In 1984 I joined Holden in their Sales & Marketing Office as a 21 yo cadet in Sydney Office and I was dispatched to the Dandenong Plant for a week long "Computer" and induction training. To my surprise I was given a Statesman DeVille Series II in Alpine White to drive around whilst attending the training so I have vivid memories of the WB Statesman. Your Video is great work so please keep up the great work.
Was going to take the dog down the river for a swim,then this clip popped up. Dog is good.He'll wait til tomorrow. The Staties were the shit back in the day....we called them Mafia Staff Cars.Luxury and power.I actually preferred the HQ shape,just a bit more rounded and flowing. I enjoyed the hell out of this. Cheers.
Hi there , re the Trimatics in these WB's series 1's & 2's. Had a mate who's whole family worked at GMH Pagewood in Sydney . Holden made a you beaut heavy duty Trimatic the XT5. These were more costly to make than getting GM USA 's Alaskan factory using a massively subsidised Iniut workforce churning out cheap thm350's & thm400's , the problem was when new there were warranty claims from customers with the el-cheapo Alaskan workforce made automatics with the HQ, HJ, HX, HZ & The SL/E Statesman's , additionally some of the alloy casings were so poor that they warped in the Aussie heat causing the internals to malfunction , and no matter how many times you stripped it down & re installed all the internals , it would fail again if the case had warped . So when Leo Pruneau & his team were given a massive amount to get the Statesman "right" GMH-A received approval to again use the way better Aussie XT5 heavy duty version of the Trimatic for their new WB series cars all the Brocck automatics also got the XT5's as well. I've owned a 1982 series 1 WB Caprice since new its been a fantastic car and now in March 2022 its got just 95,000k's on it , in Venetian red metalic , with "gold" leather (pale mustard colour) , with every option except a factory sunroof . These are forgotten gem maybe the the best aussie classic car solid tough reliable cars with good handling brakes & steering, , re the steering that you said was heavy GMH changed the valving in the WB's power steering to give more "feel" as the earlier Statesman's critics complained for having overly light power steering. My first one a 1980 model was stolen at 22months of ownership , so this second one I used only where I could see it . Hence its low k's, i bought something else as my daily drive all those years ago , a 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham , with its giant 8.2 litre , or 501 cube engine ,now in March 2022 it has 706,000 ks on it, when I bought it years ago it had 102,000ks on it . Good luck & happy motoring with your good old WB Stateman great video .
Greg, yours isn't the mint one I saw here on the Central Coast of NSW a year or two back? It was same interior and colour as you described. It looked incredible.
XT5 refers to the new high performance 'blue' motors from early 1980 (VC). Regarding tranny's, TH400's were replaced by TH350's in mid 1979 as a cost saving, by mid 1982 GMH dropped the TH350 all together to be replaced by a strengthened Trimatic, again as a cost saving. The strengthened Trimatic's are standard fit in VH and Series 2 WB V8 vehicles. I'm not buying your cheap Eskimo transmission story...myself and others who owned TH400 Holdens know these boxes were not weak and unreliable.
Dad had one he bought from the Pt Lincoln's local GMH dealer. The Dealer Principal of said dealership had owned it from new for about a decade. It was white with the Caprice (182 piece) metal grill and 5 of the optional chrome wire wheels. The tan interior had a column shift and a bench seat! It had few kays as the Dealer had demo cars to use, it came with the seats covered in plastic. I drove it myself quite a bit and that car shrunk around you if you pressed on. The high speed stability was tremendous but it also handled corners. It felt solid and smooth and was really one of the best cars Holden made. Dad would sit on 160kays while Mum was knitting and it was no big deal. Special car to me is the WB.
Good job cleaning the WB Deville up and getting it running again mate, brings back a few memories for me as a young fella cause back in the day late 90's early 2000's my older brother had one of these 82 WB Deville's in Silver with the same blue interior, I remember the day i got my license after passing my drivers test, we hopped in the WB and he let me drive it all day cruising around Freo and Perth.
As a kid I thought these were the coolest cars ever. Nice seeing one taken to bits years later and seeing how its build. I'd still love to own one of these one day and work on it.
I worked for a newsagent as a teen in the 80's & the owner bought a brand new 1984 Statesman Caprice in the same blue as this & proudly told me it was the best car made in Australia. I have always loved this model (especially the super rare HDT Magnum versions) but sadly I haven't seen one on the road in years.
I loved the Statesman growing up... my grandparents had one... I remember in 1982, GMH sent one over to the US for the big GM world design meeting and everyone was impressed and thought it was the new baby Cadillac... funny, when you see one on the road today... it's about as big as a Camry... I can't believe it's 40 years old! I love your dedication and enthusiasm, keep up the great work!
