In the mid '80s I needed a set of Windscreens for my F60 Tipper (Oz Assembled). We had heard through some friends that Gillies in Wellington were going to scrap all of their spares, so decided fairly quickly to go and spend some cash
When we got to the yard we had a bit of a problem convincing the guy that it was a good idea to sell me some CMP windscreens, anyway after a few minutes he took us through one of the Quonset huts that are in the background of the photo of the CMP Holmes Wrecker (they had two main huts).
The huts were around 50Metres long and were two storied. Both huts were Full of NOS and removed parts for CMP's and GMC's (full as in a central walkway of about 2 metres wide between floor to ceiling racks of parts). We eventually found the windscreens but the only had Left Hand ones, mostly NOS, some were used and a litle rusty but they were all the same price $25 each. We only wanted 2 sets and when the guy said that it was all going to the Scrappy in a weeks time I ask how much for all of the ones they had (I think about 10 or so) The answer $25 each, so we went away with 2 sets.
Ouside there were seveal CMP bodies including a pair of comlete NZ assembled workshop bodies as well as piles and piles of GMC rear diff sets, engines and complete transmissions that had been left over from the hundreds of GMC's that they had. True to his word within a couple of weeks it had all gone to the Scrap Dealer to make into Japanese Toyotas.
Still on the plus side several NZMVCC club members got GMC's and CMP's out of GT Gillies, both in Wellington and Oamaru and over the years numerous construction companies, transport companies, farmers and many others obtained ex Military Machine from Gillies for use in a time when it was almost impossible to purchase new trucks in New Zealand. The GT Gillies story make for interesting reading
Kev
|