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-   -   Official Guess the car Thread (Please see rules on first page!) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/international-automotive-scene/6493-official-guess-car-thread-please-see-rules-first-page-85.html)

A Chysler? Then you've got me, coz I cant identify which model.

Yes it is a Chrysler. But like you, I can't identify the model.

See this picture why I said, look at the grill and hubcaps :p



Try:

ID 306: I don't know this one either. Snapped by a colleague in San Jose again. Looks to me like a one off design like the American hotrod nonsense:

Ram, V-16, where are you guys?

ID 306 is based loosely on a Model T Ford.

Whooops!! This thread seems to be really on fire.
Well ID:303 seems to be a chop shop job. The grille is nothing like i've seen on any Chrysler. See the top. It almost looks like a convertible top or a canvas top. In the 30's these cars came with only steel/metal tops. Thats one more reason which points towards my chop shop theory. The grille itself like Awini pointed out is very 36-37-38, more 37 and looks like more of a Plymouth grill. Plymouth and Chrysler did sell the same cars i different names eg the 1938 Chrysler Wimbledon was actually a Plymouth seven seater sedan.





These cars were sold in the UK as Chryslers where infact they were actually Plymouths. So I strongly suspect that this is a "Zabardasti Ka Woddy" made by one of USA's so many custom guys.

The car's looks are made to look like a 1938 Chrysler Imperial Woody Wagon see the pic below.



Cant be a town and country as these were made only from 1941.

ID:304 is a 1946 Ford super or a Ford Mercury Woody Wagon

ID:305 IS a Ford Country Squire from the looks of it a 1951 maybe. See the matching pic of a 1951 below.






ID:306 looks like a hot rod project based on Ye olde Ford-Ts

It was ID:223 .

i couldnt see the pic in detail earlier as i was in office,
if you look closely, you can make out the chev bowtie in the center of the monogramme, the mascot is surely a chev,as are the bonnet louvres, which mimic the profile of the mascot(not clearly visible because of sidemount).its a 37 chev chassis all right but i dont think they offered sidemounts even as options that year,so it may be a custom add on, also the woody body too may have been custom built. this is a higher end deluxe series chassis because the knee action coil spring front suspension is visible, the standard cars had a beam axle on "kamani pattas'.
no doubt about it ... whoever built it..its based on a 37 chev

ID:303 is a 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Woody Wagon.
The fender-skirt (Brit:spat) on the rear wheel arch is original


Ram

Well I guess we all were right. Awini and Karl both thought it was a Chevy. Awini spot on mentioned it a 37 shape.
The Chevy theory was not looked into after it was recognised to be a Chrysler. Ram rightly pointed out to it after all being a Chevy 37.

ID:303 is in fact a 1937 Chevrolet Cantrell and is in fact a coach work job and not a factory built wagon built by the Hercules-Campbell body company specialising in coach works for Chevys.
The spare tire was mounted on the side as we see because there was no other place to put it after the modification On the Cantrell, the hood hit the SideMount every time one tried to open the left side. The rear bumper appears to be same as trunkless Deluxe Sedan. The Cantrell, does not appear to have a lift gate either.




Heres the car. Maybe not the same one but a similar..a Special order Campbell I presume??


Contrary to what I thought, it had a cloth lined roof...?? beats me why but i guess it must have been the exclusivity factor

Work in progress

Gogi at his diplomatic best :D

MF, not fair, you threw us off guard! Actually that particular Chevy badge is quite deceptive, and looks remarkably like the Chrysler badge of that era.

Great research Gogi. This is probably the first time, we in Team-BHP are discussing woodies, and I'm really enjoying this.

The two major aftermarket body builders of woodies in the USA, from the 1930s to the 1950s
were

1. Hercules-Campbell MidState and
2. J.T. Cantrell & Co.

Hercules-Campbell built wooden station wagon bodies to mount on truck chassis.

The truck-based woodie station wagons were ruggedly handsome, but also more expensive than the metal-bodied factory station wagon like the Chevrolet Suburban Carryall.

The wooden station wagon bodies were built on truck chassis
for use by resort hotels in remote scenic hillstations to transport guests to and from the nearest railroad depot, and
for use as a medium capacity school bus, mostly by elite boarding schools.


The station wagon body adapted the truck to a passenger load of eight or more.
Also trucks being more stiffly sprung, also supported a reasonable amount of the hotel guests' luggage or the school athletic teams' sports equipment.

In the sanatoria and hill resorts, guests often stayed for an entire summer and packed their wardrobe in steam-ship type trunks (called steamer trunks), which had to be stacked on the tailgate. To support the weight of the luggage, the tailgates were braced with iron strapping and suspended from steel chains.

These vehicles lived hard lives and needed special care and maintenance,
annual varnishing, indoor storage in the bad weather months and regular repairing of leaky roof fabrics.

Let's move on to the car-based woodie builders.

==========================

The J.T. Cantrell company successfully spanned the era from horse drawn carriages to motorized wagons, and continued specialty building throughout its entire existence from 1905 to 1958.