Thanks mate , I do like bringing this stuff back to the road. Yeah ya right when I was a kid my grand parents had a 70 fairlane and it seemed huge ! Thanks Ray for watching. 🍺👍
Good work with this thing, trim came up awesome too. Trans were t 350 in the earlier wb, then traumatics in the later ones, from memory 82 was the changeover yr.
What a great find. Even the factory Eurovox radio cassette still there. The interior came up really well! She will be a super comfortable interstate cruiser. Always wanted a WB Caprice, but never got around to it.
Thanks Bruce I appreciate ya saying mate. Yep same here $$$ has gone up considerably over the last few years. Heaps more coming mate Cheers for watching.🍺🍺👍
G day had a HJ Caprice in the 80s used to drive these WBs out of the factory into the storage paddock or onto the pinstripe stand. Great work getting the old girl back to life. Just one thing that made me stress out was when you crawled under the car with just a hydraulic jack holding the car up they can fail or slip please be careful and always use axel stands or blocks as a safety measure. 👍
Righto young fella, all through your vids you come up with old timers tricks but on this one the spray of water down the carby to clean carbon from the valves I learnt from my Dad 50 years ago. These things are learnt not taught. .
@@backshed5295 I kinda figured that. I'm coming up on 70, retired from the mechanical / engineering trade and really enjoy watching what you do and how you go about it. I find myself saying why don't you check that, or do this, and then you do. It is good to see young blokes keeping this interest alive, makes an old ( Valiant) fella real happy, keep it up and I'll keep watching, at least it's something worth watching
Mate I've only discovered your channel recently and I've od'd on it ever since, had a blue deville exactly like that back in the day. Your approach is refreshing and smart you do lot with not much money, you have a very good eye for the little things that transform the look of a car. And you work your fucking arse off, not scared to get absolutely everything wet as fuck with pressure when cleaning, love it.
Excellent job on the Statesy, you got it back on the road with minimal $$ & sheer guts & determination & talent, I'm getting a bit emotional with all this Vintage Aussie Iron ressurection 🔥😛
Thanks mate Yeah I got lucky with having and starter , the window motors took a bit of time but your right minimal $ at this point. Hq is back next episode and then the Statesman will get a new exhaust and a few other little thing done. Thanks for the comment. 🍺👍
@@backshed5295 recently I've been finding a lot of TH-cam channels that have got eff all subscribers but they're waay better than some of the ones with 50k plus subs...your's included, I'm shocked you havent got more...anyway glad i found ya, top car tips, luv ya work 👍
Mate I’ll take that as a compliment. I only started 4 months ago so let’s see we’re we end up mate. Hahha And thanks again for the comments and watching. 🍺👍
Gidday from across the ditch again Mick. Thought I'd catch up on some episodes that you did before I found your channel late last year. Epic episode and great tips re dizzy set up and water fix for the miss. Spotted you had a can of black Supercheap paint. Bloody handy to have one of those on hand all the time and cheap too. Like your Aussie humour too had a few chortles with this one.
great tech love it when you can score a bargain and make it work. old holdens can run along way with proper maintenance looks good as if it was never off the road.
Thanks for watching Sean and I must say the reason I wanted to start videoing some of the cars that have been here is the good memories people have with old cars and family members.
Really enjoyed your video thanks. Loved the Australian content. I think you made some good decisions regarding keeping the car as it was and focusing on running well and tidying up. I've still got an early WB Caprice, it has the Turbo 350, they went to Trimatics later in the WB, HZ was last to run the Turbo400. Those GM A6 compressors always seem to have the belts off, but are reasonably easy to rebuild, the vacuum pods on the heater boxes often leak on the WBs and are a PIA to fix and a lot of the cruisemaster cruise controls can be problematic, often those Rochesters when a bit old leak down over night as well, meaning a bit of cranking to get fired up after sitting for a few days, once again thanks for the content.
been looking for A/C vacuum diaphrams for years for my Caprice. But I only drive it in spring so doesn't matter.... My cruise control works fine - get a pin hole in any of the vacuum lines and it won't work. My rocky suffers the same problem.
Great video, am getting great tips from your videos, when I first got my HJ Ute I was paying mechanics full price for poor quality work, am now confident in doing some work myself, so thanks for the inspiration.
Wb statesman's are Definitely the rarest now, the front clips, doors and seats were always used on tonners and Ute's occasionally the dash and console if you weren't goin gts. So wouldn't be alot left.
Paul ya probably right mate , there were heaps of utes and tonners with stato fronts back in the day when they were worth bugger all. Thanks for watching mate and I hope you enjoyed it. Cheers Paul 🍺🍺👍
@@backshed5295 mine has done exactly 3 times ( 322,000 ) and 308 and T400 are booked in for re-build in August . Just one Q about that centre console , will that fit with my Prem dash , I have a T bar ??
