Kuhnemann family 1964 EH HOLDEN
A TRUE SURVIVOR THAT NEVER LEFT HOME
This old wagon is now in the hands of a fourth generation of the Kuhnemann family. Pictured are three of them: Craig, Maureen, Brian and Jared. Maureen: This was my mum’s car – she bought it new at Eager’s in Toowoomba in 1964. It was a big family investment at the time. She had an FJ Holden before that and traded it in for this one. These days the car doesn’t get a whole lot of use. In fact it only has 22,000 miles on it.
Jared: It actually sat in a shed from 1986 until last year with 21,149 miles on the odometer. What we first did was pull out the spark plugs and turn over the engine with a little oil down the cylinders. We pulled off the tappet cover and oiled what we could. With some fresh fuel and a new battery, away it went!
And then the fun started. We had to do all the brakes, and then it got half stuck in the shed because the clutch got stuck. I’m a mechanic, so I could do the work.
It’s lovely to drive – just like a new one. It’s a three-on-thetree, with synchro only on second and third. It has four-wheel drum brakes with no booster, and the clutch has no assistance either. Mechanically, it’s very simple, but you need to be patient when you’re driving it. You do a bit of planning ahead.
The whole family is happy to see it up and running again. Its main purpose was to take Maureen’s dad to work and back at the local foundry, with Mum doing the driving. He was an ex-farmer who suffered a major injury and had to leave farming. So it was used a lot but didn’t do many miles.
It’s lucky that it was sitting in a very dry shed with a thick canvas cover over it. To give you some idea of how well it survived, that roof hasn’t been polished – I haven’t had time. It was unregistered for a few years, but we managed to keep the original numberplates.
These days we just get it out occasionally and take it for a run, as a special treat.