Ken Ruedig has a passion for cars. His shop, the size of a small house, contains vehicles in various states of repair. Car parts hang on the walls as decorations and old highway signs nailed to trees serve as driveway side markers. His pride and joy, though, is in his garage.
“I got it when I was about 20, just out of school,” he said, referring to his 1933 McLaughlin Buick, a sleek pre-WWII automobile with twin side-mount spares, a rumble seat and an old-fashioned trunk. The rusted-out body of another McLaughlin Buick laid to rest in Ruedig’s yard shows just how far the 58-year-old’s fixer-upper has come.
As the story goes, a friend of Ruedig’s found the car in somebody’s yard on Cortes Island and bought it off him for a mere $10. His friend was an old car lover like him, “but this one he decided he couldn’t do anything with, because it was too far gone,” Ruedig said, laughing. “It probably was.”
Ruedig bought it off him and thus began the long journey of restoration. Exposed to the elements for years, the automobile was in bad shape. “The whole bottom of the car was rusted out,” said Ruedig. “The top was gone, the doors all sagged and the engine was bad. It needed everything.”
The complete restoration took Ruedig seven years. Working on weekends, he rebuilt his vehicle from the ground up. In order to save money, “I did 90 per cent of the work myself.”
As a heavy-duty mechanic, Ruedig used his skills to completely rebuild parts for his car, including body panels and window frames. What he couldn’t build, however, was the hard part.
“This was before the Internet, so it was hard to get parts,” he said. On top of that, because there were so few McLaughlin Buicks made, reproductions of parts were mostly off the menu.
“It was word of mouth mostly,” he said, “writing a lot of letters and making a lot of phone calls.” Some parts he had to make do with, for example using 1934 Buick hubcaps instead of ones from 1933, but Ruedig is still proud of the end result.
Along his restoration journey, Ruedig became a member of the Powell River chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada. Besides the help and tips members have given him, Ruedig’s favourite part is the social aspect of the club.
“I love the camaraderie between people who have the same interest,” he explained. “Millionaires to labourers, it doesn’t matter. Once we’re together, we’re all friends.”
The club, he continued, has given him an excuse to practice his favourite aspect of car restoration—driving, which he has been doing lots of ever since he finished his car over 20 years ago.
“I enjoy driving more than anything,” said Ruedig. “I enjoy going on the road and taking trips through BC.” The car club provides ample chances for this, holding annual tours hosted by a different chapter in the province every year.
“[This car] has been from Prince George to Castlegar to down in the States,” he explained. “I’ve got about 40,000 kilometres on it.”
Travelling in a car that’s almost 80 years old, Ruedig added, is not as risky as most people think.
“It’s a lot easier to travel with a car like this than a modern car in a lot of respects, because everywhere you go, you’ve got help if something happens,” he said. “Being in a club like this, everywhere you go there’s someone who’s willing to stop and help you.”
Another thing Ruedig loves about the club is the variety it shows among car lovers. “There are so many different facets to the hobby,” he said. “It can be anything from hot rods to classic cars to muscle cars.”
The way people treat their cars also varies. “Some people drive their car the whole year...and some just go to shows and bring their car in a trailer,” said Ruedig. He considers himself middle of the road—he prefers to drive his car in the spring, summer and fall months, but has driven his car in winter snowstorms before.
Not every member restores their car themselves either. “Some people will buy a car and then have it completely restored by someone else and it will cost them $100,000,” Ruedig explained. Most car lovers would do this if they had the money, he continued, but self-restoring broken-down automobiles is a way for all to get involved.
“I couldn’t justify buying a car like this outright,” Ruedig said, “but this way, you can put money in it over time.” In the end, Ruedig ended up paying for his car less than half its worth.
Though it would make him money, Ruedig said he probably won’t ever sell it. “I’m pretty attached to this car,” he said. “I’ve been driving it for over 20 years.”
Instead of a money-maker, Ruedig prefers to look at car restoration in another way. “We save things for the future,” he said. “We preserve a little bit of history for the next generation.”
