Old Cars is turning 50. In honor of 50 years of the privilege of bringing the old cars hobby to our valued and faithful readers, Old Cars will revisit 50 of our past featured cars in 50 days, to commemorate the half-century of Old Cars. Here’s to fifty more years of Old Cars!

 DAY FORTY-NINE: 1933 Ford woodie station wagon

Roland Foss admits he never would have guessed how rare and valuable his 1933 Ford woodie station wagon would become when he stopped and made that impulse buy 46 years ago. He seems to have developed a knack for spotting valuable old cars before anyone else and getting them for bargain basement prices. Foss made similar deals years ago for a low-mileage 1934 Ford and a 1936 Packard, among others.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the station wagon when he first got it, but Foss wasn’t in a hurry, either. 

“It was in pretty rough shape,” he said, “but very few pieces of wood were rotted at the time. The running boards needed be recovered and the upholstery was gone. I put new tires on it, but that was about all I did to it at the time. I would say 95 percent of it was very presentable, but there was, like, three pieces of wood that were rotted and they were replaced at a boatyard.”

“After that, it pretty much sat in the barn. I’m gonna say it was in that barn until ’95 or ’96. I didn’t do a thing to it, but I had other cars — a ’62 Corvair — and I didn’t have any money to do anything. Then I retired from the State Police and I got a couple other jobs after that and my income changed a lot and one day I told my wife, ‘I’m gonna dig that car out and see if we can do something with it.

In the next few years, Foss spent much of his free time tending to the venerable Ford. 

“I spent so many hours on a creeper under that car paint and sanding — I can’t even tell you,” he said. “As far as my time, you couldn’t pay me for it. I spent hours and hours under that thing.”

 To learn more about Foss’ Ford <CLICK HERE>

CHECK OUT DAY FORTY-EIGHT OF 50 CARS IN 50 DAYS, CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF OLD CARS HERE

– 50 days of cars celebrating 50 years of Old Cars is brought to you by our friends over at Camaro Central, Modine and sonicbidder.com.  If you are looking for parts for your classic Camaro, HVAC for your garage or a place to sell your classic car, check out these trustworthy establishments.

Check out these fine friends of Old Cars

Camaro Central offers thousands of products from only the best manufacturers representing the highest quality in restoration and restyling components available. They are the source for all your classic Camaro car needs. Their goal at Camaro Central is to give their customers the best buying experience possible. 

Camaro Central 1967-2020 Camaro Restoration Parts Source
3329 Colonel Road
Richmond, KY 40475
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST, Saturday 9am-2pm EST
www.camarocentral.com
Local and outside the USA: 1-859-408-2000
Fax: 1-859-408-2007
– After normal business hours please email : info@camarocentral.com

With over 100 years of experience, Modine is one of the most trusted names in the HVAC manufacturing industry. No matter what your heating and air conditioning need is, their mission is to ensure that they provide you with the right solution.

Modine serves a variety of markets, providing residential unit and patio heaters, commercial rooftop HVAC systems, classroom HVAC, and more. Along with these heating and cooling systems, their Hot Dawg® unit heater remains one of the top-selling unit heaters in the world. The Hot Dawg® unit heater is the perfect solution for keeping your garage or shop warm and comfortable. Visit www.modinehvac.com to find out more.

Modine Headquarters
1500 De Koven Ave.
 Racine WI 53403-2552
www.modinehvac.com
1-800-828-HEAT (4328)

SonicBidder.com brings proven buying power to a world stage. The unique action experience consolidates the thrill of live auctions with an exhilarating 4-D sensory experience that keeps customers delighted as they participate in sales.

SonicBidder.com’s global automotive auctions bring thousands of bidders and millions of dollars in buying power to your event, internationally. Your sell will reach an audience at home and all over the world!

Visit www.sonicbidder.com to find your buyer today!

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

*As an Amazon Associate, Old Cars earns from qualifying purchases.

The post 50 cars in 50 days, celebrating 50 years of Old Cars: Day Forty-Nine appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Go ahead and say it. We said the same thing.

‘What the heck is that??!!”

