When Sam McLaughlin, decided to expand his family's carriage business into the production of automobiles early in the last century, he went looking for a suitable car to build. The first vehicles he tried failed to live up to his exacting standards. Then, after a chance meeting with William Durant of the Buick Motor Company, he bought a 1906 'Model F' Buick from the Dominion Automobile and Supply Co. in Toronto, for $1,650. By the time he had reached Oshawa with it he decided "this is the car we're going to build."

Both McLaughlin and Durant were anxious to strike a deal, but they simply couldn't come to terms on the financial details. The McLaughlins decided to do it alone, designing and building a car of their own. Plans were well underway, and engine castings had been ordered for the first hundred cars when Arthur Milbraith, the engineer in charge of the project, became seriously ill.

Sam McLaughlin contacted Durant and asked him if he could lend them an engineer to complete the project. Instead, Durant himself came to Oshawa with a revived proposal for collaboration and the deal was done, according to Sam, "in about five minutes." The McLaughlins had obtained the rights to build Buick automobiles in Canada for 15 years.

The McLaughlin Motor Car Company was incorporated on November 20, 1907, with Sam McLaughlin as President, and production of 'Model F' McLaughlin-Buicks began soon after. The chassis and engines were Buick; the body based on Buick's design but built by McLaughlin with detail differences based on the company's long-established expertise as a coach-builder.

The McLaughlin Motor Car Company built 154 automobiles in 1908, its first year of production. One of those, an early 20^th century example of innovation and superior quality, was the McLaughlin-Buick 'Model F five-passenger Touring Car,' Body No. F108, which was sold to Nathaniel D. Seaman, a lumber-yard operator in Sauble Falls, Ontario.

When Nathaniel died in 1927, his son Theodore inherited the car. Over the years it had been well used, losing some of its original hardware, such as the horn, cowl lights, and rear seat cushion, and enduring such indignities as frozen engine coolant that cracked both its cylinders. They were weld-repaired several times, as was the differential in the rear axle whose stripped gears caused the car to be parked in a barn for an extended time before it was repaired.

But the car was still in working condition and its body and chassis remained intact almost 30 years after it was built. Consequently, in 1937, Theodore Seaman contacted General Motors to see if the company had any interest in the vehicle. In response, Colonel Sam McLaughlin, President of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company when the car was built and then president of General Motors of Canada, first dispatched a representative to inspect the car, then traded the Seamans a new 1937 Chevrolet to reacquire it. F108 was then used by GM for public events and display purposes, and loaned out for exhibition, including an extensive period in a Montreal museum.

In 1961 GM loaned it to the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa and there it resided until 1989, with occasional furloughs for parades and other promotional uses. The last time the car was driven was 1969 when it took part in a ceremony celebrating the production of General Motors of Canada's 7-millionth vehicle.

Although the vehicle had been both repaired and refreshed in 1938, and again in the 1950s, it had never been restored. Not only was it showing its age, it was not original in many respects -- even including its colour. Thus, in 1989, under the direction of Stew Low, General Motors of Canada's Director, Public Relations a plan was launched to restore the vehicle to its original specifications. The goal was to restore or renew the car to its original 1908 appearance, as it left the factory, making it as authentic as it was possible to do.

Boyd Wood of GM of Canada's Experimental Engineering department, himself a restorer and collector with established credentials in the antique car world, was put in charge of the project. He not only carried out the gargantuan task of researching the vehicle's design and specifications and ensuring its authenticity, but also oversaw every step of the restoration. Determining what was authentic proved to be a formidable challenge. Unlike most other such projects, there were no prior restorations to follow as a guideline. In fact, no other 1908 'Model F' McLaughlin-Buicks were known to exist. Although several U.S.-built 'Model F' Buicks were found, none of them were thoroughly authenticated. In addition, McLaughlin-Buicks were known to be different from their U.S. counterparts, although to what degree and exactly how was unknown in detail.

Wood left no stone unturned in researching the subject, in both Canada and the United States. He established an unprecedented network of contacts knowledgeable about the car in various ways. He found original sales literature and blueprints for the car and its components. He studied magazines of the period for related information. He tracked down original suppliers and their successors for further details.

