In the mid '90's I flew via commercial jet to the Brisbane truck show and Lo! there before me was the most simple idea for a tilt tray I have seen, Occam would have been proud, couldn't believe it, reminded me of when nasa spent millions to develop a pen that would write in space, the Russkies used a pencil!!

Could shoot a ram out the back to haul two cars so had lot's of uses.

Then I got lazy and got myself a Ford F350 rollback as it was easier and I could pick up machinery or anything on the ground. 6.9 International diesel, loaded inside like a Cadillac!!

I had a small trailer I could haul them in on, or any other vehicles.

Some of them were in really mint condition, some I converted back to the Old's 350, same engine I converted with the XKE Jaguar, give it some oomph, but I rebuilt some of the diesels and they seemed to go Ok, just people would not buy them unless they were petrol.

Then they bought out my dream car, a diesel Fleetwood brougham, they had a street value of about $100! could not give them away, GM converted a 350 Olds petrol engine which was disaster but to me was heaven, 30 mile per gallon and so comfortable but then I loved the smoke and noise!!

I always fancied the big iron so in the '70's bough my first Cadillac with a 500 cube engine in it, biggest one made I believe, called it "the Honda eater" with badges under the name

It's amazing what a coat of paint and decals will do, I sandblasted down to metal and used original paint, had a mobile compressor which had the power, did not work well on windscreens!!, bought Jap diesel cars and pickups as the Yanks would not buy them, I had 2 Camry turbo diesels, I think only 2 in the country! They never tried again to bring them in, even the Landcruisers are all petrol. cannot buy a Jap diesel in this country now. :

In the early 1970's the U.S. thought they would separate the wheat from the chaff and Princeton University worked up an 8 hour test taken at a local school over 4 nights, the dealers were all for it and gave it their backing, well, only 17% of us passed the test so they thought, dumb idea anyway, well, the problem was, although the guys were excellent mechanics, and could build an engine that would outrun any government revenue man, they could neither read no write, not needed with the old Detroit iron!! Getting tired of corrupt mechanics and with 3 daughters off my hands I bought 5 acres deep in the woods and built a small house and a BIG garage with lots of skylights in it, also I was retired on disability as the Government declared me "socialy incompetent" I bought and rebuilt anything on wheels and sold them without doing any repair work for the public as they are very demanding, when they bought something it was theirs!!

When the British cars stopped coming into the US I switched to the Jap gear, went against the grain but with 3 kids to feed you go where the money is, oddly enough I made twice as much as they were so simple and didn't have to deal with Lucas, the Prince of darkness, their manufacturers also provided schools to attend to and it was mainly service work, boring but still! one had a problem they all had it, such was their routine.

In England one can get certified at a factory for certain operations but only if you wanted to, most just went to goof off for a week! mostly if you have a few tools you are in, I sometimes worked with plumbers or carpenters who were between jobs and had a little experience tinkering with their own cars, but garages paid so little it was no big deal, it was a joy working with the Pom's with their great sense of humour, used to have me in stitches they were SO funny, a real pleasure to work with. I specialized in Jaguar cars as I was applying for asylum in the United States and knew the mechanic's would not touch them with a ten foot pole. In North America mechanic's are paid only by each job, like piece work, if the car came back you did it for free, no basic wage so it was very competitive among the mechanics, payola to the foreman to get better paying jobs, often sabotaging cars to keep others occupied, real dog eat dog occupation, I was immune to most of it working on Jaguars, also buying them when they were not running for nothing and selling them. :

Later the Government hired a part time typist to make the document look a little more official.

As quite a few drivers started off as mechanics I thought they may be interested in how other Western countries operate as far as skill requirements go. Australia is the only country I know of that requires an apprenticeship of 5 years to qualify as a journeyman mechanic and be certified, most other countries just hire anyone off the street. This one in Canada requires you to take a Government exam, nothing serious, just so you have to purchase a license, bit like a drivers license, and display it above the stall in public view where you work, renew it each year, just a revenue maker really.

Amazing pictures, learn something new every day on this forum, tough dudes :

R&R, Wonderful that they have preserved the history of the town, must have been an interesting visit for you, good choice.

Detective, Thanks so much for referring me to Google for the Outback Policeman by Vic Hall, I love to read stories (apart from old truckers stories!) about the exploits of these men that are really amazing, the book no longer available but plenty of info on the internet, (what would we do without it) and local libraries.
We were fortune enough to be colonized by the British as against some other European power, Spain, or God forbid, France, these men that came from the green green grass of home to explore and work in these hash conditions are the true hero's of the development of the country, the incredible feats that these men endured as well as the home grown ones. A man I knew well, Tim O'Shea, who owned Katherine, Laramah and Borroloola hotels, managed by his 3 daughters and their husbands. I took Tim out bush from Katherine for a week prospecting for tin, not serious but his daughters wanted him to enjoy being out in the bush, so interesting sitting around the campfire listening to his stories, he was a wild Irishman (aren't they all!) His son in law, Jack Mahony, who ran Laramah hotel I got to know very well as I used to spend 4 days there waiting for the mail to come back down from Darwin, He also was a Policeman out bush in the NT, showed me a scar alongside of his head where a spear had grazed him in a fight with blacks, if we could only get all these stories written by their own hand what wonderful knowledge we would learn, didn't think of the internet, have to explore some more, thanks again, Ron.