fbekholden.com

G'day Bonnie, and welcome to the forum. There are a number of brake upgrades for the EK, which depend on just how much work (and cash!) you want to put in. Other than searching the forum, a good place to start is by talking to the guys at Hoppers Stoppers (www.hoppers.com.au), who have a hell of a l...

Thanks Tim. I'll hold out for a week or so in the hope that one shows up locally - if no joy, I'll find a courier.
O/T - have my PMs reminders on the windscreen washers been getting through (not sure if my PMs are working to anyone lately ).

Looking for a towbar to suit an FB sedan please. Prefer located in Sydney if possible.

Thanks guys for the replies - appreciated. From some internet hunting, it looks like the "what vehicle does this towbar fit" question is pretty common on both here and teh FE/FC board. If you have a towbar on your vehicle (sedan, ute, wagon or van) can you please run a tapemeasure over it ...

Bump for the those getting back from the Nats . Thirty views on the FB/EK forum, and sixty views for the same question on the FE/FC forum.... someone must have pulled on of these taps apart before (please? ;D).

It's getting cold, and the Warmaride needs to work! Like a lot of people, I have the dreaded "leaky Warmaride tap spindle". Some internet hunting shows that Rare Spares has an overhaul kit for these (they have none in the country... been on backorder for a few months). When I look at the t...

Thanks Trev - pretty sure this one's not for a sedan. Apparently the sedan and wagon are the same (i.e. it won't fit a sedan or wagon), and the ute and panelvan are the same as each other (but different to sedan/wagon)... so it could be a ute/panelvan one. Thommo - my welding is crap, and I'm not so...

Apologies... the camera (and cable bits) are still packed up in our freight. The best I can do for now is the dodgy sketch below (fingers crossed... and no laughing at my drawing skills). http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/V8EKwagon/towbarsketch.jpg I can run a tape measure over it if it helps.

I recently bought a towbar from a gentlemen who was honest... told me it was probably EK but he wasn't sure. All looked good, so stupid me bought it for the FB :roll: as I have a fair bit of towing to do. It's the type of drawbar that bolts directly over the rear bumper bar brackets by using four lo...

Jimmy, (Aust)Mod is right... beware the angle grinder. Someone has butchered my FB's rear shelf with one, and I too have the "black bits of crap" embedded in the rear windscreen. I'm hoping some cutting compound will get it out (without distorting the screen optics... fingers crossed). If ...

No photos unfortunately. I started the project, then got transferred overseas for a few years. The wagon went into storage (gave me something to dream about for a few years). Now that we are back home, it's time to collect it and restart work. Bought an FB sedan to drive around in the meantime, have...

Lexumus,
A V8 thread (and probably a sticky) is not a bad idea.

My own build aims to do as much as I can myself, but bearing in mind that although I can cut, drill and grind, I cannot weld very well. The wagon has to comply with full NSW rego. Some of the stuff I've found as I went along:

