The Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch of
The Vintage Car Club of New Zealand PO BOX 2168, Kopeopeo, Whakatane 3159
August 2017
RUNNING BOARD
___________________________________________________________________________ Club Night: Last Thursday of the month (except December) at Whakatane Athletic Clubrooms, Short Street, Whakatane 7.00 pm Social get together Branch meeting starts at 7.30 PM 1
THE VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF NZ Eastern Bay of Plenty Branch Postal Address: PO Box 2168, Kopeopeo, Whakatane 3159 Branch Officers: 2017/2018 Honorary Branch Member
Lorolei Pollard
Chairman Vice Chairman Secretary Treasurer Club Captain
Les Costar position to be filled Secretary required Joy Growden Barry Keene
07 323 6406
les.gail.costar@slingshot.co.nz
07 304 9777 07 308 8204
growden@xtra.co.nz btkeene@clear.net.nz
Committee:
Steve Growden Lytle Hall Lorraine Stock Alan Stock Peter Hadley Gail Costar
growden@xtra.co.nz emeny.hall@nettel.net.nz alan.lorraine@clear.net.nz alan.lorraine@clear.net.nz
Editor
Margaret McKerras
07 304 9777 07 308 4044 07 308 7890 07 308 7890 07 312 9069 07 323 6406 07 304 9917 07 307 0407
Beaded Wheels Reporter Almoner Name Badge Sales Parts Shed Supervisors:
Peter Donovan Lorolei Pollard Peter Donovan Phil Leaming Steve Growden Keith Watson
07 312 5848 07 307 0373 07 312 5848 07 304 8415 07 304 9777 07 312 9081
Keith Watson Les Costar Keith & Margaret Watson Margaret Watson Lorraine Stock
07 312 9081 07 323 6406
kandmwatson@clear.net.nz les.gail.costar@slingshot.co.nz
07 312 9081
kandmwatson@clear.net.nz
Margaret McKerras Les Costar
07 307 0407 07 323 6406
Thava Guy
Archivist VIC Collators: Saleable Items: Supper Supervisor Raffles Community Liaison: Whakatane: Kawerau:
les.gail.costar@slingshot.co.nz margaretmckerras@gmail.com runningboard10@gmail.com donovanz@xtra.co.nz donovanz@xtra.co.nz phil.leaming@xtra.co.nz growden@xtra.co.nz kandmwatson@clear.net.nz
07 308 7890 mckerras@paradise.net.nz les.gail.costar@slingshot.co.nz
Club Regalia For Sale: Contact: Keith and Margaret Watson (these will be available at Club Nights) EBOP Cloth Jacket Badges $7.50 EBOP Cloth Jacket Patches $10.00 EBOP Car Window Stickers $1.00 EBOP Car Bumper Badges $20.00 EBOP Lapel Badges $6.00 EBOP VCC Windscreen Stickers $2.00 EBOP Cloth Caps $15.00 Rally Number Holders s/s $15.00 NZVCC Winged Lapel Badges $7.50 VCC Cloth Winged Badges $13.00 EBOP Name Badges $15.00 (to be ordered) Please wear your name badge to VCC functions.
