Newspaper Article 2019 – Photo fave not for sale, says owner

Photo fave not for sale, says owner

Roger Moroney

It may have seen better days and hasn’t turned a wheel for 10 years but David Ward’s lichen-coated 1964 JG Bedford is not for sale.

“No, its staying here,” he said.

“Here” being a slice of his Waiwhare farm property west of Napier where the grand old Bedford arrived in the early 1970s – his late father, who took up the property in 1948, bought it.

Although it is not the smartest-looking slice of truckdom it is something of a crowd-puller.

“It’s amazing the number of people we see stop and photograph it when they are driving past and spot it,” Ward said.

Then there was the day an intrigued foreign gentleman turned up to have a close look at it – and promptly asked Ward if he could buy it.

“I think he wanted to send it back home to wherever he was from.”

The answer was, no.

Not for sale.

It may be slightly weary but Ward said the old truck was now “part of the furniture” and certainly not a part of the furniture that had thrown in the towel of age.

“If I put a battery in it and some clean petrol she’d probably fire up.”

The old Bedford is a rarity in this age. “Trucks of that vintage have all pretty much disappeared – you don’t see them any more.”

Once upon a time, however, they were a staple part of the transport business.

Ward and his father used it for carrying wool to the sales, timber, fencing gear around the farm and shingle when there was filling work to be done.

“It got a lot of use.”

However, the six-cylinder’s most telling (and wallet-walloping) attribute was that it only delivered about seven miles to the gallon.

That’s about 11km for 3.7l of petrol.

“That’s fair sucking it up and started to get a bit out of it,” Ward said, so it was eventually parked up. Today he runs a utility vehicle for the contracting work he does with a mate.

It is not the only slice of mechanical history he has scattered about across the farm.

“Yeah there’s a bit of old junk kicking around,” was how he put it with a laugh.

And it’s all pretty well staying put as well … part of the furniture.

And his summation of the grand and grubby old ’64 Bedford?

“Bloody good truck.”

Photo caption – David Ward says his iconic lichen-covered old Bedford pick-up buck at Waiwhare is not for sale because it’s “part of the furniture”.    Photo/Christina Hansen