I was brought up in a great neighborhood
Met too Doc. Your street sounds like late 60's/early 70's era Maroubra, my spiritual stomping ground. The humble FJ ruled the streets of our little beachside suburb where blokes like Billy Woods and his 14 second red motor FJ ruled the Bunnerong Power Station drags. Another local legend, Peter Ford had the distinction of building what quite probably was the very first red motored FJ in the world, in early 1964. His dad was the service manager at RSL cabs and Pete got a taxi 179 engine that'd run out of oil, about a month after the EH was released. I can remember riding my pushy around to his house and seeing the engine on the bench fitted with the triple 1 1/12 SU's from his grey motor. By the time I'd finished totally buggering the Hillman Minx my parents had bought me as a "sensible first car" by fitting a Holden engine, I just had to own an FJ of my own. I bought the ex Kevin Macintyre (the guy who started K-Mac Suspension ) Apendix J FX, complete with 3.25 bore grey motor with 12-1 Weslite pistons, triple 1 1/4 SUs Barry Seton extractors, and shitloads more. The old girl was a beast but couldn't hold a candle to Woodsy and Fordy and their 179 FJs so, out went the grey and in went the red, a worn out 186. I fitted a Wilkinson 12 port head, McGee 30-70 cam, and triple 1 3/4 SUs and another set of Seton extractors. I fitted a Jag Moss 4 speed and a 4-1 Zephyr/Transit van diff after breaking the originals too many times and went drag racing. I was stoked to do 15s in the old black girl but Ron Harrop was pulling 12's in his car down in Victoria so I vowed to build the FX into a Harrop Beater. Unfortunately, I fell asleep at the wheel one night and destroyed the car against a pole in Seven Hills. I managed to save everything except the body and fitted it all to a pretty clean 56 FJ that had also seen action as a road race Apendix J car. That car ended up with a 215 stroker crank, 3 x 45mm Webers and then triple 2" SUs, an MGB gearbox and 4-7 Transit gears in the Zephyr diff. My plans of knocking off Harrop were a little short of reality but the car did run high 13's which was damn good for 1970, especially for a registered street car on street tyres (road racing Bridgestones actually).
The FJ was eventually taken off the street and I bought, with help the finance company and Dad a brand new VG VIP 318, (complete with padded vinyl roof, electric windows and aircon but no bloody radio! how weird? )to tow the FJ and trailer. Towing the old FJ to Surfers and Calder got old really quickly so I sold the FJ to my apprentice and we built an altered (Satans Chariot VW D/A) using the original grey engine from my FX. After a year we sold the altered and decided to go big time by building a fibreglass Fiat Topolino A/A fitted with a fuel injected 327 small block Chevy. Unfortunately the "big time" came with expenses we hadn't envisioned in the original plan and after a couple of crippling blowups and a big transmission blowup at Adelaide International that nearly took my mate Bernies balls out, we decided that we'd had enough and sold the car to a bloke in Bendigo. By then I was just starting to race motocross and the rest is history. I never lost the love of cars or bikes. My motor racing 'career' amounted to zero when compared to others but I wouldn't swap those days for anything. I'd build another FJ tomorrow if the right body came along.
My mate Bill Woods and I and our Humpies, Sussex Inlet, 1970 (Mine is the beige beauty, me in purple)
Our 327 Chevy powered Fiat altered, Castlereagh Dragway, August 1973.
Postscript: About 10 years ago I got a phonecall from a bloke who identified himself but the name didn't mean anything. He then went on to tell me that he had seen my name in ADB and remembered that I was the guy who he'd bought his FJ from twenty eight years earlier. He then went on to tell me that he'd joined the Army after finishing his apprentiship and hed been transferred to Townsville. He met a local girl and settled up there after his stint in the services ended. The big news to me though was that he still owned the FJ after all of those years. He had shipped it up to Qld and took the hotty engine out and fitted a mild 202. At that time he'd nearly finished restoring it and was ready to put it back on the street. Unfortunately I never heard back from him and I lost his contact details so..If anybody in NQ knows of a nice FJ (possibly painted silver or gunmetal grey), that may be my old car and I'd love to own it again, or just see it!. It's got a history worthy of its own book. I only wish I had a decent photo to show you guys.
