a race meeting.

We mostly kept speeds under 80 but down conrad straight we gave it a blast up to 100.

I'm told when its not a race day the track is a public road but its restricted to 60kms and its you can only drive in the reverse direction.

Driving during a race meeting was certainly a special treat. To make the treat even better was when the marshalls unexpectedly allowed us to do a 2nd lap. The old drum brakes were already starting to fade at the end of conrad the 2nd time around. I couldn't imagine how a stock fc would go at race pace !!

Bye for now.

Overnight stay

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:15:46 GMT

Have arrived in tooleybuc for an overnight stay. Motel is nice. No problems for the fc today and I'm about half way to adelaide.

Locusts

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:49:21 GMT

Even though its a cool day, locusts are thick.

Driving home.

Peter — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:33:51 GMT

Just went through a herd of 200 cows over the highway. Some wouldn't move. Reminded me of the front fender dent from a bull that grandad talked about.

Fc nationals

Peter — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:21:02 GMT

Photo is myself and 2 SA guys. FE Ambo has generator problems near Wagga.

Its been over a week since my last post, let's see if we can do an update. Since showing the car to my grandparents I spent a couple days soaking up all the fc stories they remembered.

On good friday I left wagga and headed up to orange nsw for the holden fe fc nationals. This was an event for all the best FE and FC's from all around australia. They expected around 160 cars.

Shortly after departing wagga I ran into a couple SA guys that were having trouble with a FE ambulance. The generator was playing up. I couldn't help much but we had a quick chat and they seemed top blokes. Eventually they got going after I had left.

The trip up to orange was pretty straight forward. A lot of hotrods on the road heading the opposite way for a show. Just before orange the wheel started an ocassional squel but no other issues.

Friday arvo I registered for the nats, washed the car, unloaded at the accomodation.

Saturday was the show and shine. It was my first ever car show as an entrant. My flat mate for the weekend martin helped point me in the right direction.

It was great to see 160 odd top quality cars. Many were finished to a very very high standard.

On sunday night we had the trophy presentation. To my surprise my fc was awarded a trophy for being in the top 20 cars. To be considered for top 20 the car has to be very good so I'm very lucky to get this award.

More news to come when I get more time.

Cheers
Peter

staying at grandma's

Peter — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:22:31 GMT

Still on cloud 9. I've spent the last day soaking up stories from my grandparents about the car.

I found out if you remove the rear seats it used to fit 6 railway sleepers in the back. I'm amazed how the interior was all still very good.

Also if the rear seat was out it used to sleep 3 kids. One in front and 2 in rear. The adults used to sleep in some kind of "auto tent" joined to the car.

Also they've found some 50 year old black/white photos of the FC when it was near new. I will try to post them up on the photos page soon.

Another tip is if your radiator fills up with lucusts badly and you can't remove them from tight inside the fins, remove the radiator and pour petrol over it and ignite. The last bits of the lucusts will burn away.

Today I cleaned the blue protective film off the tyres to reveal the narrow white wall on the kuhmo radials. Now the car has hubcaps and white walls, it looks quiet good. I had to scrub with AJAX powder. It took a bit of elbow grease, probably since you should clean them before you drive and heat up the tyres. The spare was a lot easier to clean.

Cheers
Peter

1 dream accomplished

Peter — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 11:46:46 GMT

I have arrived in Wagga. With help of my cousin Amanda and her family we washed the FC before taking it out to my grandparents for the suprise reveal.

Words can't describe the moment I pulled into my grandparents yard @ Uranquinty and they clicked that this was the car that they purchased new in '59. The car has been restored to as new condition.

Me and grandparents have talked for hours tonight, with them remembering the many adventures they had as a family in the FC.

I'm a bit lost for words, but it has been a magic afternoon driving into Wagga and forfilling a dream I've had since I was a kid.

Video and photos to follow thanks to Sam and Amanda. Also thanks to Pete and Shirley for helping with the washing, sunvisor and hubcaps.

Gen light problem reappeared. Will check it out tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Peter

Lunch stop.

Peter — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:26:23 GMT

Just had lunch at hay. Generator circuit was working when I pulled up so fingers crossed it stays working. Back on the highway i was too afraid to turn motor off and use keys to open boot. Now I pulled up and got multimeter out the volts look ok. Quiet windy at the hay plains so need to concentrate when driving.

Car

Peter — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:09:44 GMT

Gen light off now. Temp back on. At least the globes work well. Motor is purring.

