March 2010 feature #2

Restoring the Past to the Present

Time to have our second feature of the month. Just recently I visited a friend of mine Justin Mills in Dannevirke (for overseas people thats in the North Island of New Zealand) who is starting to rebuild and restore his second Kenworth. Having already restored "Immortal" (at the far left of the picture) which is a 1974 W924R Canadian Kenworth that started life in New Zealand as a Log Truck with New Zealand Forest Products Justin is chipping away at his next project which is a 1973 LW924 Kenworth which back in the day was delivered new to PANPAC in Napier and run under the fleet number #51 and had the plate GO9051.

This LW has 335 Cummins engine and a Road Ranger RTO9513 box which was used to cart logs over the Napier Taupo road from the Kiangoria Forest through 60-8 weigh bridge down to the Panpac Mill in Napier. After some years and millions of km's later it was put onto carting Jap squares from the mill to the port of Napier for export. The truck has had some nine owners in total and was brought from Barry Simmons Contracting. Justin plans to restore the truck back to its former glory with original plates and he also has a set of A-Train logging trailerswhich will be restored to complete the project. I personally can't wait to see the old LW restored and I bet it will bring alot of memories back especially for those in the bay area who grew up seeing the LW in action in its glory days.

A future project Justin has set for himself is the 1964 LW848 Off Highway Kenworth (at the far right of the picture). This truck which cost 18,314 pounds when it was new was one of two that was brought into the country with two sets of Columbian trailers. The fleet number for this Kenworth was #357 and the second is #358 which is now owned by Mate Franicevich in North Auckland. After life as a logger it was set-up as a dump truck and Justin purchased it from Jillerson Contractors.

The Kenworth you see in the middle of the main photo was recently purchased mainly for parts due to the cab being in poor condition. It's a 1972 LW924 bought new by NZFP as a logger and was also converted into a tipper at some stage.

Both Justin and his father Allen put alot of time into these projects and we are lucky to have such dedicated people restoring our past so people can see them in the present. Going for a ride in Immortal was personally one of the highlights of my life for sure!

Restoring the Past to the Present