Pete’s vintage FJ two cars in one

By Marc McGowan
PAKENHAM car enthusiast Peter Roach had always wanted to restore an old car, and eight years ago the opportunity arose.
A friend of his had a 1954 FJ Holden, and was eager to get rid of it, so Peter, 54, took it off his hands for $600.
“When I got it, it really was just a rolling piece of junk,” he said.
“I’d always thought about it (restoring a car), but I’d always been too busy.”
The car sat in Peter’s shed for months afterwards, before he acquired another FJ Holden for $1100, and the restoration process began.
“I turned two cars into one,” he said.
Peter estimates that he did 80 per cent of the restoration himself, which was helped by the fact that he had tinkered with cars for most of his life.
“I’ve always mucked around and serviced my car.
“I’d never do brakes or anything with the safety side, but I’d always serviced them; tuned them,” he said.
“Mechanically, I’m pretty good.
“I’ve always been interested.
“There were just a few bits and pieces that I couldn’t do, which I had to get done professionally, like the painting of it and the upholstery.”
His most satisfying experience with the vintage model was its first day on the road, when he went to get the roadworthy certificate. It was the culmination of six years of hard work and roughly $14,000,
“When you assemble a car from home, and then it passes the roadworthy it is a bit of a relief,” Peter said.
He could not have completed the job without the help of a few of his mates in the car industry.
“If I ever got stuck, I’d call Michael [Couch],” he said.
“He was a mechanic, so he’d show me how to do things and gave me good advice.
“The other person who was a big help was Andrew Brown, who used to be our local RACV breakdown mechanic, and now runs Andrew’s Autos.”
So now that he has had a taste of car restoration, is he looking to do more of it in the future?
“Possibly. We’ll just see what happens,” Peter said.