We couldn’t even hazard a guess at first, but the classified listing in our Old Cars Marketplace says this fabulous piece of fabrication is a 1926 Dodge, so we’ll go with that.

Whatever it is, it’s one of the most unique “woodies” you’ll ever see. The seller calls it “A one-of-a-kind! Originally a 1926 Dodge Roadster… The cowl, hood, and fenders were professionally restored and painted with top-quality PPG paint. The wood work was designed and built by master craftsman Clayton Brown. This is not a freeway cruiser. It’s a show car/parade car. Great to give the grandkids a ride in!”

None of the staffers at Old Cars have grandkids yet, but when we do, this is the kind of car we want to drive them around in!

CHECK IT OUT HERE

*As an Amazon Associate, Old Cars earns from qualifying purchases.  

The post Old Cars We’d Buy That: 1926 Dodge Woodie appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

American Woodies were never meant just for Americans. The article “Double Woodie Time in Germany” is a case in point. It appeared in the April 2019 edition of the National Woodie Club, Inc.’s Woodie Times (editor John Lee).

The article was drafted by Torben Kasimzade of Herzebrock-Clarholz, Germany, who has held a fascination with wood-trimmed American cars since he was a teenager in the mid-1980s. Torben leans toward other U.S.-made cars with classy lines from the 1930s through ’50s, especially those with an abundance of chrome.So it was that Kasimzade combined this bent with a similar fascination of mahogany boats.

Enjoying a weekend holiday in the German mountains, Kasimzade chanced upon an all-black Chrysler Town & Country two-door Newport coupe. “It hit me, to be honest. The huge size, the great chrome, and the fascinating wood — I loved it!” says Kasimzade. Contact was made with the owner on the East Coast of the United States and a few months later the car found a permanent home in Europe.

What did Kasimzade do upon obtaining custody of the Chrysler? Changed the headlamps “to the European norm” and beefed up the braking system to tow a trailer cradling a classic mahogany speedster motorboat. Hence, the article’s headline “double woodie.”

The combo “was a real head-turner and people loved it…me being proud of owning such a great American classic,” Kasimzade said.

As in the U.S., Germany has its share of vintage car shows with American iron. I’ve been there, seen that, in Germany — and the experience is odd when you little expect to see American beauties on a show field. It makes an American feel especially proud that domestic cars are honored off their home territory. Kasimzade’s car was the sole woodie driven to the meet that garnered more than 2,000 cars.It came as a surprise when he placed his double woodie exhibit on the best-of-show platform to win the top honors. Interestingly, the boat was a Packard-powered Gar Wood Speedster (1936). Kasimzade adds, “It was the first race boat that belonged to the Shah of Iran.”

National Woodie Club, Inc.
P.O. Box 6134
Lincoln, NE 68506

The post Club Clips: July 11, 2019 Edition appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

A car you don’t see a lot is a 1946-1948 Oldsmobile woodie station wagon. The Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile 1897-1997 says they made 140 of them in 1946, 1,460 in 1947 and 2,707 in 1948. That means that 4,307 of these wagons were built, but you can’t swear it by us.

We have only seen two of these cars in the sheet metal and one on a reproduction tin sign. The art on the sign came from an Olds ad or sales literature, so we have only seen two of these cars in 43 years of hobby involvement. Now, we’re wondering if both cars we saw were the same one, before and after restoration.

Maybe someone out there knows the answer to this question. It would be interesting to find out for certain whether the unrestored car that we saw many years ago on a trip to the East Coasts was the same one that popped up in fully restored condition at the 2015 Milwaukee Masterpiece.

The car we saw years ago was being towed when we spotted it on the approach to one of two bridges that connect Staten Island, N.Y., with New Jersey. We think it was the Outerbridge Crossing, but it could have been the Goethals Bridge. The Olds station wagon was in what we call “barn find” condition today. But we’re sure it was heading for a complete restoration.

The 1946 Oldsmobile station wagon at The Milwaukee Masterpiece was a completely restored example. It was finished in maroon (which we believe was the same color that car we saw years ago was painted). A placard said that the car belonged to Tim Sheridan. All of the Olds woodies we mentioned were six-cylinder Special Series 66 models.