Club Night: At:
Last Thursday of the month (except December) Whakatane Athletic Clubrooms, Short Street, Whakatane 7.00pm Social Get-together Branch Meeting starting at 7.30pm
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From your Chairman: We have done a few things this month. Classic Car Breakfast was quite well supported even though it rained. The Rotorua Swap Meet was down on sellers, although there seemed to be a lot of buyers coming and going. Although we didn’t see many of our Club Members there, we did see Phil Leaming and John Mackintosh. Then as it started to rain, Steve and Joy, Gail and I did a bit of retail therapy, or should I say Gail and Joy did the retail, Steve and I guarded the cars, followed by lunch at the Lakeside Café. July Club Run, thanks to Club Captain Barry and Tessa, we had a great run through mostly back roads to Kawerau, ending with a delicious lunch of soup and buns, sausages bread and coleslaw followed by dessert, all this was prepared by Harry and Gay at their home in Kawerau with 28 in attendance. It was a great day of motoring, eating and fellowship. Thanks to Harry and Gay for your hospitality and being great hosts. Those that weren’t able to come missed out on a great day. After all this good stuff, now comes the not so good. Secretary Graham Guy has resigned his position, so this leaves the Branch without a Secretary. As you know the Secretary is the most important Member of the Committee. They are the first contact of the Club for the public and other Branches and quite often new Members, not to mention the other important work done by the Secretary, like all correspondence, records and getting information to the relevant Members. So without a Secretary, we have no face of the Club and this is a serious position we are in. If we don’t fill the position soon, it may be detrimental to the operating of the Branch. If any Member would like to assist, or take on the role, please contact me, or a Committee Member, we would be pleased to hear from you. Les
From your Club Captain: The weather for the July Club run certainly was good to us. We ended up at Harry and Gays' home in Kawerau for lunch and what a good lunch it was and also a very pleasant venue. There were a few dollars surplus from the lunch and this money will go into the Club funds. Next month the club run is on Sunday afternoon 27th August and is to help raise funds for the Cancer Society. NZ VCC has chosen to support the Cancer Society's Daffodil Day fund raising by asking all VCC Clubs to hold a rally on the Sunday afternoon. Any vehicle can join in and we have asked the Classic Car breakfast group to join us as well. We meet at Bunnings car park at 1.00pm. There is a donation charge of $10 per vehicle. For the route we intend to drive over the bridge, along Hinemoa St, down Bridge St into King St, through Kopeopeo down Domain Rd along McAlister down The Strand into Kakahoroa Drive by the I-Site and end up at the car park opposite the Whakatane Yacht Club (near the Warehouse).
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Here we will be on display to the public for about an hour and some Cancer Society collectors will be there with buckets hoping for donations from the public. - It is expected to be all over by about 3.00pm. Barry Keene
From your Secretary: No report this month
From the Editor’s Desk Another month has gone by and at this rate, Summer will be here and it will be Christmas. Heaven forbid – I am rushing the year to a close but sometimes it feels like that. Even the nights are starting to draw out and it gets lighter earlier. This month John and I had a bit of trouble with our modern car. We were driving to Taupo to drop me off at a quilting retreat for 3 days and John was carrying on to Napier to see his daughter. About 15 minutes out of Napier on the Broadlands Road, the car decided to stop. So I contacted the trusty AA and told them of our plight. Out comes a breakdown man who established it was a fuel problem, so he called for a truck to take us into Taupo. The mechanics at the garage had a bit of difficulty isolating the problem (the car is a Peugeot 407) and finally they decided it was the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve which was the issue. No part here in NZ they said, had to come from France – cost $1300 and then another $700 odd to fix. At this stage we decided to take the option of the rental and continue with our plans. The AA were so helpful – they fully understood that the cost of the repair was a steep call for a couple of OAP’s especially when one of them was an old A Grade mechanic. So they trucked the car home to Whakatane for John to fix: which he did within a couple of days – at almost no cost by repairing the broken part. I cannot emphasise how thankful we were that we had AA Plus which gives that extra assistance in the event of a breakdown. Their courtesy and helpful attitude of their front line staff was truly amazing. I would recommend this service to everyone – AA breakdown is OK but the extra service for not much extra cash is certainly peace of mind when one is motoring on our New Zealand roads. In this issue I have included Part 1 of an article written by John Couch and Doug Wheeler. The article is about transporting trucks and part 2 will be in next month’s issue. I have also included a set of “Usual Club Rules” for our Club runs and rallies. After our last run the question was asked of our Club Captain Barry Keane – what are the rules when on these rallies? So he has prepared some of the main points and these are included further in this issue of the Running Board. The photo on the front cover is of Keith and Margaret Watson’s Model A Victoria. As most of you will know it is a Canadian Ford (left hand drive) and in my opinion is a very elegant car. It is very different from all the other Model A’s which to me sets it apart from other Model A’s. Until next time, happy and safe motoring Margaret
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Moving, Transfer and Transport A story in two parts by John Couch and Doug Wheeler
