Millwater Motors

millwatermotors

A golden Holden is the treasured possession of Josh Alldridge, a wellqualified auto technician at the local Rodney Auto Centre in Silverdale. Josh, who hails originally from Taranaki, admits having had a love affair with automobiles from a very early age. “I’ve always been a car nut and, although I started a career in offset printing, my love of cars drove me to seek a more fulfilling employment – especially when the printing work started to dry up”.

Josh has lived on the North Shore since he was about six years of age, so he used the local Yellow Pages to determine which auto centres interested him most. Needless to say, he applied to the Rodney Auto Centre and, after a three-month trial, owner Dean Aspinall agreed to take Josh on as an apprentice – thereby beginning a much happier road towards qualifications in the area that would give him enduring job satisfaction.

The tale of the car began when he expressed interest in finding a classic Holden and Dean happened to see one advertised on the Internet around three years ago. Josh went to have a look and found a very sad-looking motor car in Parakai, covered in unmentionable muck. Not a good beginning, you might think – but you would be wrong. Josh knew instinctively that, under all the mess, there was a decent car that just needed his special brand of TLC. The former owner produced a box of spares from the shed, which became part of the deal, as did the brand new carpet set that had been stored in the boot.

Josh stripped out the interior completely and treated the chassis with a rust inhibitor before fitting the new carpets, refurbishing the dashboard and re-upholstering the front seat in matching Holden material. This was followed by the new paintwork, bringing his ‘baby’ back to its gleaming and original golden Holden colour. A set of 18” JBW alloys now wear the new ‘boots’ that set the car off. Needless to say, the mechanicals are all in first-class condition.

Josh’s 1975 Holden HQ Kingswood, still wearing its original plates, houses a Chevrolet 350 cubic-inch V8, pushing out 475 horsepower and 435 Newtonmetres of torque. This is fed to the rear wheels through a turbo 350 transmission and a Salisbury limited slip differential – all lovingly put together by Josh.

This involvement in special motors brought up the subject of the most interesting car Josh has worked on – apart from his own – and he told us about the time he fitted a 350 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8 into a Nissan Safari and also added aircon to the same vehicle.

However, Josh’s passion for his own special Holden shines through very clearly – so much so that, when we left him, he was still smiling with happiness and contentment that he already owned this very special, dream machine.