We at MyStarCollectorCar firmly believe vintage rides are meant to be driven (and not confined to a trailer) on the road.
The issue for some owners is whether their old school vehicles can handle the pace in today’s world, so most car guys choose to limit their aging rides to local trips where an entire year only moves the odometer a few hundred miles-if that much.
Jim Sutherland
Not so with Chris Bamford and his 1947 Dodge D25 four-door sedan. The first thing to know about Chris is he is not like most car guys who own 79-year-old vehicles because he believes his ’47 Dodge still belongs on long distance road adventures, even though the car still has its original 218 cubic-inch flathead six that pumps out a whopping 95 horsepower.
His idea of a long trip differs from most car guys because Chris has driven the old Dodge to 3 Canadian provinces, 35 US states, and all four coasts, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, along with the Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean way up north in the Land of Santa Claus.
Chris lives in Alberta Canada, so he is not close to any large body of water–including the Beaufort Sea, but he did not let geography get in the way of his long road adventures in the ’47 Dodge.
As mentioned, Chris believes in originality and has only made minor period-correct alterations to his Dodge over the past 35 years since he became only its third owner. The car was originally purchased by a couple in Vancouver BC who traded it in for a new Ford truck in 1975. They got $1000 for the Dodge, and the dealer gave the car to his son.
The son kept the car until 1991 when he failed to sell it at an auction and eventually sold it to Chris that year. The Dodge showed only 56,000 miles in 1991, but Chris had ambitious plans to add many more to that tally in the ensuing years.
Chris mentioned that he did not own a pickup truck and felt no need to change that status because his Dodge had a large and sturdy roof rack to handle loads. He added the old Dodge was his daily driver outside of work use over the years.
However, its main use was on long road trips with his car buddy Jerry, beginning in 2008 and eventually the car needed an engine overhaul because of all the miles it racked up over the course of time. Chris was unsure of the exact total because the Dodge’s speedometer stopped working for many years before he replaced it.
Suffice to say the Dodge has been driven many thousands of miles over the years but its 2012 journey to Tuktoyaktuk in Canada’s Northwest Territories ranks high on Chris’s numerous road adventures in the old car.
Chris took the trip in March 2012 because he wanted more daylight hours and weather cold enough to keep the ice roads open for the journey to Tuktoyaktuk. He got plenty of cold weather because the temperature hovered around -30 for most of the time in the Northwest Territories.
Chris added an extra car heater from the late 1940s so he could have one dedicated to the windshield defrost and the other for the Dodge’s interior, but the system was not great in view of the frigid arctic conditions.
Nevertheless, Chris, Jerry and the 1947 Dodge completed the 4800-mile round trip journey in a few weeks with no catastrophic failures along the way.
We at MyStarCollectorCar will leave the last words to Chris regarding his survivor 1947 Dodge because they seem very appropriate in his case.
It’s all about the vintage motoring experience.
Chris Bamford
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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