@@308V8HZ the Wb has an air con duct opening that fits up under the dash and runs the air through the console to the rear vents. I think the Wb console would fit but I think the Hz prem didn’t have the duct outlet under the dash so the front of the console might have to be modified. I
Great video brings back lots of memories working on the holdens seen a lot of these Wb statesmans in the wreaking yard missing whole fronts and the front doors was lots of utes and p/vans around with them on lol these cars could sit for years and start with new battery and fuel not like the new cars love watching your videos keep them coming please. Ps use to work in wrecking yards for about 20 years with old Holdens.
Just found you channel. Love these old cars. I have a HQ sedan and a HJ statesman. I always wanted a WB Statesman. You found a nice survivor. Your have done well with clean it up and getting it going. I have subscribed and will have to go now start catching up on your video's. Thanks Stew.
I bet the T400 got too expensive to buy stateside with the exchange rate and the fact a recession hit early in the 80s so the old Traumatic had to cut it. btw you can get those multifunction commodore indicator stalks for about $40 new .
This was very informative. I've never tried to restore an old car to any great extend, but there were a lot of great tips here for anyone starting such a project. I was curious as to the origins of the Statesman and from what I just read on curbsideclassic (dot-you-know-what) the HQ line was closely related to the 1970 Camaro (itself a minor update of the '67 Camaro and '68 Nova), but with a rear-coil-suspension that might have been related to that of the Malibu. Like the 1976 Cadillac Seville, this car has the 114" wheelbase, but even the Seville kept the Camaro's leaf springs. It's always interesting to see what GM does with the bits and pieces it brings to other countries. Thanks for posting!
I would say that the car has been previously re-painted but in those days the Duco had to be baked in an oven to stop the crows feet and obviously that has not happened in this case put value wise would pay to have the car repainted in my opinion that would increase the value of the vehicle quite a lot and you would get your money back plus interest👍
@@backshed5295 You keep making them & I'll keep watching, I like to see Classic Cars being given a Second chance even though I live in the UK Aussie Classic Cars have got style & no electronic crap so easy to work on without the need for a computer.
John you will relate to one we have coming up then! 1975 Cortina. Over hear the had a 250ci 6 cyl in them but this one is going bigger mate hahaha. There is a sneak peak of the cortina on our Instagram Backshedmick Cheers for watching mate 🍺🍺👍
As an American I can say that the Holden Statesmen does resemble a ‘77-‘91 B-Body Chevrolet Caprice Somewhat. But I guess that makes sense because Holden was GM’s Australian Subsidary and a lot of design language carried over ( Along with Vauxhall and Opel)
New to your channel and really enjoyed your methodical approach 👍🏻👍🏻 So effective and the work on the electrical stuff will really help me with my car which needs a big refresh! Cheers mate and glad I found your channel 👍🏻👍🏻
they weren't underated at all, just a couple of years late - used ones were selling for more than the list price for new ones in 85 when they were discontinued.
Love the content, 2 things, first, I reckon a WB stato would be worth more with a new paint job, they were classy cars not the average Joe job like the HQ kingswood you did, (which I fully agree with the patina look you went for, looks sweet) so bringing it back to "Mint" look would be what I would do, the second thing is, are you a fan of Vice Grip garage? I'm getting a bit of that vibe with some of the things you say, She's definitely a "goin' to town rig" not just a going to church rig.
Yeah mate I agree HQ has great patina But maybe the Wb should have more done with her . Yeah I’ve watched vice grip but the calling a car a rig has been old school since I was a teen and around for yrs way before TH-cam . My favorite show is ROADKILL ! But here in Australia motor trend stopped access to it so I’ve been filthy on them Hahhahah.
And I just feel the love Mucus gave to the Statesman by donating that spare starter 😍
@@garrett69 hahaha 🍺🍺👍
In 1984 I joined Holden in their Sales & Marketing Office as a 21 yo cadet in Sydney Office and I was dispatched to the Dandenong Plant for a week long "Computer" and induction training. To my surprise I was given a Statesman DeVille Series II in Alpine White to drive around whilst attending the training so I have vivid memories of the WB Statesman. Your Video is great work so please keep up the great work.
Thanks David all of the cars we have or save are all about memories ! I grew up with these cars and love them . Hope you enjoyed watching.
Was going to take the dog down the river for a swim,then this clip popped up.
Dog is good.He'll wait til tomorrow.
The Staties were the shit back in the day....we called them Mafia Staff Cars.Luxury and power.I actually preferred the HQ shape,just a bit more rounded and flowing.
