The Guild is one of the largest and most experienced antique and classic car restoration companies in North America. With well over 1,000 vehicle restorations under its belt ranging from early Brass Era Cars, Grand Classics to the Fifties showboats and muscle cars of the Sixties, the Guild's expertise is unquestioned. Call us about arranging a tour of our facility.

The Guild Team

1970 Plymouth Cuda

Another restoration we are very proud of.

The 1918 Chevrolet 490

A few years ago the Guild had the pleasure of restoring this beauty.

A 1918 Chevrolet 490.

It had remained in the family of the original purchaser for over 90 years. The following story tells of it's epic, cross country journey.

Levi Duckett, born 1910, was ten years old when he and his family made the “Trip”. He was so fascinated with cars, that he was to spend the better part of his life as a mechanic repairing them. Levi, wrote this story in 1974 and passed away in 1976. With exception to spelling correction, the diction and punctuation is Levi’s.

 

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

 

View December 2011 Newsletter

THE TRIP

 

By: Levi Duckett
After two prosperous cotton crops at the end of World War I, and the fact that the City of Phoenix Arizona wanted my fathers cotton farm for a city water filtration plant, he sold out, and bought an orange grove. He and mother had not been back to see their folks since leaving Oklahoma and Illinois in 1912, so they determined to go home for a visit, overland, in a Chevrolet 490 Touring car, purchased in early 1918.
As father set about preparing the car for the trip. The car being two years old, he taken it to the blacksmith shop at Scottsdale Arizona. There were no mechanics, or garages, or filling stations, you bought your gasoline at the grocery store. And you had your car repaired at the blacksmith shop. He had a platform built on the back to carry our camping equipment, which consisted of a 9x12 side wall tent, six or eight comforters, for bedding, a grocery box with a week supply of food for seven, and pots and pans, and a trunk of clean clothes for each member of the family. He bought three canteens that were flat, so that they sat on a rack bolted to the running board of the car. They were, ten-gallon one for drinking water, a five gallon one for gasoline, and a one-gallon one for oil.
There were no roads in the twenties, only the old wagon trails of the first settlers to California. So father inquired and there was a fellow who had made the trip across the United States in a car from Los Angles, to New York, name of Locke, he made a guide. It wasn’t a map. It gave the towns and villages along the trail. As I remember, it was called the Lincoln trail. It gave distances between towns, and water holes, also wells and windmills where you could get drinking water. It was expensive, but proved its worth. As all our friends and neighbors talked of it being a foolish thing to try to make the trip in an automobile, father wanted to be sure he had the best of tires, to avoid any possibility of trouble on the trip, he checked with the car dealer about the best tires to buy. He called a tire distributer in Los Angles and he recommended Goodyear cord tires. He could furnish four 30x3 ½ tires for $140.00. You could buy fabric tires for $20.00 apiece. Above all things he didn’t want to have any tire trouble so he bought the Goodyear tires. Read More

View our Classic Cars for Sale

 

Whether you are buying, selling, or restoring your new or existing collectible, we can meet your every need. We also offer pick-up and delivery services in Canada and the USA

 

 

Browse through our collection of past and current classic car restoration projects. (updates coming soon). Our restoration services include:  True coach building, ash framing, panel beating, mechanical, engine rebuilding, parts fabrication, paint, upholstering and trim fabrication.

 

showroom & gift shop

In addition to our great collection of classic cars for sale in our showroom, we have a large selection of gifts for sale.   Come in and find something for the car lover in your family or just look around and take a trip down memory lane.   You can also watch our experts at work on some of the various vintage vehicles.

 

Book Reviews by David Grainger

National Post Articles by David Grainger

 

Book Reviews

David Grainger, owner of The Guild, reviews books for the automotive industry. 

He is a regular columnist with the National Post and published author of several books,

both fiction and non-fiction.  His informative DIY restoration manual,

'So you want to fix up that dirty old car in the garage', is available for purchase at Percheron Publishing

 

Authorized dealer of Por15 Products

Authorized dealer of Polyall 2000

Check our online shop

The Guild is an authorized Canadian dealer of SoCal speedshop clothing, accessories and parts. 

We carry a wide variety of So-Cal clothing and accessories including shirts, sweatshirts, decals, hats, hat pins and

more in our Gift Shop in Bradford, Ontario.  You can also purchase these items at our online gift shop