G'day from another newbie.

[Mick]

Or and no one mentioned this, is to sell the FB for a profit buy another and bugger it up..

that was kind of my point with if $$$$$ was in his mind do as little as possable

but can't figure considering that they are getting harder to find why you would sell one with little work to buy one that needs a lot of work just to keep some other people that don't own or have to drive the car happy

[bootlegger]

Restore it modify it chop it. Do whatever you want to it as long as you finish it. There are way too many unfinished projects that end up never seing the road.
Thats what drives me nuts about people that dream about a project and cant see it through to end.

[Mick Jagger]

like me .....sell it for twice what you got it, to a restorer ,only for it to be modified in the future
nice car!! , It does need to be preserved and Not modified ,no one cares about vx vt commodores....
sell it for 12 g buy 12 vt commodores and store them for 40 years ,undercover space is the only issue

[Tyson]

Cheers for all your thoughts guys!

So after sitting around for a few days thinkin about what I was going to do with my new "project", I figured i just had to take it for a decent drive, and hopefully get a better idea off what I wanted out of the car. So I gave it a real good check over, fixed a coolant leak, a leaking tyre, charging the battery up enough so it'd start on its own, and adjusted the drum brakes (coz the fronts were draggin pretty hard), threw in some spare oil and water and a toolkit, and she was ready to roll.

It was a 120k trip, which is a bit longer than I would have liked for its first, but I'm stoked to say it made it no worries! I picked a nice cool day for it so it was actually a really nice drive.



Now there's a few things I know I'd like to have it it... A tacho (coz the old grey screams so loud I was starting to think I was punishing it), a water temp guage, and maybe a re-cushioned seat. She's a bit flogged out and gone a bit soft. But overall I'm really happy with the way it drives and probably will keep the grey/3 speed combo.

Was a bloody good feeling driving it on a nice open road, theres something about cruzing in old cars hey!

Everyone that saw it loved it too, which was pretty cool.



So what's the best way to have a few more gauges without drilling hills in the dash or hiding them in the glove box??

Also I'm thinking of switching to a 15" black steel rims, with the chrome baby moons (I think they call them) and chrome trim rings, and some white walls. but I'm not sure if I should do it now, or wait till I have a hr disc front end etc and ending up with a different stud pattern...???

Also thinking that a pearl white insert and possibly roof may be on the cards. Just can't bring myself to liking the dark green on light green.

Let me know what u think...

Cheers,
Tyson

[rosco]

Well done, Tyson - I can appreciate you running just a bit further down the road than originally anticipated.. they become enticing, once you appreciate that something isn't simply going to break.
Out in the sticks where you are, it's not as if you can pull over and walk to the nearest garage (not that they'd probably be of any assistance anyway).

Most of us fit a couple of gauges under the dash - just to the left of your left knee.... a simple right angled panel can be bolted under the dash - the meat in that metal is nearly strong enough to hold up a gearbox....

What speed were you running at? At 60 mph (100 kph) they'll be revving at around the 3,200 rpm mark... depending on what tyres you have.
Because you are more than likely to run long distances, there is a simple conversion in the diff to go from the 3.89 to a 3.55... which will drop the rpm's quite a bit but won't take too much pull out of the grey.
And, before people start jumping on me for "modifying" Tyson's vehicle whilst I have been the strongest advocate for keeping it original - just tell me how someone is going to know unless he tells them....

Tacho - well, hmmmmmm your call. I drilled into my dash and fitted one up next to the binacle - personally, I don't like them up there - but they are probably more practical in that spot.

I note that you are more interested in what rpm's the engine gets to rather than monitoring it like a temp or oil gauge..... we can give you a complete run down of rpm's in all gears - so, I guess what I'm saying is that your speedo is probably a great substitute for adding a tacho - without the ugly presence up on the dash.

The motor with good valve springs in standard/stock form is good and safe for around the 4,200 rpm mark.... it won't like it up there - but you won't have to concern yourself too much if in top gear. Most FB/EK's in stock form with a reasonable grey are good for around the 80 mph mark... the speedo will probably show somewhere between 85 and 90... but a GPS will knock the speedo off for telling porkies.

1st gear is probably good for 28 mph, and second about 52 mph... that's where both my greys used to get to before valve bounce - and once you hear that for the first time - you'll vow never to do it again.

It's an old motor, Tyson - in age, not in mileage... pushing it to those limits will probably cause it a lot of stress...

I'm with tim on your brakes - I have HR discs on mine with a VH 40L - without the booster having vac in it - it's a bugger of a thing to try and stop.

I'd probably also suggest retaining the drums and adding the VH 44 booster. You're not in mountainous country, probably won't ever tow with this vehicle - and the drums you have will perform just as happily as any HR disc front will for you needs.... they will fade from high speed a bit, but it's progressive and they will cool out fairly quickly once you take your boot off the pedal.

As for the stud pattern - this is the same for FB/EK as it is for HD/HR - but the offsets are different - you can't put FB wheels onto a HR drum - the slot bends were removed in the later wheels - FB wheels will crush onto HD/HR drums as you wind down the wheel nuts.

