A retired Trenton city employee’s interest in restoring old vehicles is allowing the city to keep one its most-beloved fire trucks in service for special events.
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A retired Trenton city employee’s interest in restoring old vehicles is allowing the city to keep one its most-beloved fire trucks in service for special events.
Those who have viewed this year’s North Central Missouri Fair, Missouri Day Festival and Trenton Area Chamber of Commerce holiday parades got a glimpse of the refurbished 1944 American LaFrance, the work of Trenton resident Ralph Cutsinger. A long-time employee of Trenton Municipal Utilities, Cutsinger has always maintained a special interest in the vehicle and when he retired in January 2002, agreed to bring the fire truck back to its original condition.
“I had tried to buy it,” Cutsinger said, noting the city wasn’t interested in selling the vehicle when it was taken out of commission in 1985.
Instead, the city stored the vehicle in the old TMU warehouse behind the electric plant. The vehicle sat there, unused, and when Cutsinger decided to retire from the city, he was asked if he would be interested in restoring it.
Cutsinger began the restoration in July of 2002, first just doing basic cleanup and repairs. The city still had a lot of the original equipment for the fire truck, which made its debut later that year in the NCM Fair and Missouri Day Car Show.
The major restoration work began this past March. After Cutsinger removed the old paint and made repairs to the body of the vehicle, local body shop owners Dave and Warren Woodson repainted the vehicle to a bright red. Cutsinger also did a complete tuneup to the motor, replacing wiring, points and plugs to get the vehicle in good running shape.
Because of its age, Cutsinger has spent a lot of time trying to come up with the various parts and equipment needed to restore the vehicle.
“There’s not a lot of these things around,” Cutsinger said.
The Trenton resident has located parts in salvage yards in Missouri and Kansas as well as searched the Internet, which he said has provided him with lots of leads as to where to purchase the hard-to-find parts and equipment.
Cutsinger estimates he has over 1,000 hours in the project, which he says is a long way from being completed.
“We’ve still got lots to do on it,” Cutsinger said. “We’re still trying to find parts and what we can’t find, we make from what we know about it.”
Cutsinger noted that individuals and businesses in town have been very supportive of the project, noting that he has received a lot of donations for the paint and repairs. Steve and Shon Muff, owners of Muff Warehouse, have also allowed Cutsinger to use a space in their warehouse while he is working on the vehicle.
Cutsinger is proud of the work he has done on it thus far and is happy to share his love of vehicle restoration with others, especially the youth in the community.
“I like old vehicles and I like that old truck,” he said. “I didn’t want to see it sit there in ruin. I wanted to see it fixed up for the kids to see it – put in it parades and special events.”