G'day Absinth,Originally Posted by Absinth
Sorry, but I don't have any interior shots of the beast. She had the standard "charcoal" interior with a tan coloured headlining. As was the custom in those days I decked the back out a little so that it didn't act like a drum when you drove it and to make her more comfortable to sleep in. I started off by putting a divider between the front and back. The divider sat on top of the tray and went all the way to the roof. It was set back enough so that I could still lay the seat back as far as it would travel (bugger all really) but there was enough space between the divider and the back of the seats that I could use as a storage space - a baseball bat fitted very nicely in there too! It was made out of South Pacific pine timber that I varnished. The centre of the divider was cut out to make a hatchway and a series of four louvred 'French doors' that folded back on themselves were fitted into the resulting hole. These doors too were varnished. I put these in so that I would have some ventilation when I closed off the back when I sleeping in it. The doors were secured by polished brass hasps. I glued roof insulation ("pink bats, but they were yellow) to the sides and then covered these with more varnished South Pacific pine sheeting. The wheel arches were taken care of by constructing a box that went from the divider to the tailgate and were just wide enough to cover the wheel arches. I made them high enough so that I could use them as a bedside table. The tops of these were hinged in sections so as you could open them up and use the boxes to store stuff in. The boxes were covered with cork flooring tiles so as they would absorb noise. The only other mod I made was to put a small light on the centre brace. The light fitting was an original Holden one the same as the one in the front. I bought the light from a Holden dealer and had it fittted by an auto electrician. It was wired up to the light swith and would come on when the doors were opened and could be dimmed via the headlight switch just the same as the front one could be. I had a standard 6 inch foam matress in the back that was covered by an Army matress cover and it fitted between the two storage boxes/wheel ach covers very well. I also had a huge pillow made up that fitted from one side of the cab to the other. I had the standard curtain fitted across the back window suspended between stretchable curtain rods.
I was posted to Lavarack Barracks twice, firstly between 1974 and 1977 and again between 1979 and 1981. What unit was your old man with?
Cheers.
Rodger Kelly
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G'day Byron,
Yep, you are right; it was a thermal choke and not an electric one. The manual advised you to put the pedal to the floor, release it and then start the engine. You let the engine idle and when it was hot enough you could 'tap' the pedal and the choke would release. Trouble was, it was it always played up and no amount of fiddling around would make it work. Also, there was a corrugated hose that ran from the carb to the top of the manifold to channel hot air. The mount for this disappeared when you fitted headers! The Rochester was a good carb but the thermal choke was a real pain. They fixed the problem later on by fitting electric chokes to them I ran a 308 equipped 74 build HJ GTS Monaro that was fitted with one. When I first bought the beastie it had a carbie problem and I had it rebuilt by a fellow here in Perth. The heating tube for the choke was a thin piece of aluminium tube that the previous owner had just jammed between the header tubes so it did not work properly at all. When I had the carb rebuilt the fellow who did it recommended that I replace the choke with an electric one off a Statesman which I had him do. I ran the Munro for 15 years following the rebuild and never ever had a problem with the choke again.
Re the photos, no problems, e-mail me - cobber@iinet.net.au - and let me know your address. The originals are all slides and were scanned into jpeg images at low resolution so they will reproduce far better if you scan them at a higher resolution if you want to publish them.
Re the green HX in the background. It belonged to a mate named Dennis - it wasn't as fast as mine!!
Cheers.
Rodger Kelly
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G'day Mauser,
Thanks for that. The look out images were taken on top of Mt Pleasant at Duntroon on the afternoon I bought her. Note the fog!
Cheers
Rodger Kelly
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G'day Blocker,
Thanks for that.
Another Sandman? I'd be shot! I filled my desire to restore a car when I completed the restoration of my '74 HJ Monaro coupe a couple of years back. But then again, if I could locate my old beastie again..............
Re transferring the images, fill your boots!
Cheers.
Rodger Kelly
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G'day Epic Dragon,
I don't know where she ended up. I sold her to another Army fellow in Townsville and he was posted to Brisbane shortly thereafter and took her with him. If he kept her she could be anywhere in Australia as he would have taken her with him when he was re-posted from Brisbane or was discharged in the state the he enlisted in. If he did sell her when he was in Brisbane then it’s my bet that she could still be somewhere in Brisbane but then again, that was 30 odd years ago!
Cheers!
Rodger Kelly
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G'day Blocker,
Sadly, I did not keep a record of the tags!
However, given the mods I made to the back (see other posts) as well as the centre mounted antenna, the holes for the Statesman rocker panel trims and the tow bar maybe someone will recognise her. If they do, I'd love some pics!
Cheers.
Rodger Kelly
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