Holden Grease

The old FJ Holden ute that was dragged back to the folk's farm way back in 1989 followed me through many changes, was parked away in several sheds and waited... And waited..... all in it's bits and pieces all packed away in boxes, smothered in peppermint oil and naphalene flakes to keep the mice and rats and wasps to a minimum.
Then came Woodabyna and once a shed was established that could keep the seasons at bay, the old ute came out of the shed at Pullabooka and took one major wash down and off came 13 years of drought bourne dust and dead mice and mud wasp nests by the bucket load.
The project started like a seized cog and stopped, started and stopped again. The HQ's all muscled their way in front of the old Humpy. Even another FJ special sedan had a run before the time came last year to say 'enough is enough !' Let's get this J on the road.
2012 was the 60th anniversary of the Holden ute , so I thought what better to get it finished and take her on down to the All Holden Day at Hawksberry,
Without running you through a fairly standard restoration story, we got the FJ rego'ed two days before the AHD and its first main run was the three hour drive over the Blue Mountains and to the show and swap meet. We even took out an award !
The Idea ; the J has the Golden Fleece theme and livery. The idea came from when I painted the HQ ute in road sign yellow. I practiced a bit of spray painting and finishing on a couple of spare FJ guards, thinking that the coat of paint would help protect the metal a bit while they waited to be used. When I was piecing the FJ together to see how much of it was there, I hung the yellow panels on an otherwise pale blue body. The captive gears clicked away and the two colours began to shout 'Golden Fleece ' to me. Looking through old photos of streetscapes from the 50's and 60's, you would quite often see old utes done up in commercial livery, with twin tone paint. So, instead of a shiny resto job, I decided to do her up as a service station ute and age the paint job so it looked like an authentic survivor from the 50's.
How ? ; No secrets really. The drivers door, roof and tail gate remain as original paint and dents. The rest is off the gun. Undercoat is in thick red oxide coloured primer. On top of that went four thin coats of body blue. I masked up the rear guards and put down the yellow. The wear and tear look on the paint came with a lot of wet and dry sanding and a hard water-compound rub back. All the sign writing was put down mid-sanding and pin striped to a tradies standard. I cut out some stencils for the rams on the doors copied off 1950's grease tins and laid them down while the doors were off. The stencils were painted thinly so that they could be rubbed back and given a faded, long-polished look.
The tailgate was done to give a tongue-in-cheek finish to the project, and also so people get the fact that it the patina is not done to deceive. I get so many people wondering how I came to get an original Golden Fleece work ute. Lower Forest on the bonnet is our old locality name.
The interior really hasn't been touched apart from carpet and a new head lining.
What's it like ? Answer to that is 'like an FJ' and that is what surprised me. I always wondered what an early Holden was like to drive and it is surprisingly good. After the alignment and new tyres, the J cruises very nice. It sits on about 90 km happily, holds the roads and corners fine and is easy to drive. Having the window open and the plenum vent open makes it even better. It isn't overly noisy, you barely need to change gears out on the open road and brakes are adequate for country driving.
You get plenty of waves.

Why ? Because the old thing deserved it. It spent a long like on a farm at Manilla, then it was shipped to Grenfell and stripped to its basics and nearly forgotten. I have loved the FJ for such a long time and always promised myself that one day, I would have one on the road. And now I have, and true to myself, I have made it a little individual.