1947 Cessna and 1950 Dodge “reunited”

[Huckster79]

In 1947 my Cessna 140 was purchased by Charles Moore for $3550. Moore was a Chrysler dealer in White Cloud Michigan, just 40 miles from my home.

He justified the purchase by flying his wife to Detroit where she would pick up two new Chrysler vehicles, one hitched to the other and drive them back to his dealership to avoid Chrysler’s transportation fee.

fast forward to now, my wife mentioned she’d always wanted a classic truck. I mentioned that story and the search was on!

We found this jewel and it’s waiting a transporter truck now to deliver it home, currently in Colorado. It runs and drives and hasn’t been hacked up or hot rodded. We plan on doing a as we go restoration and doing fly in/drive in car/airplane shows with the two together and a easel board about how the two machines stories intertwine. The truck wasn’t an actual one that went through Moore’s dealership- it’s certainly likely a model Mrs. Moore would have driven back.


I like how both the cowl and hood both piano hinge open…

 

[Tools]

Cool story! Love it!

 

[GeorgeC]

Sweet! My dad had a 59 Chevy at one point. Apache I think, not a stepside. Definitely pairs well with our airplanes

 

[AKBill]

Nice. Have fun going thru it and making it yours. I guess it's 49% yours and 51% your wife's ....

 

[Zeldman]

Looks like a foot pedal start for the truck....does the plane start the same way.??

It appears that the wiring harness has been exchanged for a new or newer one. I hatred working on wiring.

A cool story though.!!

 

[texasclouds]

Man, that is awesome! I’ve thought about getting a car the same vintage as my plane, but finding the original owners is mad dog genious.

edit, so it wasn’t the original plane owners truck?

 

[Huckster79]

Man, that is awesome! I’ve thought about getting a car the same vintage as my plane, but finding the original owners is mad dog genious.

edit, so it wasn’t the original plane owners truck?

no not original owners truck- just a Chrysler product from the era that’s very likely similar to something she probably drove back to the dealership, White Cloud is very rural so I’m sure she had to haul home a pickup or two.

most of the old stuff around here is rusted gone…
So this ones from New Mexico/Colorado

 

[Huckster79]

Looks like a foot pedal start for the truck....does the plane start the same way.??

It appears that the wiring harness has been exchanged for a new or newer one. I hatred working on wiring.

A cool story though.!!

well the plane was originally a pull start and I’m assuming it’s of similar operation? I’ll find out. But I’m assuming the foot pedal actuates it much like the pull knob did.

yea he did rewired it. The gent that owns it was a jet mechanic for navy and got his a&p but couldn’t find a job with it in the day so was a heavy equipment mechanic. His work looks of much higher quality than a lot of Em I looked at. Most are half apart for sale and avoided that like a barnstormers ad that says “just bolt the wings on and it’ll be ready”

 

[Huckster79]

Man, that is awesome! I’ve thought about getting a car the same vintage as my plane, but finding the original owners is mad dog genious.

edit, so it wasn’t the original plane owners truck?

i did when I got my bird put together all the consecutive owners, she was a hot potatoe in the mid 50s for quite some time. I’m her 23rd caretaker! It was fun to put together.