Martha Wilson talked her boyfriend into boarding an eastbound train with her so they could pick up the car in Michigan and drive it home, in July, to San Francisco
Why go get it? Why not have Chevrolet deliver it to her dealership instead?
She’d already worked out with the salesman what everything would cost her—all the added fees and what her insurance and payments would be. She negotiated the price and came up with the financing. The one thing she just couldn’t get past was the $117 line item labeled “freight.” Some 10 percent of the price of the car, just to ship it from Flint to California.
In 1983, after Martha died, the car was shipped up to her niece in Medford, Oregon. In 2013, after Lisa’s mother died, Lisa was looking to sell it. Lisa had some of Martha’s story, and all of the paperwork that came with the car.
Other than replacing the radiator, the hoses and belts, the brake lines, and the ancient bias-ply tires - there wasn't much else to do mechanically. The 216-cubic-inch six-cylinder had 64,000 miles on it and still ran perfectly. Even the vacuum shift came back to life pretty easily.
My favorite bit of paperwork from Martha’s ownership is a handwritten log that begins on August 4, 1941, in Flint, at “Mile 0.” She tracked the whole trip, which ends on August 12 at 1:30 a.m. with their arrival at her basement apartment on Moscow Street in San Francisco after 2589 miles and $28.75 spent on 132.5 gallons of gas.
This of course, is a severely editted version of the story
Just another cool story found in Hagerty magazine, by the Hagerty collector car insurance company. You can read the magazine online if you'd like.
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/01/21/mans-quest-to-preserve-history-in-41-chevy
No comments:
Post a Comment