We’re wondering whether Tim Sheridan knows whether his car was ever in New Jersey. It would be interesting if both of the 1946-1948 Olds wagons we saw were actually the same car.

The post Wondering about a woodie appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

In the Midwest, we typically don’t think of California Dreaming, but Lowell Lundberg had an eye for the beach from North Dakota. The classic style of the wooden side panels on those wonderful Woodies was a favorite of Mr. Lundberg.

Mr. Lundberg’s career as a “car nut” when he bought his first car in 1967. His profession of being an attorney allowed him to buy interesting and an assortment of cars. When you look at an overview of Lowell’s Collection, there is everything from a 1965 Chevrolet Impala Convertible to a rare 1948 Packard 2200 Series woodie wagon, 1950 Chrysler Town & Country Newport woodie two-door sedan, along with a 1949 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country woodie two-door convertible.

Lowell’s passion for his cars was a huge part of his life and some of his happiest times were spent with family at the car barns. Most of his cars had names. His hobby introduced him to life-long friends and wonderful times in his retirement.

Mr. Lundberg has passed away and, with the help of his buddies from the car club, his entire collector vehicle will be offered to the public at auction. The members of the car club has spent hours helping VanDerbrink Auctions clean, move around and get the vehicles running and ready for the auction. There is also an assortment of collector parts.

VanDerBrink Auctions will offer the collection at the Veterans Memorial Hall, indoors in West Fargo on June 14 at 10am. It’s such a wonderful sight to find an assortment of rare vehicles and a great chance for collectors to add one of Lowell’s treasures to their collection.

All vehicles and parts will be sold at NO RESERVE to the highest bidder. Bidding will also be available on-line along with the on-site auction.

Pictures, video and inventory can be found on the website www.vanderbrinkauctions.com. If you have more questions, please call VanDerBrink Auctions and plan now to attend this auction June 14 in Fargo, North Dakota!

The post Lundberg Collection features woodie treasures appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

There were plenty of reasons for Richard Black to fall for his 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline Aerosedan when he first laid eyes on it. The vehicle was wonderfully authentic, in great shape, and featured the endearing 1940s fastback body style that is seemingly as big of a hit today as it was then. The car’s dealer add-on Country Club “woodie” kit made the car different from other Fleetlines of the era, and together with the two-tone brown paint scheme, it was a stand out in any old car crowd.

But Richard and his wife, Nancy, had another reason to be attracted to the Aerosedan: It was a near-perfect running mate for a car they already owned.

“I have a [1947] four-door Fleetline Sportmaster sedan painted this same color combination, and I thought it would make a good stable mate to that car,” says Black, a resident of New Castle, Pa. “At some point somebody painted the top of this car that darker brown. It wasn’t that way originally, but it matched the Sportmaster that we have. If it hadn’t been those same colors, I probably wouldn’t have been interested in it.”

Black spotted the car for sale in California in 2008, kept an eye on it for a few months, then finally pulled the trigger in the fall of that year. He hadn’t seen the car in person, but he had seen enough pictures and asked enough questions that he felt good about the deal.

“Since then, I’ve been working on a lot of little things on it,” he says. “It’s pretty much done now. I like things really nice, you know … and I like them original. I want them to look as they were.”

In this case, “as they were” could be interpreted a couple of ways. Black’s Aerosedan came with a single-color Sport Beige paint job and no wood on the exterior. The “woodie” look came from the Country Club trim package that was not actually a General Motors product. The package was produced by Engineered Enterprises, a firm in Detroit, and sold through select Chevrolet dealers. The $149.50 kit was available only for 1947 and ’48 Chevrolet Aerosedans, convertibles and two-door sedans. (It was later reproduced by a hobbyist.) Owners who wanted their Fleetline to have the woodie look found on competitive models such as the Ford Sportsman and pricier Chrysler Town and Country had to be sure of their choice, though. Dealers had to drill 72 holes into the car to install the kit, so simply removing the wood if you changed your mind wasn’t really an option.

“The darker parts aren’t actually wood. I don’t want to call it contact paper, but that’s kind of what it is,” Black noted. “The real wood on this one is beautiful, but at some point it looks like it’s been re-done. I have to believe that in the last 10 years or so, somebody took it off and put it back on.”

