whats the diff

[Calum]

I'd be very surprised to find any production HJ commercial with Belmont badges. The limited production cars which are those in the sales brochures don't have them.

HK... About a year ago I raided a HJ ute that was shagged, funny thing was it had 'Belmont' badges on both front guards that appeared original OR had been on it pretty much all its life.
I keep't the tags because I'm a hoarder.

Holden
HJ COUPE UTILITY
11/74 AHJ06114S
GVW 2155 Seat 3


Model 8WM8CJR
Body 837469-S
Trim 1889-64V
Paint 568-15952
Eng LD1 Trans M15 Axle CV7


8M80DEH837469J

Maybe useless info but there you have it.

Cheers Calum

[Sandaro]

Looked through my stuff and sales brochures for HJ commercials don't refer to Belmont, just Holden ute and panelvan (and kingswood ute), and no belmont badges visible. No smoking gun to be found there to support Belmont in early HJ commercials.

But I did find a newspaper sales ad 30/1/75 (placed by General Motors-Holdens Sales Pty Ltd) listing revised prices for the complete Holden range after Federal Tax cuts(Torana, Statesman included- sorry Byron, sort of understand your point on the subject- but always be all Holdens to me). Included in list as far as commercials go is Belmont Panelvan, Belmont Utility, Kingswood Utility, One tonner.

Incidentally the Belmont badges on the ute I have (and who would voluntarily put them on if they didn't come originally??) are on the guards behind the front wheels in the location that the kingswood badges are in HJ.

[HK1837]

Can't explain how they got there in either case, but not by GMH unless it was an error at the assembly plant (eg they drilled the holes accidentally so put badges in). Dealers did funny things, Taily's HJ Sandman ute had a whole front clip change with a HJ Kingswood in the same colour at the dealership.

GMH paperwork of the day common to both sedan/wagon and ute/van/tonner like options or colour/trim charts still use Belmont in the title but in order forms or other such literature specific only for commercials there is no mention of Belmont. The HJ Features manual part A was first published in 11/73 and there is no mention of Belmont in the full page descriptions of each type of vehicle so even that far back they were never to be a Belmont.

[Dr Terry]

It was the lack of Tonneau cover hooks not the lack of cover. The utes have no hooks and no locators for the rib at all. Just seems odd they left them off.

I'm not sure on this one , maybe Byron has some literature on it. If my memory serves me correctly, Belmonts (etc.) without a factory tonneau cover had no clips or hooks either.

The lack of the centre rib bracket is odd though. I know of plenty of early cars (pre-HQ) supplied without cover or clips, but still had the centre rib brackets.

Dr Terry

[HK1837]

Can't explain how they got there in either case, but not by GMH unless it was an error at the assembly plant (eg they drilled the holes accidentally so put badges in). Dealers did funny things, Taily's HJ Sandman ute had a whole front clip change with a HJ Kingswood in the same colour at the dealership.

GMH paperwork of the day common to both sedan/wagon and ute/van/tonner like options or colour/trim charts still use Belmont in the title but in order forms or other such literature specific only for commercials there is no mention of Belmont. The HJ Features manual part A was first published in 11/73 and there is no mention of Belmont in the full page descriptions of each type of vehicle so even that far back they were never to be a Belmont.

It was common for the marketing part of GMH to not know what was going on, not surprised to see mistakes like that i.e. Torana and Statesman included as part of the "Holden range" and to call HJ commercials Belmonts.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry Dr Terry, I didn't go far enough back in your book! True Statesman in HQ was first. Apologies.

It was the lack of Tonneau cover hooks not the lack of cover. The utes have no hooks and no locators for the rib at all. Just seems odd they left them off.

I get them being left off the HX Sandman to show off the hippy stripes and Sandman logo, but the centre rib bit must be because the ute in question was a limited production brochure car, maybe to make it look cleaner in the back?

[HK1837]

I'm not sure on this one , maybe Byron has some literature on it. If my memory serves me correctly, Belmonts (etc.) without a factory tonneau cover had no clips or hooks either.

The lack of the centre rib bracket is odd though. I know of plenty of early cars (pre-HQ) supplied without cover or clips, but still had the centre rib brackets.

Dr Terry

Also from memory Kingswood ute and HZ Sandman ute got the tonneau as standard but it was optional in Belmont ute (inc HQ Sandman) and Holden ute (inc HJ/X Sandman). But having said that in all my years of fiddling with these I don't clearly recall seeing an original example of any of these without the tonneau clips, not in HQ-WB anyway. Although I may have been looking at some with blinkers on thinking they'd been bogged up and resprayed. I know my dad's 1972 HQ Belmont ute had them, but it also had a factory tonneau fitted so of course they'd be there.

[Kingsandman]

Also from memory Kingswood ute and HZ Sandman ute got the tonneau as standard but it was optional in Belmont ute (inc HQ Sandman) and Holden ute (inc HJ/X Sandman). But having said that in all my years of fiddling with these I don't clearly recall seeing an original example of any of these without the tonneau clips, not in HQ-WB anyway. Although I may have been looking at some with blinkers on thinking they'd been bogged up and resprayed. I know my dad's 1972 HQ Belmont ute had them, but it also had a factory tonneau fitted so of course they'd be there.

there was a hq belmont ute on ebay earlier this year I inquired about in country victoria cant remember were it was exactly but the fellow claims it was an ex Australia post ute and never had tonneau clips from factory.

[wbute]

The quarters must have been blank. I assumed the holes had been punched out somehow for ute quarters. Just seems more difficult to drill all those holes on every ute quarter.

- - - Updated - - -

Was it possible they used the same ute in those photos?

[HK1837]

The centre rib bracket is there on the red 6cyl HX Sandman ute in the HX utes brochure (BTW for trivia's sake this ute has chassis number AHX00014A built in 4/76). Just hard to see in the small photo in Dr Terry's book.

I've always understood the holes were drilled in the quarters in the finishing areas of the assembly plants, same place the blackouts and stripes would be added. However it does make sense to have them in the body prior to paint which would mean they were drilled in the body plant.

I'm also wondering if all utes built for stock orders had the tonneau clips fitted, only those as customer ordered Belmont/Holden utes (which as a guess might be 1 in 50, maybe 1 in 100 or higher) where a tonneau was not optioned (option E93) may have not got them. I'd also assume that dealers may have fitted these clips if a car didn't have them but the customer decided they wanted them.

Looking up E93 doesn't give up much info, except that it was also part of the Deluxe (A8J) package in HJ. All the bits for the clips and pins that hold them are in the parts catalogues too, but there is no mention of a kit or anything like that, just the bits.

[wbute]

It's hard to see(wish you could expand photos in a book lol) but the red ute on page 68 of 60 years of Holden appears to have no tonneau rib clip things.