Just A Mix Of Pics - Ray Green Collection

[Barrie]

I'm not sure if the Merit range of 1/24th scale car kits ever made it to NZ but they were pretty good kits given that they were 100% plastic - which also included the tyres. Dad built virtually the full set and photographed some of them - circa 1962 at a guess. I remember well him mixing up his own charcoal grey satin paint, as black gloss always looked totally wrong.

Two were "Super Kits" including the Alfa, with detailed engines.
Attachment 14731

Most, like The Mercedes, just had the body polished rather than painted as in those days, small spray cans weren't really around.
Attachment 14732

Not many kit manufacturer's have bothered with the Cooper and other 500cc cars, yet there were many different full size models deserving of reproduction in plastic.
Attachment 14733

The other "Super Kit". The Talbot Lago. Incidentally, I brought these built up kits back to NZ when dad passed on, so maybe I should now re-photograph them in colour. For the day though, these were extremely accurate kits.
Attachment 14734

This is a trip down memory lane. Yes, Merit kits did come to New Zealand. The first one I assembled was the Vanwall, my all time favourite. Others in the series were the D-Type, Aston Martin DB3S, Lancia Ferrari, Simca-Gordini as well as the ones pictured. I bought all that I could locally.
At the time my Dad was working for NAC loading the DC 3 aircraft and also refuelling them. One of the others there was English and when he and his wife learned of my interest they offered to get the remainder from England for me. That meant saving and buying five shilling English postal notes. So I did assemble both the Alfa Romeo and the Talbot Lago kits as well. Sadly, with frequent moves over the years they became damaged and are long gone. Assembling the Alfa was such fun with its twin magneto set up.

Barrie

[ERC]

Maybe I should post them on Trade Me! They are in the original boxes so might be of value to collectors... There was also the Connaught. I was somewhat impovershed in those days (some things don't change for many a year) so I was limited to the Airfix 2/- kits, which was 2d more than my weekly pocket money - though I did eventually fork out for the Revell E Type Jaguar when I started work (4/10/- a week wages) and that had chromed parts. Wow.
There was also a great kit of the Ford GT40.
Probably the most enjoyable of the more modern kits is the Tamiya Mk2 Jaguar, complete with about 15 transfers for the dash alone, in road or competition trim, just as long you know that the famous BUY12 modelled, has dark blue upholstery and not red.

[ERC]

I seem to remember this as part of a Sports Car Club Saturday garage visit. I know this was Hillside Road, Glenfield (Gulf Restorations?) and I suspect December 1987 or thereabouts. I would appreciate an ID on the car in the foreground.



Easier to spot an MG


Or an RM Riley - one of my favourite cars. I owned one briefly in the UK, but restoration was impossible with my extremely limited skills and facilities of the time. I am always interested to see how many vehicles get crammed into some workshops and therefore I wonder just how long it takes for them to emerge. I know of several cars that have been several years in a workshop.


A bit out of left field. Senior stepson's Chevvy powered Bedford that he used to get into all sorts of trouble before we chucked him out! Quite a well done van though - his cousins did it I believe as they were panel beaters and painters Blockhouse Bay. It was dry stored in his garage at west harbour for several years and was resold fairly recently, initially for the engine and gearbox - but the buyer didn't realise it had a slightly rusty van wrapped around it!

[Rod Grimwood]

1st photo, is it a 'Moon'. A friend has one he is restoring, and looks the same.
The owner was a nice guy 'Gulf Restorations' Hillside Rd but had an infamous son.

[jim short]

1st photo, is it a 'Moon'. A friend has one he is restoring, and looks the same.
The owner was a nice guy 'Gulf Restorations' Hillside Rd but had an infamous son.

He had the mail run out of Waiuku in the 50s, Glenbrook, past him every day on my cream run

[Rod Grimwood]

Son had a different 'run'

[AMCO72]

I would have picked the 1st photo as being an Auburn, but you might well be right Rod.

Lots of makes over the years were named after planets in the solar system.......Sun, Moon, Star, Jupiter, Saturn, however their 'Stars' did not shine for very long!!

[ERC]

I don't think it is any of those makes. I suspect it could even be French or Dutch, as the radiator badge looks like a shield with red, white and blue diagonal stripes, but it is right hand drive. Any other suggestions?

