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This is the EH Holden that I owned for eight years. Before I owned
it it had been in our family since 1966, when my father bought
it as a used car from C.V. Holland's.
When I took charge of the car I was 17. It had been sitting in
our family's garage for nearly twenty years by then, barely being
driven. I first drove it regularly to high school, then university,
then to my first two jobs. When I took charge of it it had only
clocked up 68,017 miles. The interior was in absolute mint condition,
perfect hood lining, perfect seats, even the shiniest horn-bar
you've ever seen. The first thing I did to the car was to spend
hours and hours slavishly polishing every skeric of paintwork
and chrome on it until every hubcap, grille slat and decal shone
like a mirror.
I always maintained that I wanted the car to always resemble to
the onlooker a 'Mickey Mouse' original EH. With the small exception
of the cassette stereo (the EH "Diamond Dot" radios
can't get FM!) the interior stayed 100% original, including the
bench seat up front which stayed too (well, I liked it!)
I
sold my EH quite reluctantly to spend two years traveling overseas.
My life at the time was ready for some major re-inventing and
I really really wanted to bust out of Australia, so the EH was
sold. In the end there was quite a lot of rust to fix in the boot
and rear chassis anyway (it had developed when my father accidently
left dozens and dozens of rotting gladioli in the boot for months
and months during 1976 - unfortunately they'd 'perspired' right
throughout the rear of the car!) I didn't have the time nor the
money to fix it any more. I guess I also just got sick of the
hassle of having to doll it up every year for the annual 'pink
slip' (NSW road-worthyness inspection); a mechanic's eyes would
just go "$$$$$$" whenever I'd drive my 1964 EH into
his garage for the inspection. So I just cut a clean break and
went overseas… And now like every other ex-owner of an EH
I continue to lament the day it was sold!
This is the car that I was brought home from hospital in; the
car I went on family holidays in; the car in which I learned to
drive; the car with which I took my first girlfriend out; the
car I used to drive to university. Basically there was a time
when it seemed that this EH was a part of me. And since I was
so parochially proud to own an EH everybody around the local area
knew me instantly by the EH. At the time I couldn't imagine ever
owning another car like it. And somehow, even now, I still can't!
For example, when I occasionally drive my father's Mercedes, I
sometimes start forgetting that it's not an EH - when I pull up
to a stop I find myself fumbling for the non-existant column gear-shifter,
and instead I end up reefing the poor Merc's back-to-front Euro-style
blinker stick into 'first gear'!
It
was a 149ci 3-speed manual when I started with it, totally stock,
with original Stromberg, original manifolds, even the bodgy standard
exhaust that had that characteristic 'Holden fart' sound to it.
The radiator had come a-gutsa from sitting too long full of water,
as had the water pump. The king-pins went next, then the steering
box, then both the clutch and master brake cylinders, followed
by the slave cylinders too. I changed over from the dodgy 100
series crossply's to 78 series radials, having to adjust the positive
camber back to 0°, keeping the original rims. I then changed
the shocks, springs, sway bar, etc., lowering the front end just
a tad (so as to handle, but not to look like a hoon-mobile).
I
used to somehow find out about almost every dumped EH around southern
Sydney that had spares hanging off it. I occasionally asked people
with derelict EH's on their front lawns whether I could grab a
few spares, then would come back armed with crow bars and socket
set. After a while my EH was getting quite a few original Nasco
spares added to it, either prised from other neglected EH's, or
bought from the various wreckers around Sydney. The best prize
was a set a venetians for the rear window to really give the car
that 'Granddad-On-A-Sunday-Drive' look. I was still looking for
some rear wheel spats when I sold it.
Eventually
the 149 spat the dummy at the top of Mt. Ousley, NSW. I rolled
all the way in to Wollongong with a busted piston.
A week later a much tougher 192 went
in (with a stage 2 head), topped off with a 350 Holley, Cain manifold, and Genies mated to a 3" exhaust. Cam wasn't too wild at 35/65 so that it would still idle and could still pretend to be
Granddad's car at the lights (that is until the lights went green
of course!) Despite the beefy engine I was still determined to
maintain the 3-speed column shifter to preserve the 'EH feel'
when driving it, even after blowing the 3 speed twice. A mate
(who worked at the time for gearbox specialists) pieced together
the best weekend custom job on my poor little Holden 3-speed.
Testiment to the great job was how the box stood up - his gearbox
job somehow never faulted behind that brute engine. I kept the
original 3.36:1 diff figuring that I'd just hafta replace it if
it ever blew, but it somehow it held OK too.
