THE RESTORATION ON MY FJ HOLDEN UTE 2008-09

In November 2008 I decided it was time the old girl got a bit of attendention as she was starting to look tired. The paint was now close to 25 yr old , rubbers where looking worn out and a little rust was strating to appear. 

Firstly I bought the complete rubber kit being with a new glove box liner and door panels from "Betta Auto Rubber" on the Gold Coast QLD .

The interior is currently being redone by Wayne Stark the owner of "Mr & Mrs SEW"N"SEW" in Kippa Ring QLD. I'm wanting it in it's original colour,so going by the compliance plate it was to be Mountain Blue. Wayne searched high and low for the colour but had found out it's not called this any more. Mountain Blue is now called Deep Ocean Blue.Wayne is now recovering the seat , door trims and sunvisor ,as the hood lining is in excellent condition ,so I have left it in.

December 2008 I took the FJ to a old fellow by the name of Mike in Redcliffe Qld to cut the rust out as he does it the old way ,cutting it out and plating it. Once that was done it was back to my place awaiting till March 2009 for Collin Parker  of "PARKERS BODY SHOP"Clontarf Qld to spray it .

4th Feb 2009 I picked up all the interior items from Wayne which done a grate job. I have also ordered a new rubber floor mat and Nasco rear Mud Flaps from "Obsolete" in Victoria. Now it's a matter of waiting for the FJ to go into the paint shop. While it's sitting in my shed I decided I was going to make the FJ as origanial as could be . So I removed the indicators. While pulling all the wiring out from underneath the body I came across a large black object which was taped to part of the wiring. I cut it open. Bugger me dead it was the origanial GMH keys for the car. I would say they have been there since the origanial owner had the FJ ! Wow what a find. I also found that there seem to be a lot of build up of old mud up under the car. So I spent a few days removing it all and I recon I removed about 20 kgs . Amazing how in has built up over the years. I then fished the under cariage , sills and chassi with fish oil.

The tyres on the old girl are radials which have been on for close to 10 years now and are very close to being unroadworthy. I have been thinking of replacing them with the old cross ply tyres of which they origanialy had back in the 50's. But have since been told they are quite unsafe making your car wonder all over the road. So I have desided to stick with radials. I picked up 5 new 165 x 15 Nexen Roadstone tryes. Just waiting for the FJ wheels to be sandblasted and paint then they will go on.

Due to the old tray boards looking a bit old and ruff, I have decided to replace them. I found a diagram with the origanial measurements. I'm going to make them out of Hard Wood and paint them Mundi Brown just like they where from factory. The back tray I have decided to paint it in Grey Panel Fleck due to it being a hard wairing paint and that I will still be using the back tray for carting things around in.

7th of March 2009 the FJ went to Collin Parker  of "PARKERS BODY SHOP" Clontarf Qld. I feel it's in good hands now . It will be there for a good 4-5 months .So I'm going to look at getting the front grill plus a few other parts re-chromed while waiting for the car to be finished. 

16th March 2009 I went and got all below re-chromed.I won't mention the company due to some of the workmenship not being up to scratch. Anyway went a bit over board with it as you will see below :-

EXTERIOR- Front Bumper, 2 Front Overriders, 2 Front Bumper Bolts, 9 Grill Teeth, Centre Grill Bar, 2 Eyebrowers (front grill), Bonnet Grill, Bonnet Grill Emblem Surround, 2 Bosch Headlight Rims, 2 Mesh Headlight Protectors, 2 nasco Extenion Mirror Heads, Lion Mascot Bass, 2 Window Wipper Base Surrounds, 2 Nasco Number Plate Frames, Rear Brake Light Surround, Nasco Locking Fuel Cap, 2 Rear Wibros Refector Surrounds, Outer Door Handles + Neck Rings & 2 Scratch plates.

INTERIOR- Nasco Cig Dash Rack, 2 nasco Quoter Window Locks, 2 Inner Door Pull handles, 2 Window Winder handles, 2 Inner Door Handles, Glove Box Button & 2 Quoter Window Frames + Handles.

17th May 2009- Collin Parker from "PARKERS BODY SHOP" discussed with me what the he thought would be the best out come for my FJ Holden ute, which was to do a bare metal re-spray. This would mean for the car to be sandblasted. So I'm going ahead with it. The FJ is booked in for the 25th May 2009 at "ODRA SANDBLASTING" Clontarf.  

Over all the body was in quite good condition. The floor in the car is very good. The front drivers guard was quite ruff being repaired at some stage in it life, so I replaced it with a better one.

Had the usall rear bumps in the back.Hay what do you exspect it a UTE.

Passanger side sill had a few small holes but over all quite good.

Where the rubber stone guards go was a bit of rust. This was from the origanial stone guards as they had a metal plate in the inside of them giving them there shape, over time the plate rusted coursing rust to the main body of the car.

The bonet was'nt the best due to having been repaired in the front some time in it life and a hole about 10cm in diamitar welded up.I think the hole would have be a air tunnel to the carbie. So I bought a better bonnet.

