fbekholden.com

The longest lead time part was going to be the front end. At the time of me starting this project the pickings were a bit slim.

Rod tech was my first choice but was not taking any orders….

V6 conversions I didn’t really like the design

Castlemain Rodshop Tim had used in another customers build previously and didn’t recommend it. Plus it had a 30 week lead time

United speed had a really nice looking front end but it started at 12k which was overkill for my old shitter

This left Curleys/SCW which was a “6 week” lead time and what I like about Curleys was the brake combination still allows 14” wheels to fit so I pulled the trigger on it despite a few average reviews I came across while researching.

The front end was one of the biggest pains of the build to deal with so far. 6 weeks ended up being closer to 6 months and when it did turn up it was not as promised.

Coilovers missing, brake pads missing, mismatched calipers, wrong engine mounts, poorly packaged, no paperwork, wheel studs drilled and tapped on the piss to the point wheels wouldn’t actually go on the studs, shit about god scribbled over the packaging and packing slip made out to “BDogga” which my kids though was pretty funny and so did I but not really professional customer service for something you’ve just charge 7k for…








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With my patience dealing with Curley tested and running short I have to give him credit with the fact that he rectified all the issues in the timeframe I gave him. The end product is a good bit of gear but far out the whole experience did not need to be as bigger shit show as it was. Would I buy another one? If it was guaranteed I was going to get what I paid for first time around yes I would but I guess that’s the roll of the dice. With rod tech now taking orders again I’d probably go with that option maybe?

While going back and fourth with Curley the old 28 spline single pegger 9 inch went to Altra 9 here in Brisbane. I ended up throwing the axles in the bin and selling the center off. These were replaced with a strange tru track center and billet axles to suit. Housing was checked for straightness while it was there and that’s basically the only part of the existing diff that I used…. Not a cheap exercise but should be up for the abuse and be future upgrade friendly.

With diff sorted and all front end issues rectified we put the front and rear ends into the car and started planning out how everything was going to fit.

Ride height was not final at this stage we were just bolting things in to see what we had.






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This is where the snowballing started. It became apparent that if I stuck with the original plan of an LS6 intake and throttle body realestate for a decent radiator, trans cooler, condensor would be limited. Not impossible but looking at all the options and wanting to keep all the cooling system a non issue it was decided go with a Holley intake and 4 barrel style throttle body. The curleys from end allows you to keep everything pretty low so bonnet clearance is no a problem but engine bay length would be the issue.

We also had the auto sparky/tuner I am using come out and look at what I had. Turns out the fly by wire throttle body and pedal I had were very early US GM items and if I had any issues down the track would be obsolete and painful so I bit the bullet (see the snowball below fact starting to occur here) and buy a Holley ecu and plug and play wiring harness to suit the throttle body setup I was now talked into going with.

While all this was going on we pulled the heads off and had a look at the lm7 “junkyard motor”. Bottom end looked fine and the compression and leakdown tests were all with in spec. One of the heads had been replaced at some stage and overall it looked to be an ok engine but again the snowball was gathering moment and while it was apart I decided to do a few of the usual ls upgrades such as, trunion upgrade, oil pump and pickup upgrade, suitable baffled holley sump, billet barbell, ls7 lifters, cam upgrade with all the usual add ons and Tim being good friends with the Tremains of pro stock / nxt gen heads we got them to run their cnc program on the 862 heads to wake it all up a little.

On top of the upgrades we did the usual, gaskets, water pump etc and replaced all the usual wear and tear/serviceable items. The water pump ended up getting replaced again at a later date to a heavy metal garage billet LS pump to get the ac and all the other bolt ons to fit and work properly. Again this is the snowball in full effect haha.

The new combo should provide a few extra ponnies compared to the tired old grey.








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With the engine and diff taken care of attention turned to the car/chassis to plan out the required strengthening.

