Building a Car in 1924: Durant Motors, Leaside, Ontario

Between 1921 and 1935, the Canadian branch of American car manufacturer Durant Motors built automobiles in Canada at a plant in the Leaside neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario. Join CAM Exhibit & Project Coordinator Dumaresq as he takes a look at what car-building was like in 1924.
#leaside #toronto #1924 #carmaker #durant #durantmotors #starcar
All still images used are from the collection of the Canadian Automotive Museum
From the filmstrip "Your Future Car", Library and Archives Canada ISN 185644.
For more information on the 1928 Durant on display at the Canadian Automotive Museum visit www.canadianautomotivemuseum.....
The Canadian Automotive Museum is open to the public year-round in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
www.canadianautomotivemuseum....
Audio Credits:
"Ray and his Little Chevrolet", Bennie Krueger’s Orchestra, Brunswick Records, 1924. Collection of the Internet Archives.
archive.org/details/78_ray-an...
"Traveling Blues", Ted Weems & Orchestra, Victor Records, 1924. Collection of the Internet Archives.
archive.org/details/78_travel...
"At the End of the Road", Carleton Terrace Orchestra, Pathé, 1924. Collection of the Internet Archives.
archive.org/details/78_at-the...

Пікірлер: 184

  • @leecaptis5865
    @leecaptis58652 ай бұрын

    In the end, that baked enamel paint looked pretty damn nice! A handsome little car too.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    The Museum's collection includes a '28 Durant, and it's a very pretty vehicle. The company did some good pinstriping too.

  • @nvragn
    @nvragnАй бұрын

    Brings a whole new meaning to a run in the paint 😂👍🇨🇦

  • @dekelanson5280
    @dekelanson52802 ай бұрын

    I work at the Toyota plant in Cambridge Ont. The assembly line has certainly changed in 100 years. Notice the lack of safety glasses, gloves, or masks when painting.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    You do? We'd love to hear more, we've been trying to make contacts at the Cambridge plant for an exhibit for 6 months. Please contact me at ddepencier@canadianautomotivemuseum.com!

  • @timhiltonsuperstar

    @timhiltonsuperstar

    Ай бұрын

    I noticed

  • @sparky5916

    @sparky5916

    Ай бұрын

    Really??

  • @paleghost

    @paleghost

    Ай бұрын

    There's a video of a GM plant in the 1950s. It was not much better. Workers with cigarettes in their mouths as they slathered molted lead on the body seams and still spraying paint (probably lacquer vs enamel) with breathing or eye protection.

  • @lyndatomlins3448
    @lyndatomlins34482 ай бұрын

    Excellent film. Here in NZ, we received these Canadian Durants but badged as Rugby. An English motor company also made Star badged cars so in export markets, the Rugby name was used by Durant. The last ones I have seen here were c. 1930-31 models badged as Durants ; the earlier Rugby ones were common & well known old cars.

  • @markfortin421
    @markfortin4212 ай бұрын

    Fantastic to see...this film is priceless! Thanks for posting it, so todays auto workers see how easy they've got it.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for tuning in!

  • @timlee4204
    @timlee4204Ай бұрын

    This was In the Central Highlands of Queensland on the Gem Fields. My teenage years, I was 16 by now and the next couple of years were mostly a lot of hard work, we never ventured out much, relying entirely on sapphire mining and cutting for a living. On the Gemfields all manner of unregistered vehicles were driven about the diggings, my Buick being no exception. I used it to cart water and firewood to most of the older people in the town, I got 10 bob (10 shillings) ($1) for a drum of water and a pound for a load of firewood ($2). We sawed the wood at the puddling plant which was driven with a 40-year-old Rugby car engine. One day we were sawing wood when the engine began to knock. Dad sent me home to get some oil but that is not what was required. I arrived back to find a very discouraged Dad and a huge hole in the side of the engine with a connecting rod sticking out of it. This meant we also had no means of puddling the sapphire wash either. I took him home for a cup of tea. Later, I went back to look at the engine. I reasoned that if a single cylinder engine drove it before why do we need a four cylinder one now? Maybe it would run OK on two cylinders, so I removed the sump and patched the hole with a piece of galvanized tin. Drilling holes in the cast with a hand drill. It was a Continental Red Seal motor, these people made reliable aero plane engines in their day. Continental was stamped on the ‘Big end’ bolt with a continuous underline from the C weakening the bolt right where it broke. Number four cylinder being damaged beyond economic repair. Running the firing order over in my mind I removed number one piston, thinking that it would run evenly but I hadn’t thought about the crankshaft balance and having pistons two and three traveling up and down together. I started it up, wow it acted like a kangaroo caught in a dingo trap. It nearly tore itself out of the ground. So, replacing number one and removing number three. This balanced the crankshaft having one piston traveling up while the other traveled down. It ran OK but it sounded like a Southern Cross diesel with a cold. We ran it like that for a long time without any trouble. Ted (Tim Lee)

  • @mickhacklin617
    @mickhacklin617Ай бұрын

    The paint finish is damned good for something put on with a garden hose.

