G'day all, found your site whilst surfing and am enjoying it immensely. I have had three Holden panel vans in my time. I first got into vans when I was a young soldier living in Townsville, Queensland. I am a West Aussie and I was determined to see as much of the east coast of Australia as I could. After a short stint with a couple of sedans I hit apon the idea of buying a van and equipping it with a matress - voila! an instant cheap motel that would allow me to tour around and not pay out heaps of money for motel rooms! The first van was a Royal Purple 72 HQ with a six cylinder motor. I bought it from a fellow soldier for the princely sum of $2,000. It met an untimely end when a mate(?) wrapped it around a power pole in Townsville. The second was another six cylinder machine, this time a Abasynth Yellow HJ with a god-awful 202 motor that was just about at the end of its life. The 202 finally expired after a trip to and from Brisbane to Newcastle and back. I replaced the 202 with a 186 that gave me no trouble at all. I it was a good vehicle and I used it for a couple of years and racked up many, many miles in her touring around the lower half of Queensland and northern New South Wales. A posting to Canberra was in the offing and I was worried that she would not make the distance so she was sold. Besides, I had a hankering for something a little more potent than a six and had my heart set on a Sandman as it offered a four speed and bucket seats which was luxury after a bench seat and three on the tree! After being in Canberra for a couple of weeks I ventured into the local Holden dealer - Beasley and Bruce in the suburb of Braddon - to have a look at the new HZ which had only just been released. They had a couple in stock but alas, I had my heart set on a Flammenco Red one and there wasn't one to be had. After a short talk with the salesman I had signed an order for a 308/M21 equipped Flammenco Red machine for a total cost of $7,300.56 which was a lot of money in those days seeing as a V8 equipped Kingswood could be had for $5,000 odd. The only option I ordered was the higher ratio 3.08 diff in place of the stock 2.72 as I intended to use it to tour the bottom half of the eastern seaboard. It turned out to be a good chioce as I could lope along at 2,500 rpm at 100km/hour rather than the normal 3,000 rpm with the lower ratio diff. I did not realise how good a choice I had made until later in life when I was punting a 308 equipped HJ Monaro coupe that was fitted with the same lower ratio diff! I kept her for nearly four years and reluctantly parted with her when I was posted back to Townsville and could not justify keeping her with the then high price of fuel - remmeber, I was a young soldier in those days and young soldiers did not get paid much! She pretty much remained stock apart from fitting headers and a twin system along with a 600cfm four barrel Holley with a manual choke. The fitting of a holley was the done thing in those days as it got rid of the stock Rochester carb that was fitted with a horrid electric choke that would stick closed all the time! Other mods included removing the front spoiler and fitting a roo bar (never bloody well saw one when it was fitted but shortly after taking it off as it affected the handling I collected one on a trip to Ulladulla one weekend!) as well as fitting a set of ROH mags - I sold the original GTS rims to a car yard for $25.00 for all four - a good price back in 1978 as it was hard to even give them away then! Here's some pics of her when she was brand new:
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew1.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew2.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew3.jpg
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew4.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew5.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew6.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew7.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew8.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../Brandnew9.jpg,
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Brandnew10.jpg
More pics of her in her later life on the Albums page if anyone is interested.
Cheers. Rodger Kelly
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