Black hasn’t been able to trace a lot of his Aerosedan’s history, but the car has clearly done some traveling. “It started out life in North Carolina because there is still the remains of an inspection sticker on the windshield from 1948 in North Carolina,” he said. “Somehow it ended up in California… A door jamb service sticker shows the mileage was 25,260 when the oil was changed on June 13, 1988. We have driven the car 2,200 miles since acquiring in October 2008. The odometer now reads 30,175. I would have to think the odometer is on its second trip around judging by the condition of items like the worn spring shackles, worn king pins, etc. — all of which we have replaced.”

With or without the woodie kit, the Fleetline Aerosedan was still a top-of-the-line offering for Chevrolet in 1947. From 1946-’48, the Fleetline was a sub-series of the Fleetmaster line. The Fleetmaster series included two- and four-door sedans, a sport coupe, convertible and four-door wagon. The Fleetline sub-series included only the Aerosedan and Sportmaster sedan — both of which the Blacks own.

The two-door Fleetline Aerosedan, with its racy fastback styling, proved to be the most popular Chevrolet for 1947 with 159,407 built at a base price of $1,313. For that, buyers received the additional Fleetline trim that included three horizontal bars on the “suitcase” fenders. Like all Chevrolet passenger cars, Fleetlines were equipped with the 90-hp 216.5-cid overhead-valve six-cylinder mated to a three-speed manual transmission, semi-elliptical leaf springs and four-wheel drum brakes. In addition to the Country Club trim, Black’s car was outfitted with driving lamps, backup lamps, turn signals, vent window screens, fold-down trunk guard, wing tips on the rear bumper, radiator overflow tank, vacuum-assisted shifting, an umbrella holder and GM tissue dispenser.

Black found his Aerosedan did not have the correct accessory heater when he bought the car, but he has since found and installed the correct unit.

The Scout Brown over Sport Beige paint was a GM factory combination, but is not original to Black’s car. “The top has been repainted, and probably more recently than the bottom,” Black noted. “The bottom you can tell is an older paint job. It has a few cracks and stuff in it. It’s not bad, but not as nice as the top.”

Much of the work Black has done to the car has been minor upgrades and touch-ups. The car didn’t need any major work when he got it and so far has pretty much been trouble-free. “I re-grained the dash and garnish moldings inside… I put in new window fuzzes and window channels. They were all just wore out — they had never been replaced. The engine compartment needed detailing very badly, so I did a lot of work with that. The wheels had been repainted at some point in time and they had painted over the pinstriping, so I had to redo the wheels. And it had old bias-ply tires, and they were all cracked. I don’t think it had been driven much in recent years.”

Black now rotates a set of original-style bias-play tires with a set of radials between his two 1947 Chevrolets. “I change them back and forth. It depends on which one I’m using and what we’re doing with it.”

Black has made sure neither of his ’47s — or the award-winning 1950 Ford Crestliner he also owns — have become trailer queens. They all get driven regularly for more than just a little exercise. “I drive it. That’s what I got it for. I don’t have any reservations about getting in it and going on a 100-mile jaunt,” he says. “It’s been to the Glenmoor (Gathering) … I got invited to the Milwaukee Masterpiece — but I did have to trailer it there because of the distance … I’ve been taking it to some of the local shows around here and I never worry about driving it.”

When the car appears at hobby gatherings, Black knows he will likely wind up explaining the Aerosedan’s “woodie” look. There aren’t any records of how many cars got the Country Club package or how many remain, but it clearly isn’t many. “The ones with the wood sides, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show where one was there. I had seen pictures of them, but I don’t think I ever saw one in person until I got this one,” he said.

“They are out there, but you just don’t see them around. A lot of people who have them don’t drive them and don’t show them.”

_____________________

If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

The post Car of the Week: 1947 Chevrolet Aerosedan appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

John Seaman said that his 1935 Ford woodie has been in his family since the mid-’60s. Its home was Camp Saint Mary, a seminary camp in upstate New York that’s been around since the mid-1930s. John’s grandfather, J. Frank Boone, was the caretaker there and the woodie was the main vehicle used at the camp in the ’40s, ’50s and early ’60s.

