Hi All. I just joined this site.
I am looking for any info, video or pics of the HG Production Line in 1970. My Van was built in 5/70 during the Restricted Volume Production of the HG range in Adelaide, chassis HG00013A and Body Number 1A. It is the Van in the HG Panel Van Sales Brochure.
I did a search with AOMC only in Victoria, (google it) and they came up with my first rego number and original engine number. KST093 was the first number plate at 9/70. That's 4 months after production. The original engine number was 161H322145. That engine was replaced in 1980 and my engine was later in 1980 fitted to another holden JTR325 replacing a 161R prefix engine which is from a HR. That rego number is no longer in use, so that car may be destroyed or have personalised plates fitted now. Do you or anyone you know remember that car? I have a good 161R red motor to swap?
Does anyone have any photos of a HG Panel Van with KST093 rego? In the LJ Torana Sales Brochure there is a pic of a GTR with a sudan beige van in the background. It has HOLDEN stencilled on the windowless panel of the Van. At the time I purchased the Van, it had a HOLDEN SPARE PARTS logo on the drivers door. The door is damaged but the stencil is intact.
I was told by an ex employee of Bathurst Holden that he showed the Parts Manager at the time he worked there, a pic of the Van when I picked it up. The Parts Manager said he used to work at GMH and remembered my Van as they used it to ferry parts to Lang Lang. I haven't been able to locate the parts manager as that was 12 or more years ago.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Ron

AFAIK HT/HG 253/308 V8s used a separate engine numbering sequence to the HK/HT/HG 6-cyl engines.

Dr Terry

Thank you to those who replied. I was informed that the 161 engines in the HG model started around 161H320000, and as engines were sent around the country to all assembly plants when HT's were being built, they would have carried on putting them in HG's. That start number has not been officially confirmed. GMH haven't been any help.
I have seen plenty of production line pics and video of the 48 215 and FJ as well as EH etc but nothing of the HK HT HG models.
The rego number and engine number came from the original rego and engine number cards from Vic Roads. AOMC have all the cards up to 1984. You can trace your original rego number if you have the engine number or vice versa. I didn't have either number, only the approximate start number so they started at 161H319500 and after checking around 6000 cards they found them and they matched my chassis number. They also found that my engine was removed and then fitted to another holden in 1980. I guessed it would have been someone like repco selling recoed motors.
If you don't ask the question you will never know..... Some one may remember the JTR325 rego number or even have the engine 161H322145 lying in the back of their shed? Who knows.
I have photos from hot rod shows and of old holdens around Sydney in the 70's, so others may have old photos in an album from the 70's too. KST093?
Thanks!
Ron

Hi Ron .. I like your forum handle, and can relate to your attempted detective work when I was personally trying to find out all possible info on a 1948 Holden in my possession today ... Currently the fifth oldest survivor with chassis number 8-1100-M, which makes it the 100th Holden built.

...You will find the strangest things can happen, and this little story almost defies belief of when this particular old Holden was discovered in Joyce's wrecking yard in Warnertown SA in around 2002. I had for a while been researching the 1948 Holdens, and came across a small clue as to how to identify the very earliest ones. A little known detail of the first 400 odd body shells was the consecutive body "shell" number stamped onto the body in a fairly inconspicuous location on the firewall. This old wreck was found to have an extremely low number in that location.


...Through my dear friend Don Loffler also researching these old Holdens at the time, it came to pass that he had indeed found one of these early ones at Warnertown, and that the wreck could be had for a small amount of money. The car being bereft of most mechanicals, and having laid in this yard for well over 45 years, had no real info that could be gleaned about its history other than this small stamped number...the ID plate had long gone, as had the chassis tag...What to do ?

... There were remnants of the cloth trim, the body colour had been cream (one of only four colours in 1948), the body "assembly" number was later discovered stamped into the front mudguard flanged edges, and of course the style was of a 48-215. Armed with this info I approached Stan Bennett, a noted Holden historian from NSW, and explained what the body plate would have read. We were both quite amazed when he said how he seemed to remember he had been given those details about 20 years earlier and had a paper tracing of that very ID plate, and that the plate was with a gentleman up around Newcastle way in NSW. Stan never saw the plate and had no contact details on the man at all...that was the best he could tell me, and he sent down a copy of the tracing. Bugger me !..the ID plate still exists somewhere!...

...Fast forward a year or two and a friend of mine was looking for a gaitered rear spring for an FX when a fella from Newcastle responded to his wanted ad in the "Parts Peddler" magazine/paper. I mentioned to ol' mate that I wondered if this was the same man with the long lost ID plate, but was disappointed to find out it wasn't him, although he would ask around a few mates of his. This was all forgotten about until i received a phone call out of the blue saying how the plate is with so and so, and when do I want talk to him about picking it up !

