Lynn Eades is restoring a rare, New Zealand-built, World War II Bren carrier. Photo/John Borren
Lynn Eades is restoring a rare, New Zealand-built, World War II Bren carrier. Photo/John Borren
Two men with a passion for restoring rusty heaps to their former glory share some of their success stories.
Lynn Eades can't really explain his passion for military vehicles - in particular the 40 Bren gun carriers built in a Kiwi railway workshop during World War II.
"It's just an incurable disease. Something gets you and sometimes you're looking for something different."
The Te Puna petrol mechanic has three loves in life - his family, the deer that roam his rural property and military vehicles.
Luckily he also has "a very forgiving wife", Christine, who agreed to the 252sq m shed attached to their 101sq m home they began building in 2009.
Inside the giant shed are Mr Eades prized New Zealand-built Bren carrier - restored using parts from two of only 40 ever built - a British-built Bren carrier (minus the gearbox and motor) and a military jeep - all of which are works in progress.
Despite completing his mechanics apprenticeship during a seven-year stint in the New Zealand army, Mr Eades says that wasn't the inspiration for his love of military vehicles.
It's more the challenge of recreating a small, but significant, part of New Zealand's wartime history.
"You become a caretaker of a historic vehicle. At some stage you have to find a new home for it," he said.
Having previously owned a Unimog and a Dodge military ambulance Mr Eades likes the uniqueness and challenge of rebuilding Bren carriers.
"Everyone's got a jeep," he said.
He picked up the first carrier from the playground at National Park School in the Central Plateau more than 15 years ago, during a time when tractors, aeroplanes and tanks were being removed from playgrounds nationwide. He transported the rusted wreck - stamped with number 6 (of 40) - back to Tauranga. He then tracked down a second carrier - number 21 - in the Greta Valley, north of Christchurch, where it was being used on a farm to carry the fuel tank and oil for a bulldozer.
Lynn Eades is doing up a WWII tank which was being used to carry fuel for a bulldozer. Photo/supplied
He then combined the two to get the restoration to its current state.
Mr Eades has made a lot of parts himself and is also waiting for parts being made by a friend in England. He hopes to have the carrier - which weighs about 3.6 tonnes "kitted-out" - ready to roll out of his shed by November to take to Armistice Day celebrations in Cambridge.
He is a member of the National Military Vehicle Club, which has a Tauranga branch of 12 to 15 members.
Production of the New Zealand-built carriers began in 1940 at the New Zealand Railways Hutt workshops, using mild-steel from a wrecked ship.
"There was a lot of pressure on the Government to produce something that would defend us," Mr Eades said.
Production of the three-man carriers - which would have carried a .303 light machine gun - involved Ford truck axles, steering wheels, flathead V8 engines, differentials and four-speed gear boxes. Unlike other Bren carriers, they also had hydraulic brakes.
Not surprisingly, the carriers were painted using the dark green used to paint trains, a colour Mr Eades has been careful to match during his restoration.
Despite their rarity, once the war was over the carriers were discarded and cut up for the steel.
"People were too busy eking out an existence when they were scrapped," Mr Eades said.
Information and photographs of the rare New Zealand carriers - even from the National Army Museum - "is not thick on the ground", adding to the challenge of the restoration.
Tauranga couple Bill and Terry Janes seem to specialise in classic - from their original 1950s home on a 1000sq m section to the seven 1910s to 1950s cars they have tucked away around the property.
Vintage car enhusiast Bill Janes. Before photo of the 1955 Jaguar XK140. Photo/George Novak
The good-humoured couple, now in their early 80s, met in 1957. Mr Janes got to work building their Gate Pa home the same year - which cost the equivalent of $5000 - and they were married in 1958.
"When we came here Chadwick Rd wasn't even sealed," Mrs Janes said.
Nearly six decades on they remain happily married. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't," joked Mrs Janes.
Over the years a mutual appreciation for classic cars, and a lot of hard work, has resulted in an impressive collection. In total Mr Janes, a cabinet-maker who once owned a factory on the Mitre 10 Mega site, has restored nine of his own classic cars, of which he still owns seven. Some took up to two years, working mostly for a couple of hours in his home workshop each night.
Most of the restorations began with "trailer-loads of junk" locked in a garage across New Zealand somewhere, waiting to be brought back to life.
"I only buy junk because I like the work more than anything else," Mr Janes said. "It's a challenge and a sense of achievement to recreate something that once was and is now again."
He also made wooden car body frames at his factory, both for his own cars and other customers.
It's just an incurable disease. Something gets you and sometimes you're looking for something different.
Both Mr and Mrs Janes migrated to New Zealand from England with their families, Mr Janes on a Sunderland flying-boat when he was 13, and Mrs Janes on the ship Ruahine when she was 22.
"Everybody came out to get away from the cold and the austerity of England," Mr Janes said.
Mr Janes' first car was a 1939 Standard Eight but the couple's love of the classics was sparked by a visit to the Auckland Vintage Car Club's gymkhana at Tauranga's Wharepai Domain.
Mr Janes' compulsory military training in the air force taught him a lot and got the wood-worker interested in mechanics.
One of his more memorable purchases was the stately white Jaguar he bought in Tauranga about 17 years ago.
Vintage car enhusiast Bill Janes with his 1955 Jaguar XK140. Photo/George Novak
"I knew it was a major task that pushed me to the limit. The night I bought that I didn't get any sleep," he said. "It couldn't have been any worse."
The couple rotate the registrations on a few of the vehicles every six months and like to take one for a drive every week.
"You dial the car up for how long your trip's going to be. Your modern driver wouldn't be able to drive them," he said.
The couple are members of the Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club.
"It's a good club to belong to. They're a marvellous bunch of chaps," Mr Janes said. They don't like to talk cost when it comes to their collection - either what they paid for the cars or their current value.
