Hey there guys,
I thought I'd share my other build, no she's not a LUV, but it is a 1953 Holden sedan known as a 48-215 "Air-Ride" which is one of the first vehicles manufactured for Australia, by Australia.
Until 1948 all vehicles in Oz were either fully imported, imported or TKD cabs assembled on locally built chassis. Holden had humble beginnings as a saddlery in the 1800's and later became a coach building enterprise which in turn lead to them getting heavily involved in the automobile industry. Holden gained strength during WW1 producing much needed equipment for the war effort, such as saddles, slings, straps, uniform fasteners etc and their foundries could produce an array of small arms components.
After the war their coach building reputation naturally had lead them into the newly founded automobile industry. However all vehicles manufactured by the then "Holden Motor Bodies' company were on behalf of US & British companies such as Dodge, Chevrolet, Bedford and Vauxhall to name a few. Along came WW2 and due to their now national standing, Holden Motor Bodies again manufactured vehicles, artillery & light armoured vehicles for the allied forces during the entire length of the 2nd World War.
After WW2, Australians wanted to be proud of what they had achieved and accepted that they were far less dependent on the British Empire, and longed for something grand to call our own. Predominantly, we wanted "OUR OWN CAR", so the race was on by local manufacturers to provide the Australian people with just that.
GM had already established a partnership with Holden Motor Bodies, and eventually would own them outright, but admittedly, Holden wold not have ever got to where they were without the investments made by General Motors. Sadly GM has pulled the pin on Holden's local manufacture as of 2017, but the legacy will remain. This is probably best referred to as the series 2 of the "All Australian Car" and it's my real passion.
I'm building this car with quite a lot of modifications, and myself and a few mates with both stock and modified examples had planned on shipping our cars (5-6 of us) to the United States in 2018 to do a driving tour across the country as part of the 75th Anniversary.
Now that GM has made the decision to pull up stumps in Australia as far as the Holden Brand is concerned, our grand adventure kinda seemed pointless, but I am still keen to go ahead with shipping my '53 model over the ditch and doing the tour in it as planned.
I bought one of these in late 2000 after I discharged from the Army, and drove it around for a couple of years. Then took it off the road to do a quick tidy up of the paint for my sisters wedding in 2002. But as I stripped paint back, the old girl had quite a lot of rust in critical areas and that led to a full custom build where I was first introduced to our little LUV trucks. I started a build which was to use a Chevy LUV Chassis as the build platform, but sold it due to relocating interstate.
I sold my classic Holden to keep my now Ex wife happy, but yep,,, shoulda kept the car LOL. In the pic above is my 1st classic Holden that I bought in 2000 (a 1954 or FJ model) beside my mates '49 model late 2001. When I moved I kept the body of the custom build, just sold the LUV chassis. But later swapped it with a friend for a trailer made from a utility version.
I got it back again a few years later but it had been very much neglected. So rather than haul it off to the scrap yard I merged the two as one,,, and I still own this trailer. Here it is a couple of years ago. All I need now is to finish the '53 so I can tow it with style
Yep,,, the Dark 54 Sedan beside the white '49 in photo above is now this trailer
Here's some pictures of my 'Other LUV' that's not a LUV
The kids and I drove to Cobar NSW (over 2000km round trip) to pick up my 1953 Holden
This isn't mine, but it's a photo I've borrowed to give an idea of what mine will look like when completed. I'll be doing mine in a Royal Blue with widened stock rims painted gloss black, dome caps, extended chrome lug nuts & chrome dress rims, white walls and a period correct sun visor. Maybe some scrolled pin striping accents? Oh and a BOP-215 themed Rover 3.5 V8 with Offenhauser 2x4 induction manifold, & Offy finned Valve covers, & some custom old skool air cleaners
I've added custom tail light buckets in the rear bulkhead to allow fitment of Land Rover 110 series stop/tail & indicators
As I plan on clocking up the miles in this vehicle, I've installed a pair of bucket seats from a Ford Telstar TX-5,,, very comfy
I recessed the firewall around 3" to make room for a V8 conversion & it took countless hours getting all the profiles and contours right before laying down a white base coat, then many more hours laying down a mask pattern for the checkers. Here's a pi of me wet rubbing the firewall after the checker graphics had a few coats of clear.
The vehicle design is the 1st without a full chassis in Oz, but the front frame (fx) was renowned for twisting and cracking as it was only designed for a 131cu inline six that was a scaled down version of a Chevy side valve six. So here I've boxed in the 'C' sections and installed end caps and other re-enforcing plates to reduce torsional flex for the V8 conversion.
In this photo, I've stripped and cleaned the Rover 3.5 V8 and set it in the engine compartment for mock up. The Rover engine will be dressed as a BOP-215 (which the Rover V8 is descended from) then bolted up to a TH700 auto and narrowed BTR LSD differential.
The Rover timing cover/water pump housing was the ugliest thing I've seen strapped to an engine and the water pump & shaft protrudes wayyyy out the front of the block, almost 1/3 the length of the block???
So I have replaced it with a Buick 300 Timing cover that I got shipped from the US of A, and I still need to source a compatible water pump that is as short as possible. The ridiculously long Rover water pump can be seen sitting on top of the engine valley.
I had originally planned on fitting a 304 Holden 90% V8, but modification laws in Australia now limit the cubic capacity to well below the 304, so I then installed an L67, but I really dislike how they sound, no matter what you do with exhaust, they still sound like a Commodore in my opinion
Plus I really wanted to have it as a V8, so I sold the L67 and all the conversion gear and sourced this 1983 Rover 3.5 litre V8 and the TH700 auto with all the necessary adaptor hardware.
Thanks for looking, I'll add more photos as I progress with the build. But I have to wait around 6 months due to the a new bolt in front end that I'll be using is awaiting approval for street use. So in the mean time, I decided to get stuck into the LUV build.
Cheers,,, Sherro