Man with a Panelvan Plan

Whatdidjatellya,.... by March, we would have it complete. And we did, and so we have, Sorta'.
I thought that I would give the more inquisitive souls a rundown on the Panno'.

Our HQ Holden Panelvan made to the Wellington Swapmeet/ Vintage Fair only just. If it wasn't for a great last moment effort on HD's part I would still be sitting dark places trying to squeeze my mits into tiny corners. (*How good is a lady with small hands when it comes to automotive restoration?). On the day before, I acquired a temporary road-permit and at the crack of Sunday we headed out in the pre-dawn gloom in the Monaro, closely followed by the polished up Panno.

Within 10 kilometres the exhaust clamp had rattled loose and was making some unearthly racket as I woke up the dogs passing through the outta burbs of Orange. The pavement was cold at the servo, but we got the job done and was on the road again by 7.30.

The thing needs a good hard tune up, but it cruises nicely enough. The front end is nice and tight but the cavernous space inside is slow to warm up and the road noise drums and amplifies up through the floor. Any small rocks thrown up by the tyres hit the underside of the wheel arches and it sounds like a gunshot inside.

Luckily I installed the good old Clarion AM. ABC and Macca filled in the hour.

Twas a fine day at the Wello meet. We were the only HQ's in a line up of very mixed cars ranging from 1919 single cylinder Rudges to late model Volvos (I think the old fella reconed the parking in the car show area was less of a walk). And like the first showing of the Monaro, it was a bit of a buzz to have the panno up and out there for the first time.

People like the panelvan and we had a few good yarns spun to us about them (and how fond the memories were... almost too much info there mate!). Spotted a a good few people taking a photo of the two HQ's together too, which is nice to have your project appreciated in that way.

So, there you have it. I will throw up a few extra pic's once we a registered properly with our new number plates, but for now these are the photos that I took about a week and a bit ago (before the polish and detail).

And no-one asked me whether it was a Sandman or not... I don't think anyone cared anyway.

Here I am chasing the shade around the paddock trying to polish the thing. There's alot of roof on one of these... Save polish, Buy a ute.

Last but not least... heres our day in the sun... Wellington Vintage Fair.