John can remember riding on the tailgate when he was young and his grandfather taking him to the lake for picnics. It was a about a half-mile ride. They had to go down a steep hill to get to the lake and back up it to get home.

The woodie was also used for hauling firewood. John has pictures of the station wagon completely loaded with logs. When the camp closed in the ’60s, the family talked the owner of the camp into giving them the woodie.

Through John’s college years, it sat in storage in Long Lake, N.Y., where John’s father was restoring a 1916 Model T. By the time his dad passed away in 1986, the Model T project had been finished. The family decided to sell it and put the proceeds into restoring the woodie, which had been pretty much neglected for 20 years.

Don Neale of Saranac Lake, N.Y., restored the car in 1988 and 1989. He received assistance from Spencer Jenkin’s Boatworks there. Spencer’s craftsmanship showed up in the refinishing of the wood. Don did an excellent job with his end of things. John’s uncle had painted the wood body gray at one point, so all of the veneer needed replacement.

For 14 years after its restoration, the car was kept at Long Lake and driven only occasionally. It often had starting problems. John would drive it when he took vacations in Long Lake. Then, in October 2003, Seaman brought it to Wisconsin.

John’s mother, Frances, had fond memories of the car that she grew up with. Until she died in 2005, she got excited each time she rode in the woodie. When he displayed the car at the “Concours on the Green” during the Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival last fall, John had a signboard with old snapshot photos that told the story of the car.

The post All In The Family appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

On May 18, the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, N.Y., will present its new exhibit, “Wagons & Woodies: From Depot Hack to Station Wagon.”

Nearly 20 classic vehicles will be displayed and will showcase the evolution of the station wagon from the early days of travel through the iconic styles of the’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

This special exhibit will run through April 2014, and will feature vehicles from a 1924 Buick Depot Hack to a 1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.

The Northeast Classic Car Museum also will show an original, unreleased documentary film, Wagonmasters. This film, produced by Wake Forest University Graduate Students Sam Smartt and Chris Zaluski, “tells the story of the station wagon as it represents a changing America over the last 100 years.”

For museum information, visit www.classiccarmuseum.org or call 607-334-2886.

To learn more about the Wagonmasters film, visit www.wagonmastersthemovie.com.

The post Wagons & Woodies head to Northeast Classic Car Museum appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

The owners of a 1933 Ford Deluxe station wagon probably thought they were in trouble with the law one fateful day back in 1966 when Maine State Trooper Roland Foss paid them a visit.

Still in uniform and driving his patrol car, Foss stopped at the home in rural Edgecomb, Maine, to inquire about the old woodie wagon that was sitting in the yard.

“It was just sitting there, and I walked up and said, ‘Are you interested in selling that?’ and she said she’d like to get rid of it,” Foss recalled. “I had no idea how much it was worth or what they were asking, but I asked her what she had to have for it and she said $295 and I said I’ll take it and I drove it home. It was as simple as that.”

Foss has never been able to retrace the entire life story of the rare 1934 Ford Deluxe “woodie,” but he did find out that the woodie had been used for many years as a school bus for a small private school in Rhode Island. The wagon could fit “probably 6 or 7 kids,” Foss figures, and it seems like quite a few probably took rides in the Ford over the years. “I’ve seen pictures of the thing in use in the late 1940s, I would say, judging by the looks of the people and cars around it,” he noted. “How long it had been in Edgecomb, Maine, I don’t know.”

Foss admits he never would have guessed how rare and valuable the ’33 woodie would become when he stopped and made that impulse buy 46 years ago. He seems to have developed a knack for spotting valuable old cars before anyone else and getting them for bargain basement prices. Foss made similar deals years ago for a low-mileage 1934 Ford and a 1936 Packard, among others.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the station wagon when he first got it, but Foss wasn’t in a hurry, either. “It was in pretty rough shape,” he said, “but very few pieces of wood were rotted at the time. The running boards needed be recovered and the upholstery was gone. I put new tires on it, but that was about all I did to it at the time. I would say 95 percent of it was very presentable, but there was, like, three pieces of wood that were rotted and they were replaced at a boatyard.

