Winter driving, back in the day.

My Dad drove to work in Colorado Springs in now-my Model A through the winter, but it had a fan as mentioned above.
 
My dad drove my 35 to work, but had to put a pan with alcohol under the motor to get to turn over some mornings
 
oldbugger said:
My dad drove my 35 to work, but had to put a pan with alcohol under the motor to get to turn over some mornings
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Can I assume this pan of alcohol was ignited under there to warm the oil pan? Seems things could go very wrong in a hurry.
 
I used charcoal in a long-handled frying pan (the kind we used for "shore lunch" fishing in Canada). It worked vey well. I don't think any kind of open flame would be a very good idea.
 
GB SISSON said:
Can I assume this pan of alcohol was ignited under there to warm the oil pan? Seems things could go very wrong in a hurry.
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well that's what i said. however I'm still driving the same car today, and he was doing that in 46 and 47 when that 35 was their good car. Maybe that's why its so clean under there haha
 
as a lad i recall my dad taking a shovel of hot coals from the coal furnace and tossing them under the engine when car wouldnt start in the winter, he had a very bad temper and didnt want to be late for work. i dont remember if it worked.
 
those were the days when folks needed an extra hour to start the fire to get the stove ready for the morning as well as warm the car before heading off to work, and all that was done in the pre-sunlit hours of darkness. how spoiled we are now, you can activate and adjust all those things from your phone if you wanna ....
 
In the extreme cold, I know my grandfather would drain the coolant out when he parked the Model T and warm it on the stove before putting it back in when he needed to start it.
 
I used to put a 100 watt light bulb under the oil pan and put an old blanket or old long overcoat over the top of the engine. One morning in a rush, I went maybe ten miles or so and "where is all this smoke coming from"? I forgot to take the coat off :-)
 
Big Bear Lake Ca. high school in the '60's: can't afford antifreeze in my '30 A fordor so drained radiator every night & filled it every morning from the water heater, then swept the snow off the seat (no top), started it up & drove to school. Manifold heater with hose over to driver to keep almost warm.
 
Ray in La Mesa said:
Big Bear Lake Ca. high school in the '60's: can't afford antifreeze in my '30 A fordor so drained radiator every night & filled it every morning from the water heater, then swept the snow off the seat (no top), started it up & drove to school. Manifold heater with hose over to driver to keep almost warm.
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Wow!
 
If we are talking accommodations for winter driving, I've got one for you. When I was in college, I had a girlfriend who went to a college about 80 miles from where I lived at the time. I had a '52 Ford two door that I drove back then, and the heater didn't work very well. If I had tried to drive that far in ordinary shoes, my feet would have frozen half way there. I ended up driving the whole distance sitting cross-legged on the seat, using my favorite baseball bat to run the gas pedal. (Kind of a stone-age cruise-control).

I had tried boots, but any with enough insulation to be useful were too bulky to drive in. (Remember "Bunny Boots"?)
 
Standard equipment in my 1969 VW bus during upstate New York winters was a quilt for every occupant, gloves for everyone and two scrapers, one for the driver and the other for the other person in the front seat to clear frost off the inside of the windows. Funny thing is, not many people wanted a lift in my VW during the winter - wonder why???
 
I remember going over the Grapevine in my Austin Healey Sprite with a girlie and luggage. Ice buildup in front of the radio antenna, headlights narrowed down to the size of a silver dollar with ice, heater valve in the off position and cardboard in front of the radiator. Girlie was not happy.
 
To add to the Big Bear winter fun, I also had a set of ******** snow chains (3 per wheel), and they worked really well. With the stock 19" narrow wheels & chains I put many modern car drivers to shame, not just on the paved roads but the forest roads too. The fordor was my first car and I learned to drive in it during the summer ,THEN learned to drive in the snow the following winter.
 
Born and raised in sunny California, my encounters with snow chains were for the most part during trips to and from Reno or Tahoe. The single happy experience being the one time i had them but didn't need them.
 
Sometimes it's the only way I can get my wife off to work! This is down at the bottom of my mountain road.
 

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