I am the second owner. First owner was Mr. Reginald O' Neill, my grandfather's brother. Reg bought the car as part of a run-out deal as a brand new car via United Motors and his employer, General Motor's Holdens (Woodville plant). Reg worked his whole working life in the upholstery dept. at Woodville. Reg lived a bike ride away in Alberton. I bought the car from Reg in 1980 for $190.00. I went to his Edwardian villa on a Saturday morning with my father to inspect it. Reg asked to drive the car one more time down the driveway, as his licence had been revoked on account of his failing eyesight. I recall he got very close to the house wall performing this manouver- may have touched the wall. I recall he had a tear in his eye. It was one of the first cars in my family. It was Reg's only car as far as I know. He used to cart his disabled daughter around in the car. The car was in reasonable shape for the price. It appeared OK on the outside, better inside, and fairly well mechanically. The engine had 96,000 on it and was tired. Driveline was fine. It appeared to be a good car with a tired engine. It had rust in the sills and particularly the boot, where the car often was dipped into the Port River, at the boat ramp. As we off & away'ed in first gear, Reg yelled 'Wait-up!'. I got out. He said " I have something you may like to 'jazz her up with'. We walked down the driveway to his little depression-era, cobbled-from-flat-tin shed, where he reached into the rafters.. producing a pair of Nasco spats and a tin of Duplicolor Sigma cream paint. Of course, I accepted. I drove the car for several years, had the boot rust fixed, shot it in primer, and then Frankston Cream, the engine eventually giving out after too many pulls up the Adelaide hills each day. In the meantime I had discovered my brother's old chrome yellow business sedan sitting in a suburban front yard. I bought it, retrieved the 105 mph hot grey engine, sold the body and installed the engine into Reg's FJ. Being young, I had no idea on setting float bowls on dual Strombergs. It ran fine until under load. It was undrivable. I bought a Fairlane on 30% interest. I stripped the FJ back to bare metal, chucking parts unlabelled into boxes. Eventually I ghosted some primer onto it, with some colour on top. It ended up under a bitumen tarp in my brother's yard from 1988 until 2013. I started to restore again, but it stalled. It is hard to restore a car with no money. It is hard to restore a car that is 30 km away. So here we go again. The means to do it have arrived. Car is 90% complete. Budget will be tight- $30K. At that price, I think I'm happy with an almost- standard build. Headers, lowering, mild shaving and a hint of custom work. I may go further wth the custom thing later, but I'm staying near stock for now. Mom wants to ride in it as she remembers it with her uncle.. Motivation is family history. Also, when car is done, it will be driven onto the same road as the road in which I taught myself to drive. Reg's FJ, the very same car on the very same road.
Here it is in June last year, out of hibernation and on it's way to the shop where my brother and friends are helping me fix her up. I'll post updates in the next day or two, it's late here. There's a few twists literally emerging in the fix, you'll see.
I'll prolly be playin' catch-up more often than not with my lo-fi photo entries. We started this thing off with me & my pal Mark stripping paint back to bare metal, one panel at a time, by nhand with tungsten blades, or with paint stripper. This is a '56 Holden, last year of this first two series (which shared the same basic structure) of this marque which debuted in 1948 in Australia. These, believe it or not, were and still are popular, kinda like the '55 Chevy of Australia. They still have a big following . The stripping was the first thing. The budget is modest on this build. I'm leaving the front clip on. Most parts in the front end are new/ restored but I will go thru & re- check later. Stripping has revealed rust/ damage in • cowl vent. attaching hinge broken. I found a cherry cowl vent in a now-gone yard of 2500 cars, then lost it. The next day we knew someone going out there to the yard and told them of it. In this massive old yard, they found it and bought it for me for 30 bucks. • left hand inner & outer sill, rear dogleg- collision and rust. rear LH corner of car crushed 1/2 inch inward. More soon. • rust in rear lower roof area L & R and LH upper trunk channel • rust rear RH body lower corner • front floors gone Plus a few minor areas in fenders Some blasting here & there (inner fenders, doors, hood)
Tomorrow, we are installing a new inner LH sill. This follws intense repair to dogleg & B pillar & door aligning the last few weeks; This is a photo before we started; yuck. Door always needed a good slam. big crease is seen near that wood tip The primer grey panel was cold chiseled out of a donor car in 1984. finally using it. This is how the LHS looked before repair, looking rearward. A new outer sill had been roughly installed in '83 in order to make the car look OK to any cop's eye (from a distance, obviously). I had done a nice thick Bondo job here. Seemed a shame to scrape it off.. rusty wheelwell replaced- first welding job These chassis-less cars are light (2280 lbs). So brace yourself before you hack.
Installed (tacked) inner sill on this fucked-up LH Side yessdy. We've lost 8,9 or10 mm somewhere between inner & outer sill. WTF. Also Had an alignment issue with LHR door window pillar channel, which appears to be corrected using a hydraulic jacK & wood bearers as per workshop manuals.
The Jalopy Journal
