The Kenworth manufacturing plant in Melbourne at Bayswater, was the birthplace of this ruby red gem during August, 1986 – it now resides on the South Coast of NSW in the tenure of Brett Cleary, a confirmed SAR Kenworth devotee.

The very affable Brett is a third generation family member of Cleary Bros Group that has been principally based for over 90-years in the Illawarra and South Coast regions of New South Wales. It has interests in the construction, quarrying, earthmoving and plant hire, civil engineering, concrete, transport and waste disposal fields. Cleary’s hallmark is its legendary fleet of brightly hued yellow trucks and civil engineering construction industry equipment’s presentation – an endorsement of its work ethic and commitment. One wonders if the fleet colour was chosen because of the vast amount of yellow Caterpillar earthmoving equipment and truck engines used in its fleet – and they simply sprayed the trucks the same colour.

Cleary Bros (CB) has traditionally  been a user of Mack trucks from its early days operating utilitarian NR models, to the fabled B model, R model, later the CH, Vision and Trident models in tipper guise, Value-Liners, Metro-Liners and MCR in the diverse agitator fleet - using Titans for heavy haulage work.

Currently the company has a total of some 120 trucks in its fleet - the Bulldog mascot riding on about 40 per cent, with the balance a mix of Western Star, International, KW, Sterling and Volvo.

“There’s a saying coined by the company elders – ‘Cats, Macks and Holdens’, but I reckon it should be ‘Kenworths and Toyotas,” Brett quips with a smirk. His first purchase of an SAR was a 404 model in 2004 to operate in the CB fleet as a tipper.

In his early days working in the company he wanted to hone his skills driving heavy-duty trucks, but moreover to harness the finesse of operating all manner of earthmoving equipment, which is of course, the company’s core business. These skills giving him firsthand knowledge of the practicalities of the operation, and good grounding for his present role within the executive as a director overseeing the operation. Brett bought our subject SAR in early 2016 about the time of his 40th birthday – you could say it was a present to himself, as he says, “No one else was going to buy it for me”.

He would have been 10-years-old when it came off the production line at Kenworth in Bayswater. His intention is to use it as a display vehicle, attending various events throughout the year.

The SAR is a uniquely Australian Kenworth. The acronym stands for Short Australian Right-hand-drive or as colloquially and affectionately known Short And Rough. Its design offers a dimensional spec that is a short BBC (Bumper to Back of Cab) with the front axle strategically located in order to capture a maximum overall length when coupled to trailing equipment.

The original Kenworths that Ed Cameron (the father of KW in Australia) brought to this country in the 1960s, were the shorter sloping bonnetted S-model that Kenworth in Seattle had specifically built to Ed’s statutory requirements – a short BBC bonnetted prime mover, similar in stature to today’s SAR. As they say – the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Getting Started

It had poured with rain all night and into the early morning the day we’d arranged to meet at a central point, which was Cleary’s farm near Berry, in order to discuss the finer points of the restoration – we were also in the company of Les Lipinski, CB’s Transport Workshop Manager, a valued veteran of 33-years service with the company. This was the first time I’d met him, and I found him to be a man of character with a firm handshake, who looked you  in the eye.

The rain had eased to showers by the time we met up – the three of us sheltered under the lean-to attached to the bunkhouse, perched comfortably on stools with a welcome cup of coffee on the table in front of us, brewed by barista Brett. Our conversation was accompanied by the cadence of intermittent showers on the corrugated tin roof.

Les was to coordinate and take charge of the restoration, and he says with a smile while looking at Brett, “But there wasn’t any pressure to finish the restoration. The truck arrived in April, 2016, and Brett wanted it to run in the annual Illawarra Convoy for Kids, scheduled for the following November”. He’d purchased it from used truck dealer, Boss Trucks in Melbourne, who’d brought it over from Perth with a seized 3406 Caterpillar engine. The price was right and Brett thought it an ideal project. However, the 30-year-old  had suffered some road trauma, but overall was in good condition, although having been driven by many operating along the highways, byways and rough terrain of Australia.

GAP

GAP

GAP

It takes enthusiasm to embark on a restoration of this type on a heavy-duty prime mover. You need a dedicated specialist team to see the project through. Seems a bit dramatic, but I’d compare it to a hospital team that receives a patient suffering from road trauma, and everyone has to work together using the expertise in their particular field – performing surgery in order for the patient to survive.

The Cast

Electrical by Garry Winter who stripped and rewired the cab plus all lighting upgrades, harness work and custom light bar. Mechanical work carried out by Jake Davidson and Garry Winter. All custom fabrication by Shane Grant, Alain Boardman, Stef Coric. Custom Paint by Wayne and Adam Mulcahy – who incidentally made an outstanding job of laying the ruby red paint finish. Body repairs by Peter Coombs. Metal polishing by John Caruana. Andrew Koeberlein assisted with the fit out and repair process throughout the entire build. The end result is a tribute to Les and his CB team – job well done boys!

