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U.S.BODY AND FORGING WOODIES


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I was raised in Frankfort Indiana where U.S. Body and Forging made woodys from 1937 until 1949-50. A few years back I started asking questions at the library trying to discover what brands they made. I have lived in Texas, 1200 miles from Frankfort for over 40 years, I attempt to learn more each time I visit Frankfort.

This past year, the old factory at 555 Holk ave was leveled. With each passing year we loose more of the history.

As most of you know they made mainly Plymouths. I have talked with severl "old timers" that worked at the plant, many moved there from Tell City Indiana when that plant was flooded in the Spring of 1937.

Everyone in Frankfort referred to the plant as USHCO and that was the name on the entrance. U.S. Body and Forging was apparantly a division or department and the old guys said they never heard of that name. This was one problem I had in find information. USHCO was used by the company starting sometime in the late 30's, and unlike corporate changes today, building and stationary might have either the USHCO name or the old name of U. S Hame Co. Yes, they made horse hame, before making car bodies. The parent company in Buffalo was where the "forged" parts were made....hinges, latches, etc After wooden bodies stopped Buffalo continued to make forged tools.

Sorry about the rambling.... all of this is now common knowledge. The big unknown is what other brands of wood bodies

did they produce in Frankfort? There was a Willys in Collectable Automobile last month. A Studebaker owner sent me a picture of a 1937 Studebaker with a USHCO body on the Express P/U chassis. There is some chance they made a few bodies for other independent manufacturers.

If you own or have a good photo of a woody made by U.S. Body & Forging (USHCO) please post it or send directly to me at (Barney@texas.net) I will add it to my archives.

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Guest Rob McDonald
all of this is now common knowledge

Not at all! This is top rank research from original sources, building a great story. Thanks for making a sub-hobby out of it.

A USB&F-bodied Plymouth. And for those of us non-agricultural types, unfamiliar with the term "horse hames", they're the side bars of a draft horse collar.

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Guest plymouthwoody
[ATTACH=CONFIG]198976[/ATTACH]

I cant recall if this is a us body and forging or not?

the car is a 36 plymouth.. owned by a good friend and woodie club member.

I've dubbed it the "awesome Plymouth"

Yes it was... The first woodie was the 1934 Plymouth. They shipped the chassis to the U.S. Body & Forging Company plant at Tell City, Indiana. and installed a station wagon body on the Deluxe PE chassis. wood body was constructed of cottonwood panels. Only 35 were built and unfortunately, none survive today. The price was $820 FOB and the only color offered was black. The same configuration was used in 1935 and 1936. http://plymouthwoodys.com/history.php

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Guest 36woodie

By 1936, maybe all plymouth woodies were not based on the Delux series. The car that has been pictured is mine and had a single windshield wiper, painted windshield frame, and did not have the hash marks on the headlamp stands. Jay

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  • 9 months later...

The attached should be of interest to you. I have had 34 Plymouths for years and the 34 Plymouth 'Woody' has always been a favorite. As set forth above, none of the 35 manufactured apparently have survived. There are hardly even any pictures of them and we have mostly the Bette Davis 'Dark Victory' clips of the 34 PE Plymouth woody to confirm their existence. More direct to your point, attached are photos of a sales brochure from Plymouth/US Body and Forging for the 34 PE woody--this is the only documentation I have ever been able to find. Hope it helps. SMB

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  • 2 weeks later...

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