[fullnoise68]

Rod, did the guy buy the Moon off Ray Wright? Ray originally bought it from around I think Dargaville/Ruawai area. I reckon the blue car in the first photo is a late `20s Oakland.

[ERC]

Oakland is the most likely so far given the radiator shape.

[Paul Wilkinson]

It's a bit strange coming across a random picture of Dad (white sweatshirt standing behind green MG) on the interweb..... Was this the same day we had all been across the road at Reid Trailers and seen how the first Fraser was coming together? Those tours were great, do they sill run them?

[ERC]

It's a bit strange coming across a random picture of Dad (white sweatshirt standing behind green MG) on the interweb..... Was this the same day we had all been across the road at Reid Trailers and seen how the first Fraser was coming together?

Not that day. I seem to remember going to see a Heron sports car though? I can't remember what else we saw, but you are right, a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

[Rod Grimwood]

Most of the restorations where painted by Lyall Martin of Lyalls Carpainters around the corner in Archers Road.
Can remember seeing them there.
He was well known in the trade for doing these kind of jobs.
Lyall was actually the first to be allowed to do repair and paint of Rollers under their orders. He would go to Aussie to do repair work for them as well.

[Rod Grimwood]

He touched up the original BatMobile that was bought out for a Motor Show.
There is a bit of humour behind the boys and the car, as one of thems name was Robin and he coped it.

[AMCO72]

That bodywork looks too American to be of French origin. Look at the wheels....very un French.......they had an obsession with disc wheels at about this time.....a la Citroen.
The car is about 1928, and being right hand drive, built for an English market....NZ ?????? I'm not sure that Moon was still in production in 1928, and also not sure that Oakland was either, both eventually becoming victims of the depression or before.
The Moon had a radiator in a similar style to a Rolls-Royce.
A couple more guess's.........Locomobile......Marmon. Someone must know!!!

[fullnoise68]

That bodywork looks too American to be of French origin. Look at the wheels....very un French.......they had an obsession with disc wheels at about this time.....a la Citroen.
The car is about 1928, and being right hand drive, built for an English market....NZ ?????? I'm not sure that Moon was still in production in 1928, and also not sure that Oakland was either, both eventually becoming victims of the depression or before.
The Moon had a radiator in a similar style to a Rolls-Royce.
A couple more guess's.........Locomobile......Marmon. Someone must know!!!

Gerald, the Moon car I mentioned to Rod was a 1929, and another guy I know in Rotorua had a very similar Oakland, but dark green, and that was a 1928.

[nigel watts]

That bodywork looks too American to be of French origin. Look at the wheels....very un French.......they had an obsession with disc wheels at about this time.....a la Citroen.
The car is about 1928, and being right hand drive, built for an English market....NZ ?????? I'm not sure that Moon was still in production in 1928, and also not sure that Oakland was either, both eventually becoming victims of the depression or before.
The Moon had a radiator in a similar style to a Rolls-Royce.
A couple more guess's.........Locomobile......Marmon. Someone must know!!!

Looks like an Oakland http://www.flickr.com/photos/eduardoolivera/4849458195/

[ERC]

Agree. The radiator badge as well as the radiator shape confirms it. Surely, this car still exists in NZ anyway? Many thanks - I can at least file it under the correct make even if the date isn't 100% correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oa...dis_%2710).jpg

[ERC]

Kevin Andrews very kindly sold me this Singer Bantam project, but once again, I didn't have the skills required to restore it, so it was on-sold to a guy in Waiheke. Does anyone know if it ever got finished?


I know this is Pukekohe and the cars aren't too much of a problem. It looks like a sprint of some sort but I have no other details. Note the infamous Pukekohe timekeeping bus in the background.

[fullnoise68]

ERC, the grey Riley is a very similar model to one that my father in laws brother owns in Taupo, that he has spent plenty on restoring and may soon be for sale. My father in law has amongst his collection a 1937 Citreon Coupe, which back in the late `90`s the late Tim Bailey ( Continental Cars) asked if he could bring a French guy around who was an avid???? Citreon collector on a business trip to NZ at the time. The price offered then was over $100,000 and would have been cheap if you converted it to UK money back then. We are going to advertise it in Europe shortly on the internet. I`ll see if Bruce302 can post some photos he took of it just before Xmas.