I enjoyed the hell out of this.
Cheers.
Cheers mate
Please take a look through all our videos and stick around as these heaps coming
🍺🍺👍
Thanks for all the basic tips, gummed up valves & buffing 👍
@@FrankWilkinson-h4g 🍺👍
Bloody hell can fix just about anything 👍
Hahahha I’m not sure about anything Danny but thanks for the comment mate.
Look at that Mick , bloody marvellous 👍🏾🇦🇺
@@kymmarshall1116 cheers mate🍺👍
Hi there , re the Trimatics in these WB's series 1's & 2's. Had a mate who's whole family worked at GMH Pagewood in Sydney . Holden made a you beaut heavy duty Trimatic the XT5. These were more costly to make than getting GM USA 's Alaskan factory using a massively subsidised Iniut workforce churning out cheap thm350's & thm400's , the problem was when new there were warranty claims from customers with the el-cheapo Alaskan workforce made automatics with the HQ, HJ, HX, HZ & The SL/E Statesman's , additionally some of the alloy casings were so poor that they warped in the Aussie heat causing the internals to malfunction , and no matter how many times you stripped it down & re installed all the internals , it would fail again if the case had warped . So when Leo Pruneau & his team were given a massive amount to get the Statesman "right" GMH-A received approval to again use the way better Aussie XT5 heavy duty version of the Trimatic for their new WB series cars all the Brocck automatics also got the XT5's as well. I've owned a 1982 series 1 WB Caprice since new its been a fantastic car and now in March 2022 its got just 95,000k's on it , in Venetian red metalic , with "gold" leather (pale mustard colour) , with every option except a factory sunroof . These are forgotten gem maybe the the best aussie classic car solid tough reliable cars with good handling brakes & steering, , re the steering that you said was heavy GMH changed the valving in the WB's power steering to give more "feel" as the earlier Statesman's critics complained for having overly light power steering. My first one a 1980 model was stolen at 22months of ownership , so this second one I used only where I could see it . Hence its low k's, i bought something else as my daily drive all those years ago , a 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham , with its giant 8.2 litre , or 501 cube engine ,now in March 2022 it has 706,000 ks on it, when I bought it years ago it had 102,000ks on it . Good luck & happy motoring with your good old WB Stateman great video .
Thanks Greg
And thanks for the info , very knowledgeable on these cars. Your statesman with leather would be mint.
Greg, yours isn't the mint one I saw here on the Central Coast of NSW a year or two back? It was same interior and colour as you described. It looked incredible.
XT5 refers to the new high performance 'blue' motors from early 1980 (VC). Regarding tranny's, TH400's were replaced by TH350's in mid 1979 as a cost saving, by mid 1982 GMH dropped the TH350 all together to be replaced by a strengthened Trimatic, again as a cost saving. The strengthened Trimatic's are standard fit in VH and Series 2 WB V8 vehicles. I'm not buying your cheap Eskimo transmission story...myself and others who owned TH400 Holdens know these boxes were not weak and unreliable.
That Statesman sums up Holden at the time. Like the For Falcons of Argentina. A 1970 design dressed up in '80s cosmetics.
Yeah I hear ya mate🍺👍
Dad had one he bought from the Pt Lincoln's local GMH dealer. The Dealer Principal of said dealership had owned it from new for about a decade. It was white with the Caprice (182 piece) metal grill and 5 of the optional chrome wire wheels. The tan interior had a column shift and a bench seat! It had few kays as the Dealer had demo cars to use, it came with the seats covered in plastic.
I drove it myself quite a bit and that car shrunk around you if you pressed on. The high speed stability was tremendous but it also handled corners. It felt solid and smooth and was really one of the best cars Holden made. Dad would sit on 160kays while Mum was knitting and it was no big deal. Special car to me is the WB.
@@oz2strokeman394 👍🍺
What a great car to do up back to factory beautiful colour and interior please oh please leave the factory wheel trims on good luck with the project👌
🍺🍺👍
Thought I'd watch this for about the 10th time 😂 I love the Statesman!
@@garrett69 hahaha cheers mate 🍺🍺👍
Good job cleaning the WB Deville up and getting it running again mate, brings back a few memories for me as a young fella cause back in the day late 90's early 2000's my older brother had one of these 82 WB Deville's in Silver with the same blue interior, I remember the day i got my license after passing my drivers test, we hopped in the WB and he let me drive it all day cruising around Freo and Perth.
Yeah that’s what I like about saving and building ol cars, the memories.
As a kid I thought these were the coolest cars ever. Nice seeing one taken to bits years later and seeing how its build. I'd still love to own one of these one day and work on it.
