Nash almost 100 years old

[A.K. Boomer]

That's a little newer and more shiny but they still all kinda look the same to me...

I am glad to see the "kinda" front bumper Paul --- that open radiator was making me nervous...

Wonder if that's corn whiskey in Jed's drum?

[aostling]

I revisited the body shop on Mary St (Tempe) and took more photos. It is a 1928 Nash, and it appears to be mostly intact. The owner of the shop said the owner of the car dropped it off two years ago, with a request that they make it run. I asked if it was for sale, and was told that it probably is -- the owner "is getting on in years." If this link ever gets to someone who is interested they can contact the shop at the first of the three phone numbers in this street view https://goo.gl/maps/KLxM9RGfadUBG3eb7.

[A.K. Boomer]

Aostling thanks for the close up pic of that wooden spoke wheel,,, that is just amazing to me Wow...

[sid pileski]

So then, did they get it running for the guy, and will it run now?

Sid

[aostling]

So then, did they get it running for the guy, and will it run now?

Sid

I think the Nash owner didn't follow through with payments, so the work was not begun. Call (480) 255-2346 if you want the full story.

[tom_d]

Is that a bolt cutter on the left fender?

Beep Beep!

Looks more like a brush cutter. I don't see the car in the yard when looking at an aerial view. Could be a recent addition to the yard. Hopefully it's soon on its way to a restoration shop. Shame too see something as well preserved go to scrap, or get cut up by a "rodder".

[Dave C]

When I was a kid, my family's car was a 1941 Nash Lafayette. Dad bought a new Buick in 1953 and sold the Nash to a kid for $300.

[The Artful Bodger]

We had a 1926 Buick tourer that had been converted to a pick-up. Very useful around the farm.

[aostling]

We had a 1926 Buick tourer that had been converted to a pick-up. Very useful around the farm.

Cool, John! I've seen 1950s American cars in Westport and Greymouth -- Desotos were imported during the boom for wool and venison caused by the Korean War. Perhaps there was a similar boom in the 1920s bringing in Buicks and Packards, American cars with suspensions designed for rough roads. Ronald Hugh Morrieson featured these cars in his 1964 novel Came a Hot Friday. (They made a pretty good movie out of that, with Billy T. James.)

I'm reminded that about thirty years ago I was driving with my father in Seattle (where we both grew up). We spotted what I thought was a "Tin Lizzy" on the street. My father said " no, that's a 1926 Buick."

What is the town nearest to your family farm?

[The Artful Bodger]

Cool, John! I've seen 1950s American cars in Westport and Greymouth -- Desotos were imported during the boom for wool and venison caused by the Korean War.

Ford and General Motors had assembly factories in NZ from the early 1920's. Many of the vehicles had a high NZ content and just about every model was available and built from 'kits' from the parent factories and from factories in Australia and Canada.

Similar story with British marques.

I do not think there was much venison involved in the Korean War era as deer were noxious animals and the thousands shot by deer stalkers were mostly left to rot in the bush and on the mountains. Helicopters changed all that....1960's

Perhaps there was a similar boom in the 1920s bringing in Buicks and Packards, American cars with suspensions designed for rough roads. Ronald Hugh Morrieson featured these cars in his 1964 novel Came a Hot Friday. (They made a pretty good movie out of that, with Billy T. James.)

Maybe but I think those with the resources imported whatever took their fancy.

I'm reminded that about thirty years ago I was driving with my father in Seattle (where we both grew up). We spotted what I thought was a "Tin Lizzy" on the street. My father said " no, that's a 1926 Buick."

What is the town nearest to your family farm?

See Google Earth -43.85245331803032, 171.84639098066938 each side of Hanrahan's Road although most of the land was south of Chertsey. All new owners now.

[aostling]

I do not think there was much venison involved in the Korean War era as deer were noxious animals and the thousands shot by deer stalkers were mostly left to rot in the bush and on the mountains. Helicopters changed all that....1960's

My mistake, on two accounts. Checking my trip diary for 13 Dec 1994, when I checked into a backpackers in Westport owned by Maurice and Bev, both having grown up in Karamea.
.

