Sandman Sales Numbers??

[wbute]

I was only thinking yesterday that the HQ Sandy is now a 40 year old car and are still turning up. I think allot of that is that people now have great knowledge at hand on here to actually find out if they have a legit sandy or not! So many still think they have to have xx7 on the tags, but allot are starting to be educated thats not the case, hence more coming out of the woodwork. I think its a shame though the amount of utes being found does not seem to have increased as I think most utes that had a gts dash and v8 ended up as B&S utes and got the life thrashed out of them,even Im guilty of that one. I can remember a mate of mine and I did circle work in his HX Sandman ute for hours one night trying to blow the motor as he was dropping an 308 in it for the next B&S and its long gone now, squashed and recycled!

True. I saw a lot abused beyond belief. A lot of vans got butchered in the van craze though too. I think that not many people are looking for utes though. I saw a HQ ute in Dubbo yesterday. Looked to be an original V8 with bucket seats and floor shift. Still being used by a tradie. It might take another ten years for utes to overtake vans in desirability.

[hx-sandman]

I think its a shame though the amount of utes being found does not seem to have increased as I think most utes that had a gts dash and v8 ended up as B&S utes and got the life thrashed out of them,even Im guilty of that one. I can remember a mate of mine and I did circle work in his HX Sandman ute for hours one night trying to blow the motor as he was dropping an 308 in it for the next B&S and its long gone now, squashed and recycled!

I got a bit nostalgic reading that lol - I remember at least 3 sandman utes in our circle too - Aquarius HX, Yellow HX, Brown HX - although the WB was the definite top of the tree. Every time I think about buying another ute (mid life crisis) I get torn between a neat WB Kingswood and an HZ Sandman, but the extra $$ for some stickers and blackouts makes me balk at the Sandman these days.

Twin two inch system straight into hot dogs - that would be the song of my youth lol

[mauser]

I think you'll find there were more HJ Sandmans built than any other model. HJ was at the pinnacle of the van craze and demand far outweighed supply.

I also strongly believe there were far more HQ Sandmans built than people think.

I agree with Absinth here. I think there were more HQ Sandmans than we think. There are fewer utes around today but I think they just had a hard life and were discareded at their end-of-life as a work tool.

Mauser

[Alien DNA]

Makes you wonder why hq Sandmans command more dollars on the market when for sale....even mock ups pull good money

[Absinth]

Makes you wonder why hq Sandmans command more dollars on the market when for sale....even mock ups pull good money

HQ is a nice shape and the first of the Sandmans so desirable for that reason alone.... But I think a lot of it has to do with most still believing there were only 100 or 200 made..... The Sandman was popular from its release date and very much in demand.... The HQ SS was also popular from its release date with 1400 selling so quickly they produced another 1400 a few months later......

If they could punch out 1400 HQ SS's in two months...... How many HQ Sandmans could could they punch out in nine months????

[HK1837]

HQ Sandman was limited edition initially afaik, then they were built to order. By the sheer volume I have recorded I still reckon there were only 100's made, very much like HQ Vacationers. Sandman was a regular production "model" in HJ and there appears to have been heaps of these and HX's too. HZ appears to have been popular early but died off heaps by the end of 1978.

[Innuendo]

HZ appears to have been popular early but died off heaps by the end of 1978.

That would be about the time of the dreaded UC styling infection.

[wbute]

That would be about the time of the dreaded UC styling infection.

HZ commercials ran into early 1980. I reckon by 1978 the fad for surfie vans was dead. Plus the extra bold stripes probably had become a bit tacky.

I also think the round headlights were starting to date the cars badly. All the modern cars were using rectangular shaped lights. Probably why the WB remained popular long after HQ-HZ had become rather uncool.

[Valencia]

Wernt the 81/ 82 WB round head lights as well and the 83/ 84 square

[HK1837]

Initially the WB Holdens had round lights, Kingswood were square. They all changed to square pretty quickly.