VCC WANGANUI DECEMBER RIVET by Vintage Car Club of New Zealand

December 2023

The Taihape Man opens his garage doors. Car Restoration of the Year winner Chris White

We welcome all Vintage and Classic Vehicles over 30 years old

Official Magazine of the Wanganui Branch of the V.C.C. of NZ P O Box 726, Wanganui , Street Address—Patapu Street, Wanganui East wanganui@vcc.org.nz Patron:

Alan Bates

Chairman: Secretary: Treasurer:

Andrew Dittmer 027 379 6969 Frank James 06 344 2221 Neil Farrer 027 457 9634

Accounts Reviewer: Club Captain: Rally Secretary/Trophies: Motorcycle Convenor:

Peter Powell Rob & Linda O’Keefe 027 433 2626 okjoiner@xtra.co.nz Christine Savage 06 342 4755 wanganuirally@gmail.com Bill James 027 353 2190 heatherandbilljames@gmail.com

Committee :

Dale Whitaker Sarah Howell Wayne Gedye Ian Higgins Sietse Zeilstra Pierre Zeilstra

021 0888 2371 021 0885 3483 027 244 7108 027 201 2706 027 345 6977 027 345 6977

dalewhitakernz@gmail.com iansarahhowell@gmail.com waynegedye@gmail.com ihiggins@xtra.co.nz jpszeilstra@gmail.com jpszeilstra@gmail.com

Compliance: Health & Safety: Trophies Manager: Branch Delegate: Kitchen Manager: Hall Custodian/Bookings: Truck Custodians:

Wayne Gedye 027 244 7108 Dale Whitaker 021 0888 2371 Mihi McDermid 06 347 6915 Neil Farrer 06 343 6248 Vacant position Dale Whitaker 06 343 9089 Rob O’Keeffe 027 4332 626 Shane Hobman 06 344 5915 Dave Austin 06 344 7513 Dave McDermid 027 555 4201 Chris White 06 348 7335 Graeme Purves 027 929 5026 Ian Higgins 027 201 2706 Ian Higgins 027 201 2706 Dave Austin 06 344 7513 Shane Hobman 06 344 5915 Bruce Ardell 06 342 7713 Linda Kendrick 027 775 4644 Frank James 021 349 074

waynegedye@gmail.com dalewhitakernz@gmail.com

Librarian: Parts Custodians:

Editor: Beaded Wheels Reporter: Archivist: Vehicle ID’s: Rivet Distribution Co-Ordinator:

biffoditty@gmail.com liznfrank@xtra.co.nz neilfarrer83@gmail.com

dalewhitakernz@gmail.com

whanganuiriverboats@xtra.co.nz

ihiggins@xtra.co.nz ihiggins@xtra.co.nz

Official VCC Website: VCC Branch Mags: Facebook Wanganui Vintage Car Club:

www.vcc.org.nz http://vcc.org.nz/news-from-our-branches/ https://www.facebook.com/whanganuivcc/?

VCC Codes for Discounts:

Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferry ANTIQUECAR Interislander Cook Strait Ferry WH5465

