It’s kind of a curious thing but as a kid I never thought much about station wagons. My dad had a red and white ’55 Chevy Belair wagon when I was growing up. It was a great car and he swore it was the best car he ever had! But wagons were just a part of the landscape back then. I found that as I got older I began to get nostalgic for those huge behemoths. It started when a close friend bought a used car to get around in. It was a ’60 Pontiac wagon and it was in remarkably good condition. This was about 1975. He was concerned with making it look cool and like a kid’s car. I thought it should be preserved exactly as found. After I graduated from Art Center in Pasadena I began to look at collector cars to buy and enjoy. I did that with my dad who also loved the car hobby. Well about 1980 I found an old ’58 Chevy Brookwood wagon sitting in a backyard. It had been re-painted “appliance white.” In other words, a very bright non-automotive color. It looks great on refrigerators though! The Chevy belonged to an elderly man who was a real tough deal maker. I eventually talked him out of it and my dad and I drove it home. I was convinced it was a clean one-owner, California car. After all, it ran good and had a coveted 348 with a four-barrel! We stopped at a gas station to make sure we made it home and I got curious. I looked more carefully at the clean back seat area. Then I lifted up the big rubber mat on the floor to see what kind of condition the original carpet was in. To my horror there was no floor under the mat! I was looking at the cement driveway under the car! The man had placed a couple of oven racks to span the gap and then set the mat over it! Talk about crestfallen!
After that revelation, I decided to just sell the car and fortunately, I got my money back. I had looked at the car through a romantic haze and didn’t check it out well enough. That experience was embarrassing and somewhat humorous. Well, if had happened to someone else it might have been very humorous. But I could see the comic sense of it and the weird way the old guy dealt with a missing floorboard. I’m sure his wife wondered what ever happened to her over racks! That prompted me to include that little bit of detail in Hot Rod Bunny, book one and since Beverly moon’s first car was a rust bucket ’54 Dodge. I included the rusty floorboard and the oven rack method of covering it up, with some humor of course.
(I had wanted that old ’58 Chevy wagon mainly because of the motor! In Hot Rod Bunny, Beverly wanted her Dodge because of the motor.)
Anyway, My attraction for old wagons never changed. I noticed that the rest of the world caught up to me and is also collecting and hording old wagons! When I was at the Grand National last January, I cataloged a few of them for you to enjoy!
This ’49 woody was a nice original looking car with authentic patina. What’s going on with the turn signals? Did the park light assembly have babies or something?
This ’55 Dodge is a car you don’t see often.
This car reminded me of the Revell ’57 Country Squire kit. It is molded in the same brown color. I still ranks high on my list of desirable cars.
I covered the Radiator Lady ’59 Rambler in another blog but it was still a wagon and caught my eye.
This ’59 Pontiac was a great car. I’d love to be driving it around! Although I’d probably put the stock wheels back on it!
