Could this be a sandman - Chassis swap

[ambientgoat]

I want to be able to open my bonnet and let other people look at my van and not have some big mouth know it all say "Thats not a Sandman! I read on the sandman site that an mismatch chassis means this van is a HQ!"

I hate to tell you, but with sandman's being so hard to pick, you're going to get that big mouth know it all telling you that at car shows even if you have a fully matching sandman. It's just the nature of the game. Thinkening of the skin is highly recomended.

And yes out of these options
a- in the eyes of the law (RTA).
b- in the eyes of the owner.
c- in the eyes of a buyer.

It is the legal aspect I've been joining greg on debating. Which is why I can't 'agree to disagree' it being law and all.

Now on the other two matters, that's up to each individual buyer and seller. To debate that would be as productive as me arguing with Byron that a supermint with stripes, HZ 253 4speed is the best sandman ever. While he is of the opinion that DL7 not green and 308 auto is the way forward. I mean, clearly I'm right and green and manual is best, but there is no future in me trying to sell this concept to Byron. So in that instance agreeing to disagree is fine, and we can all walk away from the argument feeling we know what's right.

Plus the other thing to take note of, the community outside of all us sandnuts, don't care. With the HZ I just got, I had a mate looking at it going "cool sandman" and I said "well, it's just a hz van" so he goes "oh, how's it different to a sandman..." (I've rambeled enough over the years he could recognise I'm bolting all the gts options on the car) "well, when it left the factory, these plates here say it was..." I say. My mate at this point glazed over and said something like "so exactly the pg13'n same... sweet van" Then we went for a cruise along the beach.
So TwoTees, if you want to restore yours as per the plates. Most people are going to love it, not know the difference and not pick you up on it and you'll generally you'll be greated by a smile and a thumbs up. However this will won't change the legal status of the car.

[HK1837]

Now on the other two matters, that's up to each individual buyer and seller. To debate that would be as productive as me arguing with Byron that a supermint with stripes, HZ 253 4speed is the best sandman ever. While he is of the opinion that DL7 not green and 308 auto is the way forward. I mean, clearly I'm right and green and manual is best, but there is no future in me trying to sell this concept to Byron. So in that instance agreeing to disagree is fine, and we can all walk away from the argument feeling we know what's right.

Goat is right, value is basically governed by what someone will pay. When it comes to vehicles, that value is governed by many things. As goat has said, I would pay more money for a 173 trimatic not-green HJ Sandman than I would for a green 253 4spd HZ Sandman in the same condition. The long term top dollar car to me is the most highly optioned first car of a run. So that means a HQ Kingswood Sandman ute in 308 trimatic with air and steer, and this would be my choice closely followed by a HJ with the same boxes ticked. However what is good is that others disagree and like other versions better.
How that flows across to cars missing their original chassis to me is the car gets devalued as a result, probably by as much as 50%, however that may not deter someone from paying more. Personally, if I was to look at buying a restored HJ TH400 308 Sandman ute that didn't have its original chassis I would expect it would be worth less than if it had its chassis, but I wouldn't expect to pay half of what the numbers matching car was worth. If the numbers matching car was worth $25k, I'd probably happily pay $18k or so, however others may not.