  • @alanwood5857
    @alanwood58572 ай бұрын

    Suprising to see them lay on the paint in one huge run, black paint looks beautiful!

  • @stuart8663
    @stuart8663Ай бұрын

    The Supervisor always has to star in the film - as if these talented workers don't know what they're doing. Nothing really has changed in industrial films. Great video!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    We debated including a section about the many, *many* supervisor/middle-management types lurking in the background of this video, yes. There's definitely some light micromanaging going on for the cameras, hahaha!

  • @987DanMan987
    @987DanMan9872 ай бұрын

    Excellent video! I always find the human aspect of old footage like this fascinating. Those haircuts have come back around into style 100 years later! Also interesting to see Continental engines mentioned outside of general aviation.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Continental's an interesting one because it started with auto engines, and the auto engine business was theoretically always their main line of work, but their aircraft subsidiary actually outlasted the parent company.

  • @deltajohnny
    @deltajohnny4 күн бұрын

    That enamel looks great! 😍😍😍

  • @gregorypoole5648
    @gregorypoole56482 ай бұрын

    Greetings from B.C.: First of all, I wanted to say I really enjoyed this presentation on a great slice of early Canadian automotive history.As a longtime fan of old cars, I'm familiar with some of Canada's pioneer makes like the Tudhope and Russell.This country made some unique and high quality cars back in the day...we took a back seat to no one!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in!

  • @MatsKarlsson-kl7ws
    @MatsKarlsson-kl7wsАй бұрын

    This is the same year my father got his drivers licence in Sweden. Thanks for a very interesting video.

  • @timlee4204
    @timlee4204Ай бұрын

    My Dad supplied firewood to Toowoomba Queensland Australia. Cutting the blocks with the Chev 4 engine mounted on a log slide, this wasn’t as maneuverable as he thought. When the engine died, He bought an old Rugby car. Actually, a friend of a friend had a Chev 6 which had broken the drive shaft, Dad had a Chev 4 shaft which he got re-splined for them and was given the Rugby. Stripping off all the body he mounted the saw spindle over the left front wheel driving that with belts from the rear of the engine. Making himself a mobile saw bench. Then many years later another Rugby engine. Ted from down under.

  • @timlee4204

    @timlee4204

    Ай бұрын

    This was about 1955 which made me 10 years old. The second one was early 1960s.

  • @mobiledevto
    @mobiledevtoАй бұрын

    Thank you for keeping the history alive. Its been awhile since I visited the Musuem.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in! It's probably worth a return trip, we're constantly making tweaks, upgrades and improvements.

  • @davidmann2988
    @davidmann2988Ай бұрын

    Pretty good video for 1924

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    We thought so too! Unfortunately we have little to no production information on who filmed it and why/how, but the quality and editing are great for the time.

  • @johnandrews3568
    @johnandrews3568Ай бұрын

    Glad the facade of that Durant building is being preserved in it's new renovation. How that neighbourhood has changed in the past 30 years.

  • @stephanriffault6695
    @stephanriffault6695Ай бұрын

    I own (and still drive) a 1931 Durant built at the Leaside plant. By 1931 production was very low...almost stopped and the mix and match of parts and options that came from the factory was interesting to say the least

  • @roberthaworth8991

    @roberthaworth8991

    15 күн бұрын

    The saying among Durant owners is, "No Two Alike!".

  • @towgod7985
    @towgod79852 ай бұрын

    I live in East York, which is north of the Danforth and south of Leaside, I remember the old Canada Wire industrial plant on Laird. I had no idea that it was the original Durant Motors factory or before that a munitions factory in WW1.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    These kinds of industrial plants tend to change hands over and over again, it's true! We have several examples of plants like these, many in the GTA, moving between two and sometimes three different car manufacturers in a row, sometimes in only a few years' time.

