Quote Originally Posted by wbute View Post
Value? I don't care about the value. It's an old car. I like the idea of a 5 litre factory WB ute.
Sandmans actually have no value at all when you take the restoration cost into account. No old car does. Unless you find a good survivor in a shed that does not need any work. You might sell one for 35k but you spent 35k plus 90k of your own labour on it.
A cars only value is in your own desire to own it.
I agree basically, but you'll see in most of my posts i'm always on about buying a car you can basically use, not to spend a fortune on to fix. Finding a 5L WB ute will be very hard, and finding a really good one in mint cond will be impossible. Someone will pay some idiot price for a 5L one no matter how rough it is because they think it is valuable, same that you see with 253 Sandmans. What I was getting at is buy a mint 6cyl or 4.2 WB Kingswood ute and change it to a 308. It'll be worth as much as an original 5L one as there won't be any around to compare it to.
I almost got one prior to getting my Prem, a red WB Kingswood ute. Original owner, 3.3, 4spd, air and steer with buckets. I offered $9k for it, he sold it for $10k. I had a blue WB Statesman L31 and trimatic lined up for it, already have a 2.78:1 LSD in the shed out of my old HJ Kingswood ute. I also have a NOS WB V8 radiator, all NOS trimatic fluid lines, V8 WB shroud, air and steer brackets and T-bar plus insert in the shed. The only non original bits on the car were the muffler and a roof screw through one of the moulds. I reckon if looked after it'd end up as a $15k car, maybe more.