Austral HJ - Project

[Absinth]

That's some good explanation on the dash colour situation, I do however disagree with the vent theory. My father's a 4 louvre vent dash no air. I wonder if 308 got special treatment?

Not a theory, it’s fact. HJ Kingswood came standard with forced air ventilation so 4 vents. As WB mentioned forced air was optional on base model so if your fathers car is a base model and has been optioned with forced air it will have the 4 vent dash, was extremely rare though.

Pretty easy to figure out, turn the fan on while stationary and if air blows out through the dash vents you have forced air ventilation.

It was also easy to retrofit by going to your local wrecker and getting the plastic vent pipes from a Wrecked car that had it.. plenty of wrecked HX,HZ and WB vehicles back in the 80’s to molest and the wreckers rarely charged us for behind dash plastics.

[Dr Terry]

Not a theory, it’s fact. HJ Kingswood came standard with forced air ventilation so 4 vents. As WB mentioned forced air was optional on base model so if your fathers car is a base model and has been optioned with forced air it will have the 4 vent dash, was extremely rare though.

Pretty easy to figure out, turn the fan on while stationary and if air blows out through the dash vents you have forced air ventilation.

It was also easy to retrofit by going to your local wrecker and getting the plastic vent pipes from a Wrecked car that had it.. plenty of wrecked HX,HZ and WB vehicles back in the 80’s to molest and the wreckers rarely charged us for behind dash plastics.

I don't agree with your theory re. forced air.

Th actual heater box differs markedly between forced air & non forced air as do the controls. Forced air cars also get a heater valve & and an extra cable. To retrofit properly you really the whole system (except for the 2 outer floor & face vents)

When first released in HJ forced air was standard for Premier & GTS and above, but it was optional for all Belmonts, Kingswoods & commercials. It also differed to the HX forced air system in that it did not have the 2 plastic tubes to the centre vents. They were fed by a large plastic moulded duct similar to a/cond cars.

AFAIK forced air became standard for Kingwood level cars for HX & this is when the 2 plastic tubes were introduced.

This continued for the same HZ, but I'm not sure about the A9K Kingswoods (which are effectively Belmonts by another name).

For WB, all cars from the most basic One-Tonner got forced air as standard. There was no non forced air in WBs.

Dr Terry

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The only option you got extra when ordering a 308 on a base model was disc brakes.

Not quite. When you order a 308 V8 you got the heavy duty (large Salisbury) diff as standard & you had to option either a 4-speed or Automatic trans. You couldn't keep the stock 3-speed all-synchro manual.

The large Salisbury diff was a (rare) option for 6-cyl cars.

Dr Terry

[Absinth]

I don't agree with your theory re. forced air.

Th actual heater box differs markedly between forced air & non forced air as do the controls. Forced air cars also get a heater valve & and an extra cable. To retrofit properly you really the whole system (except for the 2 outer floor & face vents)

When first released in HJ forced air was standard for Premier & GTS and above, but it was optional for all Belmonts, Kingswoods & commercials. It also differed to the HX forced air system in that it did not have the 2 plastic tubes to the centre vents. They were fed by a large plastic moulded duct similar to a/cond cars.

AFAIK forced air became standard for Kingwood level cars for HX & this is when the 2 plastic tubes were introduced.

This continued for the same HZ, but I'm not sure about the A9K Kingswoods (which are effectively Belmonts by another name).

For WB, all cars from the most basic One-Tonner got forced air as standard. There was no non forced air in WBs.

Dr Terry

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Not quite. When you order a 308 V8 you got the heavy duty (large Salisbury) diff as standard & you had to option either a 4-speed or Automatic trans. You couldn't keep the stock 3-speed all-synchro manual.

The large Salisbury diff was a (rare) option for 6-cyl cars.

Dr Terry

Yes I said Kingswood for forced air in HJ and it should have been Premier... I had in my mind Kingswood as it is standard in HX/HZ Sandman.

yes a bit more than just the vent pipes for HJ, you also need the crashpad, blower and controls from a HX on. I hit the wreckers and stripped out the entire dash from a HX Monaro and retrofit it into my HJ ute in the 80’s, still easy enough to do although we weren’t worried about keeping things original back then. From memory they charged me $50 for the crashpad, glovebox and under facia panel, the rest they didn’t charge me for.

I was talking Sandman when I said disc brakes only extra option with 308, 4sp is standard but I did forget about the diff although I suppose the 4sp is optioned up from M20 to M21.