  • @peters5333

    @peters5333

    Ай бұрын

    I was going to ask where the exact spot the plant was but know exactly now. I lived in Leaside in 1988 (for a year) on Donlea Drive near Brentcliffe. Even in the late 1980's that area was still very industrial. Recall the Schlumberger Plant at Eglinton and Laird? Now.....entirely different. and a possible an LRT/subway stop at Eglinton and Laird if Line 5 ever operates daily.

  • @gatti5002
    @gatti50022 ай бұрын

    the rear axle is bolted on with a pneumatic wrench..

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Good catch, thank you!

  • @janetcohen9190
    @janetcohen91902 ай бұрын

    Very interesting to see. Thank you!🎉🎉🎉

  • @jeffsaxton716
    @jeffsaxton716Ай бұрын

    When I was a child back in the fifties I remember playing in a junked old car out back of the barn. It had a wooden body like that and was gradually being eaten by termites.

  • @jourwalis-8875
    @jourwalis-88752 ай бұрын

    Fantastic time document! Thanks for uploading!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in!

  • @jamesaherne2779
    @jamesaherne2779Ай бұрын

    Lovely, thank you ☘️

  • @McRocket
    @McRocket2 ай бұрын

    Very interesting. Thank you. ☮

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Thank you for tuning in!

  • @roberthaworth8991
    @roberthaworth89912 ай бұрын

    I have a Leaside-built ‘27 Star Touring in HPOF condition.

  • @pyrexmaniac
    @pyrexmaniacАй бұрын

    My partner owns a home on Southvale Drive, formerly Laird. The area that this factory was located is still partly industrial. The transformation during the past 20 years has been astounding.....and demonstrates vividly why historical records such as this are so valuable and must be preserved. Thanks for sharing.

  • @unclemarksdiyauto
    @unclemarksdiyautoАй бұрын

    Nice to see how these cars were built back then! Thanks!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in!

  • @richardsimms251
    @richardsimms251Ай бұрын

    Great film.

  • @JamesDoylesGarage
    @JamesDoylesGarage2 ай бұрын

    This was awesome. Subscribed! Thank you.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in, and for the sub!

  • @glenmuir219
    @glenmuir219Ай бұрын

    This was GREAT!!!

  • @motorv8N
    @motorv8NАй бұрын

    Fascinating look into the past - thanks so much for posting this. Hard not to think of how little passenger protection there was in these things in a crash. Twigs and tin…

  • @jethro1260
    @jethro1260Ай бұрын

    I almost want to say, Ahh Chaa,Chaa,Chaa.... but there is no E on the end of this name...😊😊 This was excellent, Thanks my friend...

  • @briankeenan4901
    @briankeenan4901Ай бұрын

    Great Video. Thank you very much.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    You're very welcome! Thanks for tuning in!

  • @ronscott8708
    @ronscott87082 ай бұрын

    I’ve visited this museum. Very interesting!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for visiting!

  • @Redhackle
    @RedhackleАй бұрын

    Very interesting. Thank you.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for tuning in!

  • @snorfallupagus6014
    @snorfallupagus6014Ай бұрын

    You can't get anyone to work that hard today.

  • @DrFiero

    @DrFiero

    Ай бұрын

    Take out "that hard" and it's STILL correct! :D

  • @MrRobster1234
    @MrRobster1234Ай бұрын

    The book "The Dream-Maker" about Billy Durant is a great read if you can find a copy.

  • @Ivan-cr3vc
    @Ivan-cr3vc25 күн бұрын

    Very enjoyable.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    25 күн бұрын

    Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for tuning in!

  • @gordswaitkewich940
    @gordswaitkewich940Ай бұрын

    I had a 23 Durant Star for a number of years, starting when I was a kid. Dad sold it many years later, as I didnt have time to finish the restoration in my adult years

  • @Veg-E-Dog
    @Veg-E-DogАй бұрын

    The Durant plant was completely demolished years ago. The site is now a SmartCentre Shopping Centre (Home Depot, LCBO, Sobeys, etc.) at present-day 147 Laird Drive in Leaside (part of the City of Toronto). The Durant offices were a two-story brick building directly across the street from the plant at present-day 180 Laird Drive. This location is now a Local Public Eatery restaurant. The brick facade of the restaurant is the original facade of the Durant offices, and it is sadly all that remains from back in the day. Another commenter has incorrectly identified the old plant location as being a current-day Canadian Tire, which is about 200 metres north on Laird.

