Rare, near-perfect Ford De Luxe woody made even better
EDITOR’S NOTE >> David Krumboltz’s regular column is on hiatus until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its place, we’re running some of Dave’s favorite past columns. This one originally ran in September 2018.
Frequently I am asked where I find these unique cars I write about. I go to car shows, and I get some emails from owners, but sometimes, like with today’s feature, I see them driving down a street, make a quick Uturn, and follow them. Walnut Creek resident Gerry Ghio, the rightly proud owner of this issue’s beautifully restored 1940 Ford De Luxe woody station wagon, was eager to talk about his car.
Wood-bodied station wagons have been around a long time. Originally woodbodied wagons were called “depot hacks” as they were fairly utilitarian but stillattractive vehicles that hotels and resorts used for hauling people and luggage from train depots to their destinations. They were all wood from the cowl back except for the rear fenders.
The use of wood for vehicles goes way back, as all the buggies and horsedrawn wagons were made of wood, as were boats and even airplanes. Almost all U.S. auto manufacturers made woody wagons, but Ford was definitely the leader. In 1920, Henry Ford bought more than 400,000 acres of forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as his supply of wood for his vehicles.
There were 15 million Model T vehicles built between 1908 to 1927, and it is estimated that each vehicle used more than 250 board feet of lumber. Most
competitive automakers provided the chassis, front fenders, hood, grille and front windshield to outside body builders to make their woody wagons but not Ford. They did it all themselves.
Even though woody wagons were usually the most expensive model in the line, it was never a very profitable vehicle for the manufacturers. It was labor-intensive, including hand assembly, requiring more than 150 different sizes and shapes of wood plus hundreds of different parts. After the wood body was completed, it was varnished and sanded several times to get a uniform look. The wood added 200 to 300 additional pounds to each vehicle. These were status vehicles, and rich folks liked them. The last true
Ford woody was made in 1948. The 1949 to 1951 Ford woody wagons were wood attached to steel bodies, and after that the wagons were all steel.
“I started looking for woodies,” Ghio said, “but they were too much money. I love the 1940 Ford coupe, but they were too small to take the grandkids. About a year ago, I looked on ‘Auto Trader’ and saw this woody on the first day it was offered. When I saw this one, I couldn’t pass it up.”
This issue’s 1940 Ford woody was in Southern California. Ghio had a friend who called his friend, who knew about woodies and lived near where the car was.
“He’s back on the phone a half-hour later and says, ‘It’s the nicest wood job I’ve ever seen.’ The next day we
negotiated an agreement.”
That was on a Friday, and the following Monday Ghio and his son flew to Southern California to pick up the car and drove it home that night. The car was listed for $69,950, and Ghio negotiated the price down to $64,000.
“It was worth $85,000 the day I bought it,” Ghio claims.
The fire-engine-red woody has a brand new 350-cubic-inch Chevy V8 engine, all chromed, with a matching automatic transmission. Ghio, who has worked on cars since he was a kid, has made this near-perfect vehicle even better by adding air conditioning and cleverly turning the old ash trays into A/C vents on each end of the dashboard. He also installed LED turn signals,
parking lights and a Sirius radio designed for boats just above the windshield.
Most cars of this vintage had a manually operated air scoop just in front of the windshield, as does this Ford. But with the A/C installed under the dash, there was no room for the handle to open that scoop. So Ghio motorized it.
“I think right now it is worth close to $100,000,” he said. “It has front power disc brakes, independent Mustang II front suspension, power steering, leather seats and all the bells and whistles.”
The car even has an illuminated gear indicator built into the dashboard above the speedometer.
“There were 8,000 of these originally manufactured. There’s got to be less than 1,000 left,” Ghio says.
Not only were they the most expensive models to buy, they were the most expensive to maintain. Almost everything is wood, inside and out; even the headliner is wood slats. And all the wood is maple, probably better wood than the factory-original stock. Ghio has elected, at least so far, not to install the spare tire on the back tailgate as was standard “because the wood looks so nice.” Will he keep it forever? That probably depends on the kids and grandkids.