Thought it was about time I posted something up for our build on here.
Its been an exciting journey and something I am super proud of with the amount of work I did myself. Its the only way to have the finer details complete to how I wanted it. (I'm slightly anal)
Photos below are from the Australian Van Nationals 2021 and this is a copy of a spill I put up on Facebook. If you have never been to a nationals. Get to one! They are a great event. (2022 is in the Riverland SA run by us!)
We were awarded the following:
1st - Most Authentic Sandman Restoration
1st - Best Sandman
1st - Best Display
7th - Top Overall Elite Van
Oh and what's better than any award, Jess and I got hitched with our freshly built van "Eloped"
We are absolutely stoked with the three 1st's. But in a majority custom van scene we are bloody blown away with getting into the top 10 Elite Van's. We have overspray on the engine. Not perfect panel gaps. Picking stickers and stamps that are not stuck on straight, hoses and wiring (neatly) all through the engine bay. Everything just like the day it rolled off the line. We completed the van on site at the Van Nationals the day before the event! Only giving it a proper clean for the first time since 2018 the day before the show! A massive thankyou to Rod and Jennifer Barnes and the Parkes 2021 Van Nationals committee. An amazing event! This build as people who have watched it has been a massive task. Purchased in 2017 as a van needing a lot of work with the intentions to slap some paint on it and go get hitched. 4 years later through a lot of blood sweat and tears we completed the build. (well...... for now). We completed a good 80% or so of the work ourselves in which has made this build SUPER rewarding! Completing it just in time for the 2021 Australian Van Nationals. Since day 1 the plan was always to call it "Eloped" as this was the purpose of the build. So what better place to elope than at its first car show!
We had some great help for the build. A massive thankyou must got out to the following business's:
- Riverland Enhanced Vehicles Paint and Panel, Berri SA - For finishing off of body work and paint to an absolutely amazing level.
- Formula Paints, Renmark SA - Supplier for all the paint.
- Jeffree Automotive, Berri SA - For the engine build, factory radiator resto, factory air conditioning assistance and amazing amounts of old school knowledge.
- Elite Blasting - For blasting of chassis, components and transport trailer blasting/painting.
- Delway Brass Pty Ltd, Edwardstown SA- Major supplier of the thousands of items we had restored. Chrome, zinc, annodised and tin coatings.
- Winner Products, Richmond SA - Suppler of most of the interior trim.
- Dash Original, Holden Hill SA - Dash crash pad restoration.
- Classic Automotive Products, Pakenham, VIC - Seatbelt .restoration and various hard to get trim pieces.
- PKC Upholstery & Trimming, Berri SA - Assistance of interior fitment where needed and carpet modifications
- Old Car Radios Fixed - Factory radio restoration.
- Rare Spares for all the products we just could not get Genuine New Old Stock or restore/refirbish.
- Classic Oz Wreck - For the hard to find parts, assistance and abuse.
- Scotty's welding and fabrication - Trailer build.
- Everyone who has encouraged and called me a unit for going this nuts. You have only pushed me more to prove how anal I can be.
- Dylan Ackland for helping during those times you may not have wanted to.
But last of all ❤️ Jess for having this same dream and vision as me and putting in the extra hours for our business when I could not due to being in the shed playing cars! xx Cant wait to continue this ride and hope to catch everyone at a show soon! Jason
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Our display board is a bit hard to read in this pic. But here it is: (written by Jess)
Let’s run away you and me, we’ll build a getaway car,
sleek and green.
Let’s run away to secret places,
Where all we need are the smiles on our faces,
Let’s run away, all we need is a ring,
No one to stop us if I’m the Queen and you the King.
Let’s run away, our only witness dawn’s light, and complete this mischief beneath the stars late at night.
Let’s run away, just you and me, in a green sandman, living the dream.
It started with a “yes”, and a plan to get married, the wedding and all that comes with that one special day. But… what if instead, we decided to eff the wedding, and just took off? What if, instead of throwing all our cash on one day, what if we bought an old Sandman, and got her going together, and sent her down the road where adventure lay, with a quick splash of paint and tidy up? In 2017, we brought our new project home, and then the adventure really began.
Meet Jason Ackland, renal AF restoring extraordinaire who is now eating his “trailers are for boats” humble pie. A quick fix up turned into, what if we strip her back to bare metal and tidy her up properly? The bare metal strip down turned into, lets also strip down all the original nuts and bolts while we are at it. Actually, you know what, lets go all out, let’s restore this bad girl to EXACTLY how she would have rolled of the GM production line back in September 1976. What did Jess do? Told him he was batshit crazy of course, but challenge accepted! Go hard or go home.
Despite going back to bare metal, we were very mindful to keep the original and not damage the factory spot welds. We were lucky to be starting with a relatively rust-free body.
A huge amount of this build is new old stock, or re-furbished original parts right down to the nuts, washers, and bolts. Some notable parts inc: New Old Stock (NOS) GTS Steering Wheel, re-furb interior, using NOS parts rebuilt factory retractable seatbelts, correct satin chrome grille badge, spare wheel, rims, NOS headlights, near full factory NOS A/C system inc the hose clamps and one of the holey grails an original GMH (Lucas) 1976 battery. If New Old Stock or very good repro items could not be found, eg. the air conditioning relay, it got stripped down, re-zinc’d the correct colour, contacts all cleaned and tested and reassembled. Twenty odd years of photographing every paint assembly marking Jason could find on wrecks and parts has finally paid off. For the first time being able to use them on our own build.
All the pollution running gear is all NOS, and the exhaust, we were lucky to track down a bloke with the original jig and he was fantastic, making up a new exhaust for us. Through searching through old mechanic shops, we were also able to track down the correct flat top clamps.
The air-cleaner, anyone who followed this build on FB would know how obsessive Jason has been about the air cleaner being 1000% perfect. Perfect being colour matched black to the original paint with no filler used to make sure you can still see all the original pressing stretch marks.
The engine has been thoroughly re-built with genuine everything; fuel pump, dizzy (date coded), coil (date coded), water pump etc. Complete with the correct inlet manifold, correct colour zinc bolts, brackets, and springs. It took Jason three months of procrastinating before Jess told him to just do it already, and thus one of the biggest “just off the production line” effects were added to the engine; red paint overspray over the inlet manifold and surrounds. We love it.
Dates were a big thing. Everything not already a part of the van and beyond the sandman tags, needed to be date coded to match the tags and factory roll out dates. To cut a long story short, EVERYTHING we could is correctly date coded, even the new old stock ignition leads! If Jase could get hold of it, he’d even have date correct fuel in the tank, and air in the tyres.
The windscreen, we went for the original full clear glass, and fluked finding someone with the original “GMH” Hot Kit, which gives it that original black edging.
The paint is Mint Julep, and we opted to once again stay to original standards and did not finish with a modern clear coat. All black outs are correct to original HX Sandman specs. The paint job you see on the top half, is just as flawless beneath and within.
Stripes and decals throughout the van are all screen-printed reproductions which we reproduce and sell, and Jess was damn excited finally being able to sticker up our prints on our resto as opposed to sending stripes and decals out to everyone else for their projects.
The goal of this build was to slap together an original Sandman and elope in it. She’s taken a couple more years and a bit more care and precision to “slap” together, and get her running, but she’s been re-built with love and to the imperfectly perfect standard of the original sandman panel vans of yesteryear; production line GMH cars rolled fresh off the line and off to the dealership yard, where so many of you first purchased them and had your first adventures in them.
Now, the question is, did we accomplish our other goal and run off in her and tie the knot? Keep your eyes open for a bride and a groom to find out!
Jason & Jess
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Originally Posted by wbute
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