  • @pyrexmaniac

    @pyrexmaniac

    Ай бұрын

    Thanks for the info.....ive been in that pub many times. Do you know what the tall building under construction in the video's end photo was used for? Im gobsmacked by the presence of such a massive structure on that stretch of Laird. I believe that the Gyro automobile sales organization would have appeared later on that site.....can you shed more light on this interesting streetscape? Your shared knowledge has made my day. Utterly fascinating!

  • @Veg-E-Dog

    @Veg-E-Dog

    Ай бұрын

    @@pyrexmaniac I'm glad you commented as it made me do more research. I'm definitely not an expert on this stuff and have only learned most of these things in the last few days. It turns out that the Durant office building was sold to the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1941. I don't know exactly what work was done to the building at that time (major renovations or total tear down), but the facade that we see today on the Local Public Eatery is seemingly from the era of the bank, not from the era of Durant. You can still see the IBC name/logo on the building's facade to this day. (side note: the Imperial Bank of Canada later became the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC, after a bank mega-merger with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the 1960's). As to your question, I'm really not sure what that tall building under construction is. If I figure it out, I'll post my findings here. A good deal of my info regarding the neighborhood has come from old articles and pictures on leasidelife[dot]com, if you want to check it out.

  • @towgod7985

    @towgod7985

    12 күн бұрын

    @@Veg-E-Dog the new building across from the old Durant factory is going to be a mix of retail and condos.

  • @jamesmatheson5115
    @jamesmatheson511511 күн бұрын

    I use to drive a Durant when I was about 12 years old, we had one that was converted into a ute on the farm, I asked if I could drive it to do my rabbit trapping, the answer was, if you can start it, you can drive it, it really wasnt that hard to crank it.

  • @timlee4204
    @timlee4204Ай бұрын

    I have seen a brand-new Australian Holden car about 1968 with a hammer mark on the rear door hinge, obviously to make the door fit.

  • @fillup40
    @fillup40Ай бұрын

    Cool.

  • @iambicpentameter7177
    @iambicpentameter7177Ай бұрын

    I was in what was left of that facility years ago (early 1980's?), it was then roughly partitioned off into smaller units that were rented out. I was there to buy a table saw from one guy; when walking around, you could see how the production flowed based on the remaining concrete structures. Interesting, IMHO it could still could have been a car plant, everyone in this video probably walked to work (or took the street car) and lived in its shadow.

  • @MikeBaxterABC
    @MikeBaxterABCАй бұрын

    1:25 Hot Rivets are still used on todays assembly lines to attach various items of the frame together, and mount spring perches, to SUV's and trucks.

  • @alleyoop1234
    @alleyoop123424 күн бұрын

    I would love to see something/anything about the Canadian Packard plant in Windsor from 1931 to 1939!

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    24 күн бұрын

    So would we! It's an excitingly niche Canadian automotive history topic. Don't know what we have off the top of my head, but try contacting our library at library@canadianautomotivemuseum.com? We may have some Canadian Packard material on file.

  • @jeffreylockhart8292
    @jeffreylockhart8292Ай бұрын

    very nice to be around to see you showing it commenting enjoyed it. I am thinking the enamels so much is pouring off surely it is caught and sucked back up to reuse? They did not have sprayers?

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    You can see the trough below the car where the paint runs off, to be pumped up again.

  • @BigEightiesNewWave
    @BigEightiesNewWaveАй бұрын

    I have been alive a long time, lived the muscle car era, and just recently realized that Windsor is right across the river, from Detroit. Would be even cooler if Cleveland V8s were built across from Windsor.😂

  • @gentlegiants1974
    @gentlegiants1974Ай бұрын

    When I was a young teenager friends of ours had a Durant Rugby sitting in the fence row. It had been used as a buckrake at one time so the cab back of the cowl/firewall/dash was gone. I managed to wheedle them into giving it to me and I managed to unseize the engine but never was able to do much more than that as we moved and I had to sell it to a local old car collector. Don't know what ever became of it.

  • @grabasandwich
    @grabasandwich2 ай бұрын

    Do you talk about the Canadian Pontiacs (Acadians, Beaumonts, etc) in any of your videos? I just skimmed thru them so I might've missed it. It's probably been covered on other channels over the years but I'm guessing the museum might have a bit more info, pics or interviews worth sharing. Thanks

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    It's a topic we've not reeeeeally covered directly since our collection doesn't include an Acadian or a Beaumont. We've got a substantial amount of advertising material in our library, but nothing in the realm of full exhibits. Yet. As is always the case with stuff at the CAM, we're working on it!