🍺👍
Good to see the guts of a winder motor, I have a Hz wagon tailgate motor to try and make it work better one day
Rip it apart mate !
Contact cleaner/ brake cleaner and fine sand paper is all ya need most times.
Cheers for watching mate.
I worked for a newsagent as a teen in the 80's & the owner bought a brand new 1984 Statesman Caprice in the same blue as this & proudly told me it was the best car made in Australia. I have always loved this model (especially the super rare HDT Magnum versions) but sadly I haven't seen one on the road in years.
Yeah there wasn’t a lot of those magnums.
Cheers for watching mate
🍺🍺👍
Always liked the WB Statesman. They're worth gold in NZ.
Here too mate🍺🍺👍
That was great to watch. Not only a beautiful Stato, but your knowledge is super. Good video editing too.
Thanks Mike I appreciate it mate🍺🍺👍
I loved the Statesman growing up... my grandparents had one... I remember in 1982, GMH sent one over to the US for the big GM world design meeting and everyone was impressed and thought it was the new baby Cadillac... funny, when you see one on the road today... it's about as big as a Camry... I can't believe it's 40 years old! I love your dedication and enthusiasm, keep up the great work!
Thanks mate , I do like bringing this stuff back to the road.
Yeah ya right when I was a kid my grand parents had a 70 fairlane and it seemed huge ! Thanks Ray for watching.
🍺👍
Seeing your channel for the first time and working my way through all of your vids now . Great viewing , thanks .
Thanks Matt I really appreciate ya comment mate.
🍺👍
Good work with this thing, trim came up awesome too. Trans were t 350 in the earlier wb, then traumatics in the later ones, from memory 82 was the changeover yr.
Thanks mate
Yeah I’m not a statesman expert I just love all old stuff.
This ol girl is a real nice combination of that 308 and trimatic.
the series 2 from 83 got the traumatics
Glad I found you mate, I watch a lot of these videos from the US and it's nice to see the Aussie perspective.
Thanks Rowdy
Yeah I love our classics
Heaps more coming mate
probably my favorite styling on a Aussie luxury car
It grew on me Fuel guzzler
It definitely has sleeker look from the side than the American GM and Ford cars of the era.
Your a natural for tv mate you do a good job explaining
Cheers mate.
🍺👍
What a great find. Even the factory Eurovox radio cassette still there. The interior came up really well! She will be a super comfortable interstate cruiser. Always wanted a WB Caprice, but never got around to it.
Thanks Railtrolley yep she came up great and thanks for the great comment
I love the "stop talkin' get into it" motto. What a great way to approach things.
Cheers mate , yeah just get something done hahah🍺🍺👍
You get an amazing amount done in one day.
Haha maybe a few days in that video but yep I try to cram a bit in for your viewing mate🍺🍺👍
Just picked up on your channel mate, great videos! looking forward to seeing more. cars like this are worth a fortune in NZ now...
Thanks Bruce I appreciate ya saying mate. Yep same here $$$ has gone up considerably over the last few years.
Heaps more coming mate
Cheers for watching.🍺🍺👍
Excellent find and well done she looks awesome. How many Aussie cars can give you that floating experience out on the highway!😂😂
G day had a HJ Caprice in the 80s used to drive these WBs out of the factory into the storage paddock or onto the pinstripe stand. Great work getting the old girl back to life. Just one thing that made me stress out was when you crawled under the car with just a hydraulic jack holding the car up they can fail or slip please be careful and always use axel stands or blocks as a safety measure. 👍
Will do mate thanks
Good advice on the stands. Knew a bloke who basically killed himself cause of “I’ll only be under it for 10mins. I’ve done it heaps of times”
Not advisable, mandatory.
Righto young fella, all through your vids you come up with old timers tricks but on this one the spray of water down the carby to clean carbon from the valves I learnt from my Dad 50 years ago. These things are learnt not taught.
.
@@graemegaerth14 i learnt that from an old mechanic too mate 🍺🍺
@@backshed5295 I kinda figured that. I'm coming up on 70, retired from the mechanical / engineering trade and really enjoy watching what you do and how you go about it. I find myself saying why don't you check that, or do this, and then you do. It is good to see young blokes keeping this interest alive, makes an old ( Valiant) fella real happy, keep it up and I'll keep watching, at least it's something worth watching
@@graemegaerth14 cheers mate thanks🍺👍
Great to see you visit all camp sites, ford holden and chrysler .. love our videos mate and keep up the great work
Cheers mate🍺🍺👍
Mate I've only discovered your channel recently and I've od'd on it ever since, had a blue deville exactly like that back in the day. Your approach is refreshing and smart you do lot with not much money, you have a very good eye for the little things that transform the look of a car. And you work your fucking arse off, not scared to get absolutely everything wet as fuck with pressure when cleaning, love it.