This car has had a few patches here and there as well as some serious rustproofing done to it over the years. So while we were poking around we found a few of the usual issues but overall it was found to be a pretty solid car.

Not keen on spending days under the car with paint stripper and a wire wheel I made the decision to mount it on my rotisserie and get the firewall and floors blasted. Such a shit messy job and I probably ended up spending just as long getting sand out of everything. It’s just one of those shit jobs which you think why am I doing this at the time but once it’s done you know it’s been done properly and should give a good base to build on knowing everything will be sound structurally and the thing won’t fold itself in half.

Before Blasting:














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After Blasting, pleasant suprise, usual repairs to be done but overall not bad and confirmation for the purists I’m not destroying a pristine original car….














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First thing to tackle was the subframe. Usual rust under the radiator and where it bolts up to the firewall, a few ripples from a hit back in the day and lots of unused holes no longer needed.

Half way through doing the front subframe we realised how much we dislike rust repairs and how slow we were with them so the call was made to load the car trailer back up and take the car out to rock solid auto body to finish the rust repairs.

An expensive exercise I hadn’t budgeted on but the time saved having a pro do this and the quality of the end result I would 100% use Todd and his team again.


















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A heap more rust repairs. Firewall, a pillars, one under floor brace, floor patches, outer sills, dog legs and a little custom touch with the now redundant fuel roller hole. All the hanging panels and the rear quarters were lift, there are still sins in the body but structurally the thing is like new. I don’t want to over do this and end up with something too nice to want to drive but if I ever decide to do panel and paint down the track I know that’s underneath and all the structural stuff has been taken care of.
















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Anyway lots of rust repairs, I have 100s of photos I won’t bore you with and I’m sure you all get the gist…..
Once done the boys flicked some 2k over everything trying to make it all blend in with the rest of the car. Then bolt it all back together and back on all 4s nice and fresh. Fuel filler filled in but spewing my cruisin skirts now won’t fit.. you win some you loose some









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With all the structural rust sorted we turned to further strengthening the chassis and rear end to cope with the added weight and power to get through engineering. I had a castlemain kit here from another project but decided against using it with Tim knocking up some connectors which were recessed into the floor slightly to get them tucked up and not hanging down like the Castlemaine ones do. Where they slightly come through the floor is under the seat so once everything is back in you won’t even know. Once all the driveline angles were sorted a trans mount was added to the mix and tuff mounts also tacked in.


The rear leaves had an eye flipped and what was left was re-set to get the car sitting right and mated with a gazzard bros caltrac “kit” to suit early Holden’s so we know how that goes…. Ended up needing to modify the front spring hanger to get them to fit but got it sorted in the end













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BS I’m building a wagon at the moment mate and I take my hat off to you with the mods, love the chassis rails etc underneath I’m not as ambitious I think as you and I build on a pretty tight budget (read here I’m a cheapskate ) went back and read the whole thread great story and great to see this wagon going the whole way.

WOW

I just looked up "scope creep" in the dictionary and there was a picture of your wagon

Great to see you are doing such a good job of it - you have been busy !!!!

Its amazing how all these aftermarket suppliers are so happy to deliver a shit product and just expect people to accept it - I have had nothing but bad luck with CRS stuff over the years and Firekraka and I were only talking about the same thing last weekend with some of the stuff he had bought.

Thanks gents

Scope creep is an understatement

It’s coming together way nicer than what I expected.

I have to agree with you guys. Not one “kit” I have used has fit without needing modification.

As painful as dealing with SCW was I have to say at least their front end when I eventually got what I had paid for was a good bit of gear. Everything else I have used from bonnet hinges to alternator brackets to caltracs has needed to modified. A bit frustrating with the price you pay for some of this stuff..


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Do you have any close up pics of the Caltracs ? FireKraka and I are both in the market and I have a mate with a laser cutter ........

A great read and pics BS. Being a fellow V8 converter I can fully understand the need to continually dip into the wallet to cover the unexpected. Great job.