  • @a1wireless1964
    @a1wireless1964Ай бұрын

    I wonder if any of the cars assembled in this film are still in existence? How awesome would it be if you could tie one to one manufactured in this film

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Wouldn't it, though? It's tough because we don't have much, if any, production information related to the film. With the Durant empire being long dead, there aren't exactly detailed records or much oral history to go off of for the context of the filming.

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    Friend of mine has a Star sedan but it is a 1927 model. No doubt there are some 1924 Star and Durant cars around, but to prove they were in this film would be difficult.

  • @sawboss216
    @sawboss21626 күн бұрын

    The music makes it sound like "The Little Rascals make a car"

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    26 күн бұрын

    We debated on a thumping techno-industrial hard-bass sort of vibe, but figured period pop music fit the atmosphere the best. You know, the kind of thing these workers might be listening to if they were allowed to bring in a phonograph or radio in with them (they almost certainly weren't).

  • @jeffdayman8183
    @jeffdayman8183Ай бұрын

    At 1:41 the wrench / driver is compressed air powered, not electric just FYI. Music was edited much too loud. Apart from these items, I enjoyed the video.

  • @johanbjork1650

    @johanbjork1650

    Ай бұрын

    What? I can't hear what you are writing for that damn crackling music.

  • @user-je3kx6fw7e
    @user-je3kx6fw7eАй бұрын

    Way better than laboring in the fields.

  • @gorporpio
    @gorporpioАй бұрын

    Looks like the day of a modern day mechanic.

  • @davidsteinicke5454
    @davidsteinicke545412 күн бұрын

    All the leather work is in place, before the paint and baking?

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    11 күн бұрын

    As far as we can tell, yes! It was one of the quirks of the flow-on paint system.

  • @peterjeffery8495
    @peterjeffery8495Ай бұрын

    That was actually a an air driven pneumatic ratchet not an electric one. My Dad worked at the CN Rail Yard in Leaside 'til it closed in the 50's.

  • @tonybozzelli287
    @tonybozzelli287Ай бұрын

    I have a serial number badge from a 1920s Durant A22.

  • @gustavbloom7768
    @gustavbloom7768Ай бұрын

    Nice film but I would like to know how loud it was and how much it reeks of paint.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    So would we! Presumably very loud, especially in any areas where pneumatic tools are being used, and we don't have a sense of how well-ventilated the work spaces were.

  • @paulhelman2376
    @paulhelman2376Ай бұрын

    My Morgan was built the same way.

  • @user-hp7mt5vb7u
    @user-hp7mt5vb7u20 күн бұрын

    I think they did something wonderful at that time, to find a car that would transport you from one place to another, quickly, with a kind of comfort, and with simple luxuries and features, compared to a horse-drawn carriage in that period, the end of the nineteenth century, where the train and the animals were a buffalo, a horse, and a donkey. Moving people on the ground, and this is the only means that is accompanied by a lot of hardship and time. This is a great paradox in this world.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    18 күн бұрын

    Well, animal-drawn transportation wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, and in the late 19th century it was mainly a way to get you to a train or streetcar station as fast as possible. Oddly enough one of the problems the early car did *not* exist to solve was travel between major cities, since the railway networks did that pretty darned well.

  • @roberthaworth8991

    @roberthaworth8991

    15 күн бұрын

    One might have expected a long, slow fade-away of horse-drawn transport in favor of the automobile, starting around 1904. But it's in the nature of such things to happen slowly at first, then all at once. Having at first been scoffed at as a bizarre and prohibitively-expensive "gentleman's plaything", autos took hold of the American imagination around 1910, and after just another decade years horses and mules on America's streets were almost as rare as hens' teeth. Most people simply dumped the animals as fast as they could, the true costs and risks of ownership of the livestock being rather high (though mostly hidden/unappreciated today). As soon as a viable-looking alternative to the beasts presented itself, that alternative was adopted en masse.

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    I wish I could find Stephen Leacock's description of the grim life on a remote farm in the late 1800s, compared to the 1920s. A trip to town with a horse drawn wagon took all day. By auto on a good gravel road you made the same trip in 20 minutes.

  • @rawbacon
    @rawbaconАй бұрын

    Not all that important but an angle grinder is a grinder where the output shaft is at an angle to the drive motor, usually 90 degrees. That shaft was inline with the motor.

  • @gorporpio
    @gorporpioАй бұрын

    Painting a new car remains a headache among all manufacturers to this day.