Cheers mate
Plenty more coming
🍺🍺👍
Excellent job on the Statesy, you got it back on the road with minimal $$ & sheer guts & determination & talent, I'm getting a bit emotional with all this Vintage Aussie Iron ressurection 🔥😛
Thanks mate
Yeah I got lucky with having and starter , the window motors took a bit of time but your right minimal $ at this point.
Hq is back next episode and then the Statesman will get a new exhaust and a few other little thing done.
Thanks for the comment. 🍺👍
@@backshed5295 recently I've been finding a lot of TH-cam channels that have got eff all subscribers but they're waay better than some of the ones with 50k plus subs...your's included, I'm shocked you havent got more...anyway glad i found ya, top car tips, luv ya work 👍
Mate I’ll take that as a compliment. I only started 4 months ago so let’s see we’re we end up mate. Hahha
And thanks again for the comments and watching. 🍺👍
Maybe Lance when they get too big they are forgetting to put up good stuff rather than just stuff?? Anyhow mate I’m glad you commented.
Gidday from across the ditch again Mick. Thought I'd catch up on some episodes that you did before I found your channel late last year. Epic episode and great tips re dizzy set up and water fix for the miss. Spotted you had a can of black Supercheap paint. Bloody handy to have one of those on hand all the time and cheap too. Like your Aussie humour too had a few chortles with this one.
@@graemeburr6463 cheers mate 🍺🍺👍
Mate that was one of the best car vids I’ve seen in a long time.
Thanks mate I appreciate your comment.
Glad you liked it 🍺👍
Love to be working on that one, she's a beauty alright 👍
Brilliant MICK yet again.
Cheers Andrew
🍺👍
great tech love it when you can score a bargain and make it work. old holdens can run along way with proper maintenance looks good as if it was never off the road.
Thanks mate , these days nothing seems like a bargain! I payed plenty $$$ for her but they are worth it in todays market.
love your videos bringing classics back to life cant beat it
Cheers robert , new one up soon mate . 🍺🍺👍
great watch...thanks for share 👌🏽
Thanks Zeph
🍺👍
I own exactly the same statesman de ville 2. Same Engine and trimatic automatic. Mines champagne brown. It has caprice options fitted. Love the car.
Thanks for watching Sean and I must say the reason I wanted to start videoing some of the cars that have been here is the good memories people have with old cars and family members.
I loved that mate, thanks for sharing. A good tribute to the last of the real Statesman's.
Thanks mate
Glad you enjoyed it.
🍺👍
New sub. Im a Ford man but used to love these things in the 70s n 80s. When brocky did the WB magnum, wow that was cool!!!
The old statesman came out Beaute runs mint good one
Thanks Wally
Yeah she came up great.
Can’t wait to get a new exhaust and lean on her a bit on the hwy.
@@backshed5295 my brother had a statesman put 2 Coby mufflers and straight pipes straight to the back boy did she have a rumble too her
Fantastic channel best on utube
No bullshit no high ego like some.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks Keith I really appreciate the comment mate and glad your enjoying the videos.
Cheers 🍺👍
Old holden never die….. great video
Thanks Ray
I appreciate your comment.
🍺👍
All the these years later and the WB stato still looks the part. Great video and very instructional, well done.
Thanks mate I do appreciate it
Love a Stato! My parents had a HQ Deville, HZ Caprice and VQ. In the blood so to speak ;-)
A statesman family ! Yeah I did enjoy that car too mate
Cheers for watching Chris
🍺🍺👍
Such good music and put together so well. Loving the uploads2 mate
Thanks mate I’d do really appreciate feedback like that.
🍺👍
Mate you’re getting better and better love it 🤙
Thanks mate I appreciate ya saying🍺👍
looks like a decent looking WB statesman, that is unmolested.
Absolutely Colin it is a survivor.
Cheers for watching mate
🍺🍺👍
Really enjoyed your video thanks. Loved the Australian content. I think you made some good decisions regarding keeping the car as it was and focusing on running well and tidying up. I've still got an early WB Caprice, it has the Turbo 350, they went to Trimatics later in the WB, HZ was last to run the Turbo400. Those GM A6 compressors always seem to have the belts off, but are reasonably easy to rebuild, the vacuum pods on the heater boxes often leak on the WBs and are a PIA to fix and a lot of the cruisemaster cruise controls can be problematic, often those Rochesters when a bit old leak down over night as well, meaning a bit of cranking to get fired up after sitting for a few days, once again thanks for the content.
