Hymac saved, restored and back in its homeland

by Nick Drew | Fri 19 Aug 2016

Hymac saved, restored and back in its homeland

During my recent trip to South Wales I was contacted by Ieuan Griffiths who gave me a heads up to visit Jim & Dean Davies of Blackwood based family business Jim Davies Civil Engineering Ltd to check out their stunning Hymac 580C restoration.

The Hymac 580C was without doubt the most famous hydraulic excavator the Rhymney based company ever manufactured and in its heyday the name Hymac was synonymous with 360 degree excavators in the same way as JCB was associated with backhoe loaders. If a customer was making a call to order a 360^oexcavator he would invariably call it a Hymac, whether it be a Poclain, Massey Ferguson or a Priestman the name Hymac stuck.

Between 1970 and 1981 around 5600 Hymac 580C models were built in the Rhymney factory and delivered to customers all over the world. Although primitive and simple machines by today’s standards, it’s a real testament to them that so many are still surviving to this day, with many to be found scratching about on farms and small build projects where they are still more than capable of putting in a day’s work.

This fine example which is dated as a 1971 model was originally purchased by George Wimpey Plant, who were massive Hymac customers. Tony Flint of Flint Services found the machine in a bad state and Dean commissioned Tony to restore the machine back to its former glory. The machine was a surprise birthday present for Dean’s father Jim who has a long history of operating and owning Hymac machines. The restoration was done in complete secrecy and took around a year to complete with no expense spared. Jim did not know a thing about it until it was unveiled at home! One can only imagine how he must of felt as the totally refurbished machine tracked out of the shed, an emotional experience for any plant man I’m sure. Jim originally started operating Hymac's on the Heads of the Valley project for Christiani Shand before starting out on his own in 1974 as a sole trader. In March 1976 he went Ltd and bought some old MF40 and MF350S machines, he later bought his first Hymac second hand in 1978, eventually running a fleet of six all of which were 580C models. In 1992 he purchased two 1501 models from John Kennedy but sadly they were not very impressed with them.

As previously mentioned no money was spared on the refurbishment and the machine was totally rebuilt from the ground up, even the notorious cross tubes on the undercarriage were replaced, as older readers may recall they were prone to cracking meaning that the turret could become detached from the undercarriage if you were unlucky. As a youngster at Wimpey’s I recall helping to weld on Hymac’s repair kit which consisted of weld on strengthening plates.

I was very kindly invited to take to the controls of the machine the like of which I often used to operate when working for George Wimpey back in the late 1970’s early 80’s. Although I remembered the basic control layout it still completely threw me and I was surprised by the effort you had to put in to move the control levers. It’s fair to say we really do not know we are born these days with all the servo controls and high tech gizmos that are fitted.

It’s great to see that a top quality restoration like this will now be preserved forever so that future generations can see what, in its day was the leading brand of excavator in this country and at the time a benchmark for British excavator manufacturing around the world.

I would like to extend my gratitude for the kind hospitality shown to me by the Davies family on the day of my visit and I look forward to coming back again soon.

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