Good score, I have been trying not too look at the couple of wagons stored at a mates place, my sedan managed to hang around for the best part of 20 years so I'm not sure I can make that commitment again Pretty sure all the GM styling was pretty heavly influenced by what GM Detriot were doing hense the Aussie and even German cars are very american, hey a LHD one would be great, really confuse folks, EK/FB's are prety thin on the ground these days most folks under about 40 have no idea what they are in the first place let alone a LHD one..... Grey motors are cool, why not hang a 4-5 speed off the back of it to give it some longer legs and a twin manifold and extractors ? on the brake front, they are manual adjust from memory, I swapped an early torana diff into mine and got better brakes and a slightly narrower rear out of it, also had torana discs up front.
Opel and Holden are both General Motors subsidiaries. It's interesting how overall corporate styling themes are shared.
Scotty, I'm tryin to get it done for Wintersun. If the FB / EK run in Yamba is after that.. then more than likely i'll be there if i can get time off work. They aren't impressed that i'm taking time off for a rockabilly / hot rod festival as it is.. and then i go and tell them theres a car club run down to Yamba haha.. ah well fuck em ! Kiwi Kev, Love the wagon. Looks mint. 55Olds88, I will probably put extractors and a different exhaust on it if the grey motor runs.. otherwise i'll ditch it for a HR front end and a 186 / 202. I hear an EH front end is a bolt in item and didn't they come with 186's as well?
Might keep it the original front end and work the 138 apparently they can be a decent motor if done right. Also i heard they sound a lot better than a Red. Any thoughts on that?
ha ha I thought I recognised Neils place...Nice folks and around 100 Holdens...When I win the lotto i'll buy a place out there too. Dig up as many oldf 60's 'Hot Rod' AND 'Aust. Hot rodding reviews' that you can find. They were full of Hot grey motors and info on them, .Cams etc are still available. Biggest problem is getting dress up and speed gear from chainer collectors who insist on sticking it on the wall as decorations. I used to see multi carbs and stuff at swap meets all the time. Beenleigh swap is on in a couple of weeks,there's sometimes grey motor stuff there.
Man I haven't been on the board for a coupla years and the first thing I see is EK holdens. Heres my old girl, I let her go a coupla years ago after owning her 9 yrs. Its all Cadillacs now
If you're swapping in a later front end, go with the HR in preference to the EH. EH still had king pins, HR was balljoint and had discs as an option. I'm keeping an eye out for red motor dress up stuff at swap meets and all I keep seeing is twin carb set ups and finned rocker covers etc for greys. Good luck with your deadline Pete
Haha yeap its Neils place alright. Yeah theres a lotta other shit there too.. and by shit.. i mean.. shit Although some of his own personal cars are very nice as well as there being a fair amount of good restorable cars.. although most are just parts cars. I'll see if i can find some info on the net on the old grey motors.. are they at all quick or decently powered? Do they really have a nice sound to them? I'll have to check out the Beenleigh swap as i'm only at Shailer Park.. 10 minutes away from Beenleigh.
Back in the day there was either Y blocks,Flatties or Grey motors in OZ and nothing much else so the little grey motors were developed into some real screamers on the dirt track in modifieds and sprinters ,circuit cars,home made specials and of course, on the street. Waggots, Hedley Mc Gee ,Thomas's Repco ( the famous Repco head) and even John Cain in NewCastle made all sorts of goodies for them and a Chromed Sideplate motor is Pants when you lift the lid. Not as powerful as a red motor with the same mods but interesting to work on and dead simple. And yes they sound really good when wound out ,kind of like a Ferrari V12 getting flogged. This a 138 in a dirt car (Qld #35),
Ahh. That looks pretty cool. Interesting line setup as well. I haven't seen fat fuel lines before. Always the little steel ones.. Is there anywhere that sells new parts for the 138 still? Or would it all have to be swap meet items..?
http://www.aclperformance.com.au/ you can get all your internals there. i havent the foggiest about mainfolds/ sideplates/ intakes /cams though. yella terra?
Theres a mountain of used speed and dress up gear for Sideplate ( grey ) motors ,you just have to find it..ha ha .A good place to start is by talking with older guys who are into early holdens and joining one of the various holden Clubs. Neil would probably have a handle on grey motor speed gear,or one his many contacts in the Ipswich Classic Car scene. Always spend a bit of time chatting with guys selling Old holden stuff at swaps because often they never bring the really interesting stuff to the swaps.
