1955 FJ Holden: Reader Ride

Date: 06.05.2015

Ernie Hill's 1955 FJ Holden

Ernie Hill's 1955 FJ Holden

Ernie Hill's 1955 FJ Holden

Ernie Hill's 1955 FJ Holden

Ernie Hill has owned his 1955 FJ Holden for 28 years. What started out as a hobby car has given Ernie "a hell of a lot of fun."

Perry Sargent's 1961 EK Holden utility

1955 FJ Holden 

I’ve had my 1955 FJ Holden for 28 years and set about rebuilding it to virtually stock standard. That’s the way it stayed for around 20 years. I bought the FJ when I got to about 40 and felt like I needed a hobby. The problem was, I knew nothing about cars and decided to get something easy and that meant aiming towards picking up an FJ. I wasn’t a die-hard Holden man. Classic cars were my interest. Once I found the FJ, I just learnt more as I went. It was ideal for someone who didn’t know a lot about cars.

After drving it round in stock trim for so long, I re-built it but this time I put a lot of extras on it including triple carbies, HR disc brakes on the front end, Commodore rack and pinion steering, a five-speed Celica box and with quite a bit of work done on the 138 grey motor it’s now a good highway cruiser.

I have to admit I didn’t do the motor work myself. I’m not a mechanic. When people ask me if I built it, I say with a hell of a lot of help. I didn’t do anything that was too hard. I just did the cosmetic bits really. When it came to expert help, I got someone to do the custom upholstery for me. As for the cabin, the dash is near original excluding the radio and it has blinkers.

I love driving it to the Toowoomba swap meet, which is more like a social outing for me. I’ve been coming here for 25 years and it gives me a chance to catch up with old mates. As for the car, it’s just a nice car to drive that I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun in.

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