Looking at two 1938 McLaughlins in -33

[arcticbuicks]

1938 McLaughlin coupe at interesting car place way up north central Canada in the bush... something to do in crispy -33 degrees... pretty amazing solid straight body condition for a field car.

 

 

 

[TerryB]

You are an adventurous soul to be out in that type of cold.  I like the coupe!

[1912Staver]

The coupe looks like it might be worth saving. Was it for sale ? How far away from a potential market ? If you have to spend a $1000.00 + on fuel to bring back a $2500.00 project car you better buy it very cheap. Or really want it yourself.

 A 38 McLaughlin coupe is a very nice pre war, hobby car by Canadian standards.

Edited January 14 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[mercman from oz]

[3macboys]

16 hours ago, TerryB said:

You are an adventurous soul to be out in that type of cold.  I like the coupe!

Yah, but its a dry cold

[arcticbuicks]

VERY DRY

[Fargoguy]

That looks like a nice coupe and parts car!! Very cool find!

[arcticbuicks]

@ 1912Staver......the cars are very far north in Saskatchewan...maybe 20 hrs round trip from US border......the coupe is worth buying .....and well worth saving ,maybe has higher value to be a hot rod for resale......i am en route to family mine in north near Gillam.......and check out some old places i remember from a few decades ago.....and been trying to locate a early 30s Mc Laughlin with factory [ was delivered new with tracks kind of deal ] snow tracks and front skies that was one of first vehicles in Cranberry Portage as a school bus,i saw pictures ages ago and heard it was still in the area [as not much gets taken away in remote areas].......i am on a mission to find a vintage local snow track car........400 miles to go today .....my cummins dodge is reliable and modified for winter here.... and im not risking shutting it off in cold as it would never restart .....and have to keep the DEF fluid tank heated as it freezes solid when truck parked......but pricey diesel and this' winter 'diesel blend burns quick........$75 diesel is getting me 100 miles......really adds to cost of a person buying a car....it would be minimum of a $1000 for diesel plus hotel etc.....to get each car home .......but its the adventure right....windchill is -50 driving last night .......i got a 12 volt coffee maker-takes 2  hrs to boil !.......road to Gillam is 5 hrs gravel remote and nothing in between.....this time of year most ppl check in at Thompson before doing the stretch .....and then call once once you make it 

Edited January 14 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[plymouthcranbrook]

articbuicks you are a better man than I am.  We are at -7 degrees today with a -28 degree wind chill. I need to go out and clean off a bit of wind blown snow off the back walk and I am doing everything I can to stall in hopes of the temp reaching a balmy 0 degrees.

[Gunsmoke]

This circa '37/38 Opera Coupe (Buick or M/B) has been sitting in same spot for about 50 years, owner began a rebuild in early '70's, got married, decided it had to sit for a while, and so it still sits. I took these photos 10 years ago, think it is still there, owner has all the bits.  

[1912Staver]

3 hours ago, arcticbuicks said:

@ 1912Staver......the cars are very far north in Saskatchewan...maybe 20 hrs round trip from US border......the coupe is worth buying .....and well worth saving ,maybe has higher value to be a hot rod for resale......i am en route to family mine in north near Gillam.......and check out some old places i remember from a few decades ago.....and been trying to locate a early 30s Mc Laughlin with factory [ was delivered new with tracks kind of deal ] snow tracks and front skies that was one of first vehicles in Cranberry Portage as a school bus,i saw pictures ages ago and heard it was still in the area [as not much gets taken away in remote areas].......i am on a mission to find a vintage local snow track car........400 miles to go today .....my cummins dodge is reliable and modified for winter here.... and im not risking shutting it off in cold as it would never restart .....and have to keep the DEF fluid tank heated as it freezes solid when truck parked......but pricey diesel and this' winter 'diesel blend burns quick........$75 diesel is getting me 100 miles......really adds to cost of a person buying a car....it would be minimum of a $1000 for diesel plus hotel etc.....to get each car home .......but its the adventure right....windchill is -50 driving last night .......i got a 12 volt coffee maker-takes 2  hrs to boil !.......road to Gillam is 5 hrs gravel remote and nothing in between.....this time of year most ppl check in at Thompson before doing the stretch .....and then call once once you make it 

The coupe would be a nice car , either back to stock or a mild street machine. But like many / most project cars these days difficult to justify from a cost { both the hundreds if not a thousand or more hours required . and all the expenses along the way }. A person would be well advised to carefully research what decent driver examples are selling for these days before taking on even a reasonably easy project like this McLaughlin.

