1946 Dodge Cantrell Woodie Wagon

1946 Dodge Cantrell Woodie Wagon

Another very rare station wagon. Jenay and I were driving down the California coast on a Sunday afternoon. She was driving and I was looking at the want ads. I spotted “old wooden station wagon for sale” I asked Jenay to pull over. This was before cell phones were invented. I found a phone booth and called the number. The owner described the car as having been in his barn for years. Then he surprised me by saying he actually had two of them, one for parts. The wood was solid and it ran when they parked it in there.

Guess what happened next? We made a u turn and drove a couple hours up to Sonoma, California. Wine country. I met the owner and went off with him to look at the car. When I saw the car, it was obvious to me that it had been stored there for quite a long time. And the parts car was complete, but in a million pieces.
We cut a deal and I returned in a couple weeks to trailer it home. I said to the guy helping me, “there is no winch on this trailer, and I don’t feel like trying to push this thing onto the trailer with 4 flat tires. Let’s go to PepBoys and get a battery and a little gas. Maybe it will fire up and we can drive it onto the trailer.” Boy, did the two of them laugh. Screw them. I went and got the battery, poured a little gas in the carb, turned the key, depressed the starter and BANG BANG , then Vroooooooom. Lot’s of smoke, into gear, bump, bump, bump on the flat tires, and it was loaded. No chiropractor needed.
Once home, we simply flushed out everything, did the brakes, changed the fluids, refinished the wood and here it is.

Want to know the bad part of this story????

I sold it just before Woodies became the thing to own. Every morning when I had this Woodie, I was happy. Now, there is no “morning woodie,” for more reasons than one. Woe is me!

I HOPE TO DIG OUT SOME MORE PICTURES OF THIS ONE SOON.

Click on the thumbnails below for Larger images