Nice HQ Sandman - Car Sales 15 March 2018 - Monterey Green White Stripes

[hainzy]

I am the same but different!
I was around cars all the time. Growing up in Tamworth NSW, I never saw a HQ or HJ ute or van with the "Judge" stripes, until way later, maybe early 80s.
cheers
Max

Heya maxsanadman do you remember seeing my van around back in the day? I bought it from Tamworth and apparently it spent its entire life there. Windowless Caribbean Turquoise M21 308. Apparently owned by a local boozer who everyone knew.

Would love to know more about it... Cheers mate.

[maxsandman]

Heya maxsanadman do you remember seeing my van around back in the day? I bought it from Tamworth and apparently it spent its entire life there. Windowless Caribbean Turquoise M21 308. Apparently owned by a local boozer who everyone knew.

Would love to know more about it... Cheers mate.

G'day Hainzy,

Your van's build thread was one of the first I read from start to finish when I joined up. Cool Van, one of my favs on here. I have a Caribbean Turquoise HZ sedan 253/4speed real low. that was my cruiser through the 90s & last rego sticker is 03, its parked up, waiting for me to strip my VN 5L 5 speed & throw in. as too many cars, jobs, homes & not enough time.

Anyway, back to yes I remember 2 Turquoise HZ vans getting around here, probably 1980 - 85. One was owned by a bloke Stewie and the other one Kym. When I read your build, I couldn't work out if it was one of these or another. Did you have any names or old rego number?

I will keep thinking
cheers
Max

[hainzy]

G'day Hainzy,

Your van's build thread was one of the first I read from start to finish when I joined up. Cool Van, one of my favs on here. I have a Caribbean Turquoise HZ sedan 253/4speed real low. that was my cruiser through the 90s & last rego sticker is 03, its parked up, waiting for me to strip my VN 5L 5 speed & throw in. as too many cars, jobs, homes & not enough time.

Anyway, back to yes I remember 2 Turquoise HZ vans getting around here, probably 1980 - 85. One was owned by a bloke Stewie and the other one Kym. When I read your build, I couldn't work out if it was one of these or another. Did you have any names or old rego number?

I will keep thinking
cheers
Max

Cheers Max. No I don't know any more about it mate sorry. I bought it from Craig who you might know. He lives outside Tamworth in a small town (the name escapes me..) and he is a collector/wrecker/restorer of HT/K/G monaros. he had about 15 there when I got the van plus a basketball court sized shed of spare parts and cuts from wrecked out cars. Amazing collection!

[Innuendo]

Yeah I don't know. A mate purchased a HJ Sandman in April '75 and without dropping names he was into the Vanning scene in a large way. A member of various van clubs etc.
He didn't even know the HQ Sandman even existed and would tell all and sundry that there was no such thing. If they were everywhere in their thousands this wouldn't have been the case.
I agree 100 is a ridiculous made up myth. But I still think the number was in the hundreds, not thousands. Could very well be high hundreds but I seriously doubt they exceeded the HQ SS numbers.

You only need to ask Byron or Ben for how many are on the registrar vs HJ etc.

While the Vanning scene was hot, it hit a different demographic than the 4 door family sport sedan. It was also only a 10 month run.
Adding the the confusion is the fact the decals were supplied in the glovebox for dealers to fit (or not).
Of course it's all speculation or an educated guess (nobody knows for sure). It makes me think of other limited runs like the XU-1 and their build numbers.....

Sell 50 to 80 units a month? 500 - 800 units over the HQ run Australia Wide.

Holden would have loved to have sold that number of VF Sandman's.

Even if you say 50 dealerships sold 3 a month "every month" for 10 months that's 1500 Sandman's. Sure some would have a sold more, but others would have sold very few and maybe none at all.

[HJ_Blue_Van]

I agree 100 is a ridiculous made up myth. But I still think the number was in the hundreds, not thousands.

While the Vanning scene was hot, it hit a different demographic than the 4 door family sport sedan. It was also only a 10 month run.
Adding the the confusion is the fact the decals were supplied in the glovebox for dealers to fit (or not).
Of course it's all speculation or an educated guess (nobody knows for sure). It makes me think of other limited runs like the XU-1 and their build numbers.....

Hey fellas only new here, don't want to step on anybody's toes but we need a "like" button.

Like your comment mate.

[Innuendo]

Hey fellas only new here, don't want to step on anybody's toes but we need a "like" button.

Like your comment mate.

Thank mate, appreciate the comment.

You can use the "Reputation Button" to add support to a post.
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[wbute]

You just can’t go with seat of the pants estimates as not all had the stripes fitted.
There is absolutely no doubt that Holden would never have continued with the Sandman unless they sold a significant number of HQ’s over the ten month run. Ten months is a long time in car production.

[Innuendo]

You just can’t go with seat of the pants estimates as not all had the stripes fitted.
There is absolutely no doubt that Holden would never have continued with the Sandman unless they sold a significant number of HQ’s over the ten month run. Ten months is a long time in car production.

Yeah well I can and did! I knew of multiple HQ SS's and XU-1's around town in the 70's and 80's (even owned one of each) and only ever knew of 1 HQ Sandman Van in the same area and I was heavily into Vans. Seriously we knew of every Van around including the dry cleaners, bakers and the NRMA Vans etc. So while I can speculate I, like you and everybody else can't put a exact number on it. If it was thousands (in my opinion) they would be more around all those years and more about today.

You are right Holden wouldn't have gone on with them without decent sales figures. But you don't know those number either!
It wasn't like a whole new model with tooling etc. Just throw GTS parts onto a Belmont or Kingswood Ute (and chuck a sticker kit in the glovebox).

[Valencia]

Im with you Inners yes im only speculating to but don't you think they would have sold a bucket loads of HQ 6cyl tradie vans and utes in the early seventies so if the HQ Sandmans vans and utes didnt sell well GMH would not have cared move on to another model and try something different which they did the HJ
Like Inners said its only a Belmont with some goodies


I have lived in Perth all my life its not that big a place back in the seventies even smaller i remember the van scene quite well we used to cruise the city streets,the beach fronts, city carparks and it would be rare to see a HQ Sandman van and when you own a van we got to know other vanners hardly ever saw Quee sandy
I to think the number would not exceed 1000 units my 2 cents

[Innuendo]

I'm not trying to ram anything down peoples throats and nor do I care the exact number built. It's just my opinion based on my life, my observations and printed history. Only commented because the question was raised for opinions. Quite happy to hear whatever anyone else has to put forward.

If you were or are into Vanning you will know of "Custom Vans & Trucks" magazine. I have every edition and started reading them from very early release and then purchased the earlier editions via back order. Anyway the point is if you have read it/them, so many of the Vans featured will tell you they started with a HJ/X/Z Sandman and built whatever it was turned into in CV&T. This magazine ran for over a decade at the height of Vanning. Super rare to read of a HQ Sandman at all. Either in factory form, in use, on show, spotto, readers rigs or featured Van. The same is the opposite for HJ/X/Z nearly every edition you'll find some mention. Must dig out my "Van Action" magazines and see if they ever seen any HQ Sandman action!