   "WELLCOME TO MY WEB SITE"

Hi, before you check out my web site take a look below. I was contacted in July 2007 by a company called ZOOM FILMING here in Brisbane QLD, wanting to use my FJ Holden Ute in the "New 2008 HOLDEN VE UTE" Television Commercial.Of course I said yes . It has just been released (Oct 2007)check it out. At the start is the making of it and towards the end is the Television Commercial. You will see my FJ Holden Ute at the start of the commercial parked in the driveway of the old house. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIKIAsgjXD4

In May 2008 Brendan Nawrocki "Singer/Song Writer" contacted me (via this web site) wanting to use my FJ Holden Ute for one of his Film Clips for his new song "She Went By."I was over whelmed and more then happy to help. It is currently on Austar Country Music TV channel.

Anyway tell me what you think of my web site by writing a message in my  Guest Book Comments above .Thanks and hope you enjoy it.

I remember when I was around 10 my grandad bought this 1955 FJ Holden Ute from a Mr Weir west of Mackay Qld with only 32000 miles on the clock. He restored it back to its original condition in the early 80’s after Mr Weir’s son had started to “hack into it” by starting to fit HR running gear and flaring the front guards. I guess you could say I’ve really loved the old Holden’s since then.

I had always wanted it, and eventually I offered to buy it from my Grandad, which I ended up doing in March 2000. Grandad had long since retired from owning his own mechanical business, and during those many years sitting in his shed this once-proud piece of motoring history had deteriorated and was now a picture of neglect.Once it was in my hands the first thing I did was sand the paint down with wet and dry, as it was quite faded. Grandad had it painted in its original colour (Mosman Blue) around the mid 1980’s. I then gave it a light buff, which bought back the shine.I then had to work out what I was going to do!!! I’ve always thought the FJ Ute would look really nice with a set of fats fitted to it, bucket seats and a more powerful motor to replace the original 132 Grey that’s in it still.  After many months of reading many different car articles in magazines, it seemed as though they’re where not many around in original condition or even in this condition.

So I decided to keep it the way it was but make it different from other FJ’s . So I thought of fitting the original 50’s accessories to it, such as Nasco, AC, Wibroc, Lucas and Trico features.
First thing was to get rid of one of the batteries under the bonnet as there was a 12 volt for the radio and a 6 volt for the FJ electrical system/engine. The 12-volt battery was for the radio, so out it went. To keep the car in as original condition as can be, I needed to find an original 6 volt “Air Chief” Valve Radio. Which was the standard one for the FJ back in the day.After many years investigating, I had found not only the much sought-after “Air Chief Radio” but also an original 6-volt GMH bitumen battery to go with the car plus many other rare accessories, as you will see in the photos.To go further I removed a thew things, like the Tramp Rods that where fitted, Tyres with radials (as the cross plies wondered all over the road) and placed white wall inserts, with Nasco Trim Rims to make the wheels stand out.

Removed Air Shocks from the rear replacing them with NOS Delco shocks. I left the indicators on that my grandad put, as I felt there for safety.  I found reproduction of all the engine bay stickers, which I have placed on. At the same time I found that the 132 grey motor in my FJ Ute is of the period of it’s built time by researching the engine number being January 1955. 
I replaced the spark plug leads with the genuine ones being copper leads. Also over the years I was lucky enough to find a replacement rear light lenes as the one fitted had been glued together many of times. But over all doing all this there was one thing I did stuff up, the under body was spray-painted in an orange colour which I didn’t like. So I sprayed over it with black BUT I have since found out that in the 50’s that it was the rust proofing colour. So now I’m in the process of removing all the paint that I put over it to try bring it back to its originality.

I still use the old girl to take loads of rubbish to the dump, people say I’m MAD but hay it is a Ute isn’t it ? I have also over the past few years started entering it in car shows and have won many trophies, most of which have been for its originality.My most prized trophy I have won was for "QLD GENERAL MOTORS DAY"-"CAR OF THE DAY" ,OCTOBER 2007.I love the old girl that much I have even gone to the existent of getting the FJ Emblem tattooed on my right arm and have also collected over the years a lot of the old Holden memorabilia items as you will see on the other pages.

Well I hope you enjoy my web site and if you have time check out my other pages of rare old rusty FJ Holden’s I found in my travels, also some old advertisements, pamphlets and accessories from my collection.If you have any questions, information or want a chat about FJ’s or just Holden’s feel welcome to drop me a line at gmhboy@optusnet.com.au .Also "IF YOU WISH TO COPY ANY INFORMATION OR PICTURES OFF MY WEB SITE PLEASE DO'NT HESITATE TO ASK .Thanks for looking and have a nice day. I would like to say a "BIG" Thanks to my Grandad (Vic Moy ) for all the time and knowledge he has give to me over the years in getting the FJ Holden Ute to what it is today.But not only for that ,BUT for being a great Grandad as well as my best mate and always will be.

Last photo of it together Aug 2008 as I'm currently redoing it up..