Projects 1956 Chevy Carryall new wood body

Brilliant joinery!
Its a big job but you are kicking ash!
All the best from an appreciative violinmaker.
GB

 

WOW amazing craftsmanship thank you for sharing

 

The three front pieces have been copied and fit to the truck. Still some cleaning up to do but that will wait till the side rails are made.

 

this is a 'must watch' history lesson!-feels like we are back at the carrel co.!

 

I've never seen wood "Machined" are the cutters the same as metal work or a totally different deal. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

Bob

 

What a fantastic build. Woodworking is a lot more of a stressful endeavor as you only get to cut once. Please keep the updates coming on this build. Always wanted to build a woodie hot rod.

 

Not really much different than cutting with a router, just more controlled. I have a vertical mill that I cut a lot of wood on. The cutting inserts I use are made for cutting aluminum. The tooth profine is very similar to a tool designed for wood cutting, the main difference is speed, you turn the tool faster in wood.

 

Amazing... absolutely amazing!

 

WOW! Amazing craftsmanship! How did you learn these skills?

 

Learned as a result of not being smart enough to say NO! Someone asked me if I could build a wood body for a car he was considering buying and I said I could, without really knowing weather I could or not. He called my bluff and bought the car, and I had to figure it out. I'm not aware of any place that teaches this kind of woodwork, but neither am I aware of any of todays youth that are interested in learning it.

 

First car, before and after. Did not reuse any of the original wood.

 

This. Is. Rad.
Woody wagons have been on my mind!
Favourite current build.

 

Like a giant gun stock duplicator! Really extremely nice work!

 

My question is: is the truck frame rigid enough that the wood won't be "worked" / flexed during driving?

...that would be a shame...

 

Excellent craftsmanship!

 

If anyone on this site is in the Connecticut area, this Saturday July 12th is Woodies at Mystic Seaport. Woodies will be on display on the Mystic Seaport Village Green from 10:00AM until 3:00PM.

 

Had to look, glad I did, thanks 4 sharing!

 

The frame on this truck is at least as rigid as anything the wood station wagons were built on so I don't expect any problems. The wood bodies definately do move, They tend to be somewhat "creaky" when driven. I try to isolate the wood parts as well as I can to try to keep it to a minimum, but it's still there.

 

It still strikes me as slightly odd to think that at one time auto body repair shops probably had a skilled carpenter or wood worker on staff. Or were these kinds of repairs handled by the metal workers as well? Did the auto makers supply some "rough fit" wood framing, or was everything custom made on-site from stock lumber?

 

Well.......I know Ford had service parts available, at least for the Iron Mountain cars. Probably ran enough parts while the line was set up to build the cars plus some spares. I've seen pictures of the inside of the Iron Mountain plant, think of the number of individual parts in a wood car body and a seperate line for each one such that you could put a rough piece of wood in one end and spit a finished part out the other. As far as the coach builders, and there were quite a few of them, building bodies for everyone but Ford, I really don't know. It would make sense that service parts might have been part of a contract. As far as the skill level of the guys actually doing the repair work, I guess that would depend on the owner of the shop. The repair work that I see tends to be of a poor quality, but a repair made from factory service parts should appear to me to be all original. I doubt that any dealerships or auto body shops were set up be able to repair wood bodies from scratch, once the service parts were gone. I suspect that if you wrecked one you were on your own.

 

can't believe

def time for someone to chime in here-where is some old timers who worked in bodyshops in the 50-60's and had to fix some?--JUST asked tardel this exact ? a couple of days ago!

 

I'd guess that there were more wood craftsmen across the country in the first half of the century.
I'd also guess that Woodies in general were wealthy or business owned, higher cost vehicles that required more maintenance and upkeep, meaning that they had connections in place. It would be interesting to see insurance data on them, as far as miles traveled, accident rates and value over time (depreciation).
The change from new prized possessions to cheap surf wagons was a different arc than the same YMM sedan. By the 60s, they were already either at the bottom of value due to condition or a niche collectable.