(first posted 11/20/2016) From the 50s through the early 90s, nothing said success like a fake woodie wagon in the driveway. Like the vinyl roof on a Brougham or Limited sedan, it spoke of prewar elegance, without the cost and maintenance of genuine wood. Virtually every brand slathered DiNoc on the flanks of its premium wagon at some point in the CC era. But who did it best? And who did it worst? Before you answer, let’s take a short trip through the history of fake woodies.
Until 1949, all car-based station wagons were real woodies, but the new all-steel Plymouth Suburban proved a well-named hit with the flood of new suburbanites. And for most brands through the mid sixties, all-steel wagons were just that, with nary a hint of wood, real or fake. There was a brief transition period, with GM bodies stamped and sometimes painted to resemble wood panels, but by the mid-50s the mark of a high end wagon was two-toning and chrome, like this ’55 Town and Country.
Except for the wagonmasters at Ford, that is. Ford went all-steel with its ’52 wagons, but its top-of-the-line Country Squire featured DiNoc clad body sides with real, but non-structural wood framing, with a similar look on the high-end Mercury Custom wagon. Fiberglass replaced the real wood mid-1953 and the paradigm was set.
Still, it took awhile for the idea to spread across the industry. AMC was the first, featuring some interesting shapes outlined in chrome on its late 50s Country Club wagons, and by the mid 60s Chrysler and GM joined in as luxury became the new watchword for wagon buyers. From then the until the minivan and the SUV killed the American station wagon, fake wood told the world you’d arrived.
What type of fake wood, how it was framed, and where it was placed varied from brand to brand, and sometimes from year to year. Early 70s Dodge Monacos put it up top, while at the same time Plymouth Satellite Regents went down below. And if fake wood wasn’t enough, Mercury would gladly add a vinyl roof.
So when it comes to fake woodies, who nailed it, and who failed shop class? Fire away.
I think overall Ford did the best job, and Chrysler the worst. Love the opening pics of the ’68 Country Squire, identical to the one my mom drove, right down to the color.
Late 60s Colony Park. Merc always did a slightly darker wood with more of a stain finish and tight grain.
i’m old enough to remember when the White House always kept a fleet of black Colony Parks, with burgundy interiors, usually, that accompanied the President. That role, sadly, has been taken by workaday Tahoes. Totally lacking the panache of the Colony Parks.
If it counts, I nominate the Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
My first choice as well.
Late-60s Ford Country Squire for pass cars.
“GM bodies stamped and sometimes painted to resemble steel”
Uh . . . they were steel.
Yes, steel painted to resemble wood. Fixed. Incidentally, Ford used the same approach for the tailgates on its last true woodies.
My nomination for best is the 1972 Gran Torino wagon.
I was bidding on this 1974 Ford Gran Torine Squire Wagon back in 1983, but the seller thought it was a better idea to rip the 460 cui engine out and sell this alone at a higher price. What a shame. It was not a basic model. It was loaded.
It looked like this at the time of sacrifice. Still does not make sense.
I always hated the fake woodgrain. Still do. So that’s my answer, I like non of them.
Same here, I never have liked dishonest materials and thought wood grain was tacky even as a kid in the ’70’s.
Me, too. It just looked so fake that I could never take it seriously. It looked like that plastic paneling you would buy at the hardware store and stick on the walls to try to make your tract house look a “rustic country home.”
+1. I’d add that my least favorite was the Ford Pinto. The whole concept was ridiculous on a car in that market segment.
I’m right with you. I love the old Chrysler T&Cs with their magnificent REAL wood–the barrelback wagons were works of art. I think the worst of the fakes were the Pintos and–UGH!–the Chrysler K-cars. (Does the peel-and-stick stuff count? Is it still available? I hope not.)
In general, I think FoMoCo did fake wood the best. I also liked Olds Vista Cruisers for ’68-’72 and Custom Cruisers for ’77-’79 where the woodgrain did the “hop-up” over the wheel arches.
One treatment I found peculiar was the woodgrain on the 1968 Buick Sport Wagon. It over-emphasized the fat rear quarters and looked rather bizarre. Buick must have gotten a lot of negative feedback on the look, since it was reversed for 1969, where the woodgrain ran above the sweep-spear trim instead of below it.
Hear you on the ’68 Buick. Like the Satellite I mentioned, figuring out where to put the wood could be a problem when you had a strong mid-body chartacter line or sweep. The Monaco, though, that was just weird. i would love to have been there for the styling pictch on that one.
Beat me to it on the Vista and Custom.
That Sport Wagon is a bit awkward. Credit given for unique looks though. It can’t have been very popular, I don’t recall ever seeing it.
Vista Cruisers and Sport wagons looked the best with ugly wood grain madness. runner up would be a 70 Concours Estate
I remember reading one automotive reviewer referred to the 68-69 Buick intermediates as “effeminate”.
He’d (it must’ve been a he) never get away with saying that nowadays!
+1 on the ’68 Sport Wagon.
The details on the Panther era Ford woody wagons were not the greatest. They didn’t handle the integration with the energy absorbing bumpers very well, and this was a detail that never did get better as the ’80s progressed.