Ah i never even thought of that. He probably would aye ! If the motor runs.. i'll definately be asking for some nice speed parts
I'm with Mercmad, the Grey was Aussies answer to the flathead, there was heaps of performance stuff made for them, I recall talk of using a Jag harmonic balancer being one of the hot tricks, there was a big article in one of the aussie mags years back with all kinds of speed secrets (including there being a bad harmonic spot at around 6500 rpm, good all the way to about 9500 on a trick motor but don't hold it anywhere near 6500 ) the other thing I most remember was talk of grey motor's in FJ's running speeds down conrod of 125 or so mph or so. Loads of speedway use too, in some series beating out Offy flat motors, and as above the can be made to sound great (just ask the hot rod club guys doing parking at an event I took my EK to years back, I think they sent me in the direction of better parking and asked what it was running as it sounded so good). Kiwi guys I talk to always tell of seeing good Grey stuff at Aussie swaps, so there must stil be a bit about.
Welcome to EK Country! They can be nice with very little work. Had mine 13 years now, since I was about 19. Cheers Maiki
Mai Ki Ki, Love yours man. Looks amazing. Heres some updates. Over the last i think three weeks of owning the car.. to date i've.. * Gotten every panel bar the body itself to bare metal and in primer. * Taken off most trims, and rear window. * Taken out rear seat, rear door trims and all handles inside and out. * Taken out rooflining, interior trim and mirror / visors. * Taken off Bumper / Rear tail lights. Possibly some other stuff i've forgotten.. but yeah.. Heres the pics. Haven't got pics of interior ripped out or the rear screen out yet as i only did that late yesterday arvo / last night in the dark. Front Driver gaurd in rust converter / primer. Too bad it can't repair rusted through metal -_-.. Driver Front door. Not one ounce of rust in this door at all. Pretty stoked on that. Its MINT. Car and Panels. Rear Bumper / Tail Lights off. This is now my Chrome stash.. all the trim is there at the moment. Everything in Grey Primer. Another. Rear Passenger Door. Also Mint. Boot Lid. Had a lot of rust on one side.. not like rusty everywhere just a big ass gaping hole all the way along one side. Someone had previously bogged it.. and done a good job at that (I HATE bog though..) but that shit just wassn't comin out. So Dads bogged over it while i was at work on Friday and he sanded it back today and came up super smooth.. so i'm contemplating leaving it for now. I'll get it fixed when i do a proper respray (For now it'll be flat black). Front Doors and Bonnet. Bonnet needs repair Doors are MINT though. Stoked on that. So yeah. Thats it so far. Will get pics of the rear glass out when i take the front out. Also might get pics of the BAD spots in the car.. rusty sill panel is getting replaced in a week or two and theres a pretty scary bit at the bottom of the Drivers side of the front windscreen. *Sigh*. Can't expect it to be perfect as its been sitting in a field for a fair while.. and it IS 47 years old. Eh. I love it. I'd rather a torn down EK than some little shitbox or a jap car that most people are driving. I hate new cars with a passion. Also decided on the front end. For now.. i'll be picking up an EH front end that bolts straight in.. with a HR Pitman arm and steering linkage.. that'll give me better steering.. a 149 as anything bigger requires a disc brake front end which is a HR front end.. which i'll do in the next year or so.. and a brake booster to upgrade the brakes a little.
Re new greymotor parts. A mob in south oz called Aussiespeed is aparently starting to reproduce some of the old speed equipment. Cast alloy rocker covers, sideplates, manifolds ext... I've not seen them myself so no idea about quality or price. Just Google aussiespeed, should get a result.
Heres an interesting but little know fact. GMH (Holden) exported EK's to Hawaii in 61, left hand drive and badged as a Chevelle or some such. Now theres a possibility for any Sepo's who want the tri-5 looks with Nova type curb weight (provided they haven't all rusted away.)
Gday Streetneat here - ( in NZ now) I thought I recognised Neil Burstons place - plenty of pics of what he has here- www.streetneat.com look in the roaming for wrecks album. I still have my radical custom EK Van in the works - brought it with me to NZ (and no I'm not a kiwi!) amongst some other stneat Holdens Hey is there any other Kiwi based old Holden owners out there? More importantly - does anyone have pics of LHD FB/EK? Cheers streetneat- Andrew.
Hi guys, Looking for parts for my EK's, Couple of GOOD guards and fuel tanks for a sedan and a wagon preferably without dents
Hot grey motors sound absolutly unreal!I know an old guy who was into speedway stuff in a big way and he still has all his old motors from back in the day he has them all repcos the rotary valve head made in adelaide(dunstall i think?) but the best he said was his own wrecker special you need an early 50's vauxhall not sure exactly but they have a steel crank and a 12port head that almost bolts on to the grey block stops all the wobbly crank problems but you'll need a crank girdle to make use of the big revs.You can make an easy 100hp at the wheels with the stock stuff just don't rev it.I think you can still buy new speco thomas floor shifters if you can't get a handle of the 3 on a tree.
I'm assuming you have welder, if not, get one, you'll have that rust fixed lickety split, it's minimal. Great car, good score.
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