My Trip to Southern Ontario        NEXT -  Pickering Volvo Show

Saturday, July 27, a group of Ottawa Volvo die-hards embarked to southern Ontario, to attend the annual Volvo event in Ilderton, just outside of London.  This trek allows me to visit my hometown of Hamilton.   I was happy to cruise the streets of Hamilton with my brothers Rodger and Ron and stop at Hutch's on the Beach Strip.  My Amazon seemed to be well received at the London show, mainly with those familiar with this vintage Volvo and the amount of work that I put into this restoration.  The Amazon ran extremely well, cruising down the 401 Highway at 110 kph, something I haven't done in a vintage Volvo for nearly 30 years - what a rush!  Actually, the car seems to run better the more I drive it!  I traveled 932 miles (1500 km) and averaged 30.95 mpg with a maximum of 33.95 mpg (last fill-up).   

I returned to Ottawa on Monday after visiting my life-long friend Walter and his family in Hamilton.  I took a slight detour to Ogdensberg, N.Y. to pickup a purchase from eBay, that couldn't be shipped directly into Canada.  Whitewall tire paint is considered hazardous by the USPS, but I was able to pick it up and bring it over the border myself.  The product did a fine job on my radial spare tire, considering the paint was 50 years old.  The manufacturer, R. M. Hollingshead Corp., Camden N.J., had directions printed on the can in English, Spanish and French.  Did they know something about NAFTA?  The product was also manufactured in Toronto and was most likely sold through Canadian Tire stores in the 50s and 60s.  The paint, called Whiz Tyre-Wyte, is made of a rubber compound that vulcanizes itself to natural or synthetic rubber.  

In the early 1930s, Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr. sales manager for his father's company Whiz Auto Products Company, invented the outdoor movie drive-in .  He opened the first drive-in, called the Drive-In Theatre in June of 1933.  To see a more complete story on this subject, please visit The Drive-In Theatre's History .  Now for the Hamilton connection - the first Canadian drive-in theatre, The StarLite, was opened in Stoney Creek, a town adjacent to Hamilton in 1946 and is the oldest operating Canadian drive-in..

My wife Joan, thought it would be interesting to see the before and after comparision, so here it is.

The fun continues.........

Contact me at Cameron@cvolvo.com

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More to come.......        NEXT -  Pickering Volvo Show