The vintage Cadbury delivery van has been given a makeover after the Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society decided to "kick it in the guts" and get it up and running again.
Society treasurer Steve McNulty said their group was not just about restoring the history of the city’s fire brigade, but also showing Dunedin’s wider history.
"We thought this was a good story to tell — it was New Zealand’s first chocolate factory and we were also Dunedin’s first fire brigade."
He said the vehicle was a Ford Model AA delivery van and likely made in 1930.
The society’s goal was to get it fully up to scratch so it could take part in this year’s Christmas parade.
"With a bit of work and a little bit of persuasion, we managed to kick it to life — we were all very surprised with how well it runs for a 96 or so year old van."
One of the group members tinkered away at the van for "months and months, little piece by piece" until they got it going.
Working with mainly vintage cars, machines and figurines, there was no user manual for what they were doing.
The society also stopped a wall-to-wall display of broken mechanical puppets — part of the Cadbury World exhibition — from heading to the landfill.
The puppets were a mess of broken parts but after nine months they got them all up and running.