There are a lot that look quite handsome, but I always thought that the ’77 Olds Custom Cruiser treatment was one of the few that stood out as unique in its time. It was a reprise of the look on earlier Vista Cruiser models.
How could you not love these…………
I’m sort of partial…….. While I can’t claim it as ‘the best’, I think my ’81 Bonneville Safari comes close – nice tone of ‘wood’; planking effect; simple surround trim. For the ‘worst’, I’d probably nominate the ’66 Chevy Caprice Custom that you show at the top. First year for Chevy to be back into a wood grain big wagon, and their inexperience shows – a very heavy-handed layout, with overly wide surround trim. My dad bought one, and I wish he had purchased a Squire instead. Chevy made up for the mistake the next year. The ’67 Caprice Custom looked much better with a simple chrome trim band around the ‘wood’.
I think that is at least the best of the boxy B’s. I like the plank look which Mercury also did well in some years. Makes it look more like a yacht.
I still see woody versions of Chevrolet HHR, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Grand Cherokee, Chrysler town&country minivan, Dodge Magnum once a while. Maybe restoristic has a higher concentration around me.
I think mid 1960s Mercs did it best. Stunning. The worst (funniest) was the 80s Chrysler Town & Country. I had one of these, made me chuckle everyday.
It looks more consistent with square front clip. Of course, if gasoline is $5/gal, that’s the only solution affordable, and I’m glad it didn’t happen.
I agree, the ’86 restyle cleaned things up nicely for this woody wagon.
Here’s the Merc.
Ford’s by a wide margin. 50’s thru the 60’s. ’65 Mercs are so classy.
Mid to late 60’s Ford hands down. It just worked. In the seventies it just became way too much or just too old for my tastes. At any rate I thought the lower priced units of these years looked better since the mactac was gone.
1967 Rambler Rebel with the Mariner package
I really like these. If you had this plus a Bill Blass Mark V, you’d own the Yacht Club.
I’m an AMC/Ramber/Nash/Hudson nut, but if I owned that car I’d paint eighth- and quarter-notes all along both sides of it. 🙂
YES!
Special demerit to Ford for not offering this on the current Ford Flex. Fortunately, the aftermarket has stepped into that void.
As I recall, Chrysler made some T&C convertibles in the 80s too, with the bizarre pseudo-wood trim…
Ah, yes indeedy.
The real star of the the John Candy/Steve Martin classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
+1
The clear winner for worst, IMHO….who ever thought this made the car look better? Who the heck was the intended customer? I try to imagine that person in my mind, but all I see is a need for electro-shock therapy…s
Is that John Voight’s car?
I don’t think I’m supposed to, but I kinda like it.
+1 Chevy was going into a new level of size and simplicity with the Chevette. Why not play with a familiar domestic trim to get the ball rolling.
Oh, yuck…worse than an AMC Pacer “wagon” with the fake wood. That little Chevy crapbox could induce bulimia. 😮
I’ve seen pictures of late-1950s funeral coaches with woodgrain exterior trim…I seem to think MIller-Meteor might have been the coachbuilder. I found a 1956 pic.
And for 1978, a little sliver of wood grain…
That is cool. I never knew they brought it back.
How about the Crestwood ambulance with limousine windows…
I found some pics of full-size mid 70s Crestwoods too (pre-77 downsize) so Miller apparently had the Crestwood as an ongoing offering.
And a full side shot
Ah, yes, the Miller-Meteor Crestwood. What a way to go.
Why are they all so enthusiastic about a hearse?
I dunno, I suppose it was Miller-Meteor’s promotional pics, but can you imagine modern hearses in colors like copper or multiple colors of blue, with woodgrain sides? Seems like everybody has defaulted to basic black in recent years. I realize lots of funeral homes just rent hearses from livery companies but I do miss the recognizable color schemes funeral homes had, as recently as the 90s.
They’re dying for a ride.?
Neil, we’re the last ones to let you down too…
And I’ve heard funeral and cemetery professionals referred to as “last responders”
You develop a macabre sense of humor when you are around death and dying every day.
A wall around a cemetery
Is silly beyond a doubt
The people outside don’t want to get in
And the people inside can’t get out.
There was a famous local Cadillac ad in the early 70s that showed the back of a hearse at a cemetery, with the headline “Don’t let your first ride in a Cadillac be your last.”
Damned straight – these people deal with laid-back individuals all year long. You won’t find anyone more down to earth. 🙂
I know who had the worst fake woodies, and it’s a tie between two pony cars
I’m a GM guy. I owned an 87 Caprice Estate that was dark metallic blue with the wood grain. That was the first year of the euro headlights and the more aerodynamic header. That was a sharp looking wagon. There was something about that dark color and the light maple dinoc that looked the great. As for my all time favorite….. we had an 78 Mercury Colony Park wagon, dark metallic green with wood. That car just screamed classy.
I too, owned an ’87 Caprice Estate, mine was yellow gold with the wood grain. Got more comments on that car. My current ’87 Caprice, just a Classic- in the same color gets some attention, but not as much, despite being in much better shape.
