My F15A reached another milestone: 75 years young!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Today 75 years ago, my F15A rolled off the production line in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

I made a "then & now" picture using one of the pictures taken during the celebration of the production of Canada's 500,000th military vehicle in June 1943. Although the picture was taken in Oshawa, the vehicle itself is a Ford F60L battery charger lorry which was "completed recently". So the F60L in the picture was manufactured a few months after my F15A which was built "JAN. 13 - 43" as a F15441-M-PERS-3 under Contract CD 1513.





Me, the kids and two of their friends took it for a birthday celebration ride through our town. We stopped by at the (now defunct) Den Hartogh Ford Museum, where they have a T-Ford (as it was called here), the grandfather of all Fords, on display on a pole.



I have owned this Ford since 2001, and I thank the previous owners for taking such good care of it. Previous owners were the 1st Canadian Army, a British farmer (who reportedly had bought it at a Ruddington auction in 1949), a Mr. Sidney Bolton (who bought it off the farmer in the 1960's), Alan Levell who bought it in 1989 and then restored it.

Hanno

[martineaton]

Looking Good Hanno!!

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Hanno

In deed another milestone for the truck.

Cheers Phil

[Jordan Baker]

Congrats and great looking truck

[lynx42]

You have done well Hanno. On your advice, we visited the Den Hartogh Ford Museum the day after we met with you in 2009. (boy that seems a long time ago..) It was one of the best, except that they did not have any military vehicles at all. What happened? Did he pass away? What happened to the more than 200 Ford cars and trucks?

Keep it rolling..
Regards Rick.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks all! The Ford enjoyed the extra attention and it purred along nicely as a young kitten. I'll try to make sure it reaches 100 years of age.

Originally Posted by lynx42

You have done well Hanno. On your advice, we visited the Den Hartogh Ford Museum the day after we met with you in 2009. (boy that seems a long time ago..) It was one of the best, except that they did not have any military vehicles at all. What happened? Did he pass away? What happened to the more than 200 Ford cars and trucks?

Rick, I still remember your visit well (indeed, time flies....).

The life work of Piet Den Hartogh, collecting and restoring 214 (others say 260) Fords - the largest collection in the world - was on display in his museum for nearly 20 years. Mr. Den Hartogh passed away in 2010, and in 2016 his museum had to close down due to his children retiring and the museum needing an upgrade. Although several vehicles have been for sale before the museum closing down, the plan is to sell the collection as a whole. The collection can still be visited on appointment for groups of 20 or more people. So it is very much a dormant museum, waiting for the collection to be sold to a new owner.

I do not know why Mr. Den Hartogh did not collect military vehicles. Via one of his friends, I did try to let him buy one of my friend's Ford/Marmon-Herrington SnoGo, but then they both got ill and passed away. On Sunday 9 November 2016 the museum organised "Blue Sunday" as a wave off: it combined a model auto show, a "cars & coffee" gathering of pre-1985 cars, plus the opportunity to visit the museum with like-minded "petrol heads". I made sure at least two Ford CMPs were present that day!

Hanno

[Ryan]

Awesome photos Hanno.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Well done, Hanno. When you told me about the anniversary a few weeks ago, I thought a trip to the location of the old Amsterdam Ford factory would be nice idea....but than again, most if not all buildings have been taken down and the roads in and around Amsterdam can be very hectic for an old CMP.

I have been to the former Den Hartogh Ford museum several times and asked the volunteers a number of times why there was no word about Ford production in WW2. Sadly, they weren't able to give a clear answer. On the other hand, most of the museum focussed on pre-war Fords, with only a small section covering late 40's Fords and another section covering trucks. No Cortina's.....no Mustangs, no transit vans. But, a very interesting and big collection nonetheless......and a big shame the museum closed down.

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

The life work of Piet Den Hartogh, collecting and restoring 214 (others say 260) Fords - the largest collection in the world - was on display in his museum for nearly 20 years. Mr. Den Hartogh passed away in 2010, and in 2016 his museum had to close down due to his children retiring and the museum needing an upgrade. Although several vehicles have been for sale before the museum closing down, the plan is to sell the collection as a whole. The collection can still be visited on appointment for groups of 20 or more people. So it is very much a dormant museum, waiting for the collection to be sold to a new owner.

Latest news is that Bonhams will auction the entire collection. The auction is set for June 23, 2018.

Read more at http://oldtimerdaily.com/bonhams-sel...h-ford-museum/

The catalogue will be published here: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25077/

HTH,
Hanno