Introduction: Over the years people have built up collections of vehicles for restoring and in due course acquired a supply of parts to assist with the rebuilding of these vehicles. Circumstances change over time and these items get passed on to another generation of collectors to continue the trend. Graeme Ross near Tauranga had built up a collection of trucks from the 1920’s and 30’s and approached Karl Wheeler some years back about taking on some of his collection. Graeme had refocused his restoration interests to larger stationary and industrial engines, while for Karl this would extend his own collection of Leyland and Dennis trucks and allow for a greater supply of additional parts. Likewise Bert Watchorn some years ago discussed with Karl as to acquiring the 1923 Leyland truck on display, whilst the Thornycroft truck would be fitting in the Thornycroft collection of his father, Doug. A deal was done with the vehicles remaining at Bert’s Museum on display, whilst new sheds were planned for storage at Opotiki. Years passed on and time came to move the items, our own truck for transport was still out of action. At least John Couch’s truck was mobile and suitable to transport the parts home. In autumn last year, John received a phone call asking him how long the tray on his Nissan truck was. It was not an unusual request but this time it came from an unusual source, a fellow member of the Tauranga Vintage Machinery Club. Upon asking it turns out he wanted some vintage trucks moved from Oropi to Opotiki. So after we had worked out that they would fit on the truck a date and time was arranged for the first load. The day arrived; Graeme towed a Leyland truck chassis up to the bottom of the ramps. John then winched it on to his truck, with a front end loader being used to steer it from the back as it is difficult to keep a vehicle straight when the steering is seized and the tyres are flat! The second vehicle part of a Leyland bus had already been cut in half, so it was just a case of getting the back half on top of the loaded truck. With the help of the neighbour’s front end loader as well we managed to get it fairly stable on top, but in the process the axle fell off, so that went on top. Quickly chained down before it all fell off and then set off for home. In the morning a quick check round showed it all seemed to be still there! ( picture 1) Off to Opotiki, unloading was a lot easier as it was on reasonable hard standing and this time we had a forklift! Fast forward to March this year, John receives another inquiry about the length of his truck, this time from Bert Watchorn. Burt was clearing out his museum and wanted to know if some trucks could be moved. The first one, a Reo truck had to go to Welcome Bay, John remembered he still had half a bus to collect at Oropi and thought he could ‘kill two birds with one stone’. So after some protracted organisation to do them both on the same day, it all came together. First to the museum to load up a Reo rolling chassis, this was easy as the Watchorn truck company has a huge forklift. So Reo quickly loaded and off home.(see picture2) 5
Next day off to Welcome Bay, found the address and unloaded, Fergus the owner was not there, so John had to find a slope to roll the truck off. It was going down the ramps well, until he found the clutch lever was too low to go over the back of his truck, quick look round, found a spade which made a skid to ease the lever over the edge. Got Reo on the ground, then chocked the wheels of the Reo so she wouldn’t go AWOL. Off to Oropi and with a struggle got the front end of the bus on board, quite a problem as someone appeared to have stolen the back wheels! It was too heavy for the front end loader to lift so the loader lifted the back end and John winched from the front to get it on. Looking at the third truck to be moved it was decided to leave it where it was for the moment. Taking the bus to Opotiki was a bit of a mission, with part of State Highway 2 closed at this time. All traffic being diverted through the coastal settlement of Ohope, plus on this particular day a 350ton crane was being erected on Pohutukawa Ave, Joy! Once John got to Opotiki the unloading went quite well, the only problem being the steering, whilst it was free, a steering wheel with no rim and flat tyres made for fun! (picture 3) John steering the half cab bus section while Karl steadily draws it downwards. The winch cable from the truck was the emergency stop. (Some of the additional steel framing for the winch drive mounting can be seen).
Next day it was back to the museum to collect a large 1923 Leyland which loaded easily and on a very pleasant day was delivered to Opotiki and unloaded without incident.(Picture 4) The last delivery was a Thornycroft again collected from Bert’s. This was more difficult to load as there was a problem in getting the cab steps over the deck end of the truck. It was necessary to unbolt them to get it over the edge. The other problem was the cab, which was a little delicate, hence all the straps over and round it (Picture5). John would have liked to have kept the1923 Leyland, however at least it is in good company amongst the other trucks with solid rubber tyres in their collection. To be continued…
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For Sale VCC of NZ Winged Cloth Badges $13.00 each. Contact EBOPVCC on easterbayofplenty@vcc.org.nz or Keith Watson on kandmwatson@clear.net.nz
Out and about Red Barn Breakfast. (held on 1st Sunday in the month)
We woke this morning to heavy rain but by the time we were ready to drive out to the breakfast, it had all but stopped. There were a few serious down pours during breakfast but this didn't dampen the enjoyment being together with our cars.
of
We had forty beaut cars to admire from Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Tauranga and the Eastern Bay of Plenty and the cars ranged from a Fiat Bambina, to a 59 Cadillac Coupe De'Ville and every thing in between. As always the food and coffee was great! Margaret Watson
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July Club Run. Last Sunday on a beautiful clear day, 11 cars lined up at Bunnings car park to do the run to Kawerau. (Well actually in the end only 10 cars left as one didn’t want to go) so its occupants hopped in the back of another car. Our Club Captain had set a good run using rally rules along with some curly questions as we drove through the countryside.