Wood scoured old car meets and flea markets for obscure parts. He borrowed examples of missing or damaged components from other cars to use as patterns, when he was sure they were the same. And he commissioned new parts to be fabricated to original specifications when there was no other way.

The path followed was seldom easy and often indirect, and the installation of the radiator and radiator shell is a typical example. The original had been damaged and repaired well beyond reclamation. And the manufacturer's identification tag at the base of the brass radiator shell had been replaced by a rebuilder's.

Originals were found on some U.S.-built cars, and they could be copied. Sherry Classic Cars, of Warsaw, Ontario, who were carrying out the restoration were more than capable of fabricating a new radiator. But two problems existed. One was duplicating the flowing Buick script on the rad shell. The other was determining the correct details of the manufacturer's tag so one could be duplicated. Parts and sales literature identified the original radiator as manufactured by Long-Turney, but actual vehicles found had a tag that said Rome-Turney. Why were they different?

The search for answer led to Bill Lynch, the current president of the RomeTurney Radiator Company and the grandson of its founder. With his help, a search of old records uncovered minutes of a Board meeting, in 1908, in which the name of the company was changed from Long-Turney to Rome-Turney. Thus, the Long-Turney nameplate was correct for the '08 model, but Rome-Turney was correct on later versions.

Lynch also knew of a manufacturer who could still make finned radiator tubes identical to the originals. Perhaps more amazing, a trip into his factory uncovered the die for the Buick script used to make those original radiators. Unlike today's high-volume die-sets, which comprise both male and female halves, this was a single female die. The craftsmen of the day formed the script by laying the brass sheet over the die, topping it with a thin layer of rubber, then pounding the metal into the die cavity with a hammer. Lynch loaned the die to the Sherrys who used the same method to make a new brass rad shell for F108.

Subsequently, more searching led to a 1908 Buick of another model with a Long-Turney radiator. A close-up photograph of the name tag on it was sufficient from which to make and engrave a new name-plate, identical to the original.

Owners of other 'Model F's' were uniformly generous in giving of their time and expertise, as well as lending parts to be used as patterns for the restoration. One lent a complete Michelin tool kit, which was included with the original car, and exact duplicates were made of every tool.

Michelin, too, helped with both information and the construction of special, grey tires. In photographs of the era the tires looked white. But as one of Buick's tire suppliers then, Michelin's records proved that they were in fact grey. No current tires of the same size were in production but a metric-sized motorcycle tire was close enough in dimensions to be used and Michelin made new tires of grey rubber using those moulds.

Almost every part of the car has a similar story behind it. And the research on every one has been thoroughly documented. In addition, a complete photographic record was kept of both the car's disassembly and its restoration.

The restoration itself was carried out by Sherry Classic Cars of Warsaw, Ontario, near Peterborough. Harry Sherry, along with his late father Bodnar, brother Bill, and son Jeff, hold an esteemed position among restorers not only in Canada but throughout the world. Their restorations, which include several Grand Classics -- Duesenberg, Cord, Mercedes-Benz, Marmon and the like -- have been multiple winners at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, considered by many to be the most prestigious event of its type in the world.

Within their shop they have the ability to renew or remake almost every component of the vehicle, from fabricating wooden body work, steel fenders, brass radiators, and leather seats, to machining engine components and even nuts and bolts. They used all those skills and more in the restoration of F108.

Various General Motors of Canada departments also helped in the restoration. Copies of some original blueprints were recovered from archives in Flint, Michigan, which not only aided in the restoration of existing components but also enabled new components to be fabricated to exact specifications. That process included the casting, at GM of Canada's St. Catharines, Ontario foundry, of new cylinders for the car's two-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, overhead-valve engine.

The result of the five-year restoration process is, according to a Canadian authority on the marque, "the finest McLaughlin ever built." He further commented that "very few restorations have been researched so thoroughly and the attention to detail was unsurpassed. There is not one small component that has been overlooked and every single piece is correct for the car." Both the vehicle and the research involved in its restoration make F108 an invaluable resource for other restorers as well as students of automotive history.

It is a worthy tribute to Canada's automotive heritage.