THE Beauchamp family are not new to building elite-level early Holdens. You might remember Peter and Judy’s WILDFB, the highly modified, twin-turbo Lexus V8-powered FB coupe that debuted (and performed very well) at Street Machine Summernats 31. After his heavy involvement in the FB build, their son Daniel got the bug for building neat old Holdens and has since been working on his own twin-turbo LS FJ ute project, which is now nearing body and paint. But with a young family of four on the go, Daniel had one small problem with using the humpy for street duties: not enough seats!
First published in Street Machine’s Yearbook 2021
Xtreme Restorations in SA carried out the two-door conversion, along with the custom-built chassis and other neat modifications
That was the motivation behind the purchase of this FC. “After looking around for a few months and inspecting multiple old Holdens, I was contacted about a FC that was in the build by Chad at Xtreme Restorations,” Daniel says. “I got in touch with the owner and three days later the car transporter was at the door!”
Chad and his team had already done major work on the FC to make it a two-door coupe, extending the front doors, fabricating new quarter-panel sections and relocating the B-pillar to suit. They also added a neat recessed firewall for the LS mill. Underneath, a one-off chassis had been designed and fabricated, complete with a Rod-Tech front and rolling on 20-inch American Legend billet wheels.
It goes without saying that a large portion of what you see here was initially envisioned by the original owner along with Chad and his team. But when Daniel presented me with his concept for the car, we couldn’t help but think how cool this FC coupe would look once built to his vision. He wanted a show-and-go family cruiser with an old-school theme, but with a modernised look and feel, too.
Starting with an FC sedan 3D model, I set about adding in all of the modifications done to the car so far. I began by filling in the rear doors and extending the front doors back 170mm for a full length of 1100mm; the gaps in the side trims were relocated to match. The B-pillar was moved back to suit, with the shortened upper rear door frame now serving as the opening for the rear quarter-glass. The front quarter-window was removed, with one-piece front-door glass filling the gap.
The front wheelarches had been stretched 50mm to accommodate the 20x8in billets, so I reshaped the front guard accordingly, making sure the lip around the arch still flowed nicely to the rest of the body. The Xtreme Restorations crew had also fabricated full-length sill panels, so the door/sill gap now runs all the way to the front wheelarch.
The front of the FC remains fairly true to how it left the factory, sans the Holden badging and bonnet emblem
The FC has copped the full smooth-over treatment on the exterior to keep with the clean-but-classic theme, with the front cowl vent removed, along with all badging, locks, side mirrors and some trims pieces, and the fuel filler has been relocated to inside the boot.
All badging has been removed, along with the boot lock, and the fuel filler now lives inside the boot
Inside the car, the sheet-metal dash was added in with a trimmed crash pad on top, along with a modern four-bucket interior with a full-length centre console. We made sure the buckets didn’t protrude too far above the tops of the doors so they don’t detract from the exterior styling.
American Legend wheels are Daniel’s rollers of choice for the FC, measuring 20×8 up front and 20×10 at the rear
With Daniel’s old school-but-modern theme in mind, I set about testing a range of colour combinations based on factory hues, making the colours more vibrant and in either pearl or metallic paint to give them a modern feel. We also tested some darker greys and blacks, but found that a light metallic blue and clean pearl white combo gave the car a lot more character and nailed the brief, and matches the beige interior trim colour nicely.
The metallic blue and pearl white paint combo give the FC a classic look but with a modern feel
Daniel’s still in the process of finessing the metalwork on the FC, fine-tuning the sheet metal surrounding the two-door conversion to ensure all the body lines flow nicely. “While a fair bit of work has been done, there is still a long road ahead of us to build this car to a level it deserves,” he says.
He plans to finish it to an elite level in the next three-to-five years, with a fully detailed undercarriage. It’ll run an aspirated LQ9 408 stroker donk, dressed up with factory-looking components to match the styling of the exterior, so it’ll have plenty of go once Daniel and his wife Georgia are done showing the coupe. How good is that for a family cruiser?
In detail:
- Two-door conversion
- Custom chassis
- Full-length sill panels
- Doors extended 170mm
- Deleted locks and badging
- American Legend Billet wheels
DANIEL AND GEORGIA BEAUCHAMP
1958 HOLDEN FC COUPE
Paint: Pearl white/metallic blueENGINEEngine: LQ9 408 strokerTransmission: TH700ECU: Holley Terminator XChassis: CustomFront suspension: Rod-Tech IFSRims: American Legend Thunderbolt, 20×8 (f), 20×10(r)
Rubber: Continental; 245/35R20 (f), 275/30R20 (r)
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