Seeking advice...

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:20 am

hi all

I'll start off by saying I am a complete amatuer. I have loved EKs for years but only to the point that I think they are beautiful. I just saw one recently and took it for a test drive on Saturday. What a shock! This was the first time I've ever driven an EK.

It was *very* heavy to manoeuvere and awkward to brake. I'm now full of questions.

1) would i be asking for trouble buying an EK as someone with little-to-no mechanical knowledge?

2) is $6500 a good price for this EK? http://www.carsales.com.au/pls/carsales ... id=2708960

She is beautiful...

3) Are modifications possible to make it a more comfortable drive; ie, power-steering? disc brakes?

4) Considering it's nearly impossible to find leaded/LRP petrol these days, would an LPG conversion be possible/recommended?

That's a good start.

Cheers

Paul

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:58 pm

Hi Paul and welcome,

1. Yes and no, it really depends on your mechanical apptitude. My theory is if you can pull it apart you can put it back together! But diagnosing the problem can be tricky. Are you willing to learn? The forum here will help in more ways than you will realize as there is a wealth of knowledge a click of the cursor away.....

2. Seems to be a realtively clean looking car, but its hard to tell with out physically looking at it. Then again even then you won't see everything. Years of crud buildup can hide nasties!

3. Yes. Although a cheaper optoin to lighten the steering is a handicapped twirler (can't think of the proper name), a knob that spins and can be attached to the steering wheel. Or bump the tyre pressure up a little higher than normal.Mind you I have never considered the steering heavy in an EK, I currently run around in a early 70's Fairlane with NO power steering and that aint bad either.. Brakes, front end swap to HR gives you disc brakes, but this isn't a bolt up option it requires welding if the HR frontend isn't setup for an EK. Maybe just a power booster on the existing sytem would be enough. I am not sure what boosted drums are like though..

4. Not really, run it on unleaded as I doubt it will ping. Just add a valve lubricant every so often if you are worried about it. I don't use additives in any of my old leaded fuel powered cars as I have been lead to believe that due to the amount of lead through the engine from years of buildup I shouldn't really have to much of a problem. Only time will tell.

Hope this helps...

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:08 pm

Hi Devilrod - thanks heaps for this. I really do appreciate it.

I don't have much mechanical experience at all but through necessity and the love of the car, I hope there's a decent chance that I'd pick some up. Also, although I don't have money to burn, but I am willing to pay someone who knows what they're doing to take car of my car if I go ahead with this. I'm waiting to organise an inspection of said beauty - unfortunately the RACV won't inspect any cars on site that are twenty plus years old. I expect to base my decision on this report.

It looks like there are options to increase the comfort factor should I go ahead with this one. Any other suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

oldgmh · Post by **oldgmh** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:17 pm

Paul - if you are looking for a lot of comfort, performance and handling then DONT buy it. If you are looking for a good cruiser and happy to do a few little bits of regular maintenance to have a car that is unique and stands stands out from the crowd, then DO buy it.

Remember that once you fix a mechanical problem than it is usually fixed forever, whereas if you try and fix body rust that is hidden under bog - it usually returns a lot earlier than you wanted.

As devilrod says - pump the tyres up a few more psi, and make sure you have radials fitted and not crossplys.

I like red cars too.

good luck and welcome to the world of early holdens!

FB MAD · Post by **FB MAD** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:23 am

G'day Paul. Ditto to Devilrod and Oldgmh comments.Don't let lack of mechanical knowledge hold you back, you have to start learning somewhere and these old girls are probably best to have to start learning.Nice and simple.
If you've never driven a car this old it can be a disappointment compared to the comfort of todays cars but these cars are time warps and that is what driving was like back then.
Seems as though the car you are looking at is a clean one.Check for rust in the floor under the floor mat/ carpets in the front and back and also in the boot as these are some of the problem areas.Brakes were drum all round and they can "pull" to one side under braking if not adjusted properly or have leaking/seized wheel cylinders.They also have a rather hard feel to the pedal when braking giving the feeling of a lot of pedal effort for not much braking.This could give you the "awkward to brake" feeling you described.Power brake boosters (VH 24) were an option and can relieve the pedal effort but you still have old drum brakes so a disc brake HR Holden front end is probably the next braking improvement level.
LPG conversion is most likely costly.Use normal unleaded and upper cylinder lubricant which is available in most petrol stations...just add it to your tank and you get LRP petrol.Probably won't "ping" on normal unleaded as its around 91 RON and the old grey was designed for super or standard petrol as they were called then.From memory Standard was around 93 RON and Super was around 95 RON.
You will be guaranteed to turn heads driving one of these.Good luck with your potential purchase and if you need info in future ask here.I've only recently join this forum and found everyone to be friendly and willing to help with questions................ Regards Terry.

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:38 am

Other "Rust" areas to check:
Front Subframe (the bit that everything forward of the firewall mounts too)
Around the back window (outer edges where the roof meets the top of the quarters)
Front gaurds (above headlights, edge near the door also the tops at the rear)

All is repairable as patch panels are available.....

