Racking my brain for a good first editorial as the new editor, I came across a Facebook post in a group I follow: “NZ car related street scenes 1950s-1980s.” It was a photo taken in the workshop of Cooper Henderson’s in Christchurch circa 1974. Now it is a great photo of some older cars (Super Minx, Galant, Cortina) but the more interesting part is how workshops have changed since then. The cars are lined up haphazardly with very little equipment in sight, one car is up on a trolley jack with a mechanic under the car on a creeper – no sign of an axle stand.
Showing my age – I frequented a number of dealers workshops around that era – if there was a hoist it was usually a single poster used for oil changes and a pit was far more common for working under cars. Clients could wander freely through the workshop and look at what was happening – even go down in the pit – none of which would come close to passing muster in today’s Health and Safety focussed world.
The mechanics of cars were fairly basic – the fanciest electronics was probably an aftermarket am radio with cassette player and mechanics both professional and amateur were handy at cleaning and gapping points and spark plugs, adjusting valve clearances and brake linings, all tasks that have pretty much vanished. It kept me feeling comfortable with car technology through to the early 1990’s that you could open a bonnet, and despite the proliferation of electronics, still see basics like the spark plugs and spark plug leads – until I opened the bonnet on a Nissan 300ZX and all there was a big plastic cover and the top of the coil on plug ignition – time to shut the bonnet – walk away and leave it to the pros!
And that is why a magazine like this is important to help keep technicians (yes even the term mechanic has passed it use-by date) up to date with what is happening in the industry.
We are also introducing in this issue regular business editorial – this month with a Health and Safety theme but we will look to cover a variety of the challenges of running a small business which is what most repairers are.
Enough nostalgia, have a look at what we have in this issue.
Cathy
