Originally Posted by
HK1837
Buickzz's was an absolute cracker of a van body, and it had its original chassis. Engine doesn't matter all that much, especially to 173, 202 and 253 varities. Even then you'll only drop 10-15% of a possible peak value without the original engine, maybe you'll offset that by putting in a period correct 308 in place of a 173. Lose the original chassis and you might get 50% of what it would otherwise - not that much different to what a good replica will bring. Original chassis, body and ID plates is the key. This is no different to any collectable Holden, Torana etc.
For HQ there are at least 6 x different van bodies: Acacia Ridge, Pagewood and Elizabeth, with and without gills. They will all differ slightly. Having said that HQ Sandman van bodies are identical to other Belmont van bodies ordered with bucket seats and 4spd. Obviously a bucket seat column shift car will be missing the floor hole but that is it. The reason why HQ Sandmans are so hard to pick is that they have very few differences to a standard van or ute.
Sandman chassis are identical to their base vehicle all the way through (for all series). And utes and vans are the same chassis. But the chassis is different for all assembly plants, and there are changes along the way - we all know the obvious ones like upper control arm mount points late in HX. But there are others too, even down to how and where the chassis number is stamped which varies along the way with time and across assembly plants.
In summary, I reckon it would be a lot harder (near impossible) to pick a Sandman that has had its body replaced if the right body was used. Chassis is a lot easier to fix. If it was me and I found another really good HQ Sandman missing its original chassis, I'd use this to resurrect a rusted out Sandman that had its original chassis.
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