From 1939 to the early 1970s, a 1939 Chevrolet van drove to service local government departments and weekend football matches. Widely known as Wilkie's Pie Cart, the car was owned by Tom Wilkinson and travelled between Parliament House, Albert Hall, the Sydney and Melbourne buildings, and some government offices.

Now known as The Canberra Pie Cart, the restored piece of history is heading to Civic Square for a Canberra Museum and Gallery event as part of its Sign of the Times exhibition.

"There's a bit of folklore that you know the reception at Old Parliament House would ring around to tell all the politicians the pie cart was coming and they all had to come down to get their pie," curator Sharon Bulkeley says.

"Back then there were no cafes or restaurants around that people could get their lunch so they relied on this sort of thing to feed them through the day if they hadn't been prepared and brought their own."

When the van was upgraded in the 1970s, the original pie cart was left abandoned. While it's not known how the pie cart made its way to Murrumbateman, it would be an understatement to say it was found in poor condition.

Months of talks, negotiations and analysis of the best way to tackle the restoration followed the discovery and eventually a partnership between the Council of ACT Motor Clubs and Copland College was formed to undertake the project.

READ MORE: Sign of the Times: take a trip through the memories of a changing Canberra

"The car club saw its historic potential and its historic significance as well and they brought it in and worked with Copland College, where some young students helped to fully restore it back to its former glory so that it could be preserved and that story could be preserved," Bulkeley says.

"When it was first found it was a bit of a rust bucket, so they did a pretty miraculous job getting it back together."

It took more than three years to complete the restoration, beginning with the team stripping what was left of the old van to the individual components.

A new braking system was fabricated along with many other parts, body panels were reworked and the replica wooden floor rear section was constructed from donated timber.

The biggest hurdle was the lack of drawings of the original cart. Because of this, the entire back of the van had to be restored from photos and the memories from those who could remember it.

"We were lucky that it's able to come out to be part of a public program for the Sign of the Times exhibition because it generally only comes out once or twice a year for car shows," Bulkeley says.

"But it's one of the early examples of mobile advertising, where there was signage on the doors."

The Canberra Pie Cart will be in Civic Square outside of Canberra Museum and Gallery on Wednesday from 1pm.

As well as selling pies from Tree Eighty3, there will be a talk about the car's history and restoration process. To register for the free event go to Eventbrite.