...The story rounds out of when Reuben with wife and child were travelling through the Pt Pirie region after travelling from NSW in about 1968 not long after he had purchased his brand new HD ute. He stopped by a big wrecking yard "North of Pt Augusta" and simply unscrewed the ID plate from a shabby old unwanted Holden "on top of another one"...the car was buggered even then he reckoned. Subsequently the plate had been hanging in his garage all those years until a bloke called Phil from Melbourne rings up out of the blue and proceeds to tell him the story of the recovered wreck. Suffice to say, car and plate are together again. Further research found that this car was in fact the Pt Pirie SA (Midway Motors) demonstrator issued to that firm by GMH in December 1948...one of the original few dealer demonstrators released in that year and known latterly as one of the "announcement" Holdens.

...So keep up your efforts Ron, and posting on places like here may be a big help coming through....Cheers and good luck mate

Edited by user Monday, 12 September 2016 7:06:31 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

That's one of the best things about having groups of passionate people all over the country - and ways of linking them with each other.
So many people have "small world" stories thanks to those in the know who care about these cars - although most good outcomes are nowhere near a long shot as what detective went through.

Thanks to people I've been meeting up with at Bendigo swap meet for the last 20 years, I was introduced to the original owner of one of my Brocks.
Turns out he'd been to several of the annual gatherings we go to each year at a mate's place at Bendigo, but we never knew the link between us, until I mentioned the name inside the owner's book.

...I reckon it's not a bad idea to keep it all here with the theme being what it is. Your story will be nice Byron, and it's like the old saying..."truth is stranger than fiction".

...What gave me a weird feeling was when I got her plate and body back together in the shop. I checked a big map of Australia I have in the office, and noticing something I took a 12" rule and measured the distance from Pt Pirie to Melbourne and Newcastle to Melbourne.....as the crow flies, there's literally nothing in it ! Just a bit more freaky stuff to wonder about Lol.

Edited by user Monday, 12 September 2016 5:07:27 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Great Video of the HG Assembly Line! Also the one of the HR Red Motors!
That is the only clip I have seen of the HG Production Line.
Thank You.
Cheers.
Ron

I would love to hear or read the whole story about your 48 215 Detective? There is a book in it I'm sure! I know Don Loffler too. He is a great man and very knowledgeable about early holdens.
If I have the whole story in front of me I could write a poem about your '48 from the story......
Maybe you could look at using another body shell incorporating as much of the original body as possible. The old '49er I mentioned before may be 'restored' in that way as the original body is just too far gone. Even what was left of the bootlid fell through the gap along with the hinges almost to the ground when it followed what was recognisable of the fuel tank downwards!
About 20 years ago I had an old neighbour and he told me a story about how he got the 5th Holden in Canberra. He worked at Parliament House on afternoon/evening shift and a prominent politician called him to advise that he would be holding a top level meeting that night. In the conversation that followed he mentioned that he would give anything to have a bottle of White Horse on the table after dinner..... White Horse was near impossible to get at the time (like 1948 Holdens).
Albert had his contacts and after the dinner and meeting he marched in and placed a bottle of White Horse on the table along with glasses and the politician's jaw dropped!
The next day he came to see Albert and said: "I don't know where or how you got that bottle of White Horse and I don't want to know but if there is anything you want just let me know".
Albert said: "Well, I would love one of those new Holdens? The politician came back later with a piece of paper and told Albert to take this note and go to the dealer and pick up your new Holden tomorrow morning! Albert had tears in his eyes relating that story and his wife called him a sook! I don't know if he paid for it or whether he was given that Holden!
I think he said it was green......
Ron

I remember the Land cruiser when it was offered for sale, the owner contacted me re the engine.

Warren

There is an old wrecking yard on the Gold Coast. The Government is building an extension to the light rail system going a lot further south and it apparently goes right through that wreckers! There is a 48 215 hanging out of the top floor of the house on the side of the M1 at Reedy Creek on the South Bound side of the highway. Well it was still 'hanging out' the last time I went past!
Who knows what the build date is of that one? It is totally stuffed. I want to know how they got it into position and what is holding it up now that it is in such a poor state. The house is in a very sorry state too!
Back in 1977 I owned a Blue HK GTS 327. I purchased it without any running gear. The original engine was fitted into another HK GTS 327 and both cars were drag raced at Castlereagh. My blue one achieved 12 seconds over the quarter and the second one 11.68 seconds after the engine was rebuilt after being removed from my car prior to sale. HPP512 was the nsw rego of mine. I still have the rego papers of that car......
If you have it send me an email? [email protected]
I sold it to a Kiwi in 1978 for $1400 after the 307 (350 as it was bored to 4") out of a HK monaro sprung a coolant leak and on start up hydraulic'd smashing 2 pistons, bending 2 rods and cracking the crank! I arranged a replacement crank and rods along with pistons, rings and bearings and it was resprayed after being rebuilt. It did 14.34 at Castlereagh with a single spinner 2.78 10 bolt under the back end after the rebuild.
Keep the stories coming fella's?
Ron