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[Threeonthetree]

Here are some pictures of when I first purchased her:

 

 

Australian assembled.

 

An easy way to tell is to check under the bonnet. Australian assembled vehicles have their engine bays painted black and are fitted with a fibreglass heater box.

New Zealand assembled vehicles had body coloured engine bays and metal heater boxes.

 

However, this isn't always accurate as it's easy to change those factors in the ensuing forty or so years since they were built. But it's a good guide.

 

The Holden model heirachy at the time was like this:

 

Trim:

Belmont < Kingswood < Premier

 

Of course you had Ute, Wagon, Coupe (Monaro) and Sedan bodystyles.

There were three types of sedan bodystyle too: Sedan, Premier Sedan and Brougham.

 

The plain sedan is what you'd get if you ordered either a Belmont or Kingswood sedan.

The Premier sedan is the same as the above except it had different C pillars and the rear windscreen area, both the metalwork and the glass, were different (smaller squarer rear windscreen and more upright pillar, as opposed to the swoopy in comparison regular sedan body).

 

As my wagon is a lowly Belmont, it was very spartan.

She rolled off the assembly line with a 161 cubic inch six cylinder engine, three-speed column-change manual gearbox, 3.55:1 ratio non-LSD banjo differential and drum brakes front and rear. Might  I mention that it had NO brake booster. It has seatbelts front and rear but I'm not sure if these were from new. Will have to check with Holden on that one.

 

Because the wagon has many non-original parts and is in no way a desirable model, I have decided to eventually convert it to V8. My goal is to create a V8 Belmont wagon as though it was a factory option in 1971. There will be subtle modifications incorporated, but the Soul of the car will remain. 

[Threeonthetree]

Right, so it's about time that I filled in the blanks between purchasing the car and the present day.

 

Firstly, progress on the car has been extremely minimal.

I've spent the time slowly collecting parts and information.

 

My goal is to repower it with a Holden V8 (either 253 or 308) and three-speed manual gearbox.

Why stick with the three-speed? Well, the Holden V8 and six cylinder manual gearboxes of this era are essentially the same. Only the input shaft length varies. Long input shaft for the V8, short input shaft for a six. There is absolutely NO strength difference between the V8 and six cylinder variants. Same part number (depending on ratio), same bearings, same housing et cetera.

I have four gearboxes, all three speed.

 

I'll be keeping it column-change manual. V8 column-change has always been a dream of mine.

Goes hand in hand with the front bench seat too. There's no way I'd ever change those two aspects. She ain't no performance vehicle, so why go down the floorchange/bucket-seat route?

 

People who floorchange and bucket-seat these sorts of cars for 'practicality' are just soft, in my opinion.

 

So off I went on a parts finding journey through time.

I'm still on it and probably will be for a very long time:

 

 

Took the ute down the road to Hamilton and collected a 308.

 

 

Ewww.

 

Filthy. But it came with a few goodies and was extremely good value for money.

You can see the bellhousing bolt pattern on the rear of the block here. Holden V8 engines were produced with two different bolt patterns:

 

Turbo-Hydramatic pattern (aka Chev pattern or Turbo pattern)

Trimatic pattern

 

Trimatic automatics and any Australian manual (3 speed or 4 speed) will bolt up to the Trimatic pattern.

Turbo-Hydramatic automatics (TH400 etc) and later manual gearboxes bolt up to the Turbo pattern block.

I don't need to worry about the latter. Everything that I will do is based around an all Aussie driveline.

 

Trimatic pattern for me.

 

 

It was so cheap that I only really purchased it for the sump and pickup, which are quite spendy on their own.

As a bonus, it was also a very early pre HQ Holden era 308.

 

These had the original timing cover which incorporated the oil filler neck, as shown in the picture. This style of timing cover was only used from 1969 to 1971. They switched to a sealed cover at the introduction of the HQ Holden in late 1971 (really 1972). This is perfect as I like the look of a period engine sitting under the bonnet. This little detail will make a huge difference.

