RIP: JDT Swart: Tractor mechanic from Villiersdorp, South Africa

I attended the memorial service of a wonderful real "old timer" tractor mechanic on Friday, 30th April.

"Oom Jaap" Swart (Uncle Jaap) was 5 months short of his 95th year.

When Dad started farming in 1936, Oom Jaap was already a tractor mechanic. What he did not know about the innards of IH's, Cats', MF's M-H's, and all other makes inbetween, was not worth knowing.

We had a D4 5T that needed an engine overhaul, and the crank was ground 20 thou undersize, and no 20 thou OS bearing liners could be found locally. Barlows (Cat agents in South Africa) only had 30thou OS liners, and uncle Jaap hand scraped those liners to fit, and the D4 lasted another 15 years.
Of the folk who attended his memorial service, I'd say about 90% of them had Cats (Mostly D4 (5T, 6U, 7U), D2 (J & U) that uncle Jaap serviced on a regular basis.

At the age of 93 he still overhauled the Ford Essex V6 motor that he fitted to his old VW Splitscreen Combi. He did the bellhousing conversion to fit the Ford motor himself.

We salute a great but humble man, who served his fellow man and his community with dignity, dedication and with a work-ethic for excellence in all he did!