 The whole project car thing has been turned on its head over the last few years . Even more so for us Canadians who face substantially higher prices for everything than our U.S. fellow hobbyist's. I have sold several of my project cars over the last year. Give away prices  were the only way to get them into someone else's garage. Should have sold them 5 years ago, when at least 3 of them were worth reasonably serious money. To get a sale last  year I was down to about 30 or 40 cents on the dollar compared to what I could have sold them for 5 - 8 years ago. Still 2 or 3 to go. Buyers already lined up. I just have to bring myself to give the deals the final OK. It kind of breaks your heart at this stage. The cars either head south or get broken up for the valuable parts. On the ones that get parted  80 % ends up in the bin. The really valuable stuff often just ends up on a " clone ".  Just too expensive to restore the rough " real deal " car's I bought back in the 1980's and squirreled away for 40 years. $50,000 - $60,000 cars when finished , but $75,000 + to restore them these days. In either case they are gone for good.

Edited January 14 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[DFeeney]

I have always thought GM cars of 1938 were well styled and were the best looking. ( I'm not sure what happened to Oldsmobile).

[nat]

On 1/13/2024 at 4:01 PM, TerryB said:

You are an adventurous soul to be out in that type of cold.  I like the coupe!

      There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.  

     Such clothes make it difficult to handle a #6 machine screw and DON'T drop it in the snow.

[kar3516]

8 hours ago, arcticbuicks said:

@ 1912Staver......the cars are very far north in Saskatchewan...maybe 20 hrs round trip from US border......the coupe is worth buying .....and well worth saving ,maybe has higher value to be a hot rod for resale......i am en route to family mine in north near Gillam.......and check out some old places i remember from a few decades ago.....and been trying to locate a early 30s Mc Laughlin with factory [ was delivered new with tracks kind of deal ] snow tracks and front skies that was one of first vehicles in Cranberry Portage as a school bus,i saw pictures ages ago and heard it was still in the area [as not much gets taken away in remote areas].......i am on a mission to find a vintage local snow track car........400 miles to go today .....my cummins dodge is reliable and modified for winter here.... and im not risking shutting it off in cold as it would never restart .....and have to keep the DEF fluid tank heated as it freezes solid when truck parked......but pricey diesel and this' winter 'diesel blend burns quick........$75 diesel is getting me 100 miles......really adds to cost of a person buying a car....it would be minimum of a $1000 for diesel plus hotel etc.....to get each car home .......but its the adventure right....windchill is -50 driving last night .......i got a 12 volt coffee maker-takes 2  hrs to boil !.......road to Gillam is 5 hrs gravel remote and nothing in between.....this time of year most ppl check in at Thompson before doing the stretch .....and then call once once you make it 

Wow challenging weather!!  Read a fantastic story once in an autobiography of a German WWII fighter pilot who flew against the Russians on the Russian front.  After noticing that the machine guns on Russian planes never froze and jammed, the German fighter pilots threatened a captured Russian pilot with death to explain.  He asked for a large pan of gasoline and lit it on fire and then threw a gun in it to cook out every last bit of oil and lubricants.  Performed perfectly in -50F temperature thereafter with absolutely no lubricants.  Plenty of cooling from ambient air…   Clearly a different world at -50F

[TAKerry]

Were sitting at 30deg F this morning and Im contemplating calling off work, LOL (not really). I prefer S FLA weather this time of year, never thought much about the cold stuff. My brother married a girl from Canada and relocated there a few years ago. He made a comment to me one day, 'why didnt I meet someone from Jamaica?'

[3macboys]

2 hours ago, TAKerry said:

Were sitting at 30deg F this morning and Im contemplating calling off work, LOL (not really). I prefer S FLA weather this time of year, never thought much about the cold stuff. My brother married a girl from Canada and relocated there a few years ago. He made a comment to me one day, 'why didnt I meet someone from Jamaica?'

