Could this be a HX Sandman ute?? See pics of tags attached!

[wbute]

Too many things say no, wrong dash facia with sedan/wagon power aerial and demister switches, silver door handles and windscreen trim, wrong mirrors, wrong trim.
Its a nice ute and just enjoy it as. Still can't see why they optioned like it was though. Why not buy the Sandman as a delete stripes option?

[Doubz]

Hey I have uploaded pics of the gearshift hole and a couple of others too!

This ute has been sprayed twice since the factory green it was then blue and now white, the guards have weld in GTS flutes and as you can see in the pics the old girl has a bit of rust too!

Now I have done the 304 T700 and VN borgwarner diff disc brake conversion the next thing was to do the body. If it was a sandman I would put her back to original state sandman colours n stripes 253 M20 10 bolt salsbury if not ill just cut out the rust and paint her in 2k white

I doubt that the doors guards bonnet and front are the original ones, could have been in a smash? maybe the dash has been changed too? who knows with a 35 year old car ?

If this is a sandman I would be pretty chuffed but if its not Im still happy!

What was the GVM for a standard HX ute did they come in at 2200kg? When did HJ production cease? As I said Im no holden history guru thats why Im here asking you blokes

The dash does not have a decal kit

Any more info is greatly appreciated!!

[Robbo]

You have a very nice ute, and the way it's been optioned it is far more rare than a sandman. Tradesmen often ordered vehicle's to suit there need's, and this would be one of them. Having been a tradesman through this period, I used to see some very nice vehicle's arrive on job site's.
Most bloke's didn't want all the blackout's..wheel's and stripe's and stuff that came with a sandman. So they ordered a belmont or king'swood with what they required, some even ordered station wagon's with it all. They were ordered to suit their individual need's, nothing more. It was a great time to be a tradie, most guy's these day's have van's.

[Dick61]

They are very different. Here is some extract text from my book on HX Sandman (i've sent this to Doubz as he emailed me on it). Basically a HX Sandman is a Kingswood with side rub strips deleted plus some extra component options and feature changes.

This is what constitutes an HX Sandman (XU3):

Component Options:

· B30 – Floor covering – carpet;
· C57 Ventilator – Forced Air;
· M11 – Console Floor shift;
· D14 – Front Door Armrest;
· M20 – Manual Transmission – 4 speed Floor shift;
· XS6 – Front Bucket Seats;
· U17 – Cluster Assembly Instrument;
· N66 – Wheel - Rally Type.

Option M20 would be replaced by:
M21 if option L31 was selected.
M41 if auto transmission selected with L31 engine.
M40 if auto transmission selected with L20 or L32 engines.

With option XU3 feature changes to the base vehicle included:

· GTS Headlamp Bezels;
· GTS Steering Wheel;
· Cigar Lighter;
· Kingswood Door Trim & Hardware Complete;
· Front Door Jam Switch Package;
· Bright Front Door Sill Plates;
· Headlining Trim – full length (8WM70 only);
· Delete Endgate “HOLDEN” Nameplate;
· Delete Endgate Engine Badge (optional);
· Delete HOLDEN Grille and Badge (base model HX continued with HJ grille);
· Kingswood Lion Grille Badge;
· GTS Black Painted Grille;
· Black paintout on Door Frames and Door Openings;
· Black painted Door Handles;
· Black painted Windscreen Surround Mouldings;
· Black painted Lukey “Slim Line” Left and Right Hand Door Mirrors;
· Black paintout on upper Endgate – 8WM70;
· Mylar Insert – Rear Window Seal – 8WM80;
· Bright Tail Lamp surrounds;
· Decal Package (paint dependant) DX5, DY1, DY2, DY3, DY4 or DL7.

HX Sandman with passenger tyres (option code XX7) was identical except for:

· QEV tyre – ER70H14 Radial Ply Blackwall (XU3 was fitted with normal commercial load rated tyres as per late HJ XU3 with different tyres for 6cyl and V8 vehicles).




As easily seen, most of the feature changes is just inserting Kingswood stuff onto a base model ute or van.

This ute isn't Robinson Crusoe in the scheme of things. There are heaps of them built just like this, plenty with L31, M21, LSD, steer etc too that aren't Sandmans. In HX plenty of people wanted a base model in V8 4spd, didn't want the Kingswood and certainly didn't want the Sandman stripes. In HX you couldn't order DL7 - GMH introduced this in HZ probably because the buyers kept asking for a Sandman with no stripes. Check out this HZ, white roof over Super Mint. L31, M41, LSD, air and steer - obviously they really wanted a white roof or possibly wanted the bench seat.

Attachment 6872
Attachment 6871

Ok most of the tags I understand, how do you tell it has power steer and air?
I'm guessing that its the ADR tag that tells you this, but which numbers?

[wbute]

You can't.

[Dick61]

Check out this HZ, white roof over Super Mint. L31, M41, LSD, air and steer - obviously they really wanted a white roof or possibly wanted the bench seat.

Can't what?
Byron has put in an earlier post that a car has air and steer, how is this determined from the tags?

[HK1837]

It isn't from the tags, but this is what it had when new.

[James]

So Byron, when can we buy this book?

[HK1837]

Believe it or not, finishing it is only a small hurdle. Editing and publishing are 10x as hard!

[James]

I bet there are quite a few people looking forward to it when it is published.