The Shed November - December 2017

Having faced the challenges and triumphs over the developing years, it enabled a path of great ideas and technologies to advance. Developing the modern foundation of Selleys heartland products such as Liquid Nails, No More Gaps, and All Clear has created a great springboard to push the boundaries and capabilities of products going into the future. With that in mind, it is what pushed him and his team to further meet the consumers’ needs providing the right product for the right job through market leading development of technology and packaging. Your needs are what drive us to push the limits, and create the most exceptional category leading products. We are continuing to perfect and excel in advancing technologies, which is backed by a passionate team of researchers, chemists and marketers,…

We were a gang of four through intermediate and college, all good mates and still are some (ahem) 40-something years later. When we all left school and went into the workforce in the ’70s (when getting a job was not hard at all) three out of us four mates went into apprenticeships. I was the only one who didn’t. Magazines were going to last forever, right? I always admired my mates as they all signed on for three to four years of low wages, even more study (usually at night school), and some strict guidelines and rules learning their chosen trade. I didn’t have that self-discipline and no way did I want more school work. I was so keen to get that extra $8 a week in my pay packet…

Ian Chamberlain’s shed is upstairs in the second storey of his double garage in Whanganui. Ian certainly needs all the room on the ground floor to park just a few of the vintage and classic cars he has restored over the past 30-odd years. And while the styles of car evoke a walk down memory lane, the vehicles look brand-spanking new. There’s a fire-engine red Mark 1 Zephyr convertible, a more staid-looking green and black 1917 Buick, the red and brassy 1906 Reo, and its miniature lookalike. A Model T truck houses the 64-note wooden organ, drum, and xylophone combo Ian made from scratch. The instruments run on software that plays a repertoire of tinkly organ-grinder tunes and is very popular at events in Whanganui and its surrounds. Downstairs, Ian…

Ian made the organ 10 years ago and he says that it was much the same as working on a car — just making the component pieces and putting them together. “I don’t know why I made the organ. There was a parade through the town and I saw a bloke with a hand organ and I said, ‘Where did you get that from?’ He said to go on the internet to find how to make it but warned that ‘whatever you do, don’t make the 26- note organ.’ So me being me, I made the 26-note organ. Everything’s so close — within 1mm. But then I thought I wanted something a bit better and ended up making the 64-note organ.” The rectangular pipes, all a different length, are recycled…

The morning of the interview with The Shed, Ian had been working on the Waimarie paddle steamer boiler, crawling inside to fit the faceplate and putting bolts and new castings inside. “Last week we pulled the paddles off to rebush it all and see how far the engineering firm had got with it.” He has been involved with maintenance of the historic paddle steamer for the past five years. “The skipper says, ‘Ian, come here, I want you to have a look at this.’ In other words he wants me to do something for him.” Last year Ian set up the cradle to get the Waimarie out of the river for its five-yearly survey. He had a cost-effective idea about getting it out sideways. “They said, ‘Oh you can’t do…

An eternal sheddie, Ian has always had a place to do his own projects. He has lived most of his life in Whanganui and in 1943 was the only Pakeha at Koriniti School up the river. Later, his family owned a farm at Westmere. “As soon as you learn to walk you’ve got to do stuff on a farm. I was driving vehicles on the farm when I was 10.” Ian and school were not a happy match, so at 15 he started a panel-beating apprenticeship earning £2 10s a week, and from that time on he came into his own. He also worked in heavy, handson engineering, making, among other things, a 110-ton tanker buoy and building a dredge, before setting up his own panel-beating business. He has had…