William C. Durant was born on December 8th, 1861 in Boston Mass. He quit high school to begin work in his grandfather’s Flint, Michigan, lumberyard. By 1885 he had partnered with Josiah Dallas Dort to organize the Coldwater Road Cart Company, which would become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. By 1890, Durant-Dort Carriage Company was the nation’s largest carriage company, producing approximately 50,000 horse-drawn vehicles a year.
In 1904, Billy Durant was approached by James Whiting of the Buick Company to promote his automobiles. Whiting persuaded Durant to join Buick as General Manager. In his first act as Buick’s GM, Durant moved the Buick assembly operations briefly to Jackson, and then began construction on a large Buick complex in Flint. In three short years Buick led the U.S. automobile production by manufacturing 8,820 vehicles. Between 1904 and 1908, Durant was made Buick’s president and established several essential parts and accessory companies such as Weston-Mott and Champion Ignition Company
By 1908 the top four auto producers in the U.S. were Buick, Reo (headed by Ransom E. Olds), Maxwell -Briscoe, (headed by Benjamin and Frank Briscoe) and Ford (headed by Henry Ford). Benjamin Briscoe wanted all four producers to merge and form one large company. Negotiations began in New York with J. P. Morgan’s son-in-law, Herbert Satterlee, and ended when Ford demanded cash instead of stock. and along with Reo pulled out of the deal.
Still determined to start this new auto company, Durant, at Satterlee’s suggestion, dropped the proposed name “International Motor Car Company” and settled on “General Motors” as the new name for his company.
On September 16, 1908, Durant incorporated General Motors of New Jersey (GM) with a capital investment of $2,000. Within 12 days the company issued stocks that generated over $12,000,000 in cash. General Motors then purchased Buick with stock. Six weeks later, GM acquired the Olds Corporation of Lansing, Michigan.
Next, Durant completed a deal with financially troubled Oakland Company. Oakland was located in Pontiac, Michigan, and would later be renamed — you guessed it — Pontiac. Finally, Durant sought to acquire Cadillac Motor Car Company from the Leland father/son team. The Leland’s did not want stock and like Henry Ford, would only settle for cash to the tune of $4.5 million.
GM could not raise this amount of money, but Buick, the cash cow, could. So, Cadillac was bought with Buick funds, thereby becoming a subsidiary of Buick.
Eventually, though, GM purchased Cadillac from Buick. During this same period, Durant also acquired many truck and parts supply companies, including AC-Delco, which he helped form with Albert Champion and still bears his initials today.
In an 18 month burst of aggressive wheeling and dealing, Durant purchased, acquired or incurred a substantial interest in almost 30 auto makers. However, all this wheeling and dealing came at a price. Durant became financially overextended and consequently, lost control of GM to banking interests in 1910.
Undeterred, Durant partnered up with Louis Chevrolet to form Chevrolet Motor Company in 1911 and used the profits from Chevrolet to regain control of GM in 1915. However, Durant’s management style once again proved troublesome and he resigned in 1920 under an agreement with, then GM president Pierre Du Pont in exchange for Du Pont’s paying off Durant’s debts.
Determined to regain his place in the automotive marketplace, Durant formed Durant Motors in 1921 and produced a line of cars bearing his name for the next 10 years. However, a declining market and the Great Depression ended Durant’s automotive career in 1933.
Durant continued to create innovative ideas, but he no longer had the money to execute his plans. Near the end of his life, he operated several bowling alleys in Flint near the Buick complex. Durant was not bitter, nor did he regret his actions. Instead, he put his energy into new ventures. He believed bowling alleys were the next big thing – every family in America would spend their leisure time at bowling alleys. This venture too, proved to be unsuccessful and marked the end of long string of personal tragedies and failures that plagued Durant since the fall of the Durant Motors in 1933.
From 1934 until his death, Durant dabbled in stocks, politics, and social issues. None of these later ventures reflected his former industrious thinking and he faded from public life. On March 18, 1947, William Durant died in New York City, the same year as Henry Ford, thus, marking the end of a remarkable era in automotive excellence.
How to Choose a Classic Car for Restoration
These types of vehicles fall into several categories. The first is a vehicle that does not run and needs absolutely everything replaced to get to the final product. Next, is the vehicle that comes in many boxes.
Usually these are projects that others have given up on. Missing parts is the biggest concern here, not to mention trying to figure out where all the pieces of the puzzle go. Leave these projects to the die-hard restorer. Most professional restoration shops won’t take these types of projects on and the ones that do, want a blank check when you drop off the parts.
Another good thing to keep in mind about “Basket Case” type restorations is that they eat up a lot of time and cash! The fun is in doing the restoration work, not in chasing after a ton of parts or going broke. Therefore, you should look for solid, complete vehicles when choosing. The more you start with the less you have to buy new or hunt down.
The first question should be: “Is the vehicle in driveable condition?” This is a very important point for the first-time restorer. Unless you have a lot of space to store a vehicle during the entire process, look only for driveable candidates. Even if you have the space, you should consider only driveable vehicles for your first restoration. The reason we suggest this for the first-timer, is that an inoperative project sitting in your garage will become very unpopular in a short amount to time. A vehicle that you can drive and restore at the same time will be much more satisfying. Believe it or not, it is very common to lose interest in a classic car restoration project. This happens when an individual takes on too big a project for their time and/or pocketbook. So it’s best to save the frame-off projects until you build some experience.
Do your research!
Once a choice has been made, the education process begins. This is where you will need to “do your homework”, because that’s really what you’ll be doing once you decide on your area of interest. As an example, let’s say your area of interest is 1955-57 Chevrolet cars. The next step will be to learn all you can about these vehicles. You will want to find out about the history, factory production totals and aftermarket parts that are available for your selection. Good sources for this type of information are bookstores, car clubs, special interest magazines and of course, the ever growing Internet.
The research process includes requesting parts catalogs from vendors dealing in parts for the vehicle you are considering. Educating yourself about the cost of parts is a good idea before you actually make a purchase. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to tell whether a vehicle is in your budget and if there are adequate parts available to complete your restoration.
This information also helps a great deal when looking to buy. You will be able to better judge a vehicle’s condition by knowing which parts are missing and the cost of replacing those parts. If you see a missing part and you know its not available in reproduction, it could be a deal breaker or a bargaining chip. You can then use this information to leverage the seller into adjusting his or her price. Information is powerful, so do your homework, and save.