Quote Originally Posted by Absinth View Post
The early HQ fishscale fascia's, console lids and shifter surrounds were not black.... they were a chromed finish.... ADR's came in about reflective finishes on dashes so Holden painted a translucent grey/green finish over the chromed dash to reduce the light glare. The console lid and shifter remained the chrome finish without the translucent paint finish.
I am not sure if a black GTS fascia was released later, I have the 1973 HQ parts manual and only two type 4 floor shift fascia's are listed, chrome fishscale and woodgrain finish.

This is also why the silver HJ/HX GTS fascia's are a matt finish. The black HJ/HX/HZ fascia's are supposed to be a matt finish also but years of cleaning turns them glossy.




Half console (seat seperator) was used in Belmont/Kingswood with bucket seats and column shift, or you could order a console shift which was bucket seats and the four speed floor shift with full console. Inertia seatbelts were optional on Belmont/Kingswood sedans and wagons.
Interesting the differences between so many cars. Unfortunately as so many parts are interchangeable many cars have probably been changed over the years, making it difficult to know what was original and what wasn't. As we know many people order unusal combinations when buying cars, even more so back then when so many trim combinations were available.

In reference to the fascia, I bought the new one in around 1983 and it was definately a fishscale pattern but not the chrome finish like some are referring to. That doesn't make them wrong but could indicate that Holden had to change the finish to meet ADR changes.

The replacement I bought was identical to the finish on the one I replaced, except much shinier under lights as I previously mentioned. This would probably just be from cleaning it over the years (I did look after the vehicle and usuallly cleaned it every week.)

I can very clearly recall the Spare Parts Man at the Holden dealer going through the parts book to order the correct fascia for my Sandman ute, and yes there were several options available for fascias.

As for the floppy seatbelts I think most of us who have owned a car with these belts,it just became second nature to lay the end of the belt on the seat when you undid it, and only occaisionally did it fall down.