“After that, it pretty much sat in the barn. I’m gonna say it was in that barn until ’95 or ’96. I didn’t do a thing to it, but I had other cars — a ’62 Corvair — and I didn’t have any money to do anything. Then I retired from the State Police and I got a couple other jobs after that and my income changed a lot and one day I told my wife, ‘I’m gonna dig that car out and see if we can do something with it.’”

Even if Foss hadn’t decided to restore the retired school bus and make it young again, the old Ford would still be a coveted prize in the collector car world. Only 1,654 of the V-8-powerd Deluxe station wagons were built for the 1933 model year, and survivors that have not been customized are very few and far between. Prices for top-shelf specimens have soared into six figures in recent years and among Ford flathead fans, the woody wagons are true trophy cars.

The 1932 model year was one of the biggest in Ford history, of course, but 1933 had its share of changes, too, and the Deluxe wagons reflected some of that evolution. The boxy, upright styling of 1932 gave way to more streamlined and swept-back look, with a pronounced rake in the windshield. Murray, which Ford used for its wagon bodies, redesigned the model’s exterior with wider front doors and a sloping “A” pillar. The wood body sections were constructed of maple and the steel body originally came in a brown with a matching rubberized canvas top over the cab. The steel-spoked wheels came black from the factory.

The wagons were powered by the 221-cid, 75-hp flathead V-8 that shifted through a three-speed manual transmission. The cars rode on 112-inch wheelbases and used four-wheel mechanical drum brakes and semi-elliptic leaf springs with a solid axle in front.

With three rows of seating — including two separate middle seats with some space between them to allow access to the third row – it’s not hard to imagine the wagons being able to pull school bus duty for a handful of riders at a time. The widows slide up inside the top and snap into to place. “Except the back one, that one rolls up and ties into place,” Foss noted.

The wagons weighed in at 2,635 lbs and at $640 they were the most expensive cars in Ford’s lineup. Buyers who wanted to fancy things up could tack on options such as a greyhound radiator cap, dual windshield wipers, leather seats upholstery and whitewall tires (5.5 x 17).

Foss wasn’t sure how far he was going to take his restoration efforts when he finally dug his wagon out of storage. He got the car running without much difficulty, but to truly enjoy the car and do it justice, he knew it would need some attention. 

“We got it on the road a little bit and went to a couple of parades and a couple local shows, and it stunk so bad we choked all the time,” he laughed. “We stunk so bad when we got home. One night I just said, ‘That’s it. I’m gonna tear it all apart.’”

In the next few years, Foss spent much of his free time tending to the venerable Ford. 

“I spent so many hours on a creeper under that car paint and sanding — I can’t even tell you,” he said. “As far as my time, you couldn’t pay me for it. I spent hours and hours under that thing.”

Foss got some help from an unusual source along the way, and it turned out to be a bargain.

 “I took the engine and transmission to Southern Maine Vocational College,” he said. “They build stuff in the classroom and they rebuilt everything for me and all I had to do was pay them for the parts. They did a beautiful job. I taught motor vehicle inspection there when I was a Trooper, so I knew the instructors.”

Perhaps the biggest issue Foss had with the Ford came later when he discovered some of the wood supports needed replacing. 

“I opened one of the doors one day and it dropped about 2 inches. Two of the wooden door posts had rotted off…”

He wound up getting the door supports and some of the roof supports rebuilt by a boat yard in Maine.

“They did a great job with it and they’d never done it before,” Foss said. “It turned out so good that another guy here took his Mercury woodie there. They got another job out of the deal.”

Along the way, the wagon got new brakes and suspension parts, a refurbished gas tank, bodywork on the hood, fenders and running boards, and a new coat of brown paint. 

“Then we took it to the guy who did the upholstery and he reroofed it,” Foss said. “One thing that I found out that made me chuckle is that everybody who restored these 33 woodies … all the guys put black tops on them. I haven’t seen another one that is tan. They are supposed to have tan tops and black wheels… The car was totally black when I bought it, except for the wood. I put it back to tan like it’s supposed to be.”