From The Editor’s Desk Greetings Members December already-hard to believe where the year has gone. Seems to me that the older one gets, the years just slip by faster and faster. Talking about age, well mine anyway, it seems to me that I must be losing the plot. After emailing all you knowledgeable members about the Tui Brewery Mangatainoka Vintage and Classic Day, it completely slipped my mind to attend until later that day! It seems to me though, that I wasn't the only old fossil that forgot, as I am led to believe only one of our Members attended. Please correct me if I have this wrong. Either we are all rather forgetful or simply did not want to go… I remembered to attend the Feilding Hot Rod and Classic Car show though in the centre of Feilding. Bumped into Jim Bilby and Mary-Ann Vandyke in their Zephyr Mark 1 convertible. I took my ‘75 Charger down. An enjoyable days outing. Didn’t spot any one else from our Branch, but it was primarily for the Hot Rod fraternity, although many Classics were on display. Never really been an Austin man, but I did spot one little Ruby that got my pulse racing, and it was not the very attractive youngish lady owner who I got chatting away to! This little beauty ( the car of course) was lowered and powered by a warm 1600 Escort. Only trouble was that I would struggle to get into it. An emerald green little honey. Room in my shed? Would be difficult to get a VIC but what the hell. Was offered a ride but I ever so politely declined. An interesting Model A had the words “ Saved form a Restorer” printed on the rear. Probably would not impress some of our Model A Members though with a V8 under the bonnet! Just short of 200 cars attended. Really pleased with feedback from my last column that a Branch Website may be worth while pursuing to get our message out there and that we need some new young blood. Toni Jenkins quickly replied and offered her services to set one up. I brought it up at our monthly committee meeting and Chairman Andrew is to approach Toni to discuss further. Thanks Toni. I hope that it will proceed. Congratulations to our Club Captains for organising a quiz night and social time for our February Club Night. BYO for those wishing to partake a tipple or two. Lets make it a great night and attend if you possibly can to show support. Our events calendar is pretty full for next month as shown in the program. Hope we get a good turnout at the Gumboot Rally in Taihape. If you have not been there before, how about coming up. Robert is a top guy and Taihape is very much in our area and part of our Branch. You will see that Robert features in this Rivet. He is a man whom I have the utmost respect for and he accomplishes more from his wheel chair than most of us do on two legs. Also don’t forget the Club Picnic and to enter the Burma and all the weekend events. That’s all from me. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Yours in cruising

Editor Ian

Chairman's Report — December 2023 Greetings Members This last month has been full on in our household. Sue’s Austin got her WOF with flying colours to start things off. More progress has been made on the Austin 7 utility restoration in the shed. We accompanied Ian Ingram on the Tararua Trundle in the Horowhenua. I volunteered to drive the Ward’s Furniture Austin 7 Van in the Marton Christmas Parade. The Marton Christmas Parade is unique in that the start is signalled by a WW2 Spitfire aircraft flying down the Broadway. The sound of that Merlin engine is glorious. It was not to last and as it flew off the local Scottish Pipe band tried their best to beat that V12 music. I think they came second. The parade itself was a very rural mix of floats, trucks, big tractors with agricultural gear and cars. I followed a float where two lovely young ladies were darting back and forth handing out small gifts to children in the crowd. These girls were oblivious to the fact that this old van was driven by an older person whose reactions are not as sharp as maybe they were and the brakes on this van are not power assisted state of the art. The good news is we never managed to hit them, but I was concerned. Two Wanganui vehicles entered the Tararua Trundle. Ian Ingram in his 1974 Vauxhall Viva HC and Neil Farrer in the unique Vanguard Six Estate. One thing that did concern us was our lack of proficiency with the straight-line navigation section. I have heard this process being described as the best way to start divorce proceedings. Ian and I chose to miss this section out all together after sorting out where the section ended. We still scored well enough to come ninth overall. We ended up at a very interesting Italian garden out behind Feilding. The Restoration of the year night was one that proved very popular again. The entries were down but the standard was very high. Mike Marshall had the only bike, a BSA gold star finished to probably a better standard than it would have been when new. There were three cars entered. All were worthy of praise but as most of us had seen the winner at it’s worst on the rotisserie it was clear who had won. Chris White’s restoration of the 1969 Mini commercial van was a delight to see. We have a lot of great and capable people in our club. Glyn Clements, our North Island Club Captain spoke to us at our meeting. We were congratulated again for the Commercial Rally and this has stirred into action the lower North Island holding more Commercial Rallies alternating around the Branches. He also encouraged us to really think about going on the Gumboot Rally New Years Day in Taihape. In his opinion this is one of the best rallies anywhere. He is also having the NI Club Captains run start here in Wanganui in early March. We are encouraged to join them if not for the entire run, but for the first day. Andrew Dittmer Chairman

