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wbute Offline
#1 Posted : Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:18:44 PM(UTC)
wbute

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I saw an interesting HX Kingswood van today. It is a factory 253, 4 speed in Aquarius green with 18V trim. Also had factory bucket seats and Sports dash. I spoke to old mate who owned it. He bought it new from the Nowra dealership as a builders van. I asked why he didn’t just buy a Sandman as all that was standard on them. Apparently he originally just wanted a van, but he was working building the new Nowra Holden dealership and he got in well with the salesman. So the salesman just kept ticking the options box and that’s what he ended up with. $8300 new price and it was a 6 month wait from order to delivery! Insurance was a a lot more on a Sandman too obviously.
It was still original with just a respray, no rust at all and still had the hubcaps on it. Not many one owner ones like that left.

Edited by user Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:19:47 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

HK1837 Offline
#2 Posted : Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:38:59 PM(UTC)
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Pretty standard fare in the day, and the timeframe for delivery from order was pretty much standard fare for a Retail Order. A lot of people bought this sort of stuff as insurance was too expensive for Sandman (and GTS). The maintenance foreman at Pagewood told me he ordered as an employee discount vehicle, an LH SLR5000. By the time he got it he decided not to take it as insurance was way too expensive. Also in HX Sandman, at least initially, you couldn't choose to have no stripes. During HQ-HJ they were dealer fitted and many people told dealers to leave them off. In HX they came fitted at the assembly plant, and those big ugly stripes on HX Sandman were not popular so GMH added a delete stripe option - DL7. It was probably the most common stripe option in HX and HZ Sandman after that. These two factors both added to the amount of HX Kingswood vans with V8 options and also V8 optioned Ambulance packs on Holden vans. Think about it. A Kingswood van in HX or HZ has a lot of the Sandman stuff on it. All you really had to do was option the U17 sports dash, buckets and console shift and you were basically there other than having to find yourself a used or new GTS steering wheel. A lot of people removed the Rally Rims anyway so cheaper to get the stock ones and fit whatever mags you chose in the day. Plenty of people didn't even want console shift on a van, they'd rather column shift or floor shift to make it easier to climb into the back.

I've also found a lot of HX and HZ cab-chassis over the years with original fit buckets, U17 sports dash and V8. Often the are BO6 and are L31 M41 too. I've owned a few of them. My mate just bought a HX BO6 cab-chassis with L31 M41 and LSD, and its original colour was Deauville Blue metallic. There was a very original Malachite HZ Kingswood van at the Parkes Van Nats last year with L31 and GU4 options and U17 dash, the guy that had it bought it new. He bought it for a work vehicle and it was far cheaper to own than a Sandman due to insurance. Most of this sort of stuff got wrecked in the 90's like Statesmans and everything with bling on it, no-one wanted them.

Edited by user Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:41:33 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?
wbute Offline
#3 Posted : Saturday, 26 March 2022 12:53:45 PM(UTC)
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Yeah old mate said exactly that about insurance. Still makes little sense to me though, surely you could have found a stock order Sandman and just pulled the stripes off? Not sure why everyone didn’t just do that to save the money.
What was the price difference between a Kingswood optioned like a Sandman and Sandman?
Warren Turnbull Offline
#4 Posted : Saturday, 26 March 2022 1:15:58 PM(UTC)
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Brother purchased a HZ van off the original owner, same deal, 253, bucket seats, 4 speed sports dash. Insurance companies hit these cars hard. Mum purchased a GT pack GXL and the insurance was through the roof compared to a Fairmont sedan with 351.
HK1837 Offline
#5 Posted : Saturday, 26 March 2022 2:36:55 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: wbute Go to Quoted Post
Yeah old mate said exactly that about insurance. Still makes little sense to me though, surely you could have found a stock order Sandman and just pulled the stripes off? Not sure why everyone didn’t just do that to save the money.
What was the price difference between a Kingswood optioned like a Sandman and Sandman?


A lot of people didn't want them due to bright colours as well as the stripes. Insurance companies would figure out what you had after an accident don't forget. And getting the stripes off could damage the paint, assuming it had stripes. However buying a DL7 stock vehicle was hard, my mate tried to buy one in 1978, couldn't get one anywhere. There were vehicles with stripes but he reckoned (like me) that they were "gay" (you were allowed to say that back then!) and didn't want stripes. He ended up buying a DL7 L31 optioned Sandman XX7 in Windsor blue with 23C trim from a local used car dealer, who used to buy them in groups new off GMH and customise them. This one had the N67 wheels replaced with some aftermarket wheel and I think dual exhaust added. It was built just on the cusp of the paint and trim change with VB Commodore release, and it got the full cable clutch setup as well as the N67 alloy rally rims.

I don't have a lot of pricing info, and it is often hard to get it straight as there was so much inflation in the 70's that they changed quickly. However Dr Terry has HX Kingwood van listed as $5023. The options you'd could add to make it close to a Sandman would be as below, hard to find HX pricing but I have late HQ commercial pricing so increase those a bit:

U17 dash. In January 1974 HQ this was $48.42 rec retail
XS6 buckets. As above, $85.22.
N66 wheels. $107.49.
M20 4spd. $99.74.
M11 console shift. $29.40 (this is passenger pricing so will have more tax on it than commercial pricing, example XS6 was $92.40 on passenger and $85.22 on commercial).

You couldn't get the mirrors or the steering wheel, but you could spend a few bucks with satin black paint for blackouts, grille and headlight surrounds if you wanted to. You'd still have the side rub strips though.

So add up the above about $365. Using an escalation of 1.69 from January 1975 to HX release (I used HQ Belmont van price $2900 rec retail and HX equ. at $4888 to get me 1.69), so $365 x 1.69 = $615.

Then add $615 to $5023 gets you $5638. That is an estimation for a HX Kingswood van with 3.3, 4spd, buckets, console shift, sports dash and rally wheels. If you can find standard HX Sandman van pricing it'll give you your answer. The closest I can find is in Van Action from early 1977. It lists a 5.0L Sandman van as $6241 but says after that the Sandman "pack" is $1073 and the 5.0L V8 as $290 which sounds pretty close to the base $4888 I quoted above. So I guess that means a stock HX Sandman van was $4888 + 1073 = $5961.

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If we all had the same (good) taste, who would buy all the Fords?
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