Sundowner

[Robbo]

Bathurst car's are a different breed, there value is fairly constant. All other's are usually restored to keep the particular model alive.

[Flamenco_not_Flamingo]

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.

Well, that's what I have found with all cars I have restored and that's why you see all those cars for sale for months and months, people trying to get back the money they have invested in the restoration.

They were motivated by their emotions to rebuild and now try to sell with those same emotions.

[HK1837]

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.

[jason.ruff]

Its like going fishing. If you only looked at the cost, then why bother. Its cheaper to buy it at the shop. It doesnt make sense to lots of people but then it doesnt have to.

[HK1837]

True, but it doesn't mean you have to be silly about it. For example you wouldn't buy an old r00ted fishing boat on a rusty trailer and start fixing it at a cost of $25k when you could buy one ready to go and use today for $15k. I totally get that if the fishing boat was a rare Bathurst model or was a special one with stripes and optioned with a big engine then it might be worth the labour of love.
Just my opinion on such stuff!

[Calum]

Seeing that we are chatting about WB 5 litres, a quick question.. I have 2x WB vans tagged with Eng,L36 I take it as 'blue 4.2 litre' so what would be on a 5 litre tag ?

[hx-sandman]

L31 I think from memory

[wbute]

Good question. Assume it would have been the same code as WB Statesman.

[Dr Terry]

Correct, L31 = 308/5-litre V8

Dr Terry

[wbute]

Why did they change L32 to L36?