The Old Girl (as everyone seems to call her) is a manual EH Special Sedan, Fowlers Ivory over Gippsland Green with a standard 149 low compression motor. As far as I can recall (I haven't seen them for a while), the registration papers state that she was built in November 1963. One thing for sure however, the 'S' suffix of her chassis number indicates that she was assembled in Sydney.

My brother Matt bought her in 1986 from a young guy in Paddington, who had bought her from the original owner. She was in perfect condition at the time and fitted with Premier carpets, chrome doorsill scuff plates, Nasco gear lever lock and mud flaps. My suspicion is that these were all factory fitted, but they may have been added by the guy Matt bought her from. The odometer at the time of purchase read 102,300 miles though the body was in remarkable shape, with no evidence of repainting, crash damage or general wear and tear such as a worn underbody bolts. Prior to her new lease of life, her last registration ran out in June 1988 - the sticker is still on the LHF quarter window for old time's sake.

Like me, Matt was working in the mineral exploration industry in WA when he bought the car and thus he only got to drive her when back in Sydney on holidays. In his absence, she was parked at our parents' house and cranked over occasionally.

Matt was killed on the job whilst working as a Field Hand for Normandy at Laverton Downs Station in late 1992. He was only 24. This tragedy hit my parents especially hard and they were reminded of it every time they walked out of the front door and past The Old Girl. Time and weather took their toll, with the air intake at the base of the windscreen filling up with leaves, resulting in the plenum chamber rusting through. Thereafter, water flowed freely into the front passenger foot well and, when that was full, into the other foot wells and the base of the rear seat squab - all of which subsequently rusted to bits. The spring tail clips in the side trim welded themselves to the body with rust and the interior became caked in sooty mould.

My parents moved houses in October 1998 and were forced to make a decision over what to do with The Old Girl. It was decided that, no matter what it cost, she was to be restored to the condition she was in when Matt bought her. Because I was in charge of getting the job done, she had to be sent to Perth from Sydney (TNT Car Carriers - $1,100). I'd previously arranged for Leon Conway of Vintage Restorations in Maddington to receive her and do the rust repairs.

Because I didn't have anywhere to store her, we instructed Leon to take his time and, after six months and $7,400 worth of rust repairs, the job was done. It's a brilliant job - right down to circular inserts the size of twenty cent pieces where the trim clips had rusted the doors and guards away. Leon passed the car to Neil Milner of Kelmscott for painting and partial reassembly (about $5,000 - including new rubbers and head lining). Neil moved around a few spray shops in the area but was very good to us, storing the vehicle without charge in between painting stages over an 18 month period. He rang in October 2000 to say that she was done, he'd run out of room and could we please take her back.

Getting her back created hassles. We have a double carport which fronts directly onto the footpath, no front yard, no access to our back yard and any friends or relatives with a shed or yard that we could call upon. My Dad didn't want her back in Sydney so, with three cars, something had to be left on the street. My three year old Corolla lost the toss.

With plenty of other things to do with my life, putting an old car back together was the last thing I wanted to do. Nevertheless, I figured she'd be easier to do something with if fully reassembled and running. I saw an advert in the weekend paper for the GM Owner's Day in November 2000 and thought I'd go along to see if there was anybody there that knew anything about EH's and might be prepared to tell me what bit went where. I was floored to see 19 Old Girls just like ours there - let alone a whole bunch of people that were keen to help! I signed up on the spot.
After many hours of cleaning all the interior and exterior trim and bolting everything back onto the shell it was time to get her running, starting and stopping. With guidance and support from that pillar of strength, Rodger Alford, we first of all sorted out the ignition and got her running for the first time in around six or eight years. Rough as bags at first with stuck valves and an errant accelerator pump, but steadily better with running time. The original tin reservoirs on the master cylinders had mostly dissolved, the hydraulic lines were full of sludge and all the clutch and brake cylinders were cactus. I was surprised at being able to buy everything over the counter for this and had a brake place in Osborne Park machine the drums (complete with asbestos pads, they hadn't even been taken out to a Number One oversize).

Having noted at the Victorian EH Club's website that original seat vinyl and boot mats could be obtained, I sent over for both. John's Motor Trimmers in Vic Park replaced the top vinyl on the rear bench seat with the stuff from Melbourne and put the original vinyl with new wadding onto a squab that I got from a wreck. The results are fantastic
An auto sparkie spent hours getting all her circuits working and Jim the gentleman genius (JRP Autos in Landsdale) got all the rest of her happening. Just so happened that the Inspector at the East Perth Licensing Office is an HQ freak and a mate of Jim's so, when he heard who'd done the work said, "There'll be nothing for me to find if Jim's been at her". She went over the pits first time.

As she was never fitted with seat belts that's how she went over the pits but, to be sensible, I intend to put a set in once I track down some originals. I'm reluctant to drill the holes through her perfectly good B pillars but can't afford to get plates welded inside.

Once she'd been on the road for a couple of months it was obvious that the main oil seal wasn't going to improve so, a couple of weeks ago, it was back to Jim to get this done. He also replaced the core plugs and exchanged the fibre timing gears for aluminium ones.

Having the motor out provided an opportunity to get it and the engine bay resprayed. Rodger supplied an example of the engine colour for matching but there were many phone calls to club members ensued to debate the true colour of the firewall and guards. For the record, it seems that there was a difference in the two, with the firewall being variously described as milky or bluish and the guards darker, moreso a "GMH Satin Black". I couldn't get consensus whether the original finish under the hood was satin or gloss. Ross, Jim's mate just a few doors up the street ("Roscoe's ReCar") did the respray. He colour matched the firewall against a patch of unadulterated original colour behind the hinge using black, white and a dash of carmine. Another original patch on the guard (revealed when the upper grille panel was removed) looked to be the same colour as the firewall so Ross painted the whole bay the same. Both original patches looked to be satin finish until I took to them with car polish, revealing them to be moreso gloss than satin. For this reason, we decided to join the gloss camp, and that's what the engine bay is finished in now.

I tracked down an original "Diamond Dot" push button radio and clock in the past few weeks. The radio's just sitting in the dash at the moment, but I've located a speaker and will wire the whole thing in soon. Rodger Alford wired up the clock for me but she no go. A clock maker and a guy who does some work for the VDO agency in Welshpool have since had a look and identified a couple of broken wheels - for which neither have any spares. Both say they can put a quartz movement in but I won't say die yet. (Anybody with any original clock bits PLEASE give me a call on 0407 308 883!!)

So now I'm completely sucked in by EH's. Sold the Corolla and now have to allow an extra ten minutes when I go to the shops because there's always somebody that wants to tell me their EH/EJ story and look under the hood! (Funny thing you know, I used to drive around in a $53,000 SAAB and nobody gave it a second glance. I now get around in an old car that's worth $9,000 to $10,000 on a good day and everybody wants to be my friend!).
Thanks Matt, thanks Dad and thanks to my helpful new friends in the EH Club of WA. Long live all The Old Girls out there.

October 2001