Ground-up tractor restorations

A gleaming rare 1948 Newman AN4 after Pleasant Point’s Gordon Handy stripped it down and spend countless hours getting it back to like-new. PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

A rare 1948 tractor found on a South Canterbury farm under a collapsed shed will be shown to the public for the first time next month.

Tractor collector Gordon Handy has put countless hours into a ground-up restoration after stripping the Newman AN4 down.

The retired John Deere (JD) dealership owner was contacted by a retired farmer, who told him he had a trio of unusual tractors for sale.

They were a pair of AN4s made by Newman Industries in England’s Lincolnshire — one of them had to be untangled from a tree — and a 1948 small three-wheeler Gunsmith garden tractor.

Intrigued, as he had never heard of Newman or Gunsmith tractors, he went to have a look.

This 1948 small three-wheeler Gunsmith garden tractor was built for small landholdings when the British government urged manufacturers to switch from making guns and ammunition to producing tractors for more food production. PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

"I thought it was too far gone as it was rusted out, the tyres were perished and the engine was completely seized and it had been sitting around for years not far from the coast by Washdyke. It just looked like a bucket of rust with chooks flying around, while the other one had a tree growing up in the middle of it. Anyway, I went down with a chainsaw and a tractor and they came home with me."

New valves had to be made as no parts could be found.

The petrol-driven Newman is air-cooled with a fan on the flywheel and has a two-cylinder Coventry Victory engine.

He’s been told it was used for mowing grass strips on the side of roads by the Ministry of Works.

When it was built, the British government was encouraging companies to switch from making guns and ammunition to producing tractors for small holdings so they could grow more food.

Pleasant Point tractor collector Gordon Handy with a Newman AN4 that he found at a nearby farm with a tree growing in the middle. He is unsure if he will restore this one after a full restoration on another 1948 Newman AN4 and a 1948 small three-wheeler Gunsmith garden tractor. PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

The company produced tractors for four or five years and only about 300 ever made.

"To my best knowledge, and I stand to be corrected, there’s probably only five in New Zealand of that type. This one has a reasonably early serial number. I enjoyed the project and it was more enjoyable by not knowing what you were working with until you got into it as I didn’t know the tractor at all. When you finally wound up the crank handle and away it went it was quite special."

Unlike the standard green and yellow John Deere livery, Newman buyers could order any colour they wanted. Sandblasting revealed a red and lemony yellow combination, so this was retained and its original badging is still on the frame.

Along with the restored Newman came the tree-bound tractor in much the same condition and the jury is still out whether this will be restored.

Initially, the yellow Gunsmith appealed to him more as he could imagine children driving it at a rally and he was told it was going before its nose was half-parked in a shed.

The original branding was still on the rare 1948 Newman AN4, but Gordon Handy, of Pleasant Point, needed to overhaul it along with everything else on the tractor. PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

Built in England post-WW2, the Gunsmith has a five horsepower, single-cylinder JAP engine. A two-speed gearbox is powered by a belt, with an idler pulley acting as a clutch when the tension is released.

Similarly, it was pulled apart for a complete overhaul with valves also made from scratch. The original engine was retained with a rusted cowling replaced after he managed to source another engine.

Steel spade lugs on the side of the rear wheels help keep the tractor moving if it starts to dig into the ground and it still has front-mounted tines.

"I know of a couple of other Gunsmiths floating around, but they are definitely not common, and I think there were only 300 of them also made world-wide."

Gunsmiths were built between 1948 and 1955.

PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

Both tractors will be taken to the Mid Canterbury Vintage Machinery Club’s Wheat and wheels Rally on April 6 and 7.

"They are rare enough that other people should enjoy them and see what they made of that time."

Mr Handy grew up on a mixed farm in the back of Timaru and served his time as an apprentice mechanic, which has come in handy restoring his fleet of mainly JD tractors.

On their two-hectare lifestyle block at Pleasant Point, he runs "eight tractors to the hectare".

After setting up an agricultural spraying business, he sold that to get the JD agency in Timaru in 1979. By the time he parted with it seven years ago, he had six branches and 100 staff from Oamaru to the top of the South Island.

Pleasant Point’s Gordon Handy still keeps a lot of paraphernalia from his days growing a John Deere distributorship from one agency in Timaru in 1979 to six branches and 100 staff from Oamaru to the top of the South Island. PHOTO: TIM CRONSHAW

The connection with the brand has long been in the family. Mr Handy still owns his grandfather’s first tractor — a 1937 JD A row-crop General Purpose model — and a 1948 JD AW he also owned with a wide axle.

Within the collection in an immaculate shed is his father’s 1948 big two-cylinder JD G model, which he tracked down on a farm with his surname on an ear tag still attached to the frame.

"With the original tractor my grandfather had he said to me quite young if I could get it to go I could have it. At that stage, the magneto had been taken off and when you are 12 you think you know everything. So I put the magneto on and put some petrol in it and gave it a pull on the flywheel to start it. And I didn’t know as much as I thought I did because I had the timing right out and it actually launched me clean across the back axle and threw me across the back wall behind the tractor. Well, we didn’t speak for six months or so, me and the tractor."

That started him on the journey of restoring tractors and he has got it humming to the stage he can get it going on the second pull.

A valve grind followed and he was able to source new-old stock, including a new carburetor fresh out of the box.

The rare 1948 Newman AN4 before Pleasant Point tractor collector Gordon Handy took apart every bolt to get it back to factory condition again. Only 300 were ever made with few surviving. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

He has kept it in much the same condition as when it worked on the family farm and it comes out for demonstrations at the Canterbury A&P Show.

Other tractors have got the full restoration treatment from the ground up because they were in such poor condition such as his JD BR recovered from the West Coast.

All the mechanical work is done by himself, as well as panel beating and painting, while his eye for detail means he gets sand blasting and some other work contracted out.

Tinkering with tractors has been "stress-release time" in a busy semi-retirement.

tim.cronshaw@alliedpress.co.nz

Central Rural Life