When Henry Ford's Model T killed the carriage, the Cantrells built bodies for automobiles.

In 1915, J. T. Cantrell invented the station wagon on a Model T chassis, calling it a "depot wagon."


They were flooded with orders.

In 1925 the factory burned to the ground and was rebuilt in 1926.

The frame was ash with panels of mahogany veneer. The roof was constructed of weatherproofed canvas stretched over ash ribbing.

The frames on most of the pre-war bodies were constructed of either rock maple or mahogany, with panels of white birch, mahogany or cottonwood. One undesirable characteristic of rock maple was its twisting and warping with age. All wood parts were submerged in toxic wood primer to prevent dry rot. fungus and insect attack. Panels were waterproofed. The body frame was strongly steel braced throughout. All exposed joints were joined with waterproof glue. The completed body was finished with finest quality spar varnish, baked on.

Cantrell's got a competitor in 1932, by way of the Hercules-Campbell MidState company in Waterloo, New York.


They also built wooden station wagon and truck bodies.

By 1940, Campbell had an exclusive contract with GM's Chevrolet Divn. for station wagon bodies.

Production increased into thousands and the town of Waterloo, NY pulled out of the depression and enjoyed prosperity.

After WW2, complete Chevrolet cars were shipped. Campbell would cut off the bodies from and install wooden station wagon bodies. Their yards overflowed with cars and trucks, and deliveries ran 6 to 8 weeks late.

They manufactured stake-trucks, vans and special bodies, and assembled Wayne school buses.

In the winter of 1947, the plant caught fire and burned to the ground, with huge stocks of fine wood.

After complete rebuilding the plant concentrated only on truck bodies.

They used lindenwood (Tilia) and ashwood (Fraxinus) frames with waterproof philippine mahogany(Shorea) plywood panels dipped in a clear WOODLIFE preservative.

The roof covering was of cotton cloth impregnated with rubber. Under this was cheesecloth (मांजरपाठ) with blue wadding (बुड्ढी का बाल) for insulation and cushion. The wood body was also treated with plain wood filler and the paneling with mahogany wood filler, rubbed down with sea oil, a very tough woodwall stringy material, very smooth, used in place of fine sandpaper.

The wood body then got two full coats of DuPont exterior varnish. After drying, the body was lightly sand papered and a final coat of varnish was applied. Thereupon it went on to trimming and finishing and then was loaded into a goods train.

Post WW-2, there was a shortage of new cars. So a demand arose for putting station wagon bodies on used car chassis.

After 1949 the woodie station wagon business declined.

New car makers changed over to all steel bodies with pasted on wooden veneer and later even plastic stickers that only looked like wood.


Campbell went bankrupt and shut down in 1957.

Cantrell did not go bankrupt but shut down anyway in 1958.

Ram

since we are discussing woodies, i have long wanted one, chased down three..got none, when i was in college in the early nineties, i came across a 31 ford woodie close to the univ, it was dilapidated and was parked outdoors, owner didnt sell,was too 'emotionally attached" car sold to a kabari later!! the second was a real gem... an original low milage 53 buick roadmaster with an ionia woody body, a third party got "wind" of it because my broker got too greedy, apparently they struck a direct deal, and the broker got nothing...serves him right!!, third was a nice 46 ford V8 woodie but a friend wanted it too and made his offer before me,without knowing that i was interested too, so i let it go, though i could have got it if i had offered slightly more.
V16, the cloth lined roof is to cover the wooden strips running across the lenth of the roof. as most of these bodies were tailor made for various chassis, it did not make economic sense to make tooling for metal roofs to fit individual chassis. also,its way lighter than a metal roof.

i forgot about the rolls royce woodies .... i was offered two at different times, a silver ghost and later a P1, but i strongly suspected that they had locally built bodies.and i didnt want to spend so much money on something so ugly. the P1 is now sold and the woody body is now furniture, last i heard, the owner is getting a replica body made, of one of Maharaja vizianagaram's rolls'

First of all, the OEM supplied the vehicles to Campbell/Cantrell without roofs.
The Campbell/Cantrell were not geared up to do any sheet metal forming. They covered the roof with rubber-impregnated canvas. Under it was cheesecloth with fibre wadding for insulation and cushioning.

Gogi, if you remember our old Chevrolet and Fargo (Don Bosco and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour) school buses . They were built that way. Completely handmade from the cowl backward with teak frames and riveted aluminum sheeting for the sides and rubberized fabric roof.

Due to a shortage of new automobiles during WW2, old sedans were converted into station wagons. The car would be cut in two, the chassis and propeller shaft extended and strengthened, and woodwork built to cover the sectioned area.

So obviously no metal roofs.

Ram, you never cease to amaze me with your repertoire of car history.:Cheering:
I remember absolutely these buses. I was getting a ride to and fro from school in these buses. The Chevrolet was a petrol engined bus. Getting nostalgic now