fbekholden.com

looking really smart andrew, any chance of a couple more pics (hehehe) if its the trax model im thinking of, it will look really sweet on the road. are you putting a stock grey in it?

Sure Darcy....



there you go

Bear with me and I'll have it up to present with one more post

Andrew

By the way Darcy it will have a standard gray in it – pictured on page 1


The next project was the upholstery.


So figuring that the seats would have covers over them to avoid 3rd degree vinal burns during summer I decided to get them recovered in material. However quotes for upholstery work seems comparable with heart / lung transplants.

So as I seen the missus at the sewing machine once or twice, I figured she could whip up some upholstery for the FB…

So off to Spotlight and picked up some upholstery material that will match the yellow (a rough on the spot calculations of the seats / door size determined that 20 meters would cover it), some denim sewing machine needles and back home to disassemble door trims and seats.

Originally I decided to keep the gray vinyl in the doors and the head lining however when the door trims were disassembled the condition of the star pattern vinyl under the chrome trim was too deteriorated to sew upholstery material to it.

So back to Spotlight for more upholstery material to replace the star pattern stuff.



We attacked the front door trims first I figured if we could sew the armrest, the rest would be a piece of cake and no need for the Upholstery Surgeon. We were happy with the results.



The front seat was next using the old cover as a pattern and the seat as a dressmaker’s dummy.

Now that it is halve complete I can say that 10 meters of the brown / yellow material would have been sufficient but at least I have plenty for repairs.

We will also used around 700 meters of thread – this meant some more return trips to Spotlight

So this is where the car is up to at present-

The car was taken off the ACME hoist today.

Things to be done –
Refit motor / gearbox
Re-core radiator
New exhaust
Convert to electric wipers (waiting for parts)
Refit petrol tank
Back seat upholstery
Headliner
Refit windows
Paint, paint, paint and paint some more
Purchase more rubbers – doors and front window (scored back window & boot rubbers from ebay)
Refit doors, boot & bonnet
Fit sound system and some gauges
Rego
And off to Albury in June – I hope

The race is on- will keep you posted

Andrew

andrew,
you would have to be bloody proud of that interior-in the end, what did it cost you?

i was thinking of doing the interior for the ute the white you have used on the door trim. i love the material you have used also, will look kool when its all assembled.

Darcy

The brown / yellow was on the halve price table @ $6.95 per meter - $ 139( if I bought the correct amount at full price it would have been the same)

The plain stuff to replace the star pattern was $ 7 per meter - $70

The thread was expensive @ $8 per 100 meter bobbin $ 56, but you need to use upholstery thread.

Five denim needles for the sewing machine cost $6

Total cost for upholstery $271 – throw in another $29 for wadding for the door trim, glue and foam – the foam in the front seat was worn down where the tear was along the original seam ... So I glued more foam in it and then covered the seat with a ½” layer of foam to give it a flat finish.

Some fencing ring grips were also required to hold the material in place.

Also don’t use piping along the edge unless you know some one who can sew 100% straight, if the seams are slightly off, it will be very noticeable if there is piping.

So I guess $300 will cover it – pardon the pun.

But hey you got a ute so halve the cost

Andrew

Last night decided to clean / polish the instrument cluster and repaired the speedo.

The analog speedometer works on the magnetic principle. It includes a revolving permanent magnet driven by the cable connected to the transmission. The magnet sets up a rotating magnetic field which exerts a pull on the speed cup, making it revolve in the same direction. The movement of the speed cup is slowed and held steady by a hairspring attached to the spindle of the speed cup.

When the FB was stripped down I discovered that the speedo cable was snapped, the cause of this was that the magnetic drag assembly had ceased up.



The head was disassembled – I found a replacement magnetic drag assembly in the shed (another ebay bargain), which I utilised in the repair. As the magnet, speed cup and hairspring are calibrated to each other for accurate indication they need to be replaced as a unit.

