Frame off M37 up for Auction, comes with L19E Bird Dog

[creinemann]

WICHITA, Kan. — Cessna has unveiled the restored 1959 Cessna L-19E “Bird Dog” to be auctioned at the 43rd annual Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. The L-19E will be auctioned alongside a Dodge M37 truck restored and donated by Okoboji Classic Cars, forming a unique pair of historical items offered in a single auction lot.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Armed Forces Foundation (AFF).
http://generalaviationnews.com/2013/12/ ... n-package/




Barrett Jackson details http://www.barrett-jackson.com/applicat ... 08&aid=525

[m37jarhead]

I've been fortunate to be able to follow the restoration of the M37 with pictures forwarded to me by Harry (HB) Baxter,
an M37 Registry member, of Buckeye, AZ. while he ram rodded the hands on restoration in Iowa.
The ground up, frame off restoration was meticulously done with attention to every detail.
Great work by HB and his staff of master craftsmen. I know HB's "fingerprints" are on every single
square inch of this project. Hope to get a private showing next week in Scottsdale before the auction
for charity later in January.
Jerry

[DAP]

This makes me drool............. in the late 70s and then early 80s I worked at Van Zandt airport in Eastern PA near the Deleware river. They had a very active glider tow operation and I helped maintain the bird dogs. Some Saturdays we had 3 bird dogs in the air, a Citabria and occasionally 2 Steermans. We also maintained multiple antique aircraft as well like Ryans and 1 antique Scweizer glider that was open cockpit. I now own an M37. Unfortunately we have only an antenna for tV no cable so I can't see the auction. If some one tapes it post on you tube for us to see please.

[T. Highway]

That picture is amazing, I would love to see both of those up close.

Bert

[hbb]

Thank you Jerry wonderful compliments.
We found The M 37 Park in a field for sale in the typical condition of overuse and neglect with many different phases of life from military, fire department, highway department, forestry service, and then to civilian use and abuse and oh yeah Rust!

We started the restoration June 22 finished work November 20. With a deadline of the week before. Thanksgiving The truck was literally finish painting loaded and hauled to Wichita for photo shoot.We had a small crew, myself,and my 17-year-old daughter that did the initial tear down and I had to young apprentice body men to help with all of the body work and paint and another gentleman that did tremendous amount of work blasting and priming parts. I overhauled all of the driveline , engine, transmission, transfer case, differentials front and rear, fuel lines, brake lines and anything else that needed refinished repaired or replaced was done. The engine is balanced with all new components, transmission has new bearings, New shifter tower with forks, New pilot shaft, transfer case was in bad shape And needed a lot of parts, list goes on.nothing was left assembled down to bare frame.

The whole process could not have been done without the help of many of the vendors out there including Vintage Power Wagons, Midwest Military, Vintage Wiring of Maine, Larson Stencils,New Life Canvas , Coker tire, Parts City Auto parts, Arnold Motors machine shop and parts Suply. And on and on .

In short it was just an honor to be part of such project that was built by the book as close to mill spec as possible.Building a M37 with the kind of money that was available was a chance of a lifetime. The M37 will be sold at Barrett Jackson ( mid-January Scottsdale Arizona) with an L 19 Cessna bird-dog and all of the proceeds from the two units will be given to the armed forces foundation as a charity.

My own personal and 37 will never be in this league as I could never afford to do it this way, I hope this many people that it's possible can go to Barrett Jackson actually see the truck, but at least watch it on TV if you can't. I have a few pictures of the build in my photo gallery unfortunately several of them were too large to be posted so when you click on them it shows a broken photo, click on that broken photo and they will actually come out as a large photo.

That was a long time to be away from the family. And nightmare getting tools and equipment moved from Arizona to the job then back to Arizona.

Harry(hb) Baxter
Arizona Military Vehicle Collectors Club, Desert Warriors Club.

[hbb]

DAP
This is on you tube if you have not seen it! These were the very first Items sold live on National TV at a Barrett Jackson auction so there was a lot of stress and tension. Marine color guard leads the truck in and if there you could have heard a pin drop through out the whole building( was an eary feeling). Not much of the aircraft and truck were seen but the speech was impeccable, but it really was about the Armed Forces Foundation charity and what they are doing for our beaten and battered troops that have been discharged with no detuning and being expected to return to the civilian world as if they were exposed to nothing.
In fact, just last week another of our boy’s took his own life because of PTSD! This is what the Foundation is fighting. That is why the truck was restored.
I hope more can support this cause, as PTSD has no boundaries.
hb

[Hal O'Peridol]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfrPytRsy-E

Video of auction