Zink Motor Co. preserves its 100-year legacy
by Jim McCarty | jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop
At first glance, Zink Motor Co. in Appleton City looks like any other small-town Ford dealership. But walk up the ramp into the old building that once housed all of the 112-year-old business and you’ll soon discover what makes this place different.
Over the years the old service area had become a catch-all for all kinds of junk. A path barely wide enough to traverse was all that could be seen of the floor. That’s when Steven Cross, son of owner Jeff Cross, decided to make a few changes.
“Something we fight in rural America constantly is obscurity,” Steven says. “We didn’t have the new flashy state-of-the-art things to work with. I just thought, ‘What can we use to make us different than the other dealers?’ What we did have is a tremendous amount of history that’s just buried under a bunch of clutter.”
Flash-forward a year and a half, and the Cross family unveiled a museum designed to replicate the dealership’s service center in the late 1910s and early 1920s, down to an actual 1919 Dort Model 11 of the type that would have been sold there.
So perfect is the setting that one can imagine the mechanics and auto body technicians leaving at the end of the day, intending to return again in the morning.
On display are the original Zink Motor Co. signs. There’s a Model T motor on a stand used in the early days. New old-stock parts sit on original displays as if waiting for customers to buy them. And photos show the men at work in the garage.
Steven also restored the apartment where Wilbur Zink and his wife lived after he returned from World War II. He furnished it with items that would have been in use around 1949.
Then there’s the cars. The focus is on Model Ts, which had been around for just six years when the dealership opened. The oldest in the collection is a wood body Model T Depot Hack. “It is a 1915 but Ford didn’t waste any parts,” Steven says. “Even though they had converted to electric headlights in 1915, this one uses leftover 1914 parts so it still has the gas headlights and other 1914 pieces.”
There’s a rare Model T with a custom-built Ames Cloverleaf touring body along with an Ames-body Model T Speedster. The Model T collection also includes a Runabout, Touring Car, Coupe and a Tudor Sedan.
Two of the Model Ts were originally sold here. The family also has a 1964 Ford Galaxy 500 and a 1978 station wagon that were first sold in Appleton City. “One of the Model Ts took me eight years to find,” Steven says. “I now own every traceable vehicle but one. There’s a Model TT that was sold new here. It’s been in the Appleton City area since 1919.”
Zink Motor Co. got its start in 1913 as the Motor Inn. Owned by the Schuller brothers, the company carried Ford, Buick, Overland and Hupmobile automobiles for four years. The building, now an auto parts store, also housed Appleton City’s fire department.
In 1917 the Zink family bought the business, changing the name to A.F. Zink Motors. They would shrink the lineup, selling all of the franchises except Ford and Dort while adding Fordson tractors.
Now the original building proved to be too small. The business expanded into the current two-story brick building that was designed by Ford. The service department and body shop were located upstairs, while a showroom and vehicle storage took up the downstairs.
Jeff began purchasing stock in the company in 1984 and became the owner in 2002. Though the Zink family was gone, he kept the name because it was such a part of Appleton City’s history. “I don’t know if we are the oldest, but we could definitely be in the conversation for the oldest Ford dealership operating in the oldest Ford-designed building,” Steven says.
Zink Motor Co. is located at 200 E. Fourth St. in Appleton City. The museum is open during regular business hours. For more information, call 660-476-2626 or visit zinkmotor.com. On July 12, the dealership will clear out its modern fleet to make room for the antique cars during the Appleton City Car Show.