Many of these early engines were retrofitted with later model rocker covers that had oil cap provision, or had their rocker covers bastardized.

Why? The PCV system on the early engine was barely adequate and the filler-neck timing covers tended to spew oil at higher revs.

 

The engine also came with the sandwich plate and oil cooler fittings. This may be used at a later stage.

[Threeonthetree]

 

The engine was stripped.

Of note, it'd never been bored. Still standard bores after forty years.

Rare enough. But in a Holden V8? Extremely surprisingly.

 

 

There was some damage.

 

A dropped valve and some nice chunks in the sump.

One bore was damaged enough to necessitate boring. Good thing there's plenty of meat/cast-iron left.

 

 

Now that's what I call a three-quarter race cam. Four lobes but one has been worn almost circular.

[Threeonthetree]

The original 161 Cubic inch six cylinder motor must have been removed a long time ago.

In it's place sits a piecemeal 202. Slapped together from surplus parts, it runs well enough.

 

I rekitted and cleaned the single-barrel Stromberg downdraught carburettor.

They're a very simple carb and easy to work on.

 

 

 

 

Car never came with an original aircleaner assembly, so on went the Ramflo.

[Threeonthetree]

Another Holden V8 made it's way into my possession.

 

This time, a 1972 253 cubic inch version.

 

Note the newer timing cover. This engine had every last nut and bolt attached and came with a boxload of spares.

I sold some and kept the rest. In the end, I made my money back, and some. I still haven't sold the sump and a few other bits that I don't need.

 

The engine had sat for twenty years on the pictured pallet inside a shipping container.

Thankfully the container was nowhere near the sea.

 

The two doors leaning against the ute were another good find. Minor rust but still better than mine.

Holden HK HT and HG station wagon rear doors are unique. That is, sedan rear doors from the same years will not fit.

So they're not the easiest to come by.

 

 

 

 

[Threeonthetree]

The floor in the Wagon has been repaired by a previous owner.

Both front footwell areas have been cut out and replaced with new steel.

However, the repairs were done with plain panel steel. I'd much rather have original steel complete with swage lines and creases.

 

One of the Guys that I've met while hunting for parts happened to have a complete Bronze coloured1971 HG Kingswood Station wagon.

He purchased it from a scrap metal dealer.

 

So the story goes, the old man who owned it finally decided to scrap it due to the extensive rust throughout the sills and front chassis rails. Looking at the car, apart from the obvious rust it looked stunning. Everything original and still present. The seats weren't ripped, the headlining wasn't marked, the bronze paint was original and it ran beautifully. 186 cubic inch six cylinder, three-speed column-change manual and disc braked front end (with Brake booster).

 

However, something went wrong. Badly wrong.

 

In between my Guy committing to buy the car from the scrap dealer and him actually collecting it, the young guys in the scrap yard decided to have a bit of fun. They stabbed the forklift's forks straight through the roof and rear tailgate area and lifted the car.

 

The hardest pieces to find for these old wagons is anything wagon specific. Basically, rear doors and everything back.

These guys had destroyed the tailgate, smashed the rear window, broken the taillights and ruined all of the rear trim.

For me, old cars deserve respect. Whether you're interested in them or not. What they did is inexcusable. And that's not just because I wanted those particular parts.

 

I still managed to procure a few important bits and pieces from that car:

 

-Brake Booster and master cylinder

-Front Brake rotors and calipers

-Brake lines, proportioning valve and distribution block

 

Basically everything to convert my vehicle to a servo-assisted, disc braked front end.

That takes care of the mandatory brake upgrade come V8 time. The V8 disc brakes were the same as the six cylinder disc brakes for these models.

 

Anyway, back to the floor job:

 

The guy with the Bronze coloured wagon would not sell any floor cuts. He was saving those for his monaro.

Six months later, I see a familiar Monaro for sale on Trademe. With a rusty floor.

