Dear My Sandman forum members, your advice is gratefully sought on a HZ Ute and a HZ Panelvan.
The story so far....
My husband bought a Hz Panlevan a few years ago, which has been down in country Victoria for the last two years (we live in Brisbane.) We sent it down there with his parents to stop it rusting more and his parents knew someone to restore it. Anyway two years on the person who was supposed to do it never did, and hard to control things from so far away, so we decided to bring her back up here to restore.
In the interim, we purchased a Hz ute for $3000, as it had GTS guards, twin headlight front, GTS rims, which he thought we could cannibalise for parts. In the end we got quite attached to the ute while waiting for the PV to come back up, and spent a bit of money getting the ute back on the road. Found out the ute has, a HJ Chassis (which we had a bit of trouble with as it was previously registered but not with the HJ chassis number, a four speed manual gearbox, front and rear disc brakes, 202 with 350 Holley,extractors and a Salisbury diff of some kind and HQ GTS rims. It looks like it did have a V8 at some point but now has a straight 6. We got new door inserts, an original HZ radio and spent some cash on the engine, new springs etc...
The Panelvan is a HZ with a HJ front, it has power steering, it has a 253, 350 Holley and extractors into a single 3inch exhaust, bucket seats from a commodore and I think statesman doors. At some point i think someone loved this van as the interior is fully lined and has a timber floor. Also it has tear drop windows, that wind out and are lined with fly wire (we both actually really like these, even though we know most people prefer windowless.)
The questions....
can anyone recommend somewhere in brisbane that does restoration work as one place on the gold coast quoted us $60,000 for the Panelvan, which seemed a lot, especially for a very molested, non sandman van. Another place a start up of $10,000 and upwards for bare metal re-spray depending on what they find hiding underneath, although I think it looks pretty solid.
we were thinking of painting the original colour which is Opaline blue i do believe, but would probably prefer a darker blue if we went for a blue, and does it really matter on trying to keep anything original in such a molested beast?
Should we just sell both and buy a proper Sandman? My husband will not sell the Subaru STI to allow me to do this! Don't think he will let me sell either of the Holdens either even though it doesn't make financial sense, and i'm pretty attached to them too.
Any other inputs/suggestions all much appreciated!
The Tag details for anyone that would like them:-
Ute:-
08/79
Model: HZ8WM80
Body no:- 459570-A
Trim:- 1930-67C
Paint:- 568-305212
L20, M20, GV7
Panelvan:-
08/78
Model:- HZ8WM70
Body no:- 423423-A
Trim:- 1929-67V
Paint:- 568-30520
L20, M40, GV7
Cheers.
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