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been looking for A/C vacuum diaphrams for years for my Caprice. But I only drive it in spring so doesn't matter.... My cruise control works fine - get a pin hole in any of the vacuum lines and it won't work. My rocky suffers the same problem.
Love the content and how you take us through all you do. Learning all the time.
Cheers mate
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Great video, am getting great tips from your videos, when I first got my HJ Ute I was paying mechanics full price for poor quality work, am now confident in doing some work myself, so thanks for the inspiration.
Mate if you need something message me on Fb Backshed or Instagram backshedmick
These old cars are simple and we need to share the old school stuff.
Wb statesman's are Definitely the rarest now, the front clips, doors and seats were always used on tonners and Ute's occasionally the dash and console if you weren't goin gts. So wouldn't be alot left.
Paul ya probably right mate , there were heaps of utes and tonners with stato fronts back in the day when they were worth bugger all.
Thanks for watching mate and I hope you enjoyed it.
Cheers Paul 🍺🍺👍
I wish my 78 HZ Prem was in such good condition as that !! Great job mate she came up real nice !!
Thanks 308v8
Yeah with only 107000km the trim wasn’t to bashed about , just the console was a bit crappy.
@@backshed5295 mine has done exactly 3 times ( 322,000 ) and 308 and T400 are booked in for re-build in August . Just one Q about that centre console , will that fit with my Prem dash , I have a T bar ??
@@308V8HZ the Wb has an air con duct opening that fits up under the dash and runs the air through the console to the rear vents. I think the Wb console would fit but I think the Hz prem didn’t have the duct outlet under the dash so the front of the console might have to be modified.
I
@@backshed5295 that's right mate no duct under there , I might keep that on my bucket list for now , thanks heaps , see ya on the road
Great video brings back lots of memories working on the holdens seen a lot of these Wb statesmans in the wreaking yard missing whole fronts and the front doors was lots of utes and p/vans around with them on lol these cars could sit for years and start with new battery and fuel not like the new cars love watching your videos keep them coming please.
Ps use to work in wrecking yards for about 20 years with old Holdens.
Cheers Anthony
Yeah the statesman front on utes etc was a big thing there for a while .
Thanks for watching mate
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Awesome work mate… keep rocking
Thanks Chutney
love all of your shows. good flipping done correctly. great life outlook.
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Your channel popped up, so glad it did , like your content 😊👍
Thant George, are you a Holden fan or just all old stuff?
I am a Holden fan 😊 had a 68 GTS MONARO 186s back in the early 70’s. Also like old stuff. Look forward to more of your content 😊
Brilliant work. You’ve got the Midas touch. I’m amazed at the depth of your knowledge. Thanks for a fantastic video.
Cheers mate thanks
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Just love watching these videos, just wish I had that knowledge to fix things, the caprice what a Holden treasure
Thanks Ross
Heaps more coming mate.
Hope the world is watching you brother you do Aussie PROUD
Thanks
I love the fact you enjoyed the video
Thanks mate
Back in the late 90's a workmate had a white one. I remember him showing me the car and pointed out the rust around the bottom of the rear window.
Yeah that is 1 place they go mate. This girl has been loved on so she’s excellent rust wise.
Looks so good. Well done
great project
Cheers mate🍺🍺👍
Nice job, good to you kept it together and not part it out. Don’t see many WB’s on the road now.
Nice job. Love the WB Statesmans. I've just finished bringing back a 95 VS Executive 5.0 manual, so appreciate the effort to resurrect the Stato.
Thanks mate, yeah we’ve gotta save what we can. They are all cool.
Good show Buddy, rippa
Cheers mate🍺👍
Cool channel great content
That’s a original unit
Thanks Anthony
Yep she is stock as !
I was lucky enough to find a matching hubcap on eBay!
Cheers mate🍺🍺👍
Just found you channel. Love these old cars. I have a HQ sedan and a HJ statesman. I always wanted a WB Statesman. You found a nice survivor. Your have done well with clean it up and getting it going. I have subscribed and will have to go now start catching up on your video's. Thanks Stew.
Thanks Stew I appreciate that mate
I bet the T400 got too expensive to buy stateside with the exchange rate and the fact a recession hit early in the 80s so the old Traumatic had to cut it. btw you can get those multifunction commodore indicator stalks for about $40 new .
Thanks mate yeah I will need 1 if I can’t fix this one
Interior came up awesome. Never late in a 308
Hahahha
Yeah I forgot that one! That’s gold !
Yes great job with old state, appreciate the and video.
