Peterborough, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec — 1957-1960

After arriving from Europe, Tom was able to use his mechanical engineering degree to get a job with Canadian General Electric. After a year in various plants in Ontario, he settled in Montreal.

 Tales of Blue Beauty

The blue and white 1952 Pontiac that I bought in Peterborough provided me with a lot of fun and terminated any chance of putting money aside. It took me to many places and new experiences in Ontario, Quebec, New York, and New England.

She was a great used car in immaculate shape. After biking home from playing tennis at night in Peterborough, I would climb into the driver’s seat of the parked car and turn on the radio for five or ten minutes just to savor the feeling of ownership. I felt rich as I slipped into bed, closed my eyes, and thought about all the wonderful things that had happened to me in such a short time.

As thousands of miles went by, Blue Beauty was not getting younger. The last thing I considered was borrowing a lot of money to replace her. I became a steady customer at Canadian Tires, the fix-it superstore, where Aldo, the foreman, became one of my trusted advisors on how to get things fixed inexpensively, often telling me how to do it myself.

Shocks

One day in zero-degree weather, I had to replace the two front shock absorbers. I did not have all the tools, but I knew that the CGE plant where I worked had what I needed. On a Saturday, I drove to the plant and asked the guard to let me in for a few hours.

I was dressed for the cold and had a thermos full of hot coffee. I had to get into the car every five minutes for a warm-up and rest. I turned on the radio, sipped my coffee and encouraged my semi-frozen self by thinking about the privileges of freedom and ownership of a car.

I lifted the car with the jack. The bolts and nuts appeared to be fused together through wear and rust. I put all my strength into the big wrench to loosen them, without success. I finally implemented Aldo’s advice and sprayed WD-40 on the bolts and nuts. After that, I found success in that step of the process.

The cold made it a cruel two-hour exercise in endurance and learning. Driving home, I could not wait to take a hot victory bath.

Seizure

One morning when I pressed the starter button, the engine appeared dead. Headlights and the sound of the horn seemed to indicate that the battery was in good condition. I would have to do some investigating. I presented my problem to my group who regularly gathered for the lunch break. One of them suggested that I try to turn the engine using a big screwdriver and pressing on a cog of the flywheel. If there was no movement, even a fraction of an inch, I should open the head of the cylinder block to check the cylinders.

There was no movement at all. I removed the head and looked at the walls of all six cylinders. When the piston was at its lowest position, which exposed the whole cylinder, one of them seemed to have a brown discoloration and a rough surface. When I reported my finding to the group, my friend suggested I look for a hairline crack on the cylinder wall. He suspected that antifreeze had leaked into the cylinder and had baked onto the surface of both the cylinder wall and the piston. This would result in the piston being glued to the wall and the engine becoming immobilized.

Sure enough, I found the crack and followed his next suggestion – to drain the antifreeze, wipe the cylinder clean with a solvent, and then fill the cylinder with the solvent. It would seep between cylinder and piston for a day or two.

Two days later, I inserted the big screwdriver and pressed it against the cog of the flywheel. IT MOVED!!

I kept moving the flywheel inch by inch, rotating it until it turned around completely. After twenty minutes of hard, but exhilarating, labor, I closed up the engine and filled the coolant line with hot water and a sealant. I started the engine. My heart rejoiced as it burst into action! I let the engine run for fifteen minutes as per the instructions on the can of sealant, observing the steam and gas mixture leaving the exhaust pipe as expected.

It was winter, and I had to drain the water from the engine and replace it with a coolant which, if it would slightly leak into the engine through a not-totally-sealed crack, would not bake. Kerosene was the material suggested by my experienced panel, which I thought could possibly be risky. However, my friend – who learned to do the unconventional at his dad’s farm in Saskatchewan – thought it was no real threat. The only problem he was concerned about was kerosene’s lower boiling point than that of the antifreeze-water mixture for which the thermostat was designed. He recommended I watch the coolant temperature carefully on a half-hour test drive and, if I noticed steam coming out from under the hood, be ready to remove the thermostat.

All of his predictions became reality and the thermostat had to go. The weather was mild for a few days and the free flow of coolant did not result in too low a temperature inside the car. Once it got colder and there was no thermostat to restrict the coolant flow, the car became uncomfortably cold for driving. My advisory panel suggested I carry various sizes of cardboard to block the radiator during various conditions. This sounded cumbersome and would have required too much attention to the temperature gauge.

It was time to consult Aldo at Canadian Tires.

“Tom, how about stealing an idea from Mercedes? They have an adjustable radiator air shield to get the coolant, the engine, and the car warm soon after starting. As the coolant gets warm enough, the shield is gradually retracted, exposing more and more of the radiator to the airflow which would avoid overheating. I am sure you will come up with an inexpensive way to implement it.”

I liked the idea! I got a standard, spring-operated window shade and mounted it to the bottom of the radiator with the torsion-spring tight. I attached a piano wire to each end of the wooden rod at the end of the shade, led the wire onto a fisherman’s spinner I mounted on the steering wheel shaft, and wound the loose end of the piano wire on the spinner until it pulled the shade up, covering the whole radiator.

I started the engine in this position and once the coolant temperature indicated it got warm enough I simply unwound the spinner with its handle to release the piano wire, allowing the shade spring to pull the shade from covering the radiator. It worked like a charm but attracted interest at bus stops as people watched me wind a fisherman’s spinner inside the car. Enjoying their puzzled looks, I drove off with an air of sophistication.

As it turned out, the crack was not perfectly sealed. Tiny amounts of kerosene did get inside the cylinder, causing smoke to billow from the exhaust during acceleration. This converted the Blue Beauty into a perfect getaway car, particularly when traffic lights turned green. By giving a little extra gas, the other drivers were in a cloud of smoke, allowing me to reign on the road ahead with no competition. I did this only when I was in a hurry, and when no police were in sight.

My friends knew about this, and the grand finale of quite a few parties became gathering at a window to watch my spectacular takeoff. I also initiated this cloud of smoke when the lights of an approaching car behind me appeared in my side view mirror. As I pulled out and gunned the engine, smoke filled the narrow street, causing the other car to have to stop until the smoke cleared and the driver could see again – a scene appreciated by my friends.

I managed to keep driving the car with this deficiency until the next safety inspection occurred two years later.

Startissimo

In the fifties, there were very few electronics in cars. Most functions were carried out and/or controlled by electrical relays which were not very sensitive to the line voltage. In order to remedy the problems that arose from the variations in the line voltage, I decided to mount a second battery in the trunk and a three-position breaker which could put the two batteries in parallel. This would allow for longer cranking of the starter at normal voltage, or in series, give the starter double voltage resulting in a terrific burst of energy. In the third position, both batteries would be disconnected, preventing battery drainage in case lights or other devices had been left on.

This worked superbly, even at temperatures of twenty-thirty degrees below zero. I loved hearing the roaring of the starter when I used the double-voltage operation and to hear the engine start instantly. When I did this on a quiet street at night, people walking by thought the engine had blown up and jumped aside – a scene I used to entertain a friend in my passenger seat. I would apply this prank mainly to young adults, preferably couples walking arm in arm enjoying the peace and romance of the evening.