In 1916, Dee Zink was living on his family farm, southeast of Appleton City, when it was hit by a tornado. Dee decided he didn’t want to farm any more, and hearing that the Schuller Brothers wanted to sell their automotive sales and service business, Dee decided to buy it.
The only problem: he didn’t have the cash, so he sold 80 acres of land his wife had inherited and still finding himself short, borrowed $10,000 from his brother, Jack. Buying the business, the Motor Inn, he renamed it Zink Motor Company.
Started by the Schuller Brothers in 1913, the company is now one of the oldest continually-operating Ford dealerships in the country.
“We’re definitely towards the top, especially in the oldest building,” Steven Cross said. “It was built back in Henry Ford’s heyday, at the peak of the Model T’s popularity.”
Steven Cross is the son of Jeff Cross, who bought the dealership from Wilbur Zink in 2002. This Saturday, July 8, Appleton City hosts two car shows — one in Forest Park, the city park on the main street through town, and one across the street at Zink Motors.
“We’ll have model A’s and Model T’s on display, and there’ll be 200 cars over there,” Jeff Cross said. “It will be a full day of automobile ecstasy for those of us with motor oil in our blood.”
The Kansas City Antique Car Club is bringing Model A’s and Model T’s, Steven said, and Zink Motor Co. has four Model T’s, which Ford started making in 1908. In 1913, the same year the Schuller Bros. started the Motor Inn, Ford introduced the integrated moving assembly line, which reduced the time it took to produce a car from a day and a half to an hour and a half.
Also on display at Zink’s is a Dort, one of the makes originally carried by the Schullers, along with Ford, Buick, Overland and Hupmobile. Zink kept the Ford, Overland and Dort lines.
Steven’s family isn’t related to the former owners, he said, but when researching the dealership’s history, discovered from deeds that it was his great-great grandfather’s family who sold the Schullers the original building where they started the Motor Inn in 1913. The Zinks built the current dealership, a Ford-designed building, in 1918. The original building, which also housed the city fire department, is the blue building west of Zink Motor Co., now a NAPA Auto Parts Store.
Jeff Cross had a construction and HVAC business, but learning that Wilbur Zink wanted to sell the dealership, decided he wanted to switch to dealing in cars. He started buying Zink Company stock in 1984, and in 2002 became full owner and started renovation of the historic, two-story building. The showroom was on the first floor, and the service and parts department on the second floor. The second floor is now a car museum.
“We keep the upstairs like it was circa 1918,” Steven said.
Steven and his wife once lived in an apartment in the building, he said, but now live in Clinton, where he divides his time between shifts at the Clinton Fire Department and working at Zink. His wife works at the Department of Social and Health Services in Clinton. Zink Motor Co. participates in Crusin’ to Clinton cruise nights, brought cars to Promenade on the Square and was a sponsor of the Clinton Technical School’s Car Show.
Buck Harness’ 1928 Stutz Bearcat, which Steven is working on, will be on display at Zink during the July 8 car shows.
People come from all over Missouri to buy Fords at Zink Motor Co. The dealership sold and shipped a car to a person in Hawaii, Steven said, and recently, a man flew up from Florida to buy a car and drive it home. The Mustang Club of America came to visit the dealership, and Springfield Model A and T Club members also make the pilgrimage.
Model T’s were originally sent to the Appleton City dealership by train in crates, or a cadre of drivers had to go to Kansas City and pick them up and drive them back. The return trip at night was arduous, as the unfamiliar roads were dark.
People wanting to enter their vehicles in the July 6 Appleton City Car Show should arrive between 8 a.m. to noon for check-in. A $10 entry fee for vehicles goes to fund two $1000 scholarships for local high-school students. Judges will choose the top 70 cars and trucks combined, the top three motorcycles and top three rat rods, with goodie bags and door prizes for entrants.
The show, free to spectators, is from noon to 3 p.m. There will be food vendors, lots of shade and an air-conditioned building. Zink Motor Co., 200 E. 4th, will be open for tours all day, Jeff said.
Ford Model Ts, advertised as “simple, affordable and durable,” were produced from 1908 until 1927, and came in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. Fifteen million were sold, making the Model T the best-selling and most famous automobile of all time. When cars first came out, people in Appleton City used their cars only when they went out of town, and kept them in a storage area in the back of the Zink Motor Co. building, Steven said. The dealership had no lot, but was entirely indoors until the 1960s.
“They were open seven days a week, so that people could come here and pick up their cars,” Steven said.
His family is proud to own a Henry Ford-era dealership, part of an Appleton City business that has been selling and servicing Ford automobiles for 110 of Ford’s 120 years.
