Vehicles spotted in your neighborhood

I wish I had the mojo to do my truck in snow camo/white dazzle.

Having been in the sign industry for 17 years, I’m very impressed with wraps. It’s something early on I attempted to do, but it’s very difficult to do correctly. 3M makes some amazing products now that make it very easy for a skilled tech to do a beautiful job on. That said, I’d only ever do matte black…

A red Holden Sandman panelvan in Birdwood Auto Museum, and my dads green Holden Sandman ute.



Well. How do I put that one politely?

As a European I only know the notorious image of those “love wagons” of the 70ies. So what sense does a “Sandman” “ute” make?
I can think of a lot of slippery jokes, but there must be an angle to it, that I do not see.

Please enlighten me on the subject.

wow, we didn’t get those on this side of the pond, just Chevy El Camino’s.

They get used a lot as trade vehicles to carry around tools and materials. Its much more likely to see a tradesman/contractor here driving around in a ute than a van, which is more common in Europe. Ute is short for utility, and is the exactly the same in principle as an American “pickup”. As to why we use them instead of vans, besides the long-standing cultural image that “it’s Australian”, I have no idea. It could be because some of them have huge engines/go-fast-bits while still being able to cart things around.

The panelvan, despite its notoriety, was presumably targeted at being able to camp in the back, rather than setting up a tent, and still being able to fit in a surfboard etc.

Spotted this one in my garage. One of my best friends and I traded cars for the week. I think I might have gotten the better end of that deal.

Oh man that surfacing and simple light cutout out awesome!

Some kind of Toyota J40. I don’t know enough about these trucks to identify year/specific model, but it was sure cool and completely restored.

Old stuff that has been beat on and well-maintained just has such a special aura.



nice!

I love that it’s in such mint condition, its always fun to see something really cool thats been restored well.

Just noticed something. Look at the back view of that Toyota, and the Toyota badge on the lower right. It curves around the radius toward the right rear panel. One would think that TOYOTA of all places would dictate “make that badge flat!” Instead the badge matches the radius, just for the last letter. I could imagine this being infuriating for someone in engineering or assembly. Or maybe its easier to align it.

I saw a very similar one of these this morning, I’ll see if it’s the same. It looks like the badge aligns with the door gap on the left side as well, which would have made it easy to stick on anyway? It seems strange to bend it like that instead of making the badge smaller.

It looks like the marketers came in and said, “let’s make the logo 30% bigger”. Incredible car though.

They’re quite similar, but could be different years/models. The 4wd logo is the same but the Toyota badge isn’t there.


It was a good week at secret car club!











  1. It reminds me of a dream that I had where I was rebuilding a Honda del Sol. I had the chassis on a rotisserie and had just painted it beige. I woke in a cold sweat.

  2. Is the 959 disappointed in real life? I’ve never seen one, but I figure it must seem small and fragile in person.

It was awesome in person. Still looks so fresh and clean, especially compared to what is going on in car design today!

Oh my that 959. That thing was the future, and still looks like it belongs in the future today!

  1. Is the 959 disappointed in real life? I’ve never seen one, but I figure it must seem small and fragile in person

It’s a Porsche – same size and as solid as any other Porsche. Did it arrive on a trailer or does the owner hang a California plate in the rear window?