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My dads got an older one statesman are sick
This was very informative. I've never tried to restore an old car to any great extend, but there were a lot of great tips here for anyone starting such a project. I was curious as to the origins of the Statesman and from what I just read on curbsideclassic (dot-you-know-what) the HQ line was closely related to the 1970 Camaro (itself a minor update of the '67 Camaro and '68 Nova), but with a rear-coil-suspension that might have been related to that of the Malibu. Like the 1976 Cadillac Seville, this car has the 114" wheelbase, but even the Seville kept the Camaro's leaf springs. It's always interesting to see what GM does with the bits and pieces it brings to other countries. Thanks for posting!
HQ is actually based off a 1971 Pontiac T-37, have a look at it inside and out, basically exactly the same.
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Brilliant.
New sub. i love finding Aus. channels like yours -👍awesome.
Thanks mate I appreciate the comment. 🍺👍
I would say that the car has been previously re-painted but in those days the Duco had to be baked in an oven to stop the crows feet and obviously that has not happened in this case put value wise would pay to have the car repainted in my opinion that would increase the value of the vehicle quite a lot and you would get your money back plus interest👍
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Keep up the good work Mick 👍
Cheers John , thanks for watching another one.
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@@backshed5295 You keep making them & I'll keep watching, I like to see Classic Cars being given a Second chance even though I live in the UK Aussie Classic Cars have got style & no electronic crap so easy to work on without the need for a computer.
John you will relate to one we have coming up then! 1975 Cortina. Over hear the had a 250ci 6 cyl in them but this one is going bigger mate hahaha.
There is a sneak peak of the cortina on our Instagram Backshedmick
Cheers for watching mate
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@@backshed5295 I do like the Cortina from the Mk1-Mk4/5 so look forward to seeing what you are going to do with yours.
Cool channel great content 👍
Thanks mate
You were quick on that one I just put it up. Cheers mate
As an American I can say that the Holden Statesmen does resemble a ‘77-‘91 B-Body Chevrolet Caprice Somewhat. But I guess that makes sense because Holden was GM’s Australian Subsidary and a lot of design language carried over ( Along with Vauxhall and Opel)
completely different platform. The WB had nothing in common with the US caprice. It was the last incarnation of the fully Aussie designed HQ platform.
@@thesolver1970 I said resembles I didn’t say it was the same platform just a comment on similar design language.
The family resemblance is obvious.
Nice work
Thanks mate.
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Great result mate👍👍
Cheers buddy
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Very nice dude
Thanks Grant
Brilliant, love Holden's
Thanks Alan
We love them all here but I do have a soft spot for the v8 holden
Awesome video, well done
Thanks Scott I appreciate the comment mate.
New to your channel and really enjoyed your methodical approach 👍🏻👍🏻 So effective and the work on the electrical stuff will really help me with my car which needs a big refresh! Cheers mate and glad I found your channel 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks mate I appreciate ya comment
What are you working on mate?
Great job...
Thanks Michael
More coming mate
Back in the day my folks had one of these brand new. Really underrated car for its time. Get it out on the freeway and you could cruise all day
It’s a really nice ol girl to drive!
they weren't underated at all, just a couple of years late - used ones were selling for more than the list price for new ones in 85 when they were discontinued.
Love the videos mate 👌
Hey thanks Cameron I really appreciate you saying!
Keep watching mate we have plenty of new stuff coming.
Love the content, 2 things, first, I reckon a WB stato would be worth more with a new paint job, they were classy cars not the average Joe job like the HQ kingswood you did, (which I fully agree with the patina look you went for, looks sweet) so bringing it back to "Mint" look would be what I would do, the second thing is, are you a fan of Vice Grip garage? I'm getting a bit of that vibe with some of the things you say, She's definitely a "goin' to town rig" not just a going to church rig.
Yeah mate I agree
HQ has great patina
But maybe the Wb should have more done with her . Yeah I’ve watched vice grip but the calling a car a rig has been old school since I was a teen and around for yrs way before TH-cam . My favorite show is ROADKILL ! But here in Australia motor trend stopped access to it so I’ve been filthy on them Hahhahah.
Its in bits mine 84 deville serie 2 one owner there gr8 cars
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I luv this man.
Thanks Peter I appreciate ya saying
Cheers for watching mate
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had a hz v8 premier wagon in the same colour.Miss that car
Yeah Beth they are easy to grow attached too .
Great stuff
Well done Mick lucky you cought that statesman before it turned into a pile of junk! You have done it again mate 👍
Cheers buddy
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Came up mint. Great find 👌👌
Thanks Craig I appreciate it mate
They ran turbo 350s in these also, good trans!
Great video, good thing it never had LPG in it! Keep up the great work!👍👍
Yeah that’s a good point too mate ya used to see heaps of them on lpg.
gee mate awesome videos - i am really enjoying them; keep em coming. I love the statesman
Thanks mate yeah there’s heaps more coming