A phone call and a few hours later I had this:

 

 

 

It's a good thing we removed the 1600cc engine out of the Navara and installed the 2400cc version.

It was windy coming over the Harbour Bridge that day too. 

[Threeonthetree]

So I chopped up the floorpan on the front lawn with an angle grinder:

 

 

 

They've been cleaned up and are very solid. Dusty on the underside but no real rust in the areas I was after.

Much better than a RareSpares panel and will be much easier to weld. Also, I can be generous with the amount I use.

Plus, this entire floorpan cost me less than half the price of ONE RareSpares footwell panel.

 

It's very difficult to see (and I should've taken a photo of it), but there are two metal spheres about an inch apart that sit proud of the floor in the drivers side footwell. In these cars, the accelerator pedal pad simply leans on the metal pedal shaft that hangs down under the dash. It is not attached in any way. However, it has two spherical indentations on the bottom edge, about an inch apart.

That's right, it pushes onto the metal spheres on the floor. My car is missing these thanks to it's previous floor rust work. I know, it wouldn't be hard to make some. But you can't beat original.

 

But now I've got my balls back.

Reunited and it feels so good.

[Threeonthetree]

So here are a few gearboxes that I have. I was shoving them under the house, which by the way, is an excellent place to stash parts that you aren't allowed to have at home. Unless you get caught..

 

 

All three gearboxes are Holden Three-speed units.

 

The top left was originally a six cylinder three-speed. Nothing fancy. But it has been modified.

The six cylinder input shaft has been removed and a longer shaft installed. The input shaft support collar (white sticker) was also lengthened. The rest is untouched. This was a common modification made by Speedway guys. The Holden V8 was a popular choice but V8 three-speeds were expensive. So they'd just Frankenstein a six cylinder 'box to suit.

 

The top right is just a standard HQ era six cylinder gearbox.

 

The gearbox in the foreground is a factory V8 three-speed long input shaft gearbox. It has the most common V8 bellhousing attached, a factory trimatic pattern aussie manual pattern version. This gearbox was reconditioned barely 500km (yes, not even a thousand) ago. I've had it apart and it's tidy. No excessive play either.

It came out of a carburetted VN Commodore of all things. It had a floorshift kit attached too.

The VN had a freshened up 308 and this reconditioned gearbox fitted. The sump plug detached itself and the engine ran out of oil. Bearings were run. The VN was parted out and I walked away pretty happy.

 

 

Ignore the tidy Cat5 phone cable join.

 

This is the differential that I am looking at running.

 

HK HT and HG Holdens had a large range of differentials available, depending on the engine and gearbox combination.

As I am using the Australian V8 (253, 308) and the Australian three-speed gearbox, the factory diff would have been the Australian 'Banjo' differential. These were produced in a range of ratios as at 1971:

 

2.78:1

3.08:1
3.90:1
3.36:1
3.55:1
2.60:1

 

Banjo differential ended up using two types of axles. One with a larger spline count. These are known as the 'fine spline'. But since we're still back in 1971 for the purposes of this build, 'coarse spline' is the only option.

 

I could always fit fine splined axles, but that's mean adjusting the length, changing the diff side gears and ending up with an HQ Holden stud pattern. HK HT and HG Holdens were the last Holdens to use the older stud pattern PCD of 4.25 Inches. The HQ Holden heralded the newer PCD of 4.75 Inches.

 

The differential in my wagon currently should be a coarse splined 3.55:1 ratio Banjo.

My stashed differential is from a 186 GTS HT Monaro. It's a 2.78:1 ratio with an LSD centre.

The beauty of this is that I can simply pull my rear axles out and change the diff heads.

 

2.78:1 may seem a bit on the tall side. Even I think so, but because changing differential ratios is relatively easy, I shall give it a spin first. The next option would be 3.08:1 but they're the most popular ratio and most are either hoarded, fitted to a car, very expensive or have sadly been destroyed. And believe me, it doesn't take much abuse to destroy them.