NewOldWood

Sorry for the delay, moving my shop again and things are somewhat chaotic right now. The pictures are the car in its current state, right? Assuming that new paint is part of the overall plan, I would approach it something like this. First thing to do is to build the roof. I have never worked with one of their kits so dont know how much work is going to be required to fit the pieces, but that needs to be done first. Once the roof is on, I would go through the doors, quarter panels, and tailgate and make any repairs that were needed, loose joints, damaged missing or rotten wood, and make everything line up as well as you can. There are limitations here, depending on the condition of the wood, but you can move things around too by playing with the hinge pockets, or moving the dovetails and strikers. It's a fussy trial and error process, but not really too bad. Once all the building, repair, and allignment work is done I would remove everything from the car, this is a very good time to paint the cowl, floorpans, etc. The finish prep is going to be MUCH easier to do on the bench. If you decide on a clear coat finish, it will have to be sprayed, it cannot be applied with a brush, and a brushed varnish finish will be much easier to do and will come out better if done laying flat. Doing the finish work with the panels in place should be avoided if at all possible. The clear vs varnish question is a preference thing. Clear coat has no color at all, it can be applied over some stains, but I would recommend a sample to make sure you dont have any compatibility problems. Do not try to use clear over new varnish, you can get away with it over old fully cured varnish but new is too soft. The Power Wagon I recently did was clear over stain. Clear is much easier to work with, it dries over night to something you can actually sand instead of the gooey mess that varnish remains for what seems like weeks, but if you like the look of varnish, varnish is really the best way to get it. That's it in a nutshell, I'm sure there will be many more questions. Sometimes a conversation works better, you can ring me up at 205-565-7571 for another month or so, I'm a landline kind of guy so will have a new number after the move.

I think that the value of a restored or modified car has more to do with the quality of the work than the nature of it, but if you don't plan on ever selling it just do what makes you happy. You say you enjoy driving old cars, so what is it about driving them that produces the enjoyment? The answer to that question will go a long way towards telling you what, if anything, you want to change about the car. When you get around to the wood work I'd be happy to provide any advice I can. It's free of charge and guaranteed to be worth at least what it cost. Good luck! Have fun!!

Sprayed a couple coats of clear on these and finally getting them installed.

A little contrast, the old vs the new.

The floor is Ash. The reasons they had for using White Oak for the flooring when these were new don't really apply so much today. The finish is done before the floor is installed. I tape off the top edge, put a big enough bead of caulk on the edge of the board to fill the gap and squeeze out a little bit, then install the boards. I use a spoon to trowel the joint off then carefully remove the tape. Quality on the wood bodied cars is all over the map, i've seen a lot of things that have made me roll my eyes. Not sure if the finished product had something to do with the quality, maybe the car bodies were built to a better standard than the utility truck bodies. Maybe being a 41 model had something to do with the quality of yours, a lot going on that year. Overall though I would say that from a structural standpoint, Ford built the best wood bodies.

Either clamp or glue blocks to either side of the joint and use them to clamp the joint together. Be careful gluing it off the car, don't want to try to reinstall it and find that the end of the board opposite the finger joint has shifted by 1/2". Whenever possible I glue things on the car, guarantees that everything is where it should be.

A quick Saturday afternoon time filler. I needed some armrest/door pulls for a semi-custom thing I'm doing and couldn't find anything I liked. My first attempt was similar to these but with a padded upholstered top. I couldn't get the leather to take the shape of the part (maybe because i'm not an upholsterer?) so gave up and settled on these instead. Still need to be made shiny.

Thanks Jeff. I replaced the wood in the cab of a 34 Packard a few years ago. Quite a bit different than your 48 but similar to this door in that it was a wood framed body with hand formed aluminum over it. Actually more difficult to do than an uncovered wood part. When this door was originally built the sheet metal was installed over a fully assembled wood frame and crimped around the edges, covering most of the fasteners holding the wood together. In order to rebuild it without completely seperating the sheet metal parts I had to build it a little differently than it was done originally.

Just finishing up new wood for the back door from a 39 sedan delivery. Before and after shots.

Between the floor boards is a caulk that I found at McMaster with physical properties I wanted in a color I could live with. Everything (ceiling included) is finished in an automotive clear. The floor is matte, the rest is gloss.

The heavy sanding is finally done, the last batch of parts may even be out of the spray booth by now. Got a good start on the final assembly, pretty good ways to go yet though.

Is this what you're taking about?

I make my own panels using epoxy and a vacuum press. The process does a good job of filling the grain in the veneer. No filler was used on the Ash, clearcoat fills the grain much the same way as varnish does, just much easier to sand between coats.

Sanding, and lots of it.....Worked a few other details in for an occasional break. Installed electric wiper motors, reworked the trans tunnel, installed a new windshield, etc.. But mostly sanding. Not done yet but the end is in sight. Hope to get the floor boards back from the spray booth tomorrow and can finally get to reassembling this thing. Getting the first look at what the colors will be, don't know what the computer will do to them but in person I think they look good. The fabric in the last one is the leather that the seats were done in.

I'm working on a 49 Special Deluxe woodie wagon and need door parts, strikers, dovetails, etc... Is anyone selling reproductions of these parts?

Very nice! Hard to see the wood from that angle though............

Thanks Tom! The veneer is Sapele. I like to use it because it looks nice and I can get it in 1/16" thickness. Mahogany veneered plywood is typically about 1/42". I get it from a place called Certainly Wood. I cut the plywood close on the saw and finish fitting it into the openings by hand, then glue the veneer on. The panels in the window openings are glass patterns. The finish will be an automotive clear and will be sprayed, I am going to stain the wood first. Still working up a color.

Getting very close to pulling it apart for the finish work. Still have two panels to veneer and some final fitting, next month or two will be much chaos and not many pictures.

He gave this to you as a thanks for clearing the yard, right??

The only parts I have used from the original body were the window regulators. The door latches are mini bear claw latches that I had to modify to fit in the door rails and work with the original inside and outside handles. The liftgate handles are modified Model A Ford parts from Ecklers, the latches I found on the internet and the catches I made from stainless and will be polished. The tailgate hardware is not done yet but will be a combination of internet sourced and home made hardware. I had to make all of the interior brackets. The back door is hung on a set of NOS front door hinges that with some cutting, bending, and welding I was able to make work. The hinges on the tailgate/liftgate are stainless piano hinge from McMaster Carr. I generally use slotted oval head screws anywhere that will show, and have been getting them from an ebay seller named Lightning Stainless (don't know if they sell outside of ebay or not), wood screws, sheet metal screws, machine screws...pretty much anything in any size.

Tailgate and liftgate are mostly done. Have been finishing up the interior as well, inside panels for the quarters, brackets, door jambs etc..Wont be too much longer before it's time to start taking it back apart.

Very nice, the last picture in particular, the grain didn't line up that way by accident. Gross mismatches in grain and color stick out like a sore thumb to me. Gaps look nice too, although I hope you're going to open them up some.

I've built a couple Spotsmans and have pictures of the process. Here are some of the body without the wood. I have more, be glad to talk to you too if that would help.

The back door is done and the spare tire mount is finished. Moving on to the tailgate.

The glass should not fit tight in the frame, on the other hand you don't want it to leak or rattle, so something has to take up the space. If you have any of the original wood left and can determine how big the original channel was, that would give you an idea of what was used. If you don't want to use a rubber channel you could glaze it in with something like silicone.