Foss said that the only “school bus” modifications that the Ford had were a sliding bolt in the doors, apparently to keep the kids from pulling the handles and falling out, and a school bus sign in the windshield. “The sign was gone, but the letters hand imprinted themselves on the glass!” Foss said.

Foss has had the car on display at the Boothbay Railway Village for “probably the last seven or eight years,” he said. And as much as he has become attached to the old Ford over the past 46 years, he said it is probably time for the car to have a new owner.

“Yeah, that’s where we are. It’s for sale,” he said. “I’ve had some offers on it, but I haven’t sold it… It’s not really a car you should be putting on the highway, you know? My friend who has the national winner trailers his everywhere. I’m not really ready to do that. But it’s just too valuable now to put out on the road. It drives great and it’s got plenty of power because it’s got the flathead V-8. The only thing that scares me are the mechanical brakes. They work good, but it’s a pretty valuable car to be out there with all the other cars. It’s insured, but it’s scary.

“I’ve had it a long time and I’ve got my heart and soul into it. For now, it’s going to stay in the museum until somebody else wants it.”

SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!

If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

The post Car of the Week: 1933 Ford Deluxe ‘woodie’ station wagon appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

Woody Rutter figures as long as he has his 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe wagon around, some of his favorite childhood memories will never be far from his mind. Even today, more than a half century after he spent summers with his grandmother, bouncing over the bumpy Nantucket Island roads, he can still sense those same familiar summertime aromas and enjoy the same good vibrations the Plymouth offered so long ago.

“I get in it, and it smells the same … You get in and all of a sudden your senses are triggered and your memory is triggered,” Rutter says. “It’s a Sunday afternoon and my brothers and sisters and I are riding with my grandma to go get an ice cream cone … or, of course, going to the beach in our salty swimming suits.”

Rutter, a retired private school headmaster from Beaufort, S.C., has had the big Plymouth since the late 1960s when his grandmother died, but he figures it will always be Grandma’s car. She was the one who bought it new and used it every summer for almost two decades. She had a driver who took her places in the wagon, and a grandson who loved the car as far back as he can remember.

“She was from Baltimore, and she had a summer place on Nantucket Island,” he said. “She had a neighbor across the street who was a car dealer in Youngstown, Ohio, and she ordered the car from him. He drove it to Baltimore, and she drove it to Nantucket. It was in Nantucket the whole time. It was her summer car — a beach wagon out on the dirt roads and so forth.

“Oh, I always loved it. I got my driver’s license with that car. I’ve always loved cars and loved waxing it and polishing it when I was kid. Plus, I really loved my grandmother and I loved driving around with her. She had a chauffeur, so the car was chauffeur-driven by a little old guy named William, and she’d let him take it out when he had days off on Sunday and Thursday… I remember one time he had an accident in it and he knocked a piece of wood off it!”

When his grandmother passed away in 1967, Rutter’s family bought the car from her estate and he has had it ever since. For many years, he’s been the guy nicknamed Woody who actually drives a “woodie.” “And with a name like Woody, you’ve got to have a sense of humor,” he jokes.

The “new” 1949 Plymouths didn’t actually arrive until March of that year — earlier models were actually left over from 1948. The Special Deluxe was again Plymouth’s top offering and by far its most popular for 1949. About 61,000 of the bottom-tier Deluxe models were produced compared to about 370,000 Special Deluxes. Only 3,443 were four-door, eight-passenger woodie wagons, however.

By that time, wooden wagons were an endangered species. Late in the 1949 model year, Plymouth launched its new steel-bodied Suburban wagon in the Deluxe series, and it was immediately more popular than the wooden holdovers. The following year, only 2,057 Plymouth woodies were produced, and for 1951 they were banished from the lineup.

The Special Deluxes were called the P-18 series and all four body styles — station wagon, four-door sedan, two-door coupe and two-door convertible — used wheelbases that stretched 118.5 inches, which was 7.5 inches more than the Deluxes. They all used the inline six-cylinder that had been introduced in 1932 and would last until 1959. The 1949 engine displaced 217.8 cubic inches and was rated at 97 hp. All models came with a three-speed manual.

