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This could be good news for restoring cars and bikes – but we must be quick!

5 March, 2025

The ‘Right to repair’ bill is going before parliament and we need to have our say
By Peter Barton

The broken starter motor

Our parliament is currently considering a member’s Bill, drawn by ballot, called the ‘Right to Repair’ Bill. 
It’s due to go a Select Committee for consideration, and we can make submissions ie say what we think of it, before 3 April this year. It’s important because it will make spare parts and information for doing repairs far more readily available and this should slow the rate at which appliances, toys and so on get sent to landfill.
Here is the NZ Parliament website summary (and look especially at the second bullet point):
“The Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee is calling for public submissions on the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill.
The bill would amend the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. It seeks to require manufacturers to make repair parts and information available to consumers in order to extend the lifetime of products. The bill would replace the Act’s guarantee as to repair and spare parts, requiring manufacturers to:

  • reasonably ensure that facilities for repair of goods and supply of parts for the goods are reasonably available for a reasonable period after the goods are supplied
  • provide the consumer with, upon request, information, spare parts, software, and other tools used for diagnosing, maintaining, or repairing goods.

It would also:

  • provide consumers with a right of redress against manufacturers where goods fail to comply with the guarantee
  • enable consumers to request that a supplier repairs goods rather than replacing them
  • require suppliers to repair goods within a reasonable time if such a request is made by a consumer
  • repeal section 42 of the Act, which provides that repair facilities and parts do not have to be made available if the consumer is notified at the time the product is supplied.”
Undo the two long bolts, and the end of the motor can be removed
Further parts can be pulled out. The field magnet is very strong, and the armature has to be pulled out with some force. The commutator is visible, with a lot of carbon dust from the brushes which are visible to the right

I am currently rebuilding a seventy-plus year old AJS motorcycle  (see The Shed magazine issues 118 and 119), and I do not expect any help from long defunct manufacturers, but I do think that many other sheddies will be like me and also often try to repair modern household items before throwing them out or cannibalising for parts.  One issue I am currently working through now concerns the starter motor for a car which has given me great service otherwise.
I thought it had a bad battery to start with, but attempts to jump start showed the problem was the starter.  The dealer couldn’t help in a reasonable time frame (I needed the car urgently) and would have charged a ridiculous sum.
The local garage located a clone for me, at about $250, which I installed, all good.
Could I be a good citizen and give the starter back to the company, for reconditioning?  I didn’t want money.  No. I decided (curiosity) to dig into the motor (they are not complicated) to locate the problem; as I suspected, the brushes were totally worn.  At this moment, I am trying to locate replacement brushes and my chances of getting some which I can be confident will be the correct fit, and at a reasonable price are not looking good.
Overseas vendors (who I generally avoid) seem to have some, but the P&P makes the prices hilarious.
I had to repair a hot water kettle, the type that sits on a power base. A replacement base was unavailable.  I had to make a special screwdriver to open the base (I accept that electrical safety reasons can justify that), but then I found that some points had burned out, beyond being salvageable.  I could not get any replacement and had to make some. Over the years I have had similar issues with other appliances (switches on a rangehood, an oven controller, fridge thermostat, dishwasher control unit ….).
I urge you to make your views known on the bill.

The brush assembly is in the foreground. The brushes (four, silvery grey, pulled out of their holders) are worn down and badly pitted. Planetary gears in the background increase the torque to the starter gear, and act as locating bearings
A close up of the brush assembly. Brushes (out of their holders) are welded into the assembly plate

The Bill is a private member’s one, and no political party is under any obligation to support it.  Industry may oppose it or create pressure to water it down.
A couple of websites which are interesting:  search for ‘A J Park’ and also ‘Russell McVeagh’ and give the name of the Bill. The Parliamentary website gives directions on how to make a submission and provides a link so that the process is made easier.
There is very little time left before the Thursday, 3 April, which is the deadline for submissions.

Another view of the brush assembly. Not very easy to replace the brushes themselves individually as they are welded to the back plate of this whole unit

Ford’s Mustang – the endlessly hip American dream machine

28 May, 2026

Fifty or so years ago, the only place in New Zealand to see a Ford Mustang was on the racetrack. In a local market severely constrained by a lack of new motor vehicles, the new North American Ford was a dreamy icon boosted by considerable motorsport success.
Import licences for cars were limited, and if Kiwis travelled abroad, the amount of currency they could take with them was restricted. What’s more, those funds could not be used to buy a car for importation back home. Yet it was OK to spend the money on heavy drinking at a London pub, Gucci shoes, sable fur coats, and excessive stays at the Hôtel Martinez at Cannes in France.
However, any rare Mustang that landed on our shores would not be destined to pose around Auckland’s then trendy Queen Street on a Friday night but would more likely be found in the care of well-known racing drivers on the starting grid at local motor racing tracks.

Chrysler’s classy cruiser

22 May, 2026

I first saw our feature car, a 1970 V8-powered Regal 770 hardtop, towing a trailer carrying the tidy Ford Anglia classic racing saloon in Broadspeed racing colours that has featured in these pages. The coupe is comparatively rare here, which means anyone contemplating purchasing one of these big two-doors is sure to see prices continue to climb. The latter Charger has claimed much of the Aussie Chrysler limelight, but the simpler and classier lines of this car, which appeared dated soon after its introduction, now have a more timeless appeal.
Former owner, Balclutha motor engineer, Mike Verdoner, remembers the car well. He believes it came from Dunedin originally.
“I’m not sure about the car’s history, but I bought it off its owner at Kaitangata. Unusually, it was advertised in the local newspaper, the Clutha Leader, which was a surprise as these usually go for a lot more money on the internet. I had it for quite a few years. It needed a little bit of work to tidy it up, so I had to decide whether to spend the money on it to do it up, which could have been twenty grand. Its value at the time was not like it is now, so I sold it to Ewan. It’s probably now worth three or four times what I sold it for.”