Your brother's weather is balmy compared to here - he's sitting at -13 C or about 8F and where I am is -18 C or -4 C - to top it off I'm further south than he is!  Now my oldest is out in Edmonton for a hockey tournament this week where it's -32 C.  He'll actually be warming up by stepping onto the ice!   

[TerryB]

Question- when I was on assignment for my job at a factory in Midland Canada I had the pleasure of being there in some winter months. Being told the fresh foot of snow that fell one day was “flurries”, a new revelation in snow measurement for me, I noticed most of the cars in the parking lot were equipped with engine block heaters.  Is that still common?  Also, had some great meals in Barre but unfortunately I can’t recall the name of the restaurant.  One of the engineers I was working with was from Sudbury and I think he said they never really have summer😀.  You northern guys are a hoot!

[3macboys]

3 minutes ago, TerryB said:

Question- when I was on assignment for my job at a factory in Midland Canada I had the pleasure of being there in some winter months. Being told the fresh foot of snow that fell one day was “flurries”, a new revelation in snow measurement for me, I noticed most of the cars in the parking lot were equipped with engine block heaters.  Is that still common?  Also, had some great meals in Barre but unfortunately I can’t recall the name of the restaurant.  One of the engineers I was working with was from Sudbury and I think he said they never really have summer😀.  You northern guys are a hoot!

Those three areas are all right in the snow belt coming of Lake Huron/Georgian Bay.  Once you get up to that area block heaters are more common and then the further north you go that are just normal.   Our cottage is about straight east from Sudbury and the one year our neighbour asked how everything wintered with the snow that year - what we didn't know was that had received 13 feet of snow that year!  Flurries to us are just light snow that slowly accumulates over the day, snow is when you shovel the lane and by the time you get to the end you have to start over!  Where I am in southern Ontario is just about straight across from Erie, Pa and in line with Northern California.  As for Sudbury - you can't count on the ice being out of the lakes until the first of May and then snow is always possible starting in October.   You travel about another 90 miles south west from me to Windsor, which is actually south of Detroit, barely gets any snow most years.  Ontario is so big that the old road maps were two sided and you weren't really north until you were on the other side of the map!  

[arcticbuicks]

Most of central and northern Canada gets below -30 in January and Febuary for sometimes a week at a time......usually several times.....and odd days of below -40.......and travelling dosnt stop......having your car or truck in good shape is a must.....diesel pickups are really common.....and plug in block heaters a must and many ppl add a inline heater in a rad hose or diesel fired style heater like a mini boiler in mostly larger trucks,i have one in my one ton and love it.......most ppl risk not plugging in down to about -15......but below that its risky the truck wont start.....and hard on starter etc .....as you can see in video......i got caught a few times having to start dodge cummins in -30 and cycled glow plugs several times, short cranking tries to generate some heat in cylinders.....and eventually truck started and boy was it angry when it did shaking and smoking.....also a winter front cover over the grille,fuel anti gel additives,methyl hydrate for gas cars,and survival gear is most important if your vehicle quits for any other reason........there are many little tricks and methods to get through winter ........and a dead car can be quite frustrating to get going .

Edited January 15 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[cxgvd]

When I lived in Fort McMurray in northern Alberta I left my Toyota Land Cruiser idling the engine all night in the driveway when the mercury dropped to minus 40C.  The truck had a manual transmission so I had to block the tires.  A pleasant winter day was -20C, no wind and sunny.  I still recall the ice fog above the parking lot at the local Safeway grocery store, every car was idling and unlocked while the folks shopped.  My coldest experience was minus 53 Medicine Hat, Alberta.

 

Recently in a submarine movie someone asked about the cold,  the answer was " Brighton, in August!"  Made me laugh.  Regards, Gary

[3macboys]

All this discussion of the cold does make me wonder what did they do "back in the day"?  As in when these cars were new.  