Standard equipment on the top-end Plymouths included bright metal windshield and rear window trim moldings, mahogany-grained dashboard and garnish moldings, richer upholstery fabrics, and “Special Deluxe” front fenderside scripts.

The big eight-passenger wagons were the most expensive cars on the menu at $2,372. They had an optional third seat and “leatherette” seat upholstery. The second and third row seats were both removable. U.S. Steel & Forging Co. constructed the bodies with an all-steel roof. The upper hatch and roof pillars were made of wood, as were the doors. The panels were either Honduras mahogany or maple plywood. The frame pieces were built from white ash.

The spare tire enclosuse was integrated in the tailgate and the wagon bumpers were a combination of three pieces, with the middle piece hinged so it could drop down when the tailgate was open. Options included an electric clock, one of two push-button radios, turn signals, sun shades, bumper and grille guards, heater and defroster.

“It’s very well engineered, I think. Very well engineered,” Rutter said. “It has that old flathead six that Chrysler used for years, and it’s very reliable … The suspension is good, it’s very comfortable. It doesn’t corner very well, of course, but it’s a very heavy car, so it sways a lot when you turn.

“It doesn’t have power steering, of course, and it’s got a large steering wheel with a horn ring in the middle and so if you’re not moving, it’s pretty hard work, but once you’re moving, it handles very well. I just lubricated it and changed the oil and rotated the tires and it’s running well … It drives very comfy. I’m sure it goes faster, but I try not to take it over 60. I wouldn’t hesitate to take it on the interstate, although I don’t do it very often.”

Rutter said the car was a true “family” car for years after his grandmother’s passing, serving three families when they visited Nantucket from “1967 until about 1980. Then I decided I needed to slowly put some money into it. I was a teacher and I drove it from Nantucket to Salsbury, Conn., and I had a local mechanic do little bits and pieces. We did the radiator, brakes and some other things. I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on it, so I had to do it kind of piece meal.”

After he retired, Rutter decided to spruce the old Plymouth up a bit further. He had the car’s aging woodwork re-done at a shop in Ocala, Fla., the rusting floors fixed and some of the body repainted. “But I don’t think the roof has ever been painted,” he noted. “The wood panels were pretty stained and cracking. Otherwise, the wood, which is all ash, is all very sound. It doesn’t look like a new car, but it looks in great shape.

Rutter said he finally “broke down” and had the leatherette upholstery re-done last summer. “The original interior had a hole in the driver’s side, but otherwise it was amazing,” he said. “We used exactly the same material.”

The car doesn’t have seat belts or turn signals, and aside from the seat upholstery and headliner, not much has changed inside. “It has the lovely faux woodgrain dashboard, which is quite elegant for what was an economy car back in those days,” Rutter noted. “It does not have a third seat. It’s got a heater, defroster and radio. It’s got the original ivory Bakelite door knobs for window cranks …. It was the top-of-the-line Plymouth in those days, but it was certainly not a Chrysler Town and Country.”

Rutter laughs about the odometer — it was broken for about 30 years, and he isn’t sure how many miles the car has actually traveled. “It has 72,000 miles on it. After I had the odometer fixed, I’ve probably added another 10,000 miles. It doesn’t have too many miles because Nantucket is not very big.”

“Woody and his woodie” are having more fun than ever these days in their car hobby activities. The car has twice been a visitor on car club day at the Hilton Head Concours, where it has won an award, and the pair are die-hard members of the local Low Country Oyster and Motorcar Driving Society. In spite of the trophies, Rutter has never tried to pass his Plymouth off as a show car. He likes being able to go cruising anytime he wants without fretting about getting it dirty or piling up more miles. He keeps the car running and in nice shape so he can drive it. The car has always been the family beach wagon, and Rutter intends to keep driving it in the same spirit.

“But when I go to shows, I love parking it next to the Rolls-Royces and the Morgans and Maseratis,” Rutter chuckles. “Hilton Head is a pretty spiffy place and there are a lot of nice cars.

“But mine is usually the only woodie!”

Got a car you’d like us to feature as our “Car of the Week“? We want to hear from you! E-mail us and tell us all about it.

_____________

The post Car of the Week: 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe ‘Woodie’ appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.