2006 Orange Car show..& we were there!

Photo time... Pic's speak louder than my guffing on.

I appologise if the Blogger is turning into a car ramble... but it is Autumn!

Rightio car buffs, seeing as though you could be from anywhere in the world and reading this, I will give a quick rundown on whats whats. Photo 1. A good mix; red early 1970's ford falcon, lime green HJ Holden Utility, Last years (?) Green GT falcon, Marone Ford falc, Orange WB Holden utility, Blue Holden Commodore (1994?), Yellow XY Ford Falcon, Green HJ Holden 4 door Monaro. You might be getting the feeling that anything later than late 70's is all much the same to me.


Guessing 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster utility. 'Rat' style resto. Surface rust and outa-the-back-paddock look. It is sitting on a holden 1 tonner chasis and has a Chev V8. It gets around Orange every now and then on full rego and always gets a smile from most people. I love it! Sticker on the back window says 'Paint!- I dont need no stinkin' paint!"



The red car section! A few worth a mention... Look for the hump-back lines of the 1953 FJ Holden. There is also a red HQ Monaro, a early 70's Camaro and a 68 HT Monaro in there. I had a good yarn with the Monaro bloke. He came over from Sydney for the day 'just for a cruise'.



A line up Australian 70's Muscle (and an 64 EH Holden up the end). The Yellow/ Red two-doors are LJ Toranas (early 70's). If you like HQ's then you also have a thing for the little shark-noses. These run a 202 (3.3 litre) motor, just like their much heavier HQ big brother. They go like a scalded cat.



And lastly a very nicely restored Holden EK (early 60's) wagon. This guy looks like he was right into the swing of owning a restored car. It just about had every bit of paraphanalia and extras from the era, right down to the Fanta cans in the picnic set. Numberplates read SMOOTH.


Late March in Orange. The weather is quickly cooling down, all the deciduous trees are changing colour and the nights are chilly.
For the first time in a good few years Orange Southern Cross Cruisers (NSW) put on a fund raiser car show. Just for fun we cleaned up the HQ Monaro and went on into town.
A good day had by all I recon. A very broad cross section of cars from doosh boys and their plastic pocket racers, to Australian Muscle Cars, to rods, to feral utes, to 1/4 milers, to restored authentic stuff... and not so restored .

A nice example of a 73 HQ. LS Monaro. Dont get too close now, that paint has only a 20 metre rating, any closer than that and it looks fairly ordinary. Note the gaps either side of our parking area that they allowed. Come-on, the doors are not that long when opened!

And what about the next project??

The next project is really a continuing project that has followed me around for the last 13 years like a hungry black dog. Its an 1953 Holden FJ utility, (AKA; the 'J', the 'humpy', the FJ ute, however you like to put it).

Before the HQ Monaro the ute already had the pride of place in the shed and it was only half finished.

I purchaced it from the local Holden dealer form Grenfell way back when, and he pryed it off a Mr Bell(e) from Manilla (up above Tamworth NSW). It had been stripped down to most of its key components which were all in the back in boxes. It sat for a loooong time in my cousins farm shed (collecting mud-wasp nests), until that great day when we had space for it a Woodabyna.
It is now running, rust free, with a refurbished interior.

This is the other ute... yep.... another one....alongside the FJ (on the right). The yellow of the HQ was inspired by an old road sign. this colour then got me thinking along the Golden Fleece theme for the FJ.

If you would like to know about the Holden HQ ute (on the left) Ive got a planned entry for it coming up. Short stats; 1973 HQ, 253 V8, Trimatic, mostly original, GTS guards and rims.

It gets parked in the other pride of place in the shed.

The mistake I now realise, was when I first bought the FJ and set about getting all the old paint off it and dents out of it. It was a farm ute for 30 odd years and the minor dents, scrapes and scratches were all part of its heritage. Now only the roof, tail gate and drivers side door retain the original paint. Ive left the innitials and numbers scratched into the dash and the the original tail gate. You just see too many shmickky FJ's at the car shows and not near enough of the original workers.

So, because I have 'ruined' the originality of the farm ute, I decided to keep with the working theme and do the paint scheme and sign writing and theme along with the 'Golden Fleece' service stations of the 1950's period.

Until winter starts in earnest, my plans will be on hold... there is still a few things to do around the place while the weather is nice.

This is a Golden Fleece photo from Victoria taken in the mid 1970's. While the logo and signs changed slightly from the 50's the overall colours were a very recognisable roadside feature for many many years.

Woodabyna from the air

This is our humble spot from about 2000 ft . I was immediately taken back when I saw how small we looked, but hey, ants even that thought out.... My second thought was how many more trees can we plant....

Yep, thats my mess behind the shed. The HQ wagon, the buggy, the Fordson. You really cant see it from the ground. You also cant see the patches yet to be painted on the roof of the house from ground level. Many thanks to Dave; friend from work learning to fly, for not crashing on us while taking these photos.
The paths look groovy fromup there...., I wonder if pilots use them as a landmark?
Misty is the little dark shape on the side path in from the cars.. (Just in case you were wondering what our dog looks like)