Swap Day out

Once we had all arrived (over 40 us) at the new Café of J Swap in Matamata and those that wanted had had their morning caffeine fix, we were introduced to Andrew, Paul & Cody. We were given a brief history of when Joseph Swap started back in 1934 as a young man buying his first truck, through to today’s empire of diggers, loaders, dump trucks, truck and trailers, all doing civil engineering, quarrying, bulk transport plus the stock food distribution. It was then time spent walking through the various workshops and seeing live, the operations of 17 machinery mechanic’s, 5 auto-electricians all getting stuck into stripping down and completely overhauling motors, gearboxes, hydraulics, sandblasting, painting, line boring, etc etc - you name it, I think J Swap’s do it to their own machinery. Nothing gets chucked away; it all gets fully reconditioned (eventually), including everything from massive diggers, to the smallest and the oldest digger, as well as their loaders, trucks and trailers. Next it was into the spare parts dept. Well I think this caught everyone by surprise, just seeing the rows 7m high and in total 1½ kms of shelving – all full of spare parts. ‘How does one get that vee belt at the 6m height?’ – answer around the corner – use an electric man lift. (capable of lifting 2 men up the 7 metre height as well as moving along the isle or around to next isle).

After this it was then on to the service department, where 3 – 4 truck and trailer units a day are serviced by 18 truck mechanics. There are even two COF brake machines that are for making sure all their trucks and trailers are up to scratch plus the COF inspections which are carried out on approximately 20 – 25 trucks a week by 2 or 3 VTNZ inspectors. Each pit was 46 metres in length. All very nice and tidy I must say. I didn’t see any oil or grease spillage. From here we all were driven in mini buses around the yard or should I say yards, to the bulk stores where palm kernel, (stock food) is stored after arriving via ship and unloaded at Mount Maunganui (on average at least once a week), through to the

‘Museum’ where the original 1st Kenworth purchased by J Swaps has been totally restored after doing over 3 million kms travelling on NZ roads (Looks like it has just come out of a showroom as brand new). Plus there were several old tractors, some fully restored and some needing restoring. Also noticed an old Ford Jail bar truck, that was J Swaps, along side this was a totally unrestored early Leyland cab and chassis. I did also notice the old Chev truck which was also restored and painted in a Stanley livery. From here it was back onto the buses and back to the café where I must admit our lunch was very scrumptious indeed, with the food still left over for Thursday clubrooms morning tea – thanks ladies. After lunch it was again back onto the buses and from here we travelled approximately ½hr up to the Taotaoroa Quarry, (between Matamata and Karapiro) firstly to check out from the top, the size and depth (approx. 160mts) of the hole that has been blasted and excavated out since the early sixties. Then we ventured down to the ½ way stage where we managed to see an Atlas Drilling Machine drilling holes in anticipation for blasting. (Approx. every 2 weeks) On average 2½ thousand tonnes of blue greywacke metal is crushed here every day, 24 hrs a day, which then produces crushed aggregate, then stockpiled until wanted in roading, sealing, or concrete etc. (See P19 for more stats on the Swap operations) My thanks must go out to the J Swap boys and staff who went out of their way to show us around, supplied the buses and fed us. Also thanks to Graham Pate for his time in organising a great day out.

Cos

Despite some rather low cloud on the day, our plotted route was easy to follow and produced yet another by-way on the way to Rotorua which we didn’t know existed prior to this run. No main roads when you don’t need to for this group! Doug Green’s bright yellow building was easy enough to spot and once all the vehicles had arrived, Doug took us through the car body stripping process. Mild caustic appears to be the active ingredient for a few hours, depending on the state of the work. Rust is removed easily, paint takes a little longer, but body filler seems to be their worst adversary, sometimes necessitating several cycles through the acid bath. Then into the fresh-water bath to neutralise, followed by the third bath to leave a protective zinc coating. There were several different vehicles going through the process – a Combi van, a Model ‘A’, a Ferrari, etc, but it seems that they make just as much turnover from domestic items like oven trays and window frames. Doug built the baths himself over thirty years ago and perfected the process; now his son is mainly running the business. Tony Payne’s eclectic, or should it be considered eccentric collection of motoring bric-a-brac held the interest of the whole group. He has signage, models, accessories and general motoring memorabilia scattered through his property and buildings, sometimes with a theme and other times rather haphazardly displayed. It all indicates a fertile mind, whether it is the paint decorated door panels or new uses for old fire extinguishers, mechanisms from domestic appliances put to new uses or furniture created from oil drums. Altogether a most interesting couple of places to look around; it was clear that Doug and Tony enjoyed our visits just about as much as we did. We owe them both a big ‘thank-you’, and thankyou too to the members who made the effort to come along on such an initially dreary day.

Bob Hayton