It began with an old hand-operated fuel pump.

It grew into an interest, then something of an obsession, and over the past 40-odd years Brian Taylor has amassed hundreds and hundreds of items in the three-bay shed on his Hawke's Bay orchard.

Avid collectors and restorers like Taylor, 79, typically have a theme of some kind at the core of their obsession (which, naturally, might not be a way they'd describe it).

For Taylor, the core is petrol. Which on the face of it mightn't sound very interesting, but when it branches out into a massive collection that includes historic signs, cans, bottles, parts, and no end of other accoutrements, each of which comes with a story from Taylor, it can be very interesting indeed.

Taylor's a petrol-head. He trained as a mechanic and throughout his life has maintained a keen interest in restoring old cars, especially Packards.

Brian Taylor, 79, has a story about nearly every item in the auction. Video: John Cowpland/Stuff.

Early on in his collecting years, which really began in earnest about 20 years ago, he told himself he'd sell his collection before he reached 80.

He reaches that milestone in December, so he's put the various pieces up for auction now. It's laid out at Rata Auction house in Havelock North ahead of what is expected to be a very well attended auction on March 4.

Taylor will miss these bits and pieces. He's spent many a weekend travelling to various corners of the country to buy them. The entire collection has been sourced in New Zealand, and nothing was bought online. Swap meets, garage sales and car clubs have been a big source of intel, but nothing beats word of mouth or a bit of inside knowledge.

Taylor bought this old Ministry of Defence sign from a bloke in the lower South Island. Photo: John Cowpland/Stuff.

There's a large old roadside sign for Atlantic fuel, for example, that Taylor discovered was being used by a farmer on the Napier-Taupō Road as a cover on one of his troughs. He was allowed to have the sign as long as he replaced it with something 'so I took up a sheet of stainless steel I had and swapped it over”.

Other items were found at dumps, or were brought to Taylor once word got out about his penchant.

'I've had a lot of good luck,” he says.

There's the odd non-motor related item, like an old barber's chair he had his eye on for 15 years before the owner finally agreed to sell it. He had to drive to Te Awamutu to get that, then spent about $500 restoring it.

Taylor has restored some items. Others, like all the signs, he's left as is. Photo: John Cowpland/Stuff.

'It's a challenge, really, to get something that's nearly completely stuffed and to fix it up,” he says.

For the past 10 years or so he allowed visitors to view his collection.

His wife Margaret, oddly enough, doesn't share Taylor's interest in these things, but has been very supportive.

She was at a garage sale once and heard a couple of blokes talking to each other about a decrepit old toy pedal car and how no-one would ever buy it.

'She thought to herself ‘those blokes don't know Brian'. And sure enough I saw it and bought it,” he says.

There are several collections of labels amongst the lots for auction. Photo: John Cowpland/Stuff.

It's one of several restored toy pedal cars in the auction.

Taylor will miss these things when they go, but he's looking forward to seeing like-minded people buying them.

Picking up an old glass fuel bottle he says 'See this? There will be a bloke who has a whole collection of these bottles apart from this one. This will complete his collection, and I'll get a kick out of seeing that,” he says.

He's not sure what's next for him and Margaret, but he's not one for staying still for long.

'You've got to be busy. Other people might like reading the paper or playing bowls. I go to the shed and make a pedal car, or turn something up on the lathe, or get an old oil tin and clean it and put it on display, knowing I've saved it,” he says.

The blue fuel pump on the left of this photograph was the first item in Taylor's collection. Photo: John Cowpland/Stuff.

'Or I'll repair something that's not worth repairing, like the barber's chair, and turn it into a piece of art. If we don't save these things, in another 20 years we'll go round looking at mobile telephones in collections,” he says.

Rata House owner and auctioneer Peter Maidens says there had been a huge amount of interest in the auction.

'This is one of the biggest collections I've seen, of any kind,” says Maidens, who has been running auctions in the region since 1996.

Details of the auction can be found on the Rata House website.

- Marty Sharpe/Stuff.