Quote Originally Posted by wbute View Post
I dont think it says anywhere that HX Sandmans dont exist in that link.

Single headlight front on HX.
You could probably pay the dealer to fit one though it wasnt how they came. HZ had twin light front standard.
HX Kingswood Sandman - Fact or fiction?

For many years I have believed that the Kingswood plates in the above photo were off a HX V8 Kingswood Sandman. I pulled them off a low mile wreck in the early 80's when the van was only 6 years old. It was a complete 'Sandman' as far as I was concerned. It had a GTS dash, wheels, Sandman stripes, no badges and full length hoodlining. There is no evidence that I can find to prove the existence of a HX Kingswood Sandman, in fact all evidence says they were never made. The HX features manual makes it clear that the Sandman was available only on the HOLDEN (ie 8WM) van and ute. However, it also lists the HX Ambulance package (option BO6) as being available on the HOLDEN 60 (1-tonner) and 70 (van) body styles including the Kingswood 70 (van) body style. Now, the ambulance package gives you a V8, 4-speed or auto, bucket seats, GTS dash, Premier door trims/armrests and Premier front. Combine this with a Kingswood van and you have a Sandman without stripes, but with Premier front and door trims. I have talked to a lot of people who ordered Sandmans in the 70's and the story always was that they were hard to get. Thinking logically, if a dealer had a sale for a Sandman van and couldn't get one, but he could get a V8 console shift BO6 pack Kingswood van, all he had to do was add the stripes which were freely available as a spare part. The buyer would be stoked plus he would get a Premier front to boot. I'm not saying this is necessarily a true story, but it does explain why a handful of these supposed HX Kingswood Sandman vans have turned up. It is also possible that a few influential dealers (which there were in the 70's) ordered and got HX Kingswood Sandman vans but we'll probably never know for sure. In the end no-one has ever shown me documented proof of a factory built HX Kingswood Sandman so for the moment I am happy that they do not exist. Such proof would be an Acacia example with XX7 or XU3 on the BODY plate or a factory build sheet. In the end it doesn't make sense for Holden to make a HX Kingsood Sandman van (or ute) - they dropped the Sandman option from HJ mid model, ostensibly the reason being that the Kingswood had standard side/tail-gate mouldings that had to be deleted to add the decals. This would have been more of a problem in HX with the stripes being so much bigger than HJ especially on the tail-gate. That leaves the question - did HX BO6 pack Kingswood vans have Kingswood side and tail-gate moulds???