Hi everyone I'm Chris from Northern Ireland and thought that a good start to 2008 would be to get involved with sharing some of my intrests on this Forum. One of my businesses CJM Plant specialises in the refurbishment of classic plant for use by farmers and self builders. We bring in old equipment and give it a new lease of life. We special ise in cosmetics but do do the necessary mechanicals if necessary.

The business started from a hobby and I have had the privilidge of seeing and driving hundreds of classic pieces of earthmoving equipment. The satisfaction is seeing them come into the yard as "rust buckets" and then seeing them leave as near new condition as the budget allows.

However I do have one downfall = Each machine that comes into the yard has been hand picked by myself and I have this awful urge to want to keep each machine (not good business practice) and over the years I have managed to build up a small personal collection. My collection is in various stages of refurbishment which I would like to share with the forum.

The first set of photos shws a Hymac 370C which I bought myself for my 30th birthday over 3 years ago - Its now around 80% finished and the pictures should show the progress. I shall definetely have it finished by the end of winter 2008 - thats my goal.

My personal collection consists of the following -
HYMAC 370C
HYMAC 580B
HYMAC 580D
JCB 3CMk111 Powertrain
JCB 806
THWAITES ALLDIG Mk11
And I'm about to look at a classic Smalley oops!

Hello Chris,

You've got a great collection.

Can you post a picture of the jcb 3c MK3? Does it have 6-in-1 and Extenderdig?

I'm currently trying to find a 79' 80' JCB 3c MK3 for restoration with 6-in-1 and Extenderdig - there quite rare.

Cheers

Philip

Great pictures mate i can see your going to be a very appreciated member here looks like you have everymans dream as your job!! fair play to you! do you take these machines to rallys or just keep them to yourself? are there rallys for classic plant? i no there is for tractors and steamers but you dont often see 360's, dozers or wheeldiggers there? maybe we should start 1 haha! i guess its harder to transport 360's! keep posting mate!

Hello Philip - so you're the one spending a small fortune on Classic Plant and Machinery to find your dream machine?? hat off to you "God loves a trier" I really thought you'd find one after your first advert but they must be a lot rarer than I thought or are people trying to stick the arm in cos they know you reallywant one.

I had the exact one you're after for sale in my yard a couple of weeks ago - Powertrain mk3 with 4 in 1 bucket and extending dipper, the cab was like brand new and it had a new engine in it last month and was a very rare four wheel drive version. It wasnt much good to me so I sold it to the local scrap man for £250 - Woooohhh Stop I'm only joking! Although I've come accross senarios like that before - like the last owner of Hymac (John kennedy) here in Northern Ireland informed me that he had had a massive clearout and burnt an entire skip load of old Hymac brochures and memorabellia as he thought they wouldn't be any use to anybody. With my tounge firmly planted into my cheek I prentended I hadn't heard what he'd just said

My own 3Cmk111 is a 1980 powertrain with wet brakes but has standard bucket with forks and standard dipper. The story behind mine is apparently it originally came from Scotland and had sat up for many years as the owner driver from new had passed away. His surviving wife then sold it once it started to detoriate. When I got it you would have considered taking to the scrapyard - but looks can be decieving as the cab had virtually rotted away. The rest of the machine was so so so original and virtually every pin and bushing was so tight and had very little use. The engine is a cracker and tyres and buckets are excellent. The guys in my yard laughed when I said I was keeping it - but I proved them so wrong.

The only dilema I have is the cab - the original is completely scrap and I managed to stumble upon a fantastic 3cmk11 cab up the road from me for £200. I have to say I couldnt believe the great condition of this cab which i've hardly had to do very much repair to. My dilema is do I fit the perfect mk11 cab in the absence of a perfect mk111 cab and say nothing???

Back to your own quest - the best I can offer you is your dream machine in 1:25th scale. My company www.cjmplantmodels.com is the sole distributor of kent Vintage Digger models by the famous Martyn Henley. Over the last year Martyn and I have developed diecast, handmade, JCB masterpieces than can only be described as esquisite. If you visit my website you can buy one online. We also sell a lovely range of Hymac and Drott models all of which are limited in production.

I shall be posting some photographs of the stages of my JCB 3CMk111 refurbishment on the forum over the next few days and will try and get it finished alongside my beloved 370C. In the meantime good luck in finding your dream machine and I will keep my eyes peeled for you

Chat soon I hope - Chris.


19

I have a 3c for sale but im not sure if it is a markIII or not but it definatly doesnt have extendo or 4 in 1!
infact it looks to be in very similar condition to yours, not so sure the engine is very good tho?
not really to sure what to do with it to be honest? any ideas anyone? is it worth selling or is it a scrap job?
anyone intrested in it?

Hello Chris,

Aye, I am the one advertising in CPM. Third month now (this will be the last). I've only found one full spec 3C. It was rather knackered and they wanted full-up money for it. I have an option on a very late 1980 3c with 6-in-1 with the option of having extenderdig fitted - not sure about that though and how feasiable it is to retro fit an extending dipper.

Did you see the 3D restoration in Feb's CPM?

Cheers


Philip

Hiya Philip yea the 3D looks great although not the most attractive (never liked the highlift version) yer man did a great job on it and must have stuck to the task in hand to get it finished on time. yes you can fit an extradig as long as the machine is fitted with a double pump that can cope with the extra function also the pedals inside the cab to operate the extradig would have to be fitted and depends if you can live without the unorigionality. Did you have one of these machines way back and have you done a restoration before?

If I can help - just let me know!

Hello Chris,

I grew up in the 70's, Hymac and JCB were my favourite machines. I like the 3c MK3 - not sure why really - seems to have nice lines, and I have many happy memories of watching the 3c at work on building sites as I grew up. I also want a JCB 110B and/or a 114. But that the next project.

I have no experience of plant machinery (Sales Dir for a Software Company). This will be my first restoration, so I plan to outsource some of the work (Hydraulics, shot blasting, painting etc.)

Quick question, you mentioned the hydraulic pump issue for the extending dipper. If the machine had previously been piped for a hammer would this suffice to operate the extending dipper?

Cheers


Philip

hi chris, firstly happy new year to you, my name is john and i live in northumberland i was wondering if you could help me, im looking for a 3C MK3 reg no. LUP102T s/n 131557 (1978) which was possibly exported to ireland in 1986, this was a standard machine. could you suggest where i could advertise in ireland to see if i could locate this machine ? thanks john

Chris,are you sure they all had dual pumps? My first 3cx was a 1982 model standard frame with an extending dipper operated by a foot pedal connected into the dipper circuit. Saved the expense of a double pump but there was a drawback in that the dipper stopped working when you activated the extending dipper.

Neil