Club Captains’ Report—December 2023 Greetings Members The Club is getting back to normal after the Commercial Rally & entering the festive season, a time to enjoy our families & share our cars with family & friends alike. The night trial was a great success and enjoyed by all who took part. Thank you to Wayne & Ian for organising this years event, we’re looking forward to seeing what Sue & Stephen Voss come up with for next year, I wonder if we’ll be fitting through some tight spaces for narrow cars. This was closely followed by John & Wendy Bullock’s Sunday run. Due to the weather we missed out on afternoon tea in their garden but it was still a lovely afternoon well organized & informative, we are also grateful for Wendy sharing her birthday with us all. On the 2 nd of December, 5 vintage cars & their owners represented the club at the Whanganui Jockey Club’s 175th year celebrations. The cars made quite a spectacle following Who Shot The Barman & some other horses. Great for the Jockey Club & the Vintage Car Club. The December meeting was restoration of the year, and it was as enjoyable as ever, it’s always enlightening to see how clever our members are. As well as being clever they’re all happy to share their knowledge. The Christmas Parade was on the 9th of December. Thanks to those who took part. New Years Day is the Gumboot Rally in Taihape, a good day out if you can make it up to Taihape. The Gumboot Rally is always well supported by our club members, if you’ve nothing planned for New Years Day it makes a great outing, Definitely a big day out. If you can’t make it to Taihape but would like an outing New Years Day, Len Haycock arranges a picnic, this year it is at Duddings Lake, starts at 11.00am. Take everything you need for your picnic.

The Club Picnic is being held at the Bason Reserve on the 10th of January Starting at 5.00pm, we’ve booked the shelter at the top of the hill, it’s close to facilities & the covered gardens. See the invite in the Rivet. It’ll be an enjoyable evening & one of my acquaintances has promised it will be a lovely warm still night. I’m looking for a BBQ to use on the night if someone has one, I can pick it up. The club BBQ is a bit big to move. Anniversary Weekend 2024, Vintage weekend. Friday night there is a meet & greet at the clubrooms. Saturday we have the Wheels On Victoria during the day followed by The Classic Cruise in the late afternoon. Sunday is Rally Day, Please enter the Burma rally if you haven’t already. Monday there will be a run open to any club member, assemble at the Cornmarket at 9.00am, cars away at 9.30am, bring a seat, there will be a late morning tea, please bring a plate. Scones or pikelets with jam & fresh whipped cream always go down well. All the information you need on this weekend is in the rally entry form. Please note the start for the Burma Rally is now at the Cornmarket Reserve not on Somme Parade. Also for the Burma Rally, you need to have everything you need for the lunch stop, your seat, lunch & drink. If you want a hot drink you’ll need to take a thermos. Please also carry extra drinking water in case you get held up somewhere or your car gets thirsty. That’s all from me for this year, thank you to everyone for supporting the club events & making our Vintage Car Club the best club to belong to in Whanganui. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, Rob & Linda

The Taihape Man This month I have much pleasure to bring to these pages the story of a real Branch stalwart, the one and only Robert Baines aka The Taihape Man. Words near fail me as I write about this legend of a man– a man who suffered a horrendous injury in 1996 when he was our Branch’s Club Captain. A lathe toppled and fell on him in his garage. Incredibly, Robert, with assistance from his good friend, Dave Austin, and then rally secretary Sue Day, organised the running of our Burma Rally from Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. This speaks volumes for the tenacity and determination of this man. He has my utmost respect and admiration. Robert owns, operates and works in a busy garage, TSM Motors in Taihape, plus restoring vehicles in his spare time. Take a bow, my friend, you are an inspiration and one hell of a good guy and fiercely independent. Here is his story. Editor Ian Not long after leaving school while following my sister on her scooter when she was learning to ride on a no exit road not far from home, my brother and I saw an old wooden spoked wheel truck lying derelict in a farm paddock. This got us excited, and after approaching the owner of the farm, he said take it away (truck) It turned out to be a trucked 1928 Willy’s Knight Sedan and this started my interest in Vintage cars and I joined the Vintage Car Club. We got this up to a stage of a mobile chassis that we used to drive around the block sitting on a trusty old beer crate. While trying to find body parts for it, we were told of another trucked Willy’s Knight over in the Hawkes Bay. So a trip over there with a trailer was organised. On first seeing it I was disappointed to find it was different to the one I was working on and it was in a sorry state. We were told if we didn’t take it, it would be pushed over the bank. After bringing it home we checked into what model it was and found it was a rare 1925 Model 66 Tourer. So then I decided to see if we could locate enough parts to restore it. While chasing up parts around the country and overseas we decided to restore a 1938 Morris 8 two door Sedan so we would have something to rally while the Willy’s was restored. This Morris 8 took longer than expected to restore with other projects getting in the way. When it was finished it did give me a vehicle to start rallying and get involved with the VCC. It took several more years to get the Willy’s Knight Tourer restored and it was rallied regularly in Wanganui and around other North Island Branches. Next I got back on to restoring a 1927 Willy’s Knight Sedan as I picked up a complete one while advertising for parts for the original trucked one we had. Before it was finished I located a 1942 Willy’s MB Jeep and decided to restore it, which I only had on the road for about 12 months before injuring my back. At this stage I was Club Captain and organising the Burma Rally from Burwood Hospital was challenging but was lucky to have Sue Day as Rally Secretary and the help of Dave Austin. I was Club Captain for four years then Rally Secretary for two years. Previous to that I was on the Committee and wrote the Branch notes for Beaded Wheels for a couple of years. I was on the organising Committee for the 2004 Easter Rally hosted by the Wanganui Branch. Dave Austin and I organised the Branch’s 60th Anniversary Rally in 2014 (I hope the Committee are thinking about organising something for our 70th Anniversary next year) I now organise the Taihape New Year Gumboot Rally. Pictured Robert’s Thunderbird on the hoist undergoing restoration.