[arcticbuicks]

I grew up in the Arctic and remember the 1960-1970s ......which included tail end of 6 volt 1950s cars ......old bush planes and snowmobiles etc .......it was a challenge and time consuming ....sometimes deadly I guess I could say ....and always frustrating.....6 volt cars were simply a pain with slow cranking .there was a lot of -50 degree weather back then .

Cars had several junctions on extension cord plug in with custom grille mount to wrap up your extension cord ....one cord to interior electric heater.another for one or two engine block heaters.another for a must electric battery blanket heater......some had magnetic oil pan heater .....everything was oil heaters and tiger torches to get cold engines going......any method to heat was the trick .....when I was a kid saw lots of ...using Herman Nelson type diesel heaters that used up a 45 gallon drum of diesel in a few hours ....but would heat up aircraft engines and big diesel equipment tarped over with flexible ducts about 10 inches in diameter......or simply lay a tiger torch under vehicle .....batteries were kept warm inside until use .....sometimes coolant was drained and engines would be filled quickly with hot coolant to warm the engines......a lot of ether starting fluid was used .....a lot of good booster cables and battery booster chargers were used.....dual engine block heaters ......for gas engines ....everybody learned just exactly how much choke and how many pumps of the pedal to start  and not cold flood the engines....if cold flooded ....very little chance to get it going without removing spark plugs and or let it sit for hours before trying again......many cars had the muffler explode or bulge from the flooding filling the exhaust on start up after a bad flooding issue .....some brands of cars and engines sure were known to be good starting cold ....others useless......oils were almost always changed to lighter oils ....batteries ....batteries.....costly.....if you ran the batteries down and the engine did not start to charge them....only a charged battery dosnt freeze.....they would freeze solid and bulge ruined.......we replaced most rear end and standard transmission oil with ATF.......some trucks felt like the parking brake was on in -40 when trying to get them moving frozen stiff......and the tires bumped along with the flat spots from parked until they heated enough to go round again......belts and hoses were constant problem due to quality unlike today ......icing in gas lines and gelled diesel was common and additives helped .....radiators were covered in cardboard with a round 4 or 6 inch hole cut out in the middle......and still  antifreeze could  gel and caused overheating.......some engines and automatic transmissions would blow the main oil seal out or tear a internal auto transmission seal from the extreme thick cold oil pressure on start up......certain known main seals would have screws drilled and tapped to prevent seal blowout......some oil pump drive shaft or rods would twist off trying to turn oil pump......most ppl put auto transmission in neutral and never tried driving until warmed up to prevent internal seal blowing........the northern bush planes were cold inside but engines ran fairly well but carbs would Ice a lot ....they had carb heaters to set during flight also and could be changed in settings .....I remember several times having one engine or more ....or all quit on some flights....but usually limped home without one  ....on the pre jet engine planes of today......surprising the single cylinder snowmobiles ran quite well and dependable  .....and life depended on them getting us home .....as kids we took way to many chances with them........things did seem to keep going ....doing any kind of work was horrible and a major task .....bare fingers holding frosty tools or even using your fingers to get one bolt out would freeze your finger .....frostbite was common and painless to get but extreme painful to come out of like being burnt by fire......lots of warm up breaks in front of the oil furnace or wood stove  roaring away ...... there were some fatalities when things did not go well travelling .....no cell phones etc but I think ppl were more prepared than today for the most part....unlike today thinking a cell phone will save them  .....as a family we crammed in the front seat for heat and heaters were slow but ok.....defrosters were terrible and we took turns scraping frost off the inside windows so dad could see with plastic car window scrapers everybody had......and rear windows and side windows had stick on frost shields to see through ....blankets and hot chocolate on long trips ....and no cup holders which was fine ...the mug kept your hands warm......travelling the northern roads hours from the next town nobody was just driven by stranded on the road no matter what .... ..we ended up moving south from the Arctic simply for the reason of conditions being too harsh and difficult back then ....and several close calls in winter both in aircraft and cars 

Edited January 16 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[TerryB]

Quite a story, thanks for sharing it with us.  I remember my dad trying to keep the incoming water line from freezing in the house during winter and running the car at times to be sure it started.  This was in NE PA and nowhere near the arctic conditions you describe. Our issue was with big snows when we had nor’easter storms dump two or more feet of snow in 24 hours.