Larger diameter wheels and tyres will reduce your rpm's - but like the diff - they will draw a bit more power from the grey - and, your braking efficiency will fall slightly - larger rolling diameter = more demand on the system to achieve the same effect.

I believe, at the time - Holden just got the grey motor, diff ratio and brakes almost right ... a little bit more out of each would have been better.... but this car, granny could drive to the shops in style - almost go around corners in top gear at 20 mph, dad could take the family for a day's outing and travel at 60 mph at nearly 30 mpg's on a good day and on holidays, they could couple up the old bond-wood caravan and make way for the beach...... Sunday was the day to wash the car, and how all that chrome and stainless would make it the shiniest car in the street...........it was a simple life back then, Tyson - and what you now enjoy driving - is exactly the aura of the day.......

The colour - yes, rare - Tim, is this the same colour combo as Robin Trip's wagon? something tells me that his is lighter.... and is seen more often - this one is indeed "rare" - as you put it....

frats,
Rosco

[Blacky]

If that were mine I would lower it for a start I reckon the colour is great but then its not my car - if you want to paint the flash, why not get it vinyl wrapped ? Its cheaper than paint and you are not buggering up the originality of the car because its removable so you can leave the original paint alone. Sunvisor would look good and steelies painted in the flash colour would look good too I reckon .........

[rosco]

Tyson - PM sent.. check your messages box.

frats,
Rosco

[Mick]

I'm pretty sure earlier on he said that the car has been painted before so isn't really gunna matter if he gets the flash painted if someone down the track wants to change it back it's no real big issue
don't want gauges hanging down under the dash I find gauges just make me worry more
a 3.55 should help out with revs a bit but probly not worth doing yet if you are thinking 15" wheels with white walls as they will be quite a bit taller than the current wheel and give you the same effect as a diff ratio change and you may have to go to HQ bolt pattern to get decent 15" rims unless you want to settle for slotted Volvo rims or something so might be worth waiting till you swap to discs to organise stud pattern

[Cal]

I hated the colour of mine when I first got it (I had vowed to buy any colour except Cameo ), but have grown to like it.

if it's going to stay a stocker, I wouldn't bother about a tacho, as you'd get used to where and when these engines are happy to be revved to. As for a temperature gauge or other gauges, the less you know the better. As far as I'm concerned, if the dash lights don't come on, she's running fine


I still can't get over the price you paid. And to think I copped a serve a year ago for saying that you could find a decent car for between 10 or 12g

[Tyson]

So by the sound of it the stock front end with drums (and the addition of a booster) will be fine with a grey/3speed, so I should get rims to suit that stud pattern? The brakes have all new shoes on them and I was actually surprised how good they worked so I suppose it'd be nice to keep stock.

Or to get a better range of rims could I swap to a hq stud pattern but with the stock FB front end? Are the hubs interchangeable on the stub axles or not?? And then maybe get the rear axles refilled or something..? Or can I get a good set of 15" steelies for the stock stud pattern??? And where from, I see armadale auto do some... I think I'll get new rims and Tyres and then see how the gear ratios are, then look at the diff if I'm still not happy. What I have noticed is reverse is really fast! Gotta be on the ball!

As for the gauges, I have seen those 3 guage panels that mount under the dash, had them in my old hq tonner. look a bit tacky but I suppose that would have been the thing to do when first modifying these in the 70's or whatever. I'll look into them. I could always hide them in the glove box and only look at every now and then, or on hot days or whatever. But there's already an alpine cd player in there

The colour is something I will have to ponder on for a while... The vinyl is always an option but like mick said its not the "original" paint on the car and there are quite a few cracks in the paint all over the car (not sure what caused this) and stone chips etc so it'll get re-painted eventually either way. I've always liked the 56 chev's and I've got a pic of one with the similar coloured green with the white roof and insert. looks pretty cool. we'll see...

Cheers for your input guys, appreciate it

Tyson

[NoMAD]

looks like you had a nice cruise...

on the gauges from... i would say the most common trio used (not just FB / EK) would be to old mooneyes ones, lots of shops have them plus can be ordered straight from Moon



you can get different holders for them, like finned ones for example... they do the job.

or theother option is this is what woody did and used... looks trick as well

http://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewtop ... 2&start=60

Cheers
Nathan

[WayneXG95]

Green and White like this?



Or take the knock offs off and run like this..



Drop it 2" and thats all you would have to do...

[WayneXG95]

Me thinks this thread needs to be in the "My FB EK" thread now?

[Tyson]

Yes!.. Exactly like that Wayne! maybe even a white roof but not boot... Think itd look ok... Could u do that on photoshop for a preview??

Do I just start a new thread on the "My FB/EK" section?

[Tyson]

Cheers Nathan, I was actually looking at those mooneyes ones from armadale auto parts last night. Not badly priced either. I was thinking electrical guages but I suppose mechanical ones are foolproof and still pretty easy to rig up. I do like those autometer ones that woody used though... Mind u they're about 4 times the price!