Cars
Ever since my dad put the three of us kids in the rumple seat of a Franklin coupe and drove us to the North Shore Old Car Club shows did I enjoy old cars and the comrade they bring with like-minded owners. As a pre-teen I enjoyed seeing the West Coast custom car magazines with the tips on how to do it yourself. The Renderings always fascinated me especially the exploded views brought a wonderment of how did they do that. My first part time job was pumping gas, washing windows and checking tires at Verge’s Esso.
In my late 30’s after closing my prop shop I visited the Bennington, Vermont large classic car show and spotted a ’51 Ford Country Squire in the car coral. It took three month to convince the true Yankee, Howard Towne to sell me the Woodie wagon…and then he delivered it. It was some experience converting a mid-century car to modern power, 12 volt electrics, updated drive train and new windows plus paint. The curved wood was rotted at the intersections and inset paneling was ultimately replaced by Doug Carr Woodies in CA. I got to French the headlights, nose the hood, pair of tunneled antenna, smoothed the grille with a period Cal Custom bar and added finned engine accessories with a Caddy air filter and gold color engine to dress up the car. A hand made chrome towel bars replicating a rare factory option, seatbelts for safety and new carpet finished the inside. It was driven to shows in New England, NY, and out to Indy to drive around the Brickyard Raceway.
As I live in the official “Birthplace of the American Station wagon” I continued making woodies with the next ’46 Ford “crate”. This was a basket case where I bought a rock maple tree, had it cut at Markham Mill into planks and killed dries to 17% moisture content. The wood took two years to build every stick with a lot of help from CT. The frame was boxed and a 700R4 overdrive transmission and narrowed Ford 9 inch rear end plus TPI independent suspension with disc brakes was added. A healthy Chevy 350 motor with air conditioning provided plenty of go power. A ’54 Ford domed dash was narrowed 6” and engine turned gage cluster with Steward Warner gages subtly changed the interior look. New upholstery wood slat roof with 6 coats of marine varnish added pizzazz.
For ten years while working on the project cars I drove a ’38 Ford pickup truck with a short bed as a parts chaser. It carried trannies, engines, Christmas trees and occasional groceries as needed. Legendary East Coast hot rod builder Brad Barrows bought it and chopped the top, added a ’36 nose and made this truck into his personal special.
I tried my hand modifying a ’53 Chevy pickup truck, a ’42 Ford convertible custom and a few other vehicles in order to expand the design vocabulary to continue to create classic period pieces.