HQ Orchid metallic Sandman on Ebay

[HQ Freek]

Mine had the 200km speedo, console with the hole for the back half, Belmont style door trims, GTS seats with the 6 pleats running vertically. All looked like they had been there a while and could have been factory. But who knows.
Wish I’d taken more photos of it when I got it back in the day....

[Absinth]

Buickzz and Bryan's barbarous HQ Sandmans both have 200kph speedos along with numerous other images I have collected over the years of "HQ Sandman's" for sale.

Anyway, I'm not convinced one way or the other now. I'm 100% sure some came with 220kph speedo's but I'm not convinced they all did...

Buickzz van was Acacia Ridge built and Acacia Ridge is notorious for build stuff ups from not stamping plates correctly to installing parts that shouldn't be on a particular model. My old man worked on the production line at Acacia Ridge during 1970-1971 and told me many stories of his antics there from assembling XU1's to bets with other line workers to assemble cars with upgraded parts.... forgetting to put a GTS speedo in a Sandman would be nothing new. Production broadcast sheets were not supposed to be left in the vehicles but they have been found under dashpads and floor coverings or stuffed inside seats. It was a running joke to see what they could slip past QA.

Production line workers could have been so conditioned to only installing GTS speedos in GTS vehicles that when a van or ute came along in 74 that was a Sandman they just put a standard one in it. There are more and more Brisbane built HQ Sandmans being found that don't have XX7 stamped on the plate.

[Innuendo]

I'm going to run with the theory that HQ Sandman's "should" by definition have a 220kph GTS speedo but "not all" left the factory that way.

BTW, I have now spotted 2x speedo's that have the 220kph (tacho style needle) but 200kph speedo's with KPH only on the dial. Original? Repro? Sticker?

[maxsandman]

BTW, I have now spotted 2x speedo's that have the 220kph (tacho style needle) but 200kph speedo's with KPH only on the dial. Original? Repro? Sticker?

It’s all irrelevant anyway. A HQ would have wallowed off the road before it hit 150 anyway.

I just went & checked some dashes and separate speedos & tachos, and in 40 years of owning/driving HQs, I had never noticed the different needle. Must've been too distracted holding on at 150!

B.T.W, I found 140 MPH and combined 140MPH/220kph speedos, but no 220kph only speedos. Are the kph only less common?

cheers
Max

[Innuendo]

Are the kph only less common?

cheers
Max

I didn't even know they existed and still not sure if they are factory?
Same goes for the 200kph only versions.

[mauser]

There is an extensive speedo thread here somewhere...
http://www.mysandman.com.au/forums/s...ghlight=speedo

There were lots of sticker sets around to change your speedo.
lcuglyspeedo.jpg

I think they worked out in HQ it went some thing like this.
Normal speedo 120mph. Optioned U61 still only had std speedo. HQ SS has standard speedo. HQ GTS 2-door had 140mph with Tacho needle.
Around the 72/73 change they went mph/kph. HQ 2&4-door GTS got 140/220 speedos.
somewhere in 74 kph only. Sandman had the same as the HQ GTS4 with the 220kph.

hq74gts2.jpg

original hq sandman ute.
hqsandmanute15.jpg

[Innuendo]

Thanks mauser,

I have read and linked back to that thread earlier. The decal I'm also aware of (I used to sell them) in my shop.
It really hasn't cleared things up.

Here is the 200KPH only speedo that has the tacho needle and it the second one I have in my image library.
hq_sandman_200kph.jpg

[Kingsandman]

There is also an Orchid van advertised on The Sandman Facebook page.

Its the same one

[Absinth]

B.T.W, I found 140 MPH and combined 140MPH/220kph speedos, but no 220kph only speedos. Are the kph only less common?

cheers
Max

220kph only speedos don't exist in HQ speedos.

200kph only speedos in HQ do exist and are definitely a factory speedo however not as Inners posted, they never came with the GTS needle only the standard style needle. They were available throughout the HQ series but were mostly export vehicles, whether they were fitted near the end of HQ production in Aussie cars I do not know but it is likely as HJ were kph only.

[Innuendo]

Here is a second one 200KPH only, tacho style needle.

hq_xx7_ute_200kph.jpg