FEATURE – 1967 Holden HR convertible
Words: Mike Ryan. Photos: Chris Sweetapple Photography
The fact that Holden never brought a factory convertible to market didn’t stop individuals from making their own ragtops over the years. Since the very first examples were built in the 1950s, many more have followed, running the gamut from applaudable to deplorable. The unit presented here comes from the better end of that spectrum, as it was built by one of Australia’s best exponents of the craft.
Body by Fisher
Dale Fisher has been one of the best - and certainly the most prodigious - producers of Holden-based convertibles in Australia. In a feature article on Fisher back in 1987, Super Street magazine declared the Sydneysider had built more two- and four-door Holden convertibles than anyone else. Of course, we’re not talking about hundreds here: probably closer to a few dozen, with output peaking in the late-1960s, before enthusiasts’ appetites moved to panel vans, muscle cars and other trends.
Still, demand for Fisher’s skill in convertible builds and other custom modifications was strong enough for him to set up his own business – Dale Fisher Customs – devoted exclusively to such work.
As you can imagine, a convertible conversion in the days before 21st Century technology was a time- and labour-intensive process. While some builders simply cut the roof off and hoped for the best, Fisher did the job properly, with full bracing of the body to keep it rigid, and convertible hoods that opened properly and sealed effectively.
On 48-215 and FJ conversions, a Vauxhall Vagabond hood was found to be of similar dimensions to the Holden, so needed only mild modifications to fit. Later Holdens, like the car featured, were trickier, essentially requiring bespoke frames and hoods.
In Fisher’s case, what he’d learnt came in handy when, in approximately 1968, he was presented with a project that would have been a serious challenge.
Sweet Ride
Being a clerk at GM-H’s Dandenong plant in the late 1960s, it seemed natural that Gerry Sweeting gravitated towards Holdens. Being a member of the Eagles Rod and Custom Club (that was founded in 1960 and still exists today) explains his enthusiasm for custom cars, too. As such, a combination of the two interests was perhaps inevitable.
Specific details around Sweeting’s decision to base a convertible off an HR (as opposed to any other Holden) have been lost to time, with the reason for choosing an HR ute also long forgotten. Whatever the reasons, Sweeting tasked Dale Fisher Customs with turning the ute into a convertible. When it arrived at Fisher’s workshop in 1968 (approximately), the HR was barely a used car, let alone an old one, so the claim that this was the first HR convertible made is probably accurate.
Fisher went above and beyond, not only cutting the roof off the ute, strengthening the body and making a convertible top, but dropping the ride height, docking the windscreen, replacing the rear quarter panels with sectioned HR front guards, heavily modifying the back end, customising the interior and adding a rear bench seat to turn the ute into a five-seater.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Fisher conversion, though, was the bootlid, which was actually another HR bonnet. Mounted using the bonnet’s conventional springs and hinges, the ‘bootlid’ was secured to a custom panel in the tail that used a standard bonnet latch and could be opened from within the cabin via a pull cable, just like the bonnet.
That tail panel took the factory HR ute rear (which was actually an HD in terms of appearance, as the Holden commercials didn’t get the diamond-type tail lights of the HR sedans and wagons) and modified it to take the bootlid, while the use of paired, vertically-mounted HD tail lights led many to mistakenly assume the Sweeting convertible used the back end from a first-generation Mustang.
The hood for the convertible was more of a tonneau than a manually-folding top, using a pair of hoops (held in place by pegs and straps), over which the tonneau top was stretched and fastened at the front and rear with press studs.
The HR doors were left the standard size (not lengthened), with the door hardware and front vent windows retained, too, but the rest of the window frames were cut off. To offer watertightness, the hood featured pockets that the windows could wind up into.
Inside, the convertible got the seats, doorcards, instrumentation and other gear from a Premier, plus a custom woodrim steering wheel.
Running gear is believed to been unchanged, with a red motor, column-shift manual and standard diff, but this is another detail that’s been lost to time.
Viewed from the front, there was no indication of the work that had been done beyond the firewall, but when seen in profile, it was a whole new story. The straighter, boxier shape of the HR lent itself well to a convertible, with such a conversion arguably suiting this model better than any other Holden of the 48-215 to HZ era.
Finished in a colour described as Chromatic Green (similar to Lakeside Green that GM-H offered in 1970) with a bone interior and white vinyl hood, it’s alleged Fisher took only three months to complete the project, after which Sweeting regularly displayed it at car shows in Victoria.
Changed and Changed Again
Following its first couple of years on the Victorian show circuit, the history of this convertible gets a bit cloudy, made even more opaque by conflicting magazine reports on the car’s original specs and its subsequent modifications.
It’s believed Sweeting sold the car sometime around 1975, with the next owner adding a custom grille and rectangular headlights in place of the standard HR front end.
Later in the ’70s, the stock drivetrain was updated with a 350 Small Block, 4-speed floor-shifter and Ford 9-inch rear.
