1928 Ford Model A Popcorn Wagon
Popcorn. You don’t really think about it until that delicious smell wafts into your nostrils. If you were at a county fair in the late ’20s, that smell might just be coming from inside a Model A. Find this 1928 Ford Model A Popcorn Wagon for sale in Wisconsin (maybe?) for $39,000 via [New York] craigslist. This post is part of DT’s 2016 Birthday Celebration of 100 cars; enjoy the ride!
C. Cretors & Company has made popcorn machines in Illinois since 1885, and are still around to this day. What we have here may or may not be an original Cretors popcorn wagon (the seller is vague about this), but regardless it’s built in the style of some classic machinery, although on a significantly shorter wheelbase and lighter duty vehicle than some of the Cretors Model AA cornmobiles that pop up in google image search.
The seller says “This is a custom built with the Cretors design and with our own improvements,” so we should probably assume this was newly created on the chassis of a classic ’28 Ford – first year for the Model A. The A was so much more modern than its predecessor the T, so much so that Ford reset their nomenclature back at the beginning of the alphabet where they started in the late 1800s. The Model A drives like any normal car with clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals, and a conventional 3-speed manual transmission, so it’s a good choice in platform for a mobile buttered snack making machine.
Is that a Honda Z50 Mini Trail (aka Monkey) minibike I spy in the background? Maybe it fits in the rear popcorn compartment for easy transport around the carnival once the wagon is plugged in and poppin’. I’m thinking of a bizarro version of the Honda City / Motocompo pairing. Regardless, the sellers are based in Wisconsin and seem to be well versed in this type of vehicle; apparently all signage is handmade and the popcorn machine is functional. Even though this looks like a phone booth on wheels, it’s made of steel and real oak, and I bet it smells delicious. I’d have a hard time staying under 200 lbs if I owned & drove this thing.
We won’t mention the tiny, terrifying, mechanized jump-suited clown.
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CFlo is Daily Turismo’s co-founder and Technical Editor. When he’s not reading the news (HIS news) on the DT Radio Show, he’s resuscitating a Volvo 240, turning a BMW E36 into a V8 powered Brougham LeMons racer, and restoring a Honda Motocompo. Daily drivers are a whole ‘nother story.
Need to figure out whether I can get this into our local food-truck extravaganza. Need for external power kinda queers that, would have to have onboard power or a generator.