HX XX7 ute

[wbute]

Is that the one in unique cars? Wants $30000 for it.

And yes that is a horrible colour, why not just buy a Kingswood or were sandmans cheaper?

[HZSandman]

The Sandman was much more expensive, especially for what you got extra.

[wbute]

I dont understand why you would pay extra for a Sandman and then delete the stripes then? Why not buy the cheaper Kingswood with all the same options?

[HK1837]

Not sure if it is in unique cars or not. Ugly colour alright, hence my commenting that on a Sandman ute it does look OK. Add brightwork that a HX Sandman has over that HJ ute in the picture on oldholden, blackouts, mirrors, GTS rims and it looks a lot better.
Imagine though if it was Durham beige with beige trim - at least it was 18V which looks OK with it.
Stripes would make it uglier again though especially orange/blue/blue on beige - yuk!
Being an ADR27A 253 with auto and 3.08 diff it'd be a slug too.
I'd never repaint it original though if it was me, i'd be painting it yellow, red or white. I do have to admit though some of the lesser known or seen late HJ or HX Sandman colours do look very nice when you see pictures of them when new (even with stripes). Colours like Jade Green, Contessa Gold, Antelope, Chamois and Royal Plum. Royal plum actually looks fantastic with stripes, so does Jade Green. Chamois is a really nice colour too, sounds boring, but dress it up with colour and it looks great. One of the nicest looking HJ GTS coupes I ever saw was a chamois car with Chamois trim, the red stripes in the seats and the red GTS transfers and GTS badges looked unreal. HX Sandman in chamois with DY3 stripes would look good for the same reasons. I guess one of the main reasons I don't like HX/Z stripes is I don't like the bright on bright combos (ie bright colour, bright stripes), but much prefer the duller HX/Z paints with stripes (like white, chamois, black, red Windsor blue etc). Whereas I reckon HQ and HJ Sandmans look much better in brighter colours as the stripes are not bright. Just me again, others love the opposite!

--- Updated ---

I dont understand why you would pay extra for a Sandman and then delete the stripes then? Why not buy the cheaper Kingswood with all the same options?

You didn't pay extra. To option up a Kingswood with 4spd, GTS instruments, GTS wheel, N66 rims, buckets you'd pay more. HX Sandmans are essentially a Kingswood anyway with a few options, the only reason they were based upon base vehicle rather than Kingswood is the side and tailgate strips, the rest of the package is all Kingswood (chrome tail-lights, chrome scuff plates, grille, badge, door switches, trim etc).
Stripes were nearlly always a delete option on most sports model Holdens, you could delete the top stripes on HK-HG GTS for example, and also the ugly stripes on SS Torana. People bought them as they were a sports option, especially in HQ and HJ where they got GTS guards, and on many of HQ-HZ you couldn't get metallic paint on base model variants. This is no different to modern times, people bought an SS ute for what it is, very few SV8 utes were sold once the SS became mainstream in VU (and not a limited edition as in VSIII), so much so the SV8 ute was dropped by VY from memory. Just remember that a Sandman isn't stripes, they are just an add on.

[Absinth]

Imagine though if it was Durham beige with beige trim - at least it was 18V which looks OK with it.
Stripes would make it uglier again though especially orange/blue/blue on beige - yuk!

Durham Beige would have had DY1 stripes. Brown on brown

One of the nicest looking HJ GTS coupes I ever saw was a chamois car with Chamois trim, the red stripes in the seats and the red GTS transfers and GTS badges looked unreal.

Interior wasn't original if it had a red stripe on Chamios.... red stripe on the seats was only available on GTS with 18V/18X trim code. All the rest were colour coded to the trim.

[Vombil]

The bloke who ordered that one must have wanted a sleeper... or was paranoid it'd be stolen .

[HK1837]

Durham Beige would have had DY1 stripes. Brown on brown



Interior wasn't original if it had a red stripe on Chamios.... red stripe on the seats was only available on GTS with 18V/18X trim code. All the rest were colour coded to the trim.

Dy1, that is even worse!

That's odd about the red stripe on Chamois, this was a 10 year old car maximum. Must have been changed, rest of the car was original though including paint. I've seen another colour too on what is supposed to be an original HJ 4 door that had red stripes. I think it was gazelle trim from memory.

[wbute]

You didn't pay extra. To option up a Kingswood with 4spd, GTS instruments, GTS wheel, N66 rims, buckets you'd pay more. HX Sandmans are essentially a Kingswood anyway with a few options, the only reason they were based upon base vehicle rather than Kingswood is the side and tailgate strips, the rest of the package is all Kingswood (chrome tail-lights, chrome scuff plates, grille, badge, door switches, trim etc).

Thats why I asked if they were dearer or not? If the kingswood was dearer then that makes sense to delete the stripes from the Sandman. Hard to know what the prices were when I was only 6 when they stopped building them!

[HK1837]

I didn't see your first post, makes more sense when I read the first one. I'll also have to look further into the HQ and HJ Kingswood Sandman utes and see what they cost. I imagine that a HJ Kingswood ute optioned with 4spd, GTS dash and N66 rims would still be dearer than a standard HJ Kingswood XX7 which would have all the above plus GTS guards and console. You didn't have to delete stripes on HQ and HJ though, only HX and HZ. On the earlier ones you just didn't put them on.

[wbute]

Fair enough. Is there a recommended retail price for HQ-HZ commercials anywhere or was there no such thing in those days? It would make for an interesting bit of reading.