Could be but could just as easily not be. You cannot tell from tags. The way to pick this one though will be by the shift. If it is originally console shift it is an XU3. If it is originally column shift it is a Holden van optioned with L31, M41 and B30 comfort pack. The latter is far less likely though, I’d be surprised if it isn’t an XU3.

Note Dandenong only built HK-HZ utes, they never built vans or cab-chassis. They only assembled those from Elizabeth built van and cab-chassis bodies. That is why it has an Elizabeth body plate and Dandenong VIN and ADR plates. (Pagewood was the same except for a period in HQ). You can only imagine how bad some of the paint looked on some of them with firewall back painted in Elizabeth and front panels painted at Dandenong (or Pagewood) from different paint stock with different guns, different people etc. Elizabeth did do the same for all their cars but at least at the same basic location (Pagewood and Dandenong painted their front panels with the rest of the car in the body plant).

Not floor shift, console shift. You can get floor shift 4spd in HJ Holden van, but only console shift in HJ Sandman. It is a mute point with an auto as the only shift you could get in a T-bar was console shift, but it may help proving the body is original to the tags. The console brackets being original is what you are after, the hole can be oxy cut easily, but HJ brackets are harder to fake especially if it still has the electrostatic red primer. A 4spd body will also have an extra hole in the tunnel too whereas a console shift auto won’t have it.

In auto cars as I said it is a mute point, but auto Sandmans are pretty uncommon. Where it gets important is manual examples.

My point was though it is possible the tags don’t belong to the body, so someone may have put the tags off a 5.0L auto HJ van (that wasn’t a Sandman) onto a 4spd floor shift body or even a console shift 4spd Sandman body (eg a 6cyl one). So having the hole there (T-bar is same hole as 4spd) is no guarantee. You need to confirm the brackets for the console are original and it doesn’t have the hole for the Aussie 4spd reverse switch wiring. With that you’d be pretty sure all is good.

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