Kobus Groenewald from Stilbaai in the Garden Route, collects tractors and other things from previous periods and restores them to their original condition. He belongs to veteran tractor groups and travels far and wide searching for original parts. He does the restoration work with complete dedication and patience. Kobus's son, Gielie, helps to restore the tractors and old cars and learns this skill from his father's good example. According to him, his father is a perfectionist when restoring old tractors, and he spares no effort to restore a tractor with original parts.
Kobus is an early riser who is impatient to start his day’s work, but he has vast amounts of patience in practising his hobby. Restoring a vintage tractor requires painstaking commitment, the patience of a saint, and a tremendous amount of resilience. Added to that is the passion for finishing the metalwork as smoothly as silk with the mark of a craftsman. He is doing the job perfectly for the sake of doing a good job.
His work resulted in a large shed with not one but some 65 beautifully restored tractors, cars, and other farm implements. They stand proud to have been a testimony to this man’s work ethic for many decades. His restoration work has been acknowledged several times at the National Vintage Tractor and Engine Show as the best in the field. Each one of his entries is lovingly restored to its original. No fake or modern parts are used. If need be, he makes the parts himself. He often uses spare parts acquired over the years from across the country. Sometimes, a tractor, therefore, has to wait several years to be completed. He still has lots of tractors and other implements waiting to be restored.
When completed, every tractor is in total working order and finished in the original colour. Kobus rarely leaves a tractor’s paintwork in its weather-beaten state, accentuating the worked-in sheen and contrasting with the painted tractors.
Kobus is not only a restorer of note; he is an outstanding storyteller. Forgotten brand names such as the Field Marshal and Massey Ferguson fill Kobus’s stories about how he acquired and restored each one of the tractors. He has travelled some 250,000 km with his 8-ton truck, going to shows, auctions, and far-off farms to seek out old tractors worth buying and restoring … and collecting stories.
Read the full story in the Devoted magazine by following the links: https://online.pubhtml5.com/asxvv/sngi/ and https://devotedmag.co.za/
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