Minor a major part of mechanic's life

BRUCE CUTLER
When it comes to motors and wheels, Colin Campbell, of Hastings, is genuine "old school".
In fact, there would be few current working mechanics anywhere in Hawke's Bay, or probably even New Zealand, who could claim to be as "old school" as Colin, who started work as an apprentice mechanic at the age of 16 and is still twisting wrenches some 53 years later.
"My first pay packet was two pounds three shillings and if you turn that into dollars, that is $4.35," Colin says, easily recalling the numbers.
If you walked past Colin on the street, it's hardly likely you would notice him. But make no mistakes about it, the bloke is a bit different and much of that is to do with the wealth of automotive knowledge he carries above his greying sideburns.
Colin's business card reads - "Colin Campbell, mechanic, classic car spares and information service". He is one of those rare people who has always enjoyed his job.
His boyhood years were spent on sheep stations his father worked for in the McKenzie country, in the South Island where Colin's lifelong association with automobiles began with farm pickup trucks.
At the age of 16, Colin's family moved to Hawke's Bay and his mother wrote a letter to Ross, Dysart and McLean, one of the biggest car dealerships in Hawke's Bay at the time.
"My mother wrote to say they had a son that was mad on cars and I got a letter back to say I sounded like an interesting prospect."
A couple of weeks later, Colin caught a lift on a beer lorry from the family home in Taihape to Hastings for a formal interview and soon after started as an apprentice mechanic with Ross, Dysart and McLean. He stayed with the company for the next 25 years.
"The very first day I was there I was asked to sweep the floor of the mechanics. Back then they had a mechanic's section, a coach-building section, a woodwork shop and other parts. I was only supposed to sweep the mechanic's section and they were all laughing because I swept the entire garage."
"One of the reasons I went for Dysarts was they had a variety of vehicles. Daimler and Lanchester, Renault, Rover, Jaguar, Singer. They were the newest cars of the time."
But Colin did not just want to be working on other people's cars.
Each week half his apprentice pay packet was spent on his board in Hastings and the other half he didn't spend "because I wanted to save up and buy a motorcar".
Most mechanics can easily remember their first car, but for Colin, that journey to his first set of wheels has been an especially lasting and bonding experience.
Unlike most mechanics, the 69-year-old still has that first car.
"Initially I saved up and I had 100 pounds and I had in mind to get an Austin 7, and then I thought, if I saved another 20 quid I could get a newer Austin 7.
"I supplemented my income by working on the weekends for my uncle, who was a fencing contractor at Elsthorpe, and I'd dig post-holes all weekend. I could earn more digging post-holes than I could on apprentice wages.
"Another uncle came down from Auckland one weekend in a low-light Morris Minor and these two uncles got on the pickle together at the Patangata Hotel.
"I had to wait in the carpark and when they came out one uncle said, 'you will have to drive Bill's low-light back to Hastings.
"Of course after driving that back I said, 'to hang with driving Austin 7s. It's got to be a Morris Minor for me'."
And so Colin knew what car he wanted, but getting enough money to buy one while on apprentice wages was a problem. For three years he worked as an apprentice during the week, dug holes on weekends and continued to save until the brother of his boss had a word with him.
"I used to service the car for the boss's sister-in-law and he knew I'd taken a bit of a shine to that car." That car was a 1952 Morris Minor convertible with just under 14,000 miles on the clock and the boss's brother wanted to sell it.
"I didn't think I had enough money. I had 400 quid and he said 'I think you're a bit light there' and next week he offered it for 425 pounds - which is about $800 - so I sold a few things and scraped up the money."
Today the Morris Minor convertible hardly looks any different from when Colin bought it, apart from some slight modifications.
"It was my courting car, my honeymoon car, my family car. My wife learnt to drive in it, she got her driver's licence in it. We had kids jumping up and down on the back seat in it. There were no seat belts back then."
By looking up the car's log book that Colin has kept for 50 years, he can also tell a few other interesting things from back then. Things like the car's first grease and oil change, which cost 10 shillings (one dollar) and that for 64 cents you could put nine litres of petrol in the car.
The Morris convertible still only has 67,980 miles on its clock, the original upholstery and has never needed to have any rust cut out of its bodywork.
"I was never a boy racer. It was just so hard to save up and buy.
"When I see the boy racers today I wonder how many of them will still have the same car in 50 years time.
"If anyone asks me why I kept it I say, 'well I haven't had my money's worth out of it yet'."
For everyday driving Colin mostly uses a 1978 Datsun 120Y van that's on its fifth time round the clock.
"A boy racer followed me home one day to ask me about it. He wanted to buy it."
And most days Colin can still be found working his trade on old Chevrolets and Plymouths at KPM Autos in Hastings.
He admits he is not as up-to-date on the newer models of cars, but modestly mentions not many new mechanics are as knowledgeable as himself about the classic machines he prefers to work on.
"The mechanics in the major dealerships specialise in one particular area. They don't have the versatility of apprentices like I was, who had to do everything."
"There's too much of a sameness about the average modern car. I used to think I was a real car spotter but now you have to look real close. Cars had more character in the past."