The Taihape Man Restored vehicles I currently own pictured below: Restored 1925 Model 66 Willys Knight Tourer Restored 1942 Willy’s MB Jeep. 1945 Fordson Truck (was the workshop runabout for the local Ford Garage). 1928 Dennis Fire Engine (ex Wellington Fire Department). 1966 Commer Fire Engine (Brought New by the Taihape Borough Council). Vehicles under going restoration on and off at the moment: Partly restored 1928 Willys Knight Sedan Model 70A. 1928 Willys Knight Model 70A Coach 2 door Sedan. 1928 Willys Knight Model 70A Roadster. 1956 Thunderbird—with hand controls. I have also been side tracked with collecting and restoring stationary motors. My occupation helped with my restoration projects as I did an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic working on tractors and farm machinery and later on took over the business, TSM Motors, which I still run.

Editors pick is this beautiful old Willys above although the Thunderbird opposite will be hard to beat once restored. Love to see this.

Restoration of the Year Pics

Above: Motorcycle Restoration of the Year winner Mike Marshall on the left receiving his trophy from Chairman Andrew. Mike’s pristine 1960 BSA Gold Flash on the forecourt. Below left: Winning car was Chris White’s superb 1969 Mark11 Mini Van. Below right: Beautiful 1972 Sunbeam Rapier belonging to Peter Powell. Bottom left: Rob and Linda O’Keefe’s partially restored 1924 Buick. Not entered. Bottom right: Shane Hobman’s ( ex the late Keith Turner’s) stock car. Some history here.

A Sunday Afternoon Run By Wendy and John Bullock We organized a Sunday Afternoon run to see some of the New Developments happening in Wanganui. Twenty five cars turned up, a mixture of Modern and Vintage with clouds looking ominous, so planning an afternoon tea in the garden was canned. We started off travelling up the Great North Road to 2 new subdivisions, one now nearly fully built on and the other one ready to go, both with lovely sea views. The third was at the back of Kaireau Country Club and that street was still waiting for a sign post . We went through the new Fitzherbert Avenue extension and on to Tawhero Street via Morrell Street where the new road was planned without much thought to traffic accessibility or roadside parking, in other words the road was ‘A bit Thin’ From there we proceeded to Castlecliff Wharf to see where the big cranes are working and our $19 million over run of ratepayers money is being spent ( before the job is hardly started ) We continued on to see 2 views of the revamped North Mole which has had a very belated rebuild and loved by lots of fishermen when the tides and weather are right. Returning back to town we drove through a now beautiful Rangiora Street and the new Industrial Estate in Mill Road . Afternoon tea at the clubrooms and quiz questions to find the winner of the Rally. Glynis Robinson won the bottle of Bubbles after a tie decider. Signed by an X Roadbuilder.

Smiles all around as Glynis Robinson on the left is all up close with John and Wendy Bullock