Rightly or wrongly, to me anyway, barring finding a van with a documented history, having an XX7 tagged car is the undeniable proof of it being a Genuine sandman... So having the original motor was less important to me.... My HJ is 5/75 so I wanted the real deal.. Not a maybe... Have since sourced an early 75 date coded 308 and whilst not the original engine will still be a nice fit for the van
In my younger days a sandman was an icon of the surf culture and was totally seperate from the van scene.... Its why more than a few sandmans were heavily modified back in the day.... In a van you could store a board, catch some shut eye and play hide the sausage... Try doing that in a ute without getting arrested.... Blockers sells the "sandman - still your fathers worst nightmare" stickers.... Not sure not many dads quake in their boots when a ute turns up for the first date.... But if we were all the same it would be a boring world...
On your question of an XW8.... Of course it doesnt matter where it was built..... It is what it is.... With a sandman, as you know more than anyone, unless it has books or XX7 tags claiming sandman status is not as easy to prove authenticity.... And in the collector car world provenance is everything.... For me when someone says "is it a real sandman" its far easier to pop the bonnet and point to the XX7 tags than to pull out the centre console to show the original welds on a centre console bracket....
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