Veteran Car Enthusiast Drains Pond For Parts

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 8

Veteran Car Enthusiast Drains Pond For Parts

How he had to drain a pond six feet deep and 80 feet long bv 20 feet wide to recover the parts of his “new” motor-car is recounted by a member of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand in an article in the club's magazine “Beaded Wheels." The car, a 1906 Cadillac, had a history which did little to encourage restoration. After it had been taken off the road—as a result of a mechanical breakdown, together with the introduction of annual registration—the car had been parked under a tree for 20 years. The owner finally decided to "et rid of the eyesore, and after he had dismantled the car to its last nut and bolt, he threw those pieces which he considered of no further use into the pond. More parts were left lying

outside a workshop, and still more were stowed away in a shed. The enthusiast collected what he could from the shed, systematically dug the ground outside the workshop and sorted the bits of Cadillac from pieces of at least two other cars which he found He then set about the problem of the recovery of what had been thrown into the pond. To do this, he borrowed a pump from a fire brigade, and after three days , Pumping emptied the pond, raked the foot of mud in the bottom, and searched the willows along its banks. This task presented certain social difficulties as the mud seemed, oy its smell, to be composed mainly of rotten eggs. The new owner had by this time recovered most of his car except for one fundamental component—the cl assis An extensive search failed to discover its whereabouts but. after three or four false trails had been followed the chassis of a similar car was found and the farmer who owned it and was firing to use it as the basis of a bridge was persuaded to part with it. After that all the enthusiast had »c do was to clean off the rust and dirt repaint the ’'arts, fashion a new wooden body on the pattern of the original and rebuild the car—a task to occupy several months, and one on which he is still engaged.