  • @dddevildogg
    @dddevildoggАй бұрын

    A great video thank you.I noticed the speed at which these people were working....I'd say a speed reduction of 14% should make it look normal FPS

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Very precise, thank you. We debated slowing it down versus presenting it as-is, and decided that modifying the playback speed would hurt its authenticity as a historical document.

  • @coldlakealta4043

    @coldlakealta4043

    Ай бұрын

    @@CanadianAutomotiveMuseum good decision - it looks exactly as it should as a representative of that era

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    @@CanadianAutomotiveMuseum No doubt you know that early films were shot at 16 frames per second, later silent films at 18 frames per second. Which is why some early films seem jumpy unless slowed down slightly.

  • @michaelmorahan57
    @michaelmorahan57Ай бұрын

    wearing a tie was a good look in the factory

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Stylish, but perhaps not the safest.

  • @sculptus5708
    @sculptus57082 ай бұрын

    The narrator / script writer made a few obvious mistakes. The impact wrench used on the fasteners was obviously a pneumatic impact wrench, not electric.🙉. In the coachwork department (not body department), the ash wood frames were covered in panels, not plates. Please, if you are going to present history, please make it accurate.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    Thanks for your comments. We generally use coachwork and bodywork indistinguishably, especially in the area of large-scale car production, since the vast majority of the time there is no custom coachwork-style construction going on on these assembly lines. Out of curiosity, what would be the technical different between a panel and a plate in this context? In addition, do you have a source for Durants using ash wood? We've seen references to both oak and ash as car-body materials from the time, but nothing specific to the manufacturer.

  • @mroldscutlass

    @mroldscutlass

    Ай бұрын

    You took the words right out of my mouth. Obviously not a car guy.

  • @tonycolca2241
    @tonycolca22416 күн бұрын

    The star appeared to be of extreme quality how much was the cost?

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    6 күн бұрын

    I've not been able to find a Canadian star brochure for that year, but an American '24 Star touring car's MSRP was $490.

  • @tonycolca2241
    @tonycolca22415 күн бұрын

    I tried to reply directly to you would not work. Thanks for the info I will be 78 July one. I remember a boss I had at shell oil refinery in deer park tx. Late 60s telling me that back in the 20s he and another man drove from houston to El paso in a star automobile that's an 800 mile trip he said they got stuck in the mud in West Texas and 2 guys with a couple of mules were pulling people out for $20. I always thought the star had to be a good car to make a trip like that thanks for the video.

  • @BigEightiesNewWave
    @BigEightiesNewWaveАй бұрын

    Did that paint have lead in it to, you know, fortify it?

  • @mrm1885
    @mrm1885Ай бұрын

    Looks like an airhose on the electric wrench

  • @thekaz5
    @thekaz52 ай бұрын

    They certainly don't make em like they used to! Imagine if they put this kind of care into something like the Tesla truck 🤣

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    We're not sure how to respond to this, what with the amount of hammering stuff into place and then angle-grinding off the rough bits that goes on in building a Star, hahahaha! Probably a bit less glue and tacking nails in a Cybertruck, too.

  • @badad0166
    @badad0166Ай бұрын

    Playback the old footage at 75% and it looks pretty natural.

  • @timhiltonsuperstar
    @timhiltonsuperstarАй бұрын

    My grandfather built Model T's

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Well then, you'll love our next video!

  • @simontaylor2319
    @simontaylor2319Ай бұрын

    Is mine ready yet?

  • @chevybb3275
    @chevybb3275Ай бұрын

    People new how to work no safety bullshit people then were more aware of their surroundings making it safe.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Not really, no. Even in the 1920s, when safety research was much more common in factories and things like worker's compensation had come into play, the rates of injuries and fatalities were hundreds of times higher than they are today. Looking at this video, consider the long-term; how many workers got cancer or lead poisoning from inhaling paint fumes over weeks, months and years of work? How many got burned from hot rivets? How many were caught in moving assembly lines, or crushed by heavy parts? The 1920s were an era where factory safety techniques were developing rapidly, but maimings and severe injuries were not uncommon on a daily basis.

  • @MoeLarrycurly1
    @MoeLarrycurly1Ай бұрын

    They work like I do the hammer is the preferred tool😅

  • @tonyray4565
    @tonyray4565Ай бұрын

    It really makes my blood boil when I think of all the different things we use to make right here in Canada. We could have had our own Canadian cars, our own Canadian fighter planes and perhaps our own space shuttle.

