My Faithful HQ Panel Van

[barbadosGreen]

Thanks for the response, Byron, but I have an engine - going to pick it up in a couple of weeks time.

Another question - What should a fella pay for a total bare metal respray of the van, inside and out. I've had local estimates of $5K, $9K, and $20K.

Cheers

Bruce

[the ski man]

Hi Bruce and welcome to mysandman.

I read through the story this arvo at work... congratulations on the find and purchase.

regarding the paint, you get what you pay for, the 5 & 9k options unless being done at mates rates are a little questionable. somewhere between 10 - 15k should be considered low for a quick bare metal respray.

your 5 and 9 k options might not include any panel repairs or the actual soda blasting to get it back to bare metal.

from the pics i saw are you sure you want to go bare metal or even respray it at all? its a pretty neat van as is

Ski man

[jennie285]

We paid $7K for the paint, and $1700 for soda blasting, and a lot for rust repair, and panel beating, but ours was pretty bad....

Great story...I wish we could find the one we sold in 1986 but we think it went through the crusher as was written off shortly after we sold it.....

Cheers
Jennie and Rodney

[playwme]

Awesome story. Great pics over on MV as well.

I'd be tempted to leave it in original paint too. I'd also be tempted to buy another chassis, convert it to Overlander specs, whack your body on top and go retrace all those trips you did with it in the first 9 years.

[SNDMN]

Well done Bruce what a fantastic story, love the van, congrats on findng it again. There's just something about Barbados Green that makes them special.

It's my favourite Holden colour, about 5yrs ago I missed out by half n hr on buying a 74 HQ panel van in Barbados Green, I had one of my bikes painted in Barbados Green and am now restoring a Barbadaos Green 74 HQ GTS/4 I finally found. As you can tell I love the colour, lol.

Hope it all goes well for you in the next chapter of this vans wonderful life.

Cheers mate Tony

[barbadosGreen]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.
You're right, the paintwork is in unbelievably good condition.
I was very lucky that the previous owner was a paint and decorator, as well as a classic car collector himself. He knew that value of protecting paintwork, and although the van was his daily drive for 27 years it was always garaged or under a carport when not in use.

You mention the Overlander chassis - is that the original 4wd conversion done by a fella in Tasmania (Launceston?), or just a 2wd wheels/tyres/clearance mod?

You've really got me thinking about whether to respray or not. I like the Idea of "survivor van", considering that 95 % of the paintwork is intact. Maybe rust repair and a good touch-up spray is the way to go.

Goodness knows, there's plenty of more deserving areas I could work on (eg weather strip replacement (they literally crumble between you fingers) as well as body mount and suspension rubbers, not to mention doing up the gearbox and clutch

Whatever transpires the colour won't be changing - I love it too,(that's why I bought that colour !!)

Oh, and I'm already bidding on those ebay seats...

Mmm.... got some more thinking to do...

Cheers

Bruce

[wbute]

If its as good as it looks paintwise, just fix the rust I reckon for sure!

Overlanders were done by Arther Haywood in Tassie. They are the standard chassis modified to fit a dana front and rear axle. They used a transfer case attached to a turbo 400 transmision.

I am amazed at where you took your van all those years ago, and just goes to show how addicted to 4wd cars we have become, when a 2wd would mostly do the same job!

[Robbo]

Welcome Bruce, that is an amazing story, and wonderful the fact you were able to be reunited with it once again. All the best to you in bringing it up to standard again. "Holden commercial vehicles" and how versatile they are, backed up by documented and photographic evidence. That say's it all really.

[playwme]

You mention the Overlander chassis - is that the original 4wd conversion done by a fella in Tasmania (Launceston?), or just a 2wd wheels/tyres/clearance mod?


Cheers

Bruce

Either/or. Obviously a full Arthur Hayward style conversion may be costly but a clearance mod and a diff with electric locker and some chunky tyres would probably do the job. I'm assuming that 36 years on you may not be as willing to do some of those things you had to in order to get out of muddy rutted areas so a few helpful mods may make it easier. Electric winches front and rear may be a saving grace as well. Even put in a V8/auto conversion onto the other chassis and take an offroad camper trailer with you. Then when the trips done drop the body back onto the original chassis with the 173/3 on the tree and you've got the original van back.

That would really make people oh and ah if for every photo you had in the album from the 70's, you had another in similar location from now.

[HK1837]

GQ Patrol chassis would be the go nowadays. That way it is still a Q. One might call it a GHQ. 80 series cruiser chassis would be even easier as no need for a transfer case lever.