18 replies to this topic

[lcgtr1970]

Hi guys

 I have an HQ pano and I just want to see if anyone can look up the dealer code for me please. 

Shoot me a message if you have access or where I can find info to look it up myself.

cheers

[yel327]

Need the vehicle's details to do that. You could look for the next 100 years and you won't find anywhere you can look it up yourself!

[lcgtr1970]

Hi yel327 Ive PMd you.

cheers

[yel327]

You’ll have to ask here on the public forums. I do not give private help after what happened to HHS with a twat from WA who was helped privately.

[lcgtr1970]

Yeah no dramas.

VIN# 8M70TOH795504Q

 

cheers

[yel327]

Will have to wait until the weekend to look it up. Is it a manual floor shift or column auto? Being a 308 at that timeframe it’s either standard as a manual or optioned with an auto.

[lcgtr1970]

has an auto

[yel327]

has an auto

It will be a Retail or possibly Dealer order if 308 auto. Possibly a big dealer or one of those involved with racing like Ron Hodgson, Bob Jane etc. will see when I look it up. What colour/trim is it?

[lcgtr1970]

Glacier White with black interior.

[yel327]

Yeah no dramas.

VIN# 8M70TOH795504Q

 

cheers

 

I looked it up for you. It was completed on 7th December and sold in the same month so it will have to be a Retail order or Dealer order. It appears as a HQ V8 Belmont van optioned with both L31 and M40. Had disc brakes which were standard for all V8 HQ models. Had the standard diff ratio (2.78) for that driveline. No power steering, no LSD and standard ventilation.

 

Guess what? Credited selling dealer was 032 - which I believe was MKL in Newcastle. They were pretty thorough too as the engine and transmission serial numbers are also recorded:

 

QT429092 and Trimatic 281084.

 

What you have is a relatively uncommon vehicle. Pagewood only made panel van bodies for a very short period in the whole timeframe that Holdens were made (1948 to 1984). Approximately March 1973 to March 1974 is the only time that Pagewood built panel van bodies. For the whole rest of the time that Pagewood was operating (January 1940 to 1980) Holden panel van bodies (50?/2106 to HZ) were hard trimmed and painted at Woodville and Elizabeth and assembled at Pagewood. The fact it's a V8 Belmont panel van (0270 model) makes it even rarer. On the same page as yours (which is 90 vehicles) there is 11 Belmont panel vans and 5 V8 Belmont vans, so that is 5 of 16 panel vans were the V8 model. Three of the 5 were the standard engine (253), the other 308 optioned one was also an auto but it had the GTS driveline ie L31 M21 and 3.36 rear axle which is super rare outside GTS.

Edited by yel327, 05 December 2023 - 04:03 PM.

[hanra]

Gotta be happy with that history lesson and vehicle info!!!

Edited by hanra, 05 December 2023 - 05:56 PM.

[RallyRed]

5ltr van with a non lsd....what could go wrong?

[yel327]

Would be worse with LSD. My Hilux had lots more power and torque than a HQ 308, LSD made it deadly when wet if it kicked back a gear. If you weren’t careful it’d turn itself 180deg. A HQ van with that heavier rear end would be lethal with LSD and auto.

[lcgtr1970]

Yel327 thank you very much for that mate. Went way above n beyond what I was expecting the reply to reveal. Would be interesting to know who the retail or dealer order was for...get its history.
But thanks mate. I appreciate it.

[yel327]

Yel327 thank you very much for that mate. Went way above n beyond what I was expecting the reply to reveal. Would be interesting to know who the retail or dealer order was for...get its history.
But thanks mate. I appreciate it.

 

One of the reasons GMH made the Sandman was the amount of utes and vans that were being ordered with 4spd, sports dash, rally wheels etc. So they saw the opportunity. By the time the Sandman was not far away there was a lot of 308 optioned vans in particular, especially by Surfer dudes. I have a lot of 308 bench seat utes and vans recorded prior to Sandman. However, my guess with yours is it could be a surfer who wanted an auto by also just as likely a savvy tradie has ordered yours as they've realised how awful a 308 manual is to tow or carry a load with. Being white makes it even more likely to be a tradie. Could also be someone who needed to tow a boat or a horse float. Is it a bench seat or buckets with seat separator?

[lcgtr1970]

It's got a bench in it, but I put it in. There were buckets when I got it but it had had a hard life when I got it. Was a shooting rig on a farm with a huge hole cut in the roof. Had been pimped up with a rear spoiler and some mods in a past life of glory but who knows originally. I painted it back to its original colour and got it back on the road a bit neater than it was.

[yel327]

It's got a bench in it, but I put it in. There were buckets when I got it but it had had a hard life when I got it. Was a shooting rig on a farm with a huge hole cut in the roof. Had been pimped up with a rear spoiler and some mods in a past life of glory but who knows originally. I painted it back to its original colour and got it back on the road a bit neater than it was.

So it’s a 2 seat compliance? It often works out that way, when a car is ordered they have multiple options. It may even have had a sports dash originally.
The big hole in the roof, was it a neat cut or done for shooting? Those big sunroofs were popular in the HQ era.

[lcgtr1970]

No 3seat compliance and the hole was rough as... pure farm hack job! Full of bullet shells

[yel327]

No 3seat compliance and the hole was rough as... pure farm hack job! Full of bullet shells

 

You'd be amazed how many HQ ute and van were optioned with either 308 or 308 and auto and had a bench seat. It's not a huge % but more than you'd think. There was clearly a market for it where they wanted 3 seats but also wanted a good engine. Almost all of these will have been ordered cars. I remember wondering about it when I bought my VS ute in 2000, you could only get a V8 in an S which was standard with console shift and buckets. Yet Ford still offered a V8 column auto and bench in their base cab-chassis and ute.