Rarest Classic Woodie Wagons at Wavecrest Woodie Show 2015
Rarest of the Rare Woodie Wagons …
ENCINITAS, CA, September 22, 2015 — As we wrap up our coverage of the incredible Wavecrest Woodie Show 2015 we would be remiss if we did not point out some of the rarest Classic Woodie Wagons we saw here at Moonlight Beach. Every woodie wagon that still exists today is a dream car. But here are the rarest among the almost 300 woodie wagons that came to the Woodie Reunion here at Wavecrest 2015.
We ran into the owner of this 1942 Ford Super Deluxe Marmon-Herrington 4X4 Woodie Wagon while we were doing a Periscope broadcast for our Twitter followers. Terry O’Connor of Santa Cruz, California had just finished his ’42 and this was the first time he had it at the Wavecrest Woodie Show. It was quite a hit. Terry told us it was the only Marmon-Herrington 4-wheel-drive conversion done on a woodie wagon in 1942 with just two months of production that year before the Ford plant was shut down and retooled to produce war vehicles. It lived in Alamogordo, New Mexico for most of its life. Terry said he bought the body, what was left of it, from a scrap yard in Phoenix, Arizona.
Here is the video with the interview with Terry O’Connor:
While we were shooting a Pericsope video for our Twitter fans I asked a Ford woodie owner to tell me how you could identify a ’49 from a ’50 or ’51 Ford. While he was explaining the differences in the grilles for the three years, we noticed that his 1949 Ford Woodie Wagon was actually a sedan delivery. So we asked him whether it was an original. “Yeh, this is the only one,” he told us with a grin. “Only one what,” we sort of blurted out. “This is the only one they made from the factory. Somebody ordered it this way in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is the only one Ford ever made.” We’ll try to get that video for you later. What a find!
Cars On Line.com readers will remember this 1947 Mercury Marmon-Herrington All-Weel-Drive Woodie Wagon owned by Dave Holmes of San Clemente, California. It has been featured several times in our newsletter and in our ClassiCarNews.com blog. It is a regular fixture at California Woodie Car Shows and has been featured in major magazines. It is one of only five built in 1947 by Marmon-Herrington. But it was further specially modified by Coachcraft, Ltd out of Hollywood, California as a camper wagon for noted bird photographer Don Bleitz. Bleitz used this camper vehicle on rough-terrain trips throught the southwestern U.S.
1953 Desoto Hilo Sampan tour bus
The 1953 Desoto Hilo Sampan Surrey Bus represents the many 15-22 passenger “sampans” which were modified to create sight seeing transportation on the “Big Island” of Hawaii. These jitneys were used to provide transportation to airports and trains stations and were often used for sight seeing. They were often seen with surf boards on top as transportation to the beach. This tradition was started in Hilo in 1922 and by 1962 there were 200 of them on the island. When Ford and Chevy began building buses, this tradition began to die out.
The 1952 English Ford V8 Pilot Woodie Station Wagon was built in England for export. It was brought to the Wavecrest Woodie Show by Art Bjornestad. It is one of two known to exist here in the United States. Only a handful are known throughout the world including one at Her Majesty the Queen’s home in Sandringham, United Kingdom.
1947 Chrysler Town & Country Convertible from Claremont, California, a regular at the Wavecrest Woodie Show.
The 1938 Pontiac Woodie Station Wagon is one of only four left in existence with a Straight 8 and the sidemounts. It was used by a well known surveyor from Long Beach, California during the 1930’s.
The 1936 DodgeD2 Woodie Wagon was brought to the Wavecrest Woodie Show by Rick Thomas of New Bronfels, Texas.
For more on this year’s Wavecrest Woodie Show 2015 be sure to read our main story about the Saturday Woodie Reunion at Moonlight Beach and the Woodie Cruise to Oceanside on Sunday morning.
This story and photos are provided by Cars On Line.com, with coverage of all major car shows around the United States. Click this link to our ClassiCar News.com page for more car show information.
If you are looking for a Woodie Wagon to buy and take to shows, watch our ever changing inventory on the Cars On Line.com Station Wagon page.