Long before the environment became a cause, "green" vehicles—in the guise of family station wagons—trolled American roadways. Never mind that their engines weren't carbon-free; their bodies were largely constructed of a biodegradable and renewable resource: wood.
"These cars are organic. We're organic," Craig Johnson, president of the National Woodie Club, says of the biological bond between woodie owners and their vintage automobiles. "I know it sounds like My Mother the Car, but I'm not truly insane."
Nowhere is this more evident than at the annual Doheny Wood show in Dana Point, California, where this year 145 woodies lined up on the beach despite early storms. (Buffed and varnished birch does not take kindly to pelting, 60-mile-an-hour rain.) The hard-core collectors came a day early and ate fish tacos, sipped homemade "voodoo" punch, and cruised around drizzly streets in their woodpiles.
The Ford Motor Company's Model T, along with luxury estate wagons of the early 20th century and the converted flatbed trucks or "depot hacks" used to ferry passengers and luggage to and from train stations, had some wood components. But the first true woodie—the Model A—rolled off the assembly line in 1929 and sold for $695. Throughout the thirties and forties, other major makers followed suit, from Chevrolet to Packard and even Rolls-Royce. Most contracted out wood construction to old carriage-makers, who were able to customize bodies to buyers' specifications. Following World War II, which swallowed up metal supplies, lumber was just as enticing—frames, door panels, tailgates, and trunks were all timber. "Remove all that wood and all you'd have left was a couple of bolts, a windshield, the hood, and the seats," notes Jim Cocores, who organized the first Doheny Wood in the early nineties.
Ron Heiden, who began restoring wooden cars in Encinitas, California, 23 years ago, now has a two-year waiting list for clients. "One of the reasons there are more Fords with the original wood out here is Ford used closed grains," he says, referring to the Eastern hard-rock maples the company grew on its 550,000-acre forest in upper Michigan. "Maple is flat and tight, so it sheds water."
Now, woodie convertibles in stock condition, like a Ford Sportsman or a Chrysler Town & Country, can go for up to $250,000, and widely distributed models in poor condition can still fetch upward of $25,000. By 1951, alas, wood was no longer cost-efficient when it came to building cars, and the rise of the Interstate system under Eisenhower only hastened the transition to all-metal construction. With woodies falling out of favor, one group scooped them up. "Woodies came along with the surf culture because they were cheap," says Johnson. "You could put the seats down, throw your boards in there, and sleep in the back if you needed to." No wonder they're called the original SUVs.
