I'll weigh in on the number of HQ Sandman van debate.
I was 14 when they were being built and as many of you know, My Dads best mate was Fleet Manager for Suttons Motors at Chullora so I got a lot of brochures and manuals and all sorts of promo stuff from him when he dropped in for a beer on the way home from work.
I was absolutely infatuated with panel vans and so I took a lot of interest in this new fangled "Sandman" that was released. My dad had a company HQ ute and I was hell bent on getting him to swap it for a Sandman van but he wasn't going to be seen in one of those fancy things. He did however take me over to Suttons a lot and during my many visits I was usually around the Sandman vans.
I remember on one occasion there would have been 10 - 12 on the front line, all different colours and all Sandmans. They sold like hotcakes and each time I went there, a new batch took their place..... So where I'm going with this is that at that one dealership over about twelve months I must have seen 50 - 60 different HQ Sandman vans. Suttons was a big dealer and probably sold more than average, but there would have been many other dealers that sold as many throughout the country.
Couple this with the fact that Holden would not have gone to the trouble to print various advertisements for a 100 vehicle run and it's easy to assume that the numbers were considerably higher, easily in the thousands.
As mentioned, the SS was over 2 thousand and it was a marketing exercise,.... the Sandman was a serious product aimed at a hungry customer base so Holden were going to build as many as they could sell.
Anyway, this one is a beauty and it certainly makes me feel happy that I bought my vans when I did if that price is realised.
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