FROM BASKET CASE TO WOODEN WONDER
Rare 1952 Buick Super Estate Wagon is set to take Calgary’s World of Wheels by storm
It took a quarter of a century for this 1952 Buick Super Estate Wagon to appear at the World of Wheels.
For the past 25 years the car has been a work in progress for Rob Rees. After putting on the finishing touches late last year, Rees is pleased to display what he considers automotive artwork from a bygone era. It’s his hope that younger showgoers will appreciate the unique design of the car.
“I can’t say I spent 25 years on that car only,” Rees says from his Calgary garage. “There were other projects in between, but that particular wagon was always in the background.”
Rees says he’s worked on cars since his high school days, including a number of 1955 Chevys, a Ford truck, and several British sports cars. But it wasn’t until he was searching for a restoration project in the early 1990s that he discovered big old Buicks.
Initially, Rees had answered an ad in the Bargain Finder for a 1951 Monarch woody wagon. He couldn’t negotiate a deal on that particular car, but in the process became aware of a derelict 1952 Buick wagon in the seller’s backyard.
“It was a basket case and I’m not sure what planet I was on when I bought that car,” Rees says with a chuckle.
The Buick Super Estate Wagon of 1952 is a rare car. Rees says there were only 1,641 built in a year when Buick’s total production run was 303,745 cars. Unlike every other Buick that has a body constructed by General Motors’ supplier Fisher Body, the wood and metal wagon bodies came from specialty manufacturer Ionia Mfg. Co. of Ionia, Michigan.
Ionia constructed and then shipped the wagon bodies to Buick’s factory in Flint, Michigan where they were installed onto the Super Convertible chassis. Wagon and convertible Buicks shared the same drivetrain, with a 263-cubic inch straight-eight engine.
What set the wagon apart are the wood components of the body, which include all of the pillars aft of the A-pillar, or windshield post. The rear liftgate and tailgate are constructed entirely of wood, and Rees says some of the complicated mortise and tenon joints would haunt many a woodworker.
However, with some optimism, Rees started to chip away at his wagon. While working on the car he made contact with a 1952 Buick wagon owner in Vancouver. Rees visited and took hundreds of photographs to document how the car was constructed and planned to use the images in his restoration process.
Shortly after, though, Rees was offered the Vancouver wagon and he bought it. “It was in better shape but there was still a lot of work to do,” Rees says.
The story is now about two wagons, one Rees calls the “scabby” wagon, with body number 616, and the other is the “restoration” wagon from Vancouver, as seen in the photos, with body number 660. He sourced parts and parts cars (Buick sedans shared many components) and restored many of the sub-assemblies for both wagons.
His major hurdle, however, was the wood. Rees bought a kit that was to provide all the necessary pieces, but nothing fit accurately. To help him, Rees took cabinetmaking courses at SAIT and a woodcarving class. He further enlisted the help of local craftsman John Morel to completely replicate the wooden lift and tailgate assemblies. It’s a job Morel competently finished, but told Rees he wouldn’t tackle another.
Rees took many pieces of the leftover wood and began installing it on the 616 “scabby” car, with plans to eventually sell it as a rolling project. But as he got confident with the wood, it energized him to finish the 660 “restoration” car.
“I kept 616 and took some artistic licence in its completion,” Rees says. “It’s got some custom parts and pieces on it, and is painted matte black.
“With that car finished, when I got to working on the good wagon, it all went together click, click, click.”
That’s not to say Rees didn’t have lots of help. For example, Ted Weale and Ray Clement of Calgary provided expert machining and assembly assistance with the straight-eight engine and Dyna-Flow automatic transmission.
The frame was powder coated by Top Gun Coatings, and Rick Pikulski of Car Gone By in Mossleigh completed the paint and metal bodywork while two separate upholsterers, Ron Tkachuk and Mike Szuch, looked after interior details.
Finally, because many pieces of the Buicks are big and heavy, Rees’s friend Daryl Baxter lent a hand during final assembly.
“I’ll drive the ‘scabby’ wagon in town and go anywhere in it,” Rees says of the finished car, but adds, “I’d be nervous about driving the good wagon.”
Rees’s Buick will be one of more than 250 special-interest cars at the 52nd annual World of Wheels this year.
I can’t say I spent 25 years on that car only. There were other projects in between, but that particular wagon was always in the background.