Maurice (b. 1936) showed me a photo of his house on the Little Wanganui River, near Karamea. Whitebait were so thick they used to feed them to the hens! Eels as big as serpents. Kahikatea and tawa, huge logs at the sawmill. They didn't get electricity until 1962.

Maurice had his epoxy (my eyeglasses needed re-gluing) in his garage, which stores a pristine 1955 Dodge Kingway Deluxe (right-hand drive for NZ market). The boom of the Korean War raised wool and deer-skin to "a pound a pound" [1 £ per lb.] (green hides], so a lot of deerstalkers then got new cars. The NZ government approved a big shipment of Chevs and Dodges in the early 1950s. Some were bought with whitebait money.

So, not a DeSoto, not venison.

Having grown up on the Canterbury Plains I expect you would never get lost there. I generally didn't have much trouble navigating it, as long as I could see the Southern Alps. But once on an overcast day I once had no idea which direction I was heading. Here is your farm, to illustrate this point: https://goo.gl/maps/LSQtATk39YKN5gEy5

[The Artful Bodger]

Yes, whitebait fed to the chooks and dug into the garden as fertilizer.

Unless I am mistaken the Dodge Kingsway I think was a Chrysler product and would have been assembled from a Canadian kit at Todd's factory in Petone, Wellington.

'Pound a pound', nice story but I think that originated in Australia, please see https://www.phwealth.co.nz/knowledge...-pound-in-1951. I do not know about the deerstalkers and the hides but that does sound to be right up there with the later crayfish bonanza.

Although a lot of people may have been well off money was not enough to buy new cars, unless you had 'overseas funds', paid your local dealer to sell you a car that someone else had ordered years before, in a qualifying profession such as medical doctor or got to Australia on a ship to bring a new car back as 'baggage', some people of course went to the UK. I know of at least one Land Rover which was purchased in England and driven to Singapore shipped to Northern Australia and driven south to eventually be shipped to NZ, this was a great adventure for young people with a rich uncle who wanted a slightly-used Land Rover.

I once restored a Douglas motorcycle, quite expensive and from 1952. It was originally registered to someone who had travelled to UK that year but when I tried to track the history of the bike in later years his widow knew nothing of it and by some coincidence it was registered to another owner exactly 2 years and one day after the first registration!

Cars were also bought in North America and converted to RHD by one of the firms who did that work.


You cannot get lost in Canterbury, just ask anyone where you live, they will know.

[aostling]

. . . 'Pound a pound', nice story but I think that originated in Australia, please see https://www.phwealth.co.nz/knowledge...-pound-in-1951. I do not know about the deerstalkers and the hides but that does sound to be right up there with the later crayfish bonanza.

Your link to the man with a grandfather from Pohangina brings sanity to the issue. It stands to reason -- if "a pound a pound" was really paid there would be a lot more Dodge Kingways than the one I saw in Westport.

How strange it is, that my photo of the 1928 Nash in Tempe leads now to this photo of the Old Pohangina Bridge, which I saw in 1974. Erroll Drummond, my boss at the Ministry of Works, grew up in that valley. One weekend I drove up there from Wellington to check it out. It is an obscure place. I wonder if tourism has yet to discover its charms.

I also attach a photo of Erroll Drummond (wearing a suit), and Bill Appleby (head of the mechanical drafting department). This is 1973 and we stopped at Wairakei geothermal en route to inspecting a broken tunnel-boring machine at Kaimai.

[The Artful Bodger]

How strange it is, that my photo of the 1928 Nash in Tempe leads now to this photo of the Old Pohangina Bridge, which I saw in 1974.

The bridge is/was of a once familiar type but not an area I have ever visited, maybe on a passing drive through.

[OaklandGB]

Unfortunately many ended up as cut up buggies or crushed. Here is one my brother had pulled out of a barn or pasture, somewhere around 1965 I think. It ran fairly well as I recall but eventually they crashed it.