a) I used a HR front end (because the car already had one, and because I needed disk brakes to keep the engineer happy).
b) I used a CRS chassis kit (legend has it that V6 Conversions and Rods Racks are better, but my CRS kit was easily available, cheap and easy). My welding is crap, so I needed some help welding in the chassis rail rear mounts and the front brake line brackets - a quick job but not so easy with welding skills like mine. I note that one of the FBEK forum members is selling chassis rails where the rear mounting point is a lot better than the CRS ones (looks like it might even be bolt up?).
c) I had CRS machine my front spindles to suit Commodore bearings (because I wanted to run a Commodore diff and nice shiny matching Commodore front wheels). I learnt the hard way that 15" Commodore wheels foul the tie-rod ends. You are not allowed to use spacers in NSW to fix the clearance (if you could, they would be about 8mm). Commodore wheels have lots of different offsets, but I have yet to find one that doesn't foul. I could use tierod spacers (Stinky has done this before), but am hoping that 16" wheels will solve the dilema.
d) I used an LH torana steering column (because I needed a collapsable one and LH fits OK). Had to go to a country wrecker to find an LH though as they are getting rarer. The LH/UC front mount rack was supplied by CRS.
e) I used an HZ accelerator pedal (bolts in neatly with some angleiron mounts).
f) My front brakes are VN/VP discs, driven by an XA/XB &*#@ master cylinder with Gemini booster. Bolts in, but makes the brake lines a challenge to bend near the master. Had to pull apart my EK pedal set and respace the pedals on the pivot shaft to get them to line up (easy job with some home-made spacers). I needed the master cylinder pushrod extended to marry up the booster and master - Hopper Stoppers made one up for me (my welding is crap, and there is no way I can weld brake parts).
g) Diff is from a VP Commorode (LSD) narrowed by V6 Conversions. I use the Commodore rear handbrake cable with the EK front one. I made up a "pivot bar" that links the two (out of flat bar stock... hacksaw, drill and grinder) only because my EK one was missing... I suspect the standard bar would do the job.
h) I chose a Chev (early 327) over a 308 only because I like the idea of running something a little different (but not too different... plenty of parts available because 327 are very similar to 350). Had to dent the firewall on the drivers side to get the Chev to fit. Chose a 600 vac-secondary Holley (big enough and vacuum secondaries are gentler on fuel consumption).
i) I chose CRS fenderwell headers because I cannot weld well enough to make my own. They are OK, though the drivers rear cylinder is not the best. Cutting the inner fenders by trial and error is painful - copy someones by using a newspaper template if you can. I ran 2 1/2" exhaust from the headers back. The CRS headers foul on the rubber brake lines... you need to use the standard HR clamps and springs to hold the brake lines back (thanks Theo!).
j) I chose a VL automatic radiator (because the size is right, and the inlets/outlets are in the right place), twin Davies Craig 10" thermofans (because it was hard to get a thermofan to fit without butchering the hood catch) and thermostatic switch. I had to recess the top radiator support bar to get the radiator to fit.
k) I chose a stainless fuel tank from Mick (Qld), Holley red pump and 3/8" stainless hard fuel lines. The tank replaced my very badly dented original one and is bigger than standard. The fuel pump tucks up OK under the body near the rear seats, though is noisy... only just drowned out by the 2 1/2" exhaust. The fuel lines bent OK but took some patience to learn (buy an extra length of line and practice!). I used Swagelok fittings because they are very strong and can be installed with a simple spanner - no soldering or special tools needed. Having all stainless fuel system gives me more piece of mind (have been stuck a few times in the middle of nowhere with clogged fuel filters).
l) I have a TH350 (came with the engine... and saves me fitting a clutch setup) with a Hurst shifter (cable driven - can mount it far forward to celar the bench seat). I used 3/8" stainless hard lines to the cooler in the VL radiator (same as the fuel lines).
m) I run Halogen headlights because the wagon will do a lot a country miles, and the kangaroos need something to aim for.
n) I run a Bosch 140A alternator because I hate getting stuck somewhere with a flat battery. The thermofans, headlights and other bits and pieces chew a few amps, and with a big alternator I can later play around with a big stereo, driving lights or A/C with no worries. Getting rid of the generator was not that hard, but took some "unpicking" of the wiring harness and rerouting of wires to get it to sit right. I put a new fuse box under the dash (a Narva one with lots of circuits) because I hate blowing one fuse and having 1/2 the electricals stop working - nicer with one fuse, one circuit.
o) I use a dry-cell battery in an insulated box (sheet steel cover, fibreglass pinkbats offcuts for insulation) in the original location. Just fits, though need the insulated box to stop the headers cooking the battery. No trouble with cranking so far.
p) I run 2-speed wipers, which were supplied with a washer switch from Ken Mclean on the FE/FC forum (I sent my wiper base and he modified it).
q) I joined the NSW FB/EK Club late in the project (... because I am foolish). Wish I had of joined earlier and asked more questions instead of learning the hard way.

Bigbird, I've being doing some internet hunting of late to better understand my own grey (and working out how to fit the heater to it). In terms of identifying the block: · FX numbers started at 1001 · FJ numbers started at 121694 · FE numbers started at L283373 · FC numbers at L439507 · FB numbers ...

Dave, Rare Spares have bonnet lock cables for FE/FC (part number BC1001A, $53.35, https://rsp-secure.com/rarespares/default.asp?car_type=11B&model=FE%20FC). I picked one up this week, and it looks pretty good (similar to the one in my EK wagon... at least as good as my blurred memory remembers i...

WD-40. Lots of masking tape and a texta to label everything (especially wiring) and some ziplock bags to store nuts/bolts/fittings in. One pair of multigrips, and a shifter (butcher's tools). At least one BFH (don't force it... get a bigger hammer). Pipe spanners if your touching brake lines (I real...