1st problem.

Peter — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:45:19 GMT

Bout 100kms from hay and generator light has come on. Might be touch and go if the battery makes it to hay.

Nsw

Peter — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:37:14 GMT

Have crossed over to nsw. Quick breakie @ maccas. Temp light back on but otherwise just purring along.

Travel

Peter — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:43:22 GMT

Just gone into vic

Blanchtown pitstop

Peter — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:33:03 GMT

Quick stop at blanchtown earlier today. 700kms to do tomorrow.

Cheers
Peter

wagga trip

Peter — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:00:24 GMT

I had a busy day today packing the car and finishing a few last minute things. After finishing a couple dog wash jobs Lauren helped pack my clothes and get me ready. Unfortunately due to work commitments and being the mum of 7 pups Lauren can't make the trip to wagga. She has put up with me working long days and late nights over the last year and generally supporting me with this project. She was really looking forward to grandads reaction to seeing the car for the first time.

I departed at 2:30pm today, filled the car around the corner and took off up south road. I didn't have an exact plan on how far I would go, however I hoped to finish driving before dark. Last thing I want to do is hit a roo..

I was quiet happy to find the car only took 25L to top up. I estimate we went around 150 miles on 25L.

The drive up went well, no problems encountered with the car. Eventually I pulled into Renmark around 6pm. It took 3 caravan parks before I could find an available room. I decided that a caravan park might be a better option for parking the car than a motel on the main rd.

Todays trip accounts for approx 1/4 of the total distance. All going well I will finish the other 3/4 tomorrow if I get an early start.

Cheers
Peter.

Day 1 of mission to wagga

Peter — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:57:06 GMT

The day has finally come that I'm packing up the FC and starting the trip to Wagga. It will take 2 days and cover almost 1000kms of tar.

At this stage I'll be leaving about 12 noon and arriving late arvo in Mildura.

Few more little things to sort today including qtr window glass and mudflaps.

Things like the external sunvisor and crome hubcaps will be fitted in Wagga to avoid any damage on the way.

Last night I painted the hubcaps and they look good with crome and a red and black centre.

Yesterday I did probably 100kms around town and it ran very smoothly. Temp light came on for a couple short periods but didn't appear to cause any issues.

More updates to come as I travel across SA, VIC, and then NSW.

Some people have commented that I should trailer the car over to avoid stone chips and any damage. My feeling is that grandad purchased the car to be driven and I prefer real cars that get driven and not so much trailered show cars.

Cheers
Peter.

overheating ??

Peter — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:54:24 GMT

Since installing the new motor we have had the temp light coming on in the car. Not all the time, but it did stay on tonight for 15mins or so. The motor doesn't seem excessively hot but its hard to tell.

A search of the forums suggests a few items
- faulty thermostat
- air pocket (maybe in heater)
- faulty temp switch
-clogged radiator
-clogged motor

I'll try to get a temp probe tomorrow and get an idea on how hot the head is getting. With no temp gauge fitted as standard to FC's its hard to see exactly how hot its getting.

The radiator cap is a new 7 psi non recovery unit. Bottom radiator hose has a spring installed. Heater flow is turned on.

Interestingly the light went out after idling for a couple minutes. Normally less airflow means bigger temps ??

Cheers
Peter.

diff leak

Peter — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:37:01 GMT

Turns out my suspected diff leak wasn't actually a leak. The specs of oil that were flicked up onto the floor pan was only excess grease from the rear uni joint. One of the few times of the project that we have come home from a workshop and not had to dive into the wallet. A big thanks to the guys at Trans and Diff for looking after the gearbox and also checking the diff.

Peter.

motor tuned

Peter — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:24:03 GMT

Picked up the car this morning from John @ Kent Town Auto Tune. I dropped in a car that was running rough, backfiring every now and again and generally unhappy.

John has done the fine tuning and in one word its running "fantastic"

In the city traffic I could hardly hear the motor idling. Acceleration is smooth.

Overall I think its close to the way they left the factory.

Tasks in the tune included - recondition bosch dissy (lots of work on this one to get the vacuum, and centrifical advance curves working perfect). John has a proper dissy tester. I think this is the key to get the grey motor running at its absolute best and often overlooked if its running ok.
Spark plug gaps
Tappet clearance
Test coil output (was a bit low)
Check true TDC against mark on flywheel.
Change carby main jet from 51 to 53 then 52 and finally back to 53. Gas analysis to check mixtures.
Fix oil leak in bypass filter