While we didn’t have any difficulty with the route, the questions sorted out the winners and they were:
Steve & Joy first, LIP Vauxhall Les & Gail second, Model A Roadster Keith & Margaret third, Model A Victoria
Afterwards we all drove to Gay and Harry Sutcliffe's home for lunch. It was extremely peaceful sitting on the decks, listening to the nearby river and the native birds. Marvellous venue and hospitality.
Editor
A Reminder from Joy Growdon re the Paeroa Weekend. We are organising to go to Paeroa again this year leaving metal dump at Kawerau turn off at 10am on Friday 15th September and will go to the Hikutaia Hotel for dinner on Friday night. Street Parade and display Saturday morning and a drive in the afternoon ending in the RSA. We have booked into Pedlars Motels 07-8628788 but there is several to choose from. Those interested keep this date free and make your own accommodation bookings
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Usual Club Rules A summary of some of these follows. But first. The VCC National body has put out a 'Branch Manual' and part of it covers Rally Rules and Interpretations and can be found on pages 84 to 94. This is available on its website at vcc.org.nz. Briefly: Obey the road rules. Checks and Questions shall not be on any busy road or in a position that creates a hazard for entrants and/or other road users. Questions: These will always relate to something on the left hand side of the road. They will be readable from a vehicle on the move. Read the question carefully and answer what is actually asked. Record the answer in the appropriate indicated place. If an answer to a question is on the right hand side of the road do not answer it, (if you do it will cost you points) Silent Checks: An example of what these look like should be at the start of a Rally. These will always be on the left hand side of the road. They should be readable from a vehicle on the move. If a Silent Check is on the right hand side of the road do not write it down,if you do it will cost you points). Sometimes a Silent Check will require a specific action that will be mentioned in the overriding instructions. Manned Checks: Stop past the check point sign. Overriding Instructions: These are normally listed at the top of your Rally Sheet and override normal rally instructions e.g. - No Exit roads do not exist in the morning section (in this case they would exist in the afternoon section) - or at Silent Check 'Nut' U turn and reconsider. If No Exit roads are not mentioned in the Overriding instructions assume that they do exist. Straight Ahead Rule: If the Straight Ahead rule applies it will say so in the overriding instructions. If so you should always follow the line of least deviation. This may mean leaving the main road you are on and following a minor road. Normally you would not cross the centre line to do this, i.e. you would stay on your side of the road.
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OUT OF THE ARCHIVES - BLAST FROM THE PAST RUNNING BOARD September 1990
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Waterwheel Historic Trust Presents
The Antiques Roadshow!!
Saturday 12th August 2017
10.00am – 3.00pm
at the Town Hall Kawerau
Ask an expert – bring your treasures
1 piece $10.00
3 pieces $25.00
Or just come and look – Lots to see
Entrance Gold Coin donation
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Calendar of Events 2017 August Tues 8th Sat 26 Sun 27
Thur 31 September Sun 3 Fri 15 – Sun 17
5.30pm Nobby’s Nosh Dinner at the RSA Rotorua Branch Sulphur City Rally Club Run - VCC National Daffodil Rally for Cancer. Meet atBunnings Car Park at 1.00pm for a tour round Whakatane. Finish with cars on display at the car park opposite the Yacht Club until 3.00pm. Club Night Classic Car Breakfast at the Red Barn Club Run to Paeroa Antique & Vintage Weekend (organised by Steve & Joy)Meet at 10.00am at metal dump at Kawerau turn off Rotorua end. Kawerau Woodfest Club Night
Sat 23 Thur 28 October Fri 6 – Sun 8 Brits at the Beach – Whangamata Sun 15th Club Run in the afternoon to end up at Bruce and Lorraine Seddon's Thur 26 Club Night ___________________________________________________________________ November 10th to 12th Gisborne Branch weekend visit to our Branch based at Ohiwa Holiday Park. Thur 30 Club Night Chairman’s Run? ( or December ) December Chairman’s Run? ( or November ) Christmas Parades ___________________________________________________________________ If you don’t have a vintage vehicle on the road, come along to club runs in your modern.
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