HZ donor car

[Monman71]

I owned a sle statesman for two years then finished the Monaro and sold it off, half way through my resto on the Monaro I was in st Mary's at a wreckers opposite Peter Jackson rubbers (then), and I was about to go and their truck turned up , on top was a sle and the first thing in thought was get the dash, in the end I bought the woodgraining gts dash ,console, rear seat belts and the disc brake diff. They were a great car for the parts they had.i bought my sle in 1989 for $5500 and sold two years later for $7500, didn't touch it but reco engine $1500 was standard only for the 80s Chevy drop back pipes.

[Cyclamin]

Not sure what you mean by LE and SL/E being spare parts cars? Both of them especially the LE have maybe the most unique parts or features of any car in their respective series? The rest of the cars simply use bits pulled from the options lists.

In my youth i'd heard that the LE Monaro's were built as Holden had a batch of the 2 door body shells to get rid of , they were seen as a plush Monaro with their fitout , quite heavy and not great performers. Then again Ford had the 2 door Landau , so maybe it was a market they were targeting ??
I also thought that the SLE Statesman was the last of the Z's before the WB was released , hence getting rid of the last of the HZ bits - other than the wheels (sorry had to mention the wheels) the HZ SLE Statesman is one of my Favourites..

[HK1837]

The LE was a ploy to get rid of the last 600 or so HJ coupe body shells that were actually put together in late 1975. By the time they got around to finishing the design HX was the current series so they had to be remade into HX's, which meant new firewalls. The body shells were old bits as you say butthe rest was all LE special. The SL/E was built around 5/79, HZ Deville and Caprice were bult up into 1980.
The wheels are not actually HZ SL/E wheels, they were the standard rally rim of the time as used on GTS and Sandman.

[buickzz]

They are an affective look, but look very cheap when up close as the chromed plastic is obvious. HX Statesman grille is classier, whether it be in HX or HZ paint. SL/E do have nice interior and some pretty cool paint though. The HZ SL/E is more of an LE (as in limited edition) than it is the luxury Statesman as that was the Caprice's job. It truly was simply a limited edition Statesman.

With a VIN starting with 8 T 69 etc I would suggest that SLEs are a limited edition Caprice not Statesman which would have a VIN starting with 8 S 69 etc. I think I am right but am open to correction. I have always considered my SLE a Caprice . . .?

[HK1837]

Both are Statesmans, one is a Deville and the other is a Caprice. The SL/E was a "budget" version of the Caprice meant to catch buyers who wanted more than a Deville but not the cost of a Caprice. It isn't badged as a Caprice though, just shared the model coding - that was always how GMH did such things: HQ SS sedan was a V8 Belmont, HQ GTS sedan was a V8 Kingswood, XU-1 was a GTR, A9X was an SS, Sandman was a Belmont or Kingswood etc. Even many UC Toranas were option packages on a Sunbird. The other HZ that was "back-optioned" like the SL/E was a HZ Kingswood sedan or wagon, they shared the same model coding as a Kingswood SL but had lots of stuff stripped out to minimise cost (option package A9K). I can't remember the specifics, but I think Caprice had leather trim as standard with velour as a delete option. The SL/E got that velour trim.
I just found my HZ Statesman stuff. Deville was $10635 at release in November 1977, Caprice was $15504. In June 1979 SL/E was $14560, so allowing for some price rises it was over $1000 cheaper than a Caprice. You couldn't order a Caprice after August 1979, Deville was available until April 1980.

[buickzz]

Thanks for clearing that up Byron ^^^ I can't insert an image (low skill level I suspect) but I have a GMH newspaper add with the SLE advertised for $13,909. A bargain!

[HK1837]

I have a NOS (or that good it is as good as) SL/E fascia here somewhere. I grabbed it as it is my favourite U17 dash fascia. I think I have a NOS N67 rim in the shed somewhere too.

[buickzz]

If you or any member comes across the lower grille I need one of those . . .

[HK1837]

I had a NOS one of those for an SL/E, but gave it away. The HX ones come up from time to time, they were available new until a few years ago.

[buickzz]

I had a NOS one of those for an SL/E, but gave it away.

You're killing me . . . lol