There are a total of 8 screws and 1 retaining clip that hold the assembly together.



All gears were cleaned then re-lubricated and reassembled.
The interior paint work and numbers are still in good nick and no repainting was necessary.



The head unit reassembled and odometer set to zero.
I find it useful having the odometer set at zero after a rebuild as it makes it easier to keep track of due services and also useful for tracking distance between breakdown. I mean just in case it breaks down.



Just like a new one

Andrew

FB 60 wrote:The thread was expensive @ $8 per 100 meter bobbin $ 56, but you need to use upholstery thread.

If you go to an upholstery distributor, such as http://www.uda.net.au/ you can pick up a 3000 metre bobbin for $10 to $20.

Hey Andrew,

thanks heaps for all the updates of your FB. Top job happening there - keep up the good work - look forward to seeing the end result at the Nationals.

Stewart

Yo Baby!! Love the trim, good to see some "good" customizing.
Hemi

Hey Stinky

go to an upholstery distributor

Thanks for the upholstery distributor link, hope to never see another sewing machine after this lot.


Stewart

look forward to seeing the end result at the Nationals

Yep I hope to see the end results at the nationals too.


and


HEMI

IM NOT CRAZY, JUST A LITTLE UNWELL

Hope you get well soon

Seriously, thanks for the encouragement.

Andrew

Australia Day Holiday

Today was a beautiful warm day in the country. Even the temperature got out of bed early



So I rallied the troops to assist in removing the few last items –
Any remaining chrome
Shroud outer panel
Wiper assembly
Headliner
Door lock strikers
and metres and metres and metres of well glued door rubber. What the hell did they use as glue???



Distributed sanding blocks and sandpaper. What a way to spend a holiday.
The missus came to see what we were up too – didn’t take long for me to organise a bucket and sponge so that she could assist with the cleaning of the 45 years of accumulated dirt in the inner shroud.

Nothing like a family outing to the shed to work on the FB



The sanding and bogging of a couple of small dents was completed by mid afternoon.
The car was pushed out for a final wash and inspection under sun light.

Spent the rest of the day recovering the back door trims – back seat, headliner and wheel covers to go and the upholstery is done.

Over the weekend the under coat and paint goes on.

Stay tuned as we transform the Galah into a Canary.

Andrew

It looks great andy.

Did you source a NOS headlining ar what are you going to use?

Keep up the excellent work.

Hey oldgmh

Originally I was going to keep the headlining and the centre part of the door trim that matches the headlining. However when the door trim was removed the centre part of the trim was ripped under the chrome – I think the only thing that held it in place was the chrome. So I purchased some upholstery material for the door centre trim and enough to make a new headlining to match. I will use the old headlining as a template – will post some pics and description when I start on it.

Andrew

As I said I was going to paint the body this weekend and I did... … sort of… 1 coat of filler / undercoat.



Then it got too hot to stuff around in the shed so I decided to make the headliner.



I used the old headliner as a template –I thought this was in good nick
however whilst removing it from the car the seams let go in a number of places.



The wires were removed and tagged as they are of varying lengths and shape.



The headliner comes in seven sections the first five are rectangular so we
opted to use just one piece of material for the first five sections and
overlap the material at the appropriate distances to create the wire
holding loops. The last two sections were cut using the old liner as a
template and sewn on.



The wires were reinserted and the liner trial fitted to the car. It seems to
resemble a headliner – I’m sure I’ll learn some new words when I go
to fit it properly and stretch it into the correct position. However that won’t
be for a while.

Hopefully it won’t be as hot next weekend and some more paint will go
on the FB.

Andrew

How quickly 6 weeks pass.

Done nothing on the car, spent the time daydreaming on what to do with the spare parts
and so the FB jukebox/ entertainment unit/ FBEK Forum surfing machine was built.



Now I can have part of the FB inside.

For full details see http://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewtop ... =2555#2555