By the 1980s, it had been repainted in Hacienda Blue and had allegedly spent some time with a Victorian bikie gang before being sold again – in around 1982 - to Leon Caris, who had the car featured in a magazine after making some significant modifications of his own.
Starting with strip back to bare metal, Caris repainted the car in Mandarin Red, replaced the factory door handles with flush-mount HQ handles, added a custom (and ugly!) grille and repositioned the fuel filler to underneath a panel aft of the convertible hood.
Inside, Commodore SLE front bucket seats in Carmine vinyl and velour were fitted, along with a Commodore steering wheel and column, XD Falcon dash and instruments, plus real timber dash trim.
Mechanically, the small block was replaced with a 283 Chev out of a drag car that had been fitted with a bunch of trick internals, topped with a Weiand manifold, 780cfm Holley and a blower from a UD truck!
The Muncie 4-speed was retained but upgraded with a Hays competition clutch and Mr. Gasket shifter, while new diff internals and Torana rack and pinion steering was also added.
Heavy-duty LX Torana shocks were fitted all round, a roll bar added and an all-new wiring loom was fitted, too. Brakes were upgraded to Leyland P76 discs in the front and XB Falcon GT discs in the rear, with another ‘Ford’ touch being the 12-slot rims the car still wears today.
Caris’s modifications took five years all up, but according to research from the current owner, the blown 283 was blown up sometime after the work was completed, leading to the fitting of a milder 307 Chev V8 and T350 auto drivetrain, but whether this was done by Caris is unknown
Heading North
Between the late 1980s and 1999, the convertible’s history is also vague, but it did head north from Victoria to New South Wales. It was located in Wagga Wagga when the current owner, Robert Brown, bought it.
Robert’s first car was an HR, he’s been a member of the HD-HR Holden Club of Queensland for more than twenty years and a one-previous-owner HR Special sedan currently occupies the garage. Are you seeing a pattern here?
“I love the style of the HR,” Robert explained. “To me, they’re better than the EH in their styling and the way they drive.”
Given that enthusiasm for HRs, a drop-top version was exactly what he was looking for: “Back in the mid-’90s, I had an HR spare and saw an article on a convertible version, so I thought about doing the same to mine, but the cost, even back then, was unbelievable.”
Understanding that finding any HR convertible for sale was the longest of long shots, Robert nonetheless diligently scanned the classified magazines for months before his Holy Grail popped up in the pages of JUST CARS in August, 1999.
“I’d probably been looking for about six months when I found this one,” Robert recalled. “The seller sent me some photos and that was enough for me to buy it.”
What Robert bought back to Queensland had the same Mandarin Red paint from the ‘Caris’ era, along with the same wheels, 307 and T350 running gear, but the seats had been retrimmed (with the fronts replaced with low-back buckets of unknown origin), there was a custom steering wheel in place of the Commodore tiller, a cut-down Torana centre console had been fitted and the XD Falcon gauge cluster had been replaced with a more appropriate HR instrument panel. Finally, the convertible top was now in a black material, instead of the white from its earlier life.
Modified extensively in its first three decades, the convertible has been left virtually untouched for the last two: “How I bought it is pretty much the same as it is now,” Robert explained.
As unique in 1999 as it was when it was new, the convertible attracted attention wherever Robert took it out, whether on the road, or displayed at shows across Queensland.
“Back when I was working, I displayed it at cars shows every month - and it wins trophies,” Robert laughed.
In the nearly twenty years since he’s had it, the car’s been ultra-reliable, too.
“It’s still mechanically the way it was when I bought it. Nothing’s let go, nothing’s broken on it. It’s never let me down.”
However, what did let Robert down was Queensland humidity: “I’d stored the car indoors, under a car cover, but moisture got underneath and blistered the paint,” Robert explained.
That led to a costly respray, undertaken in 2008, so the paint is the newest element on the car today.
Robert’s now retired and spends much of his time travelling, so the convertible’s being used less and less, leading to the decision to sell it (see breakout).
“It’s time for someone else to enjoy it like I have for the last – almost - twenty years,” Robert said.
When we first spotted this car for sale on justcars.com.au, we had the same reaction as almost everyone else – we were intrigued and wanted to find out more.
While this article has, hopefully, answered some of those questions, there’s still plenty more to discover on this one-off HR convertible, so the new owner will probably get as much fun out of researching its past as they will in driving it into the future.
Robert’s keen to move his unique HR on, saying it needs to be out on the road and turning heads at shows again, not stuck in a garage.
In good condition inside and out, including the top, the new owner would need to spend nothing if they just wanted to cruise, but some money would need to be put into the car to make a fresh impact on the show circuit.
Despite the Victorian ‘HR-283’ plates, the car is currently registered in Queensland, with 3 months rego left when this issue went to press. The price has recently been reduced to $25,000. Phone 0412178 202 for more details
View online with more photos at: justcars.com.au using the ad code: JCM3902453.
