1950 Plymouth Wood Repair

[NewOldWood]

Most of the cars I do are full wood replacement but occasionally I get into some repair work. The owner of this car has had it for quite a long time and has racked up quite a few tens of thousands of miles in that time. The wood is mostly original but showing its age. He likes the aged look of the car so the object is to retain as much of that as possible. I'm getting close to having the back of the car wrapped up, all of the door frames will need at least some work and all of the panels will be replaced. These pictures are of the passenger side quarter panel, the drivers side was much the same condition.

[46 woodie]

As usual N.O.W., another beautiful job. I give the owner a lot of credit for driving his car and as you know Mother Nature isn't too kind to Woodies. Get caught in the rain a few times and sooner or later it will show itself. After twenty years and about 50,000 miles I needed to replace the entire rear header in my '46 Station Wagon because of rain migration. 

[NewOldWood]

2 hours ago, 46 woodie said:

As usual N.O.W., another beautiful job. I give the owner a lot of credit for driving his car and as you know Mother Nature isn't too kind to Woodies. Get caught in the rain a few times and sooner or later it will show itself. After twenty years and about 50,000 miles I needed to replace the entire rear header in my '46 Station Wagon because of rain migration. 

Couldn't agree more, I like to see them used. In exchange for the trouble and expense of replacing a roof header you got decades of memories. How do you put a price on that?

[NewOldWood]

The back of the car is wrapped up. Started on the drivers rear door. All the joints were loose so disassembly was pretty easy. The piece that goes around the rear fender was too far gone to save so had to make a new one. The rest of the pieces I was able to repair. The center panel, like all of them, will be new.

[NewOldWood]

[kgreen]

nice joint work.  that's where I'll be challenged.

[NewOldWood]

Drivers side rear door is complete and back on the car. The passenger side was more of the same, the frame and panels are currently being varnished.

[NewOldWood]

As you can see from the earlier pictures, the curved piece of the door in front of the fender is new wood. I'm pretty happy with how well it blends in with the old wood. The rest of the door, with the exception of a little patch work and the panels, is original wood. Sometimes you get lucky!

[NewOldWood]

Passenger front door. I think this is the worst of the four, or hoping anyway, still have one more to go. And yes, the duct tape really was the only thing keeping that piece of wood from falling off the car.

[NewOldWood]

Passenger rear door is done and back on the car. Passenger front door has three coats of varnish on it. I am working on the drivers front door frame now. It's not nearly as rough as the passenger side door was, it'll have varnish on it soon. Still have to make the panels for it.

[Tom Boehm]

You save as much original wood as possible. The new piece matches the grain direction on the front door. Always enjoy your posts. 

[PhilWood54]

Nice looking repairs on the door, David.  My dad (who i learned woodworking from) was a pattern maker at the Bethlehem Steel Company in the fifties and they called any patches "dutchmen".   I wonder if that was a regional term or if it applied to all patches in woodworking.

[Tom Boehm]

I remember Norm Abram on "The New Yankee Workshop" TV using that term for a spliced in piece of wood repair. He was from Massachusetts. 

 

This is a tangent but several years ago a new acquaintance was showing me his woodshop. Despite having lots of nice equipment, I was most impressed with his autographed picture of Norm Abram hanging in the shop. 

Edited November 25 by Tom Boehm (see edit history)

[NewOldWood]

On 11/25/2024 at 3:16 PM, PhilWood54 said:

Nice looking repairs on the door, David.  My dad (who i learned woodworking from) was a pattern maker at the Bethlehem Steel Company in the fifties and they called any patches "dutchmen".   I wonder if that was a regional term or if it applied to all patches in woodworking.

I got started in woodworking back in the 80s at a boatyard in Florida. The term "dutchman" was commonly used to describe a patch or spliced in repair. I don't know the origin of the term but wouldn't doubt that it goes back to the early days of wood ship building.