ZURICH, ON – When an individual’s dream is to build and restore an antique vehicle, they are, in fact, bringing back a part of history. This story is narrated in two chapters. The first is the legacy of a woman, whose name is Alive Thiel. The second is Bev and Hub Thiel’s two year project to build a 1930 Chev truck. This is in honour of Hub Thiel’s Aunt Alive (also his godmother) and a business formerly known as Thiel Transport in Zurich, Ontario. Alive Thiel is a legend in many ways, just recently...

Chevrolet sales broke the one-million mark for the first time during the 1941 model year, on the strength of beautiful looking automobiles, that were packing some of the latest technology, although still equipped with a six-cylinder engine. Because of a curtailed production run for the 1942 model year, brought on by the United States’ declaration of war against Japan and Germany, the 1941 Chevrolets would remain the high-water mark for the General Motors division for almost a decade. It wouldn’t be until...

I worked for a used car lot in St. Catharines during the summers of 1977 and 1978, and drove a lot of different vehicles, all of them in various states of disrepair and past glory. Several are well remembered, and among them was a 1969 AMC Javelin, hunter green in colour and fitted with a very muscular 390 V8. The Javelin was on the lot only briefly, because such pony cars – even AMC’s singular entry – invariably sold quickly. This particular Javelin, which I recall was in very good...

The Stutz Bearcat name had an aura of magic, conjuring up as it did images of raccoon coats, brisk fall afternoons and handsome young blades whisking their beautiful dates to the football game. In a later era one could imagine another car bearing an animal name, the Jaguar XK120, filling the same role. Harry C. Stutz was an accidental automobile manufacturer. His real intention was to become an automotive component supplier and in 1910 established the Stutz Auto Parts Co. in Indianapolis to produce a...

Woodies came from the beginning of the auto era when train station depot hacks were used to cart luggage around from the station to people’s hotels. Later on the hack was enlarged and made into a useful carrier for commerce. Groceries, farms, produce vendors used them to carry their wares. At one point, the hack became fully enclosed and a proper station wagon complete with windows, doors, glass. At that point, the station wagon went from basic transporter to a status symbol. We can look at Ford...

When Henry Ford died in April 1947, his industrial empire was in a precarious position. Any muscle the Ford Motor Company has previously flexed had sagged and grown sallow after years of stubborn complacency from its founder. One could argue that the company’s decline had begun in the mid-1920s when Henry spurned attempts to upgrade or replace the incredibly successful Model T, introduced in 1908. The Model A was introduced for 1928 and was a hit, but competitive forces, especially from General Motors’...