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:05 am

hi guys. thanks again for your input.

> Paul - if you are looking for a lot of comfort, performance
> and handling then DONT buy it.

Not specifically, no. I don't intend to drive it daily and I don't intend to push it. And it seems that I do have options to *increase* the comfort factor, as long as I'm prepared to invest a little in her.

> If you are looking for a good cruiser and happy to do a few
> little bits of regular maintenance to have a car that is unique
> and stands stands out from the crowd, then DO buy it.

Hell yeah. I always stop and stare when I see EKs or similarly aged cars on the road. So pretty!

I'll try to remember to take note of bog. I'm booking the inspection after I type this.

> good luck and welcome to the world of early holdens!

Thanks! I hope to arrive soon.

---

> Don't let lack of mechanical knowledge hold you back, you have
> to start learning somewhere and these old girls are probably best
> to have to start learning.Nice and simple.

I figured as much.. but was hoping for someone to agree with me

> If you've never driven a car this old it can be a disappointment
> compared to the comfort of todays cars but these cars are time
> warps and that is what driving was like back then.

Yeah, I sure noticed that. The only other time I can remember driving a similarly aged car was a Humber Super Snipe which from memory was heavier than this girl. I was scared off when the accelerator locked and I had to put my foot under it and pull it up. Didn't buy that one!

> Seems as though the car you are looking at is a clean one.Check
> for rust in the floor under the floor mat/ carpets in the front
> and back and also in the boot as these are some of the problem areas.

I was pretty happy with my view but I don't trust my own judgement; hence the inspection.

Thanks for your info re the brakes and petrol too.

> You will be guaranteed to turn heads driving one of these.Good luck
> with your potential purchase and if you need info in future ask here.
> I've only recently join this forum and found everyone to be friendly
> and willing to help with questions................ Regards Terry.

This has really taught me a lot. I'm glad I found the forum!

blue ute · Post by **blue ute** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:05 am

Hi paulb
Another suggestion would be is if you're uncertain take a small magnet (cos magnets dont stick to bog) to check in problem prone area's such as bottoms of all doors & the front rear gaurds, top of front gaurds near the windscreen curve & around the headlight peaks as well as other suggested area's - in fact anywhere on the car you suspect

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:43 am

oh no!

RACV don't do inspections on weekends! This is proving more and more difficult. I'll call the owner this evening to see if we can work something out; however, he said he'd need to take a day of work to arrange it on a weekday and this wasn't feasible.

I saw another in the Trading Post in Cranbourne. I'll look into this too.

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:57 pm

Thats my neck of the woods, got any more details on the car????

Might have seen it? If you are going to look at it let me know. If I'm around I might be able to help you out.......

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:04 pm

> Thats my neck of the woods, got any more details on the car????
>
> Might have seen it? If you are going to look at it let me know. If I'm around I might be able to help you out.......

Really? I'm in Collingwood and travelled to Packenham last week to check out the red one - even took a photo while I was there - http://paulbuchanan.net/ek.jpg. The owner kindly drove from Koo Wee Rup to meet me.

Anyway, I'll follow both of these up and see what happens.

Cheers

paul@paulbuchanan.net

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:11 pm

oh.. and here's the details for the 2nd one I spotted:

MAKE/MODEL: Holden EK
YEAR: 1961
PRICE: $6,000.00
BODY: sedan
HOLDEN EK SEDAN 1961 immaculate condition, original black & white number plates, all original, drives like new, mechanically A1, rego-HJP617, $6,000 (0412)962052, Cranbourne.
STATE: VIC FIRST PUBLISHED: 14 Nov 2005
SOURCE: Private Classifieds (Melbourne Trading Post)

Cheers

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 3:19 pm

Pm me if you are going to look at it, I'll see if I am available at that time....

earlyholdenfan · Post by **earlyholdenfan** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:38 pm

Hi Paulb!
One thing I noticed with the red beast is that it is a Hydramatic, as you may well have found out by now the Hydra is not the worlds most performance inclined gearbox (how is that for diplomatic!) but even this can be fixed, if you want to keep an automatic, and are not strict on the originality concept I can help you out with information on how to hook up a late model Trimatic gearbox to the grey motor, it makes it a thousand times better as a daily driver! I have done this in my EK wagon and couldnt believe it was the same car!
Welcome to the forum, and feel free to ask anything you want to on here, it is always great to see new faces
Cheers
Matt

paulb · Post by **paulb** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:10 pm

Hi Matt

just spotted this post... this sounds very interesting. As mentioned in my pm to you, I would love to find out some more information about this, considering that I would need to find someone willing and able to accept $$ from me to do it - recommend a mechanic??

Anyway, I'll check out the beige EK in Cranbourne on Sunday (the selling price of which I just noticed has dropped to 5k) and take it from there.

Cheers

fbekholden.com

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