The Niagara Golden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario was FORD and FIRESTONE country. It was vaguely subversive to even consider GM, let alone anything foreign. To my father’s generation, the Germans and the Japanese were the ENEMY! They would walk… barefoot on broken glass for many miles, or so theyy said… before getting in to a (shudder) Volkswagon. I had the misfortune of dating someone in university who had the bad taste to pull one in to our driveway,,, not a good idea.

Cadillacs were okay, but the Lincoln Crown Victoria was the luxury car for us, manufactured just down the highway in Oakville, Ontario. The high schools where I taught all had auto shops where the really cool guys got to work on their parents’ and teachers’ cars.

From Wikipedia: Ford of Canada decided to move its head office and build a new assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario. The new Oakville assembly plant was opened in 1953…
Historically Ford was one of the most powerful companies in Canada, and in the 1970s, Ford was the “largest” company in Canada… .
In 2010, Ford was embroiled in a controversy surrounding a plan to construct a massive gas-fired power plant… on a disused 13.5-acre (55,000 m2) portion of its Oakville assembly plant. Local residents and politicians have pleaded with Ford not to continue with the plan, which is believed by many to threaten the health and safety of local residents…

The mighty FORD assembly plant has been disassembed. We drive a Mazda. My father would be very sad.

Good luck with your project. Since you will not be able to do it yourself, you will miss a lot of fun, and a lot of money.

Interesting…I will have to check that out. I am currently reading Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, but after taking your recommendation and looking at it online, it definitely will be purchased and moved to the top of my reading queue.

“some elbow grease”….Who are you trying to kid? Haha, don’t get me trying to bite off more than I can chew.

I owned an ’84 de Ville. You’ve made a wise choice.

Oh, and my condolences on not being able to do the repair work on your own. It isn’t as complicated as you fear. A little logic, some elbow grease, a visit to Sears for some tools and a Chilton’s manual – you’re good to go!

Man, I remember that car! My grandfather had a couple of those over the years and they were just classic! Can’t wait to see yours when it’s done.

Who you callin’ old there dude! I was 21 when that caddy was bolted together. A real car indeed! I also can’t do much with any car, they are too technical for the average owner these days. Keep us up to date on the repairs. 🙂