  • @deliveryguyrx

    @deliveryguyrx

    Ай бұрын

    Studebaker shifted all production to Hamilton,Ontario in 1965-66. At that time ,it was advertised as "Canada's Own Car".

  • @tonyray4565

    @tonyray4565

    Ай бұрын

    @@deliveryguyrx There’s another one I forgot about! Also, remember Connaught Laboratories in Toronto? It was a world renowned vaccine developer. We sure could have used it during covid. But no. It was sold to the Pasteur Institute. It’s the Canadian way!

  • @Lionx0xFIFAHD
    @Lionx0xFIFAHD2 ай бұрын

    Canada when Canadians were still Canadian… ❤

  • @planetzebulon21
    @planetzebulon212 ай бұрын

    Breathe deeply boys, those fumes are good for you.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    This was certainly filmed long before workplace health and safety rules were particularly well-developed. We don't have particularly detailed records on what day-to-day life was like for workers in the Durant plant, or what kind of medical support, if any, they received.

  • @user-jq2rf4nf3o
    @user-jq2rf4nf3oАй бұрын

    2:40 not electric -air powered Nice piece of history

  • @billsmith2212
    @billsmith2212Ай бұрын

    Assuming the film is running at the correct speed , everyone is really working their butts off . As in another comment , very little or no protection from injury , chemicals , etc.

  • @keithammleter3824

    @keithammleter3824

    Ай бұрын

    Films made in the silent era were meant to be shown at 16 frames per second. When sound films began, they had to increase the film speed to 24 frames per second to get adequate sound quality. It is thus common for silent films to be projected or converted to video 50% fast due to only having 24 frames/second equipment available.

  • @davidmiller2811
    @davidmiller281126 күн бұрын

    When people had purpose, character, honor, morality and dignity.

  • @fartpooboxohyeah8611

    @fartpooboxohyeah8611

    16 күн бұрын

    Right, people don't have those attributes anymore (rolls eyes), lol. Try, when women were barefoot and pregnant, doing the dishes and "warshing" the floor! You're romanticizing the past. In the words of Billy Joel.. "the good old days weren't always good and tomorrow aint as bad as it seems..."

  • @muira58
    @muira5819 күн бұрын

    Canada was sure on track to being somewhere you’d want to live, what happened!?

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    18 күн бұрын

    In terms of the car industry, the one-two punch of the First World War and the Great Depression happened. During the War, there was endless lucrative government contract work available, lucrative to the point that it often wasn't worth a business continuing to build motor cars when they could assemble fuses or build other war materiel. Canadian auto businesses that depended on American suppliers for parts got hit extra hard like this, because suddenly their suppliers were also disincentivized from making auto parts. Plus, with rationing on things like auto tires and gasoline, owning a car started to become prohibitively expensive. Post-WW1, the boom meant that there were tons of auto startups on both sides of the border that were riding the general bubble of economic prosperity; there was enough capital floating around to keep them solvent, which was always a constant problem with under-funded Canadian auto-builders. When the bottom fell out of the market, it didn't matter if you could make a car that would still sell; investment dried up, and there went your chances of keeping the lights on. The supply problems also returned, but much more catastrophically; as the suppliers of things like base materials went bankrupt, the parts builders that depended on them failed, and the auto makers on both sides of the border that depended on *them* did too. You often see failed Canadian car manufacturers suddenly switch brands or car designs in their last couple years of existence because of this.

  • @speeedskater
    @speeedskater21 күн бұрын

    pneumatic wrench/impact, not electric on the U bolts

  • @DownUndaDigga
    @DownUndaDiggaАй бұрын

    Fascinating to see. Thanks heaps. Dixie music too loud though, distracting.

  • @user-rw4op8jw2x
    @user-rw4op8jw2xАй бұрын

    このペースで作って大量に生産できて安価にできたのは凄い その後作りすぎて在庫過剰になって廃棄してるから見通しが甘かったと言えるけどね

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    量産の世界は本当に面白いですね。 特に、この映画が作られるほんの数年前に、あまりにも多くの部品や材料を無駄にしたために、初期のカナダの自動車メーカーが廃業していたことを考えると特にそうです。

  • @user-rw4op8jw2x

    @user-rw4op8jw2x

    Ай бұрын

    @@CanadianAutomotiveMuseum 日本語での返信ありがとうございます。 部品や材料を大量に廃棄すれば当然利益も失われてしまいます。値上げのための過当競争は良くない結果が起こりますね。 アメリカのフォードがせっかく作った車を大量廃棄することになったのは、新しい技術を投入せず古臭いモデルを作り続けたため、新しいモデルを次々と投入した後発のシボレーにシェアを奪われたことが原因かなと思っています。

  • @haweater1555
    @haweater15552 ай бұрын

    Later, the location of the plant in Toronto became the site of Sangamo Electric, and now is the site of a big Canadian Tire store.