Getting Serious

Les describes the look of the SAR when it arrived, along with the fact it would need major surgery, “It was like an apparition when it appeared in our yard at Albion Park, painted Kermit green! The Cat engine was that badly seized, the internals almost melted, so we dumped it and bought a good secondhand running 3406B to replace the original. Our enthusiastic team got to work checking it over and fitting a new water pump. They tidied it up replacing all the plumbing’s pipes and hoses. It was then loaded onto a trailer and sent to our paint shop in nearby Bombo – it came back resplendent in Cat yellow looking like brand new.”

He continued by saying, “Our guys got on with the job fully rebuilding the 18-speed Roadranger and also pulling the diffs, checking them out and resetting the preloads. The steering was overhauled and the brakes copped a complete rebuild, with the air valves renewed, as well as the airlines. New front springs were fitted. The universals were replaced and the rear suspension was converted with Airliner air bags”.

The majority of work was carried out in-house, under the supervision of Les and workshop foreman, Robert Georgievski, at both Cleary’s mechanical workshop and body repair division. Apart from the expertise of the Cleary’s team, there were a couple of specialists who also added their skills to the finished product. Frankies Auto Electrics in Albion Park fitted the sound system, and Janice George from Kyabram Screen Printing worked her magic creating the mural, ‘Their Spirit Lives On’, emblazoned on the back of the sleeper cab.

GAP

GAP

Janice says, “It wasn’t the easiest of collages I’ve had to create, as the brief wasn’t cut and dried, so there was a bit of trial and error involved. I had to find the elements from various sources and add sections to it that didn’t originally exist. It took a few goes, but I’m sure they’re happy with the end result”.

Les adds, “Tony Baric from Gilbert & Roach at Narellan was a great help in the sourcing of specialist parts and also organised for the interior trim and seat coverings to be sent to Rae-line, Kenworth Trucks’ long-term interior trim assembly plant supplier”. He says, “We removed the original trim and sent it to them in Melbourne to be refurbished. It was returned in all new guise kit form. We then reinstalled the interior trim and fitted up the seats. “As the timeframe became tighter, and November was approaching fast, it was all hands on deck in order to meet the completion date. It was a marathon effort, but we made it,” says Les looking across at Brett with a grin.

For sure it takes a great deal of money to painstakingly restore a motor vehicle, be it a Morris Minor or a Kenworth truck, but the cost is only a part of the equation. It is also the skill and dedication of the artisans who piece the jigsaw together and craft it to be, not just as good as it was the day it rolled off the production line, but in most instances, as on this occasion, better. It’s like a finally tuned motor racing team – cost is not the only governing factor – it’s the team who take great care using their skill and knowledge in fettling the car, plus the skill and courage of the person behind the steering wheel, that gets it across the line in first place.

Tracking the CAT

One never knows where a domestic cat goes on its wanderings and it’s almost impossible to track one, but thought it would be interesting if I were able to track the wanderings of this Cat, not only for me, and the owner, but for you the reader as well – the journey that this Cat powered SAR, Chassis No. 408573, had taken during its 30-years, from the winter of 1986 to the spring of 2016.

Armed with the chassis number, I contacted the KW manager in Perth, as we knew this was the last place it had turned a wheel in anger. The message came back saying no joy over here – however, Kenworth’s records  show it was sold new by a dealer in Queanbeyan, NSW, to L.H. & J. McIntyre.

Thirty years later and behold, there isn’t a KW dealer in Queanbeyan, so I trolled the New South Wales electronic phone book for that name, and sure enough I found one with the telephone prefix that was in the Goulburn area. Bingo - I’d struck gold!

“Yes, I remember that truck,” was the answer. It was Len McIntyre who had owned McIntyre Transport in Goulburn before selling the company and retiring. He’d ordered it to his spec as a factory build; painted in the McIntyre fleet colours of yellow and white. He was most helpful, sending me a colour photo of it when new. He knew of Cleary Bros and thought it ironic that it was only some 90-odd kilometres away, after almost 20-years since he’d sold it. Then he told me that the original driver, Ray Miller, now lived in Albion Park, the same locality where the truck had been restored in CB’s workshop. Its duties during the 13-years in the McIntyre fleet had been running between Canberra, Goulburn, and Sydney.

Peters Transport in Werribee, Victoria, bought it from Len in 1998, with some 1,300,000km on the clock. They ditched the spider wheels replacing them with polished alloy discs, and repainted it in their fleet colours of red, white and black. After some time carting general freight on the Melbourne/Sydney/ Melbourne merry-go-round, the Cat spat its dummy, and it was sent to the Victorian Caterpillar agent, William Adams, for an engine rebuild. Theyalso fitted an air-to-air intercooler and tweaked the fuel system, increasing the standard 261kW (350hp) – according to Peters - by adding considerably more stallions under the bonnet. The original 13-speed Roadranger was replaced with a burley 18-speed of the same Fuller family.

In 2006, it was sold to AG Spread in Bunbury, Western Australia – repainting it green and operating it as a prime mover in its tipper and low loader operation. They also had some engine repair work carried out during its 400,000km journey during their tenure.

In 2011, it was then passed on to WA Hydromulch, also in Bunbury, who only ran it for about 40,000km before, due to driver abuse, the engine was seized solid and the truck was disposed of. Enter Boss Truck Sales Melbourne and Brett Cleary’s purchase. Our thanks to Kenworth SAR groupie Brett Cleary for letting us share his dream.

*Jim Gibson