Van Authenticty. Warning - Highly Opinionated

[Absinth]

Gday.

Just wanted to get something off my chest... Now, to some this may be taken as highly opinionated from a vanner's point of view, so If you dont like that - dont read on. I dont not intend to recieve replys from `armchair experts'.

Are you a "Vanner" or a Sandman owner?

The last time I searched google for `Holden Panel Van' it came up with 170,000 hits. Great I thought. I then discovered that most of what I clicked on was related to enquiries about `Genuine Sandman Authenticity'.

I read many articles on web pages devoted to confirming van Authenticity.

And your point is????

What a load of f.n. b.s! All this hype seemed to have started around 2004/5. Thus marking the 30th + b/day of the panelvan. Is that what it takes to have a great aussie vehicle put off the road, restored & garaged in the quest for a profit? There are literally 1000's of vans being 'restored' in Aust; no doubt to original specs. Therefore, the market will be flooded & thus restorations aint worth bugger all.

Keep `em on the road I say... use them & enjoy them! ... And you might just find that by not touching them, your ORIGINAL van might just reward you more than you think when it's time to sell.

Thats my 2c, Vanners.

Cheers

You got the first part right... what a load of bullshit... How old are you? It is fine to have an opinion but don't try to force it on other people, there is enough of that crap on other sites and we don't need or want it here.

This site was set up purely for Sandman owners to get together and talk about their Sandman. Some have original unrestored Sandmans in drivable condition, some have Sandman bitsa's, some have Sandmans they are restoring and some have nicely restored Sandmans.....

Everyone on this site owns a Sandman for a different reason, some just enjoy driving their car, some are just rebuilding their Sandman so they can enjoy driving it, some are fully restoring their Sandman because they enjoy doing the restoration and then trailering it to shows when finished, some are fully restoring their Sandman because it was a clapped out bomb and needed restoring.... whatever the reason it is their car and they can enjoy it in the way that they want... who are you to tell people how they should enjoy or use their car???

I seriously doubt there are 1000's of Sandmans being restored or that the market will be flooded with restored Sandmans..... Restored and garaged in the quest for a profit.... that's the funniest thing I have heard in a long time..... Fully restored cars that are restored correctly are worth big money because it costs big money to correctly fully restore a car....

Personally, I owned a total of six Sandman vans from 1981 to 1989, I enjoyed driving them and did all the things in them that a teenager to mid 20's would do.... I went to the drive in with nice girls, camped on the beach for weekends of surfing with mates, carried my tools around in it during the week, modified them and really enjoyed owning them. In the later years I chopped two down into utes and stripped two as donor part cars.

Now I own a Sandman because I enjoy restoring cars and still like Sandmans. For me, I get the most enjoyment out of restoring it back to completely original condition.... I enjoy the hunt for the correct parts and get a thrill when I finally procure that long sort after part at a bargain price.... or sometimes at almost any price. I enjoy taking a worn out piece of crap and and restoring it back to pristine condition, I enjoy the sense of achievement I feel when I repair that rusted and dented panel or make up a new wiring harness and it all works..... driving and using the car when finished is just a bonus.... it is also unlikely I would even get my money back on it let alone make any sort of profit...

The whole point of this site is to gather as much information about Sandmans as we can and to help Sandman owners attain what they want out of their Sandman.