Woody-s Classic Wood-Bodied Station Wagons, Custom Sedans and More

Author David Fetherston

Published by Motorbooks

ISBN 0-7603-0014-3

Price Pre-owned from £7.67 plus p&p - Amazon Marketplace With the lockdown reducing the number of books that I've been offered for review, I have been searching through my own collection to determine whether any of my favourites published a few years ago are still available in print and if so, whether they can be found at competitive prices. I've found several, the first of which is Woodys. Published back in 1995, it's a comprehensive retrospective of woody station wagons featuring vehicles from the original Ford Model T 'Depot Hacks' to some curious pseudo-woodies of the Eighties and Nineties, with plastic wood framing and patterned 'wallpaper' panels. There's also a couple of classic-wood-sheathed sedans for good measure.

Whether it is the symbiosis of beautifully polished and grained wood with the surrounding steel, or the romantic Southern California sun, sea and surfing nostalgia that makes these unusual hybrids so attractive, is down to your personal perception but woodies in all their various connotations are perennially popular with both restorers and hot rodders. And yet they're not an easy option, as maintaining and restoring the structural wood is generally far more exacting, demanding of specialist skills and expensive than restoring a conventional metal car. This entertaining pictorial retrospective recounts the development and eventual decline of these fascinating vehicles decade by decade in more than 100 colour photos and black-and-white contemporary illustrations. These are mostly stock, with a smattering of hot rods and include the fabulous Chrysler Town & Country woody sedans and convertibles of the 1940s. The book's as fresh as when I bought it new and if you can find a decent copy at under a tenner it's a genuine bargain.