NewOldWood

This was gone a little longer than I thought it might be, but it's back. Lots to do. Spring is in the air, owners are anxious, and life gets hectic.....

Drivers side quarter panel frame is done, still have the panel and inside trim but those are for later. Passenger side will be the same routine except that the original piece is missing the back section so will have to wing it there.

Just renewed my subscription. Money well spent!

Appears as though street racing is at least 100 years old. And aparantly fun for the whole family.

This site is much more oriented towards restoration than modification, you are going to get more people trying to talk you out of it than you are people trying to help you with it. I say it's your car and do what you want with it, but a place like the HAMB would be much more receptive to your project than this will be. Also, the wood body on your car is really not relevant to the kind of mechanical modification you want to make. Good luck!

A left instead of a right...etc,etc. There must be an infinite number of ways to screw up because I'm still finding new ones! There is a thread on here from a while ago about veneering a T&C trunk panel, that's the car.

What they should do is remove enough material from the mating surface of the cap to make the bore slightly undersize, then bore it back to original spec.

Working my way around the fender and along the roof line. There are five pieces of wood that are finger jointed together to get around the fender and three along the roof line. None of the pieces have anything straight or square about them, lots of compound curves and angles. Getting the shape of a piece correct is just the first step, the finger joint then has to be cut at the right orientation such that it lines up with the adjoining pieces. Shaping these parts is time consuming, and the more time you get into making a piece the more costly a mistake becomes. There's no fixing an incorrectly cut finger joint, you throw the piece out and start over. Something that I like to do that was not done at the factory is to use a single board to make continuous parts such as these. I like to match grain and color as closely as I can, as opposed to randomely selected wood. This of course goes out the window if I cut a piece wrong and have to start over. Sometimes slower really is faster.

This is a Ross box used in a 1937 Gar Wood boat. It has the adjustable mounting like you mention, but no casting number on it, at least not in the same place. The guy that restored the steering wheel that was used with this box said that it was from a 1936 Hudson, or at least the wheel was.

How many working mechanics today know what a dwell meter is?

How well do the body parts line up now?

I would say your biggest hurdle is going to be the roof header. If you can successfully copy that it will be all down hill from there. Do you have a way to cut finger joints? You're going to need that for the header and the roof side rail repairs, and possibly elsewhere. I have a duplicating machine that I use for the more complex parts, like the header. These parts can be copied by hand but it is much more difficult, not what I would call an entry level project. I'm not trying to discourage you, in fact I generally try to encourage people to do their own work. I honestly believe that the reason most people think they can't do this kind of work is that they have never tried. A certain amount of natural aptitude is going to be required, but if you've got that along with a strong enough desire to see the project through.....who knows. Keep in ming that at one time Heiden, Nichols, Kline, and myself knew nothing about building wood cars. We all figured it out, it obviously can be done. I would also be happy to answer any questions you might have along the way. Just look my ad up and give me a call any time.

And if the part gets noticed at all it probably never gets a second look. People tend to be awe struck by simple things while the truly difficult work tends to get burried deep enough in the car as to go unnoticed.

Had a little issue with alignment and had to reshim the cowel to get the roof to where it needed to be. I used the original wood to get things lined up, that's why the passenger front door is on the car. With that out of the way, I got the door headers, B pillars and sills done, and am working my way around the drivers rear fender. There are five pieces of wood finger jointed together to make the finished piece, which will be the bottom piece of the quarter panel.

Marine grade Fir plywood would be a good choice. Or White Oak if it was originally a solid wood floor.

These are sills for a 41 Cadillac that I made and the original sill that I had to make them from. Computers just do what they are told, they don't compensate for rotten, missing, or warped wood. Even if the equipment to do that exists, it is going to be impractically expensive. Even in the case of custom wood bodies there are problems with working with an unstable medium such as wood that CNC operators would likely not have encountered. Building car bodies is a unique combination of art and accuracy. I have a friend who can freehand carve beautiful lifelike figures out of wood but who cannot make two pieces fit precisely together. I learned to do this type of work by doing it and as far as I know that's the only way to learn it. I have been doing it for a lot of years and so far have have found no one to pass the trade on to.

The metal is just temporary to hold the roof up while the paint work was done. The roof will be supported by the B pillars and quarter panels, which are all wood.

The boat is up near Birmingham getting the finish sprayed on. Wont have much other than assembly once I get it back. There will be updates. You're still plugging away, and that's what counts. You'll get it done one day, and all things considered I don't think your rate of progress is anything to be ashamed of. Your approach seems to be well thought out and in my opinion the workmanship is better than what I've seen come out of some professional shops. I would like to see it when it's done, I'm sure it will be exceptional!

As you probably know, T&C wagons were 41 and 42 only with similar but different wood. I've built one of each, the 41 with poor quality/incomplete wood, and the 42 from the 41 wood. That was the one that had me questioning my sanity. Not sure that question was ever answered...... I'll be posting updates once a month or so, stop back in once in a while and have a look!!

This was a complete car so I have pretty good pattern wood to work with. I've done a couple of these in the past so don't expect too many surprises.

I may be wrong but that looks more like a Campbell body than a Cantrell to me. The B&W picture is a Cantrell boby, the color picture is a Campbell. The Cantrell has a much more square top back corner. The front of the roof is taller on the Cantrell and the front door glass is shaped differently. These are both Power Wagons, both Cantrell and Campbell made bodies for Dodge.

All original except for some cockpit trim pieces of which I needed 12 and only had 10. Turned out to be a good use for the old worn out brass prop shaft. This is one of the new ones compared to one of the original cast pieces. Everything has been rechromed.

Sanding is done, finally....Hardware was installed for the trial run and have all but a few interior pieces stained. Have to finish up caulking the deck seams. then put it back on its trailer and send it off to the spray booth.

Have we talked about this? I've done a couple of these, can't imagine the T&C is any worse.