  • @ghostrider-be9ek
    @ghostrider-be9ekАй бұрын

    2:00 - isnt that how GM still builds rear ends on their trucks? LOL

  • @3d4u2c
    @3d4u2cАй бұрын

    Is that a robot voice?

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Nope, that's our Exhibit and Project Coordinator, Dumaresq. If you want to put a face to the name, check out some of our past Zoom seminars he's presented.

  • @arthurgarthur
    @arthurgarthur2 ай бұрын

    Who were the workers? Leaside was a suburb of Toronto in the 20s, many people moved from downtown to the new homes. Much like today people from Toronto moving to Barrie or Stoney Creek. Immigration at that time was probably from England, many of the soldiers from the First World War, looking to start over. Danforth is just below Leaside, and that had a large Greek population.

  • @towgod7985

    @towgod7985

    2 ай бұрын

    It does now, back then it would have been Italian immigrants. I live in East York. Cheers.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    An excellent question to which we don't have a good answer. These kinds of social history and demographic questions are really important as context and background for the kinds of technical and personal stories we as a museum tend to focus on.

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    My grandparents who came from Holland, emigrated to Canada about this time. There was a lot of immigration from Europe in the wake of WW1, seeking relief from the destruction and starvation caused by the war.

  • @robertacton1271
    @robertacton1271Ай бұрын

    Your "electric" wrench is an air wrench

  • @trainman5323
    @trainman5323Ай бұрын

    Music is a little too loud. Hard to hear everything you’re saying in narration.

  • @alberttatlock5104
    @alberttatlock5104Ай бұрын

    The good old days of self imprisonment 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

  • @monsterstereos1836
    @monsterstereos18362 ай бұрын

    I think I'd rather buy a Durant today than a new car made of plastic and styrofoam.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    For looks and style, absolutely. For safety and actual ease of driving, though... it's worth remembering that even the most poorly-manufacturer modern cars are infinitely safer and easier to drive than even the best vehicles from the 1920s. Among other things, Durants and Stars wouldn't have had anti-lock brakes, safety glass or even roofs capable of bearing the weight of the whole vehicle, and the myth of "if you're thrown from a crashing car you're more likely to survive" is just that, a myth, and a very lethal one at that.

  • @willythewave
    @willythewave2 ай бұрын

    I could have done without the background music...or at least subdued.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    2 ай бұрын

    We figured a little light thematic background music was a bit better than 9 minutes of silence interspersed by Dumaresq booming into the void, but will bear that in mind for the next video, thanks!

  • @javierdenardo2607

    @javierdenardo2607

    2 ай бұрын

    I thought the music was a nice touch

  • @willythewave

    @willythewave

    2 ай бұрын

    @@javierdenardo2607 It`s too loud.

  • @johnhill8046

    @johnhill8046

    2 ай бұрын

    The music fits in just perfectly

  • @willythewave

    @willythewave

    2 ай бұрын

    @@johnhill8046 Are you listening on a phone?

  • @AlMeans
    @AlMeansАй бұрын

    Had to stop after 30 seconds or so. Music very annoying, couldn't understand the speaker well. Too bad as this looks interesting to me.

  • @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    @CanadianAutomotiveMuseum

    Ай бұрын

    Sorry to hear that. Consider watching it muted, it's got full subtitles.

  • @turbolife5912
    @turbolife5912Ай бұрын

    Pneumatic not electric tools!!

  • @BigEightiesNewWave
    @BigEightiesNewWaveАй бұрын

    Get in a wreck, call a carpenter, if you are alive.

  • @keith3970
    @keith3970Ай бұрын

    Where are all the African cars?

  • @mrdanforth3744

    @mrdanforth3744

    12 күн бұрын

    You may be kidding but oddly enough, a lot of export orders were sourced from Canada because of import duties. Goods could be sold between British Commonwealth countries tax free in other words, no import duties. In those days this included a large part of the world, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India , various Caribbean islands, etc etc. So some of the cars made in Leaside may have been sold to Africa.