HJ ute ID

[HJ-ute]

G'day. A while ago I bought a HJ ute from a mate which had been rebuild years before and would have been very nice.
It has been re-bodied with a WB shell. I don't think it's a Sandman, but rather a well optioned ute. The ID tags are as follows:

HJ8WN80
504209M
1900-64V
567-15946
L31. M41. GU7

HJ COUPE UTILITY
11-75. BHJ 11168 M
GVW2200. Seat 2

8N8OTFJ504209J

And chassis number as far as I can tell BHJ11168M

A metallic paint (Persian sand) 2 seat 308 T400 with a 10 bolt diff. What is the interior and dash cluster meant to look like? It now has a HJ statesman dash and twin headlight front and a custom black velour interior. It is currently completely stripped and on a rotisserie undergoing a full rebuild, I'm just curious to know a little more about it. Thanks in advance if you can tell me more.

[Sandaro]

Was it originally column shift?

[HJ-ute]

I don't think so, but hard to tell because it's now got a WB body (frog eyed wiper jets and no rear quarter indicators), and the steering column is blank. Plus it's a two seater so I doubt it was column shift

[Valencia]

Gazelle trim colour

[wbute]

Unless you can identify it as a Sandman I don't think you will know what dash it had originally.
Being a Kingswood with 308 and auto seems like expensive options on just a Kinhswood though. Did they have B06 in HJ too?

[stickthis]

Unless you can identify it as a Sandman I don't think you will know what dash it had originally.
Being a Kingswood with 308 and auto seems like expensive options on just a Kinhswood though. Did they have B06 in HJ too?

BO6 yes was available in HJ. Being a kingswood its already a top of the line below sandman model. So not unusual for it to have a V8.

From those tags its impossible to sell if its sandman or not. I would say 80% chance its not.... Sounds like an optioned up Kinga. But again without the original body its impossible to tell what the TAGS are.

Do you have original chassis? Or don't the tags match the chassis? Is it a WB chassis?

[HJ-ute]

Its the original chassis, doesn't look like it's been painted and the number matches the id number.

I'm thinking that it's not a Sandman, as it has the higher GVM and it was built after the sandman prefix should have been put on the plates. Being such an optioned Kingswood I find it strange that they didn't just order a Sandman. In a way I'd prefer it not to be a so I don't feel bad rebuilding it the way I want to.

I could tell by the wiper jets and absense of rear quarter lights that the body has been replaced. Would it have been a single headlight front originally, or were the twin headlight front an option too at all in Kingswood? Apparently back in the day it was a really tough looking ute, I'm still trying to track down photos from before my mate had it.

The engine number starts with RPM so no clues there either. It now has a Turbo 350 instead of the T400

[Dick61]

Its the original chassis, doesn't look like it's been painted and the number matches the id number.

I'm thinking that it's not a Sandman, as it has the higher GVM and it was built after the sandman prefix should have been put on the plates. Being such an optioned Kingswood I find it strange that they didn't just order a Sandman. In a way I'd prefer it not to be a so I don't feel bad rebuilding it the way I want to.

I could tell by the wiper jets and absense of rear quarter lights that the body has been replaced. Would it have been a single headlight front originally, or were the twin headlight front an option too at all in Kingswood? Apparently back in the day it was a really tough looking ute, I'm still trying to track down photos from before my mate had it.

The engine number starts with RPM so no clues there either. It now has a Turbo 350 instead of the T400

The wiper jets are not a good indicator of the body being changed and the rear quarter lights were plated over on a lot of utes and vans back in the day, I have two HZ bodies with them plated over. The wiper jets are easy to change by drilling two holes in the cowl panel and removing two self tappers where the earlier style jets were attached. A much better way of telling the if the body is WB is the seat mounting holes in the cab. The HQ to HZ seat tracks are a different width to the WB style, bench seats will interchange but the buckets will not. Earlier style buckets will have the outside holes line up ok but the holes closest to the tunnel won't. WBs had the Commodore type seat not the Kingswood type. The GVW is the dealbreaker for a Sandman and from the tags I would say it was nicely optioned Kingswood, not rare or super special, the 308 in the HJ came with the TH400 when optioned as an auto, being a 2 seater it would probably have a T-bar from the factory.

[wbute]

What Sandman prefix?

[Dick61]

What Sandman prefix?

I think he means XX7 stamped on the tag, which doesn't mean anything in this case as it's a Melbourne built ute. Even if it was a Sandman originally, it isn't anymore, it's only a WB shell on an HJ chassis.