Tom Boehm

Or you could buy a Ford Explorer and add wood to it if you want a modern driving experience. That would be easier and less expensive. Sometimes I think people make this stuff up and post it to get a rise out of the purists on this forum.

"The more time you get into a piece the more costly a mistake becomes" is very true. That "measure twice cut once" adage comes into play here. I have had the router slip on the last step of a piece. I have also lost my concentration and routered in the wrong place on the last step of a piece. Is that another Town and Country in the background?

G.W, you should post your questions on the www.forabodiesonly.com forum. Those guys really know those Mopar cars inside and out. They are not reluctant to modify their cars there either. There is a section for pre 1967 A body Mopars. They were a big help to me when I got my 1973 Dart back on the road. I kept mine 100% stock. That was a rarity on that forum.

You can post your questions on the Cadillac and Lasalle club website forum. cadillaclasalleclub.org. The 1941 Cadillac remains a very popular car on the CLC forum.

Are you talking about the shift linkage or the clutch linkage or both?

I have a 1973 Dodge Dart Swinger. It had a vibration between 40 and 50 MPH that I suspected was a tire(s) out of balance. Two tire shops refused to balance the tires. The first said my tires were over six years old and they are not allowed to work with them.(he said this just seeing my car out the window) The second said they did not want to risk damage to the stock rally wheels on my car. (she said this seeing my car out the window). The third shop did it while I waited and only charged me $23.00 for about an hours work. This actually did get rid of the vibration ! ! I called them back and thanked them for the successful job. What is going on here? Balancing tires is the most simple thing they do next to putting air in. I have had several experiences lately with poor service at car repair places with my modern cars. They are getting really picky as to what they want to do. Stuff that was routine just a few years ago.

Finally some progress again! I want the seats to be ready when I finish the doors sometime this summer so I can drive the car. I took a break from the doors to prepare the wood seat frames for the upholsterer. This car had three seats originally. I have two original seats but the middle row was missing. I replaced the ends on the front and back seats as well as other minor repairs. (plugging some screw holes so new screws would hold tight.) I had to make the middle seat frame from scratch based on the dimensions and design of the other two. The middle seat is narrow to provide access to the third row. This seat is shown in the middle picture in bare ash and in the third picture finished with the sheet metal strips like the other two. (I used 87 flat head slotted wood screws in the middle seat.) The upholsterer will supply missing springs for the bottom of the front seat and the back and bottom of the middle seat. I made arrangements to deliver all three to the upholsterer next week. So I hope sometime this summer I will have doors and seats!

1960 Chevrolet Biscayne. It took me a moment to figure out the car is upside down.

Hello Alec, do you have woodworking experience? I am reproducing the wood body on my 1940 Lasalle 100%. Before I got the car I had some woodworking experience but I did not have nearly all the skills necessary to do a woodie. I made stuff with an 8" table saw and a router. To do the Lasalle I acquired a bigger table saw, a planer, a jointer, and a band saw. I took classes at Woodcraft to learn how to use them. I watched Norm Abram on the New Yankee Workshop on PBS for years till it wasn't on anymore. I'm not finished yet but I am very happy with the results. I have a high standard in mind and I will figure out a way to achieve it.

Hello Alec, how much woodwork repair does your car need and are you considering doing it yourself?

The long one on the bottom is from a 1949 Ford but it is missing 2 pieces. A chrome circle goes on the left in the crescent shaped niche and a clear plastic arc behind it.

I just encountered some rusty stuck wood screws in a wooden seat frame. I used a Craftsman screwdriver with the square shaft. I used a wrench on the square shaft to give me extra leverage while I leaned on the handle. That helped a lot.

I'm sure "NewOldWood" will comment with first hand knowledge. But, there is a story in the latest issue of the Woodie Times about the differences in construction in the Ford Sportsman and the post war Chrysler Town and Country. The Ford had a metal structure under the wood and the Chrysler was all wood, like we see in this '41/'42.

A sincere thank you for the complement from a pro.

I assume you finished the boat? I know of at least three you have completed while I am still plugging away at the doors on mine.

Very nice patina without the wood falling apart. Keep it as is. Likely a Cantrell or Campbell body. Both of these companies advertised bodies of various lengths to be mounted on Dodge, International and other truck chassis in the 1950's. Truck based woodies were produced longer than the car versions. There was another thread on a Dodge truck woodie in the National Woodie Club section of this forum recently. It sold for $12,371.00 on Ebay. The one in this thread seems to be in slightly better condition. Does the one in this thread run? If not how far away from running is it? It is hard to give a value because these are rare. Rare but not one of a kind. My opinion is $12,000 is a little high. Well under $10,000 would be more reasonable. Just an opinion with out researching. The potential buyer must like the wood the way it is because I think it is past restoring/varnishing to revive it. If you don't like the wood the way it is, replacement is the only option. If a buyer plans on replacing the wood then I think it is worth much less to that buyer.

Did you try Metro Molded Parts? https://metrommp.com/

Are you saying Hirsch does not carry fabric anymore? They are one of the only I know of other than SMS to carry prewar appropriate fabrics.

Thank you for your response. I am not in a hurry. I do not need to take the whole car.

I am looking for an upholsterer to do the three leather seats in my 1940 Lasalle woodie. Someone who has experience with pre war cars. I want this to be high quality. Maybe a 100 mile radius of Louisville. Thanks

I have a car cover from California Car Cover made of NOAH fabric. It is about 20 years old. I use it indoors. I vacuum the dust off of it about once a year. I am very happy with the car cover but I would like to clean it more. The instructions that came with it say to wash it in a big commercial washer with Fantastik as the detergent. Has anyone out there had success cleaning a car cover?

Thank you for your response. My car is a 1940 Lasalle woodie station wagon. The woodie body was custom built for the Lasalle commercial chassis in 1940. The original gutters on the car had the flap. BUT since I first posted this I looked closely and the original installer did not use the flap feature to conceal the nail heads. They just nailed through the flap and the nailheads were exposed anyway. SO I am probably going to use extruded aluminum rain gutter from Restoration Supplies that is identical to the original but without the flap. By the way, did you have to bend the aluminum gutters? How did you do that?

Hello Spanish 47, you can get the correct hood lace at "The Filling Station" www.fillingstation.com Item # FS-285 This place sells reproduction parts for Chevrolets but GM used the same part on Cadillacs and Lasalles too. I just bought a set for my 1940 Lasalle. If you respond with the engine serial number of your 36 Cadillac I can look it up and tell you which year it was made. Are you in the Cadillac and Lasalle Club? They publish a chart correlating serial numbers with year made in the membership directory.

After procrastinating for two years I have started to make the front doors. The front doors were lost by a previous owner. I did get the back doors however. I have nothing to copy. I am sculpting something to fill a space. I am using the basic design of the back doors, looking at the old photos of my car, and looking at current photos of the other Lasalle woodie in California. This is the second or third attempt I have made to make these doors. Each time I am using pine from Home Depot for the trials instead of wasting good ash. This time I worked out the profile on a sheet of 1/2" MDF and then screwed the individual pieces to that. The inside of the doors are flat and the MDF defined the inside surface, enabling me to visualize better the front post, the diagonal, and the top horizontal. All of these pieces are curved in two directions. I worked out all the details such as mortises for the hinges, mortises for tenons, where to put the joints between pieces and contours. I also made lots of full size drawings. My high school engineering drawing class has to be the most useful class I ever took, including college. I'm going to do this for the other side also. Then I have to reproduce it in ash with actual joinery.

Did you try Hirsch Auto? https://www.hirschauto.com/Upholstery-Fabrics/departments/74/