The 78 Mercury Colony Park Wagon is on my HOT list.
I always wanted to have one and still do. The ultimate wagon.
Best: AMC Hornet Sportabout
Worst: Dirk Diggler
I’m a Ford guy–so won’t pretend to be impartial. I somehow like the wood on the less-formal “space-age” 1950s-60s cars rather than on the brougham-ier later ones. If you give me two choices, one will be the 1956, ’cause it seems to be looking back to the real-wood cars (with the fake wood up on the window frames and such):
++++++++++1
wow
Yes. Back then I always liked the fibreglas fake wood framing, and the fake wood columns are a bonus. I think the body color has to be black or white. The much sleeker lower wider longer curvy frame allowing back seat foot wells 1957 successor is maybe a bit better. A matter of opinion of course, but I consider it the Platonic ideal of station wagons.
The 1960 and 1965, both first years of a body style, are also pretty awesome. They have chrome instead of wood pillars, but that’s OK too. The 1960 is the only year of that body with a wrap around upper tailgate window instead of a roll down one, making it a really unique model. Maybe a little too much white stripe planking, but still pretty good. Maybe to me the second most awesome Ford wagon.
You won’t find a better 1960 Ford Country Squire than Dave Harkey’s. I’ve seen it in person.
If you’re going to do fake wood, at least do it cleanly – the strong belt line here lends itself well to the exercise.
I’ve always felt the 1960 big Fords under-appreciated in terms of styling. They were arguably a more elegant, more developed expression of the ‘flat hood / lowered headlight’ concept introduced by GM the year before.
This is an identical copy of the car my uncle Paul bought with his mustering-out money in 1956 when his Army hitch was up. He kept it until early 2007 when he passed away (too early) from lung cancer. I still bust my cousin Paul for giving the car to a neighbor’s kid, without letting me know first. I LOVED that Squire. 1956 9-passenger, 312 T’bird engine with three-on-the-tree and overdrive, power brakes, non-powered steering, power windows, roof rack, an early AM-FM radio and more. I’d have paid ten large for that car, knowing how my uncle maintained it.
…and my slightly-later choice would be the ’64 Country Squire (again my preference, in this instance, for its non-formal look in preference to the later Ford and Mercury cars–1965 was a notable change):
have to agree this one is looking good!
my 70 Kingswood looked better but it had no wood grain, or a roof rack.
But the last year of the 1960 body, built on the1957 frame. The much more modern re-engineered 1965 is another top choice Ford fake woody Country Squire wagon.
emjayjay, Paul & contributors like you at CC have made me more aware of the Big 3’s frame carryovers (more or less), even when bodywork was essentially brand-new. For midcentury full-size Fords, is there a comprehensive list somewhere about this? (Oh, and I do like the 65 Squires a whole lot…..I’d happily give the one in your picture a home!)
Sally, for Ford, they ran the “postwar” body from ’49 through ’51, then from ’52 through ’54 – or ’56, as I believe the ’55s and ’56s were reworks of the earlier body. Then the ’57-’64.
I’m with you on the ’64 Squire, but I also have a soft spot for the ’65 ‘through 67, because they had these cool badges. All in white, with a red interior, of course.
By the way, did you ever live in Pittsburgh? Your name is very familiar.
Thanks for the info, RS—I’m trying to picture essentially the same underpinnings 1957-1964 (but don’t doubt you in the least).
About my “name”: as Paul knows, it’s just a screen name, a tribute to a long-ago teacher (only a couple hours from Pgh though). Me, I’m a he…
Yeah, my #1 color for Squires is white…much harder to choose a #2….
It’s true the ’57-’64 used the same chassis, but you could argue the body from ’60-64 was different – new, non-wraparound cowl. And those bodies underwent significant changes, even from ’63 to ’64. All depends on what is your definition of “platform”.
Ironically, wagons are one of the best indicators, because they often were changed the least throughout a body/platform cycle – look at the late 70’s LTD II / Mercury Cougar wagons as an example. The sedans and coupes are all late 70s angles, the wagon bodies are trapped in the bulbous early 70s.
we had a 65 country sedan, no fake wood. did have a 390 though.
This woodie treatment didn’t look too bad.
It only was a matter of time and bad taste, before someone posted THAT. 😀
During the 70’s, Pontiac’s woodgrain treat was unique, because it allowed the color of the car to show through, thus changing the tone of the woodgrain. White cars looked closers to birch, while maroon cars gave a mahogany tone. Also, the tailgate woodgrain was reflective. That feature is terrific on my 73 Pontiac Grand Safari.
Reflective tailgate woodgrain?? I had no idea, please post a night picture using your flash.
Count me in for the ’68 Country Squire LTD.
OTOH, “I googled Vega and ‘wood grain,’ and here’s what happened next!”
All o them were lousy, with one exception: Jeep. Jeep added woodgrain to the Wagoneers because it protected the body from scratches when using the vehicle as a truck.
Here’s my choice.
Ford just had one hit Country Squire after another.
I think I like virtually all of them in their own way. If I was looking for any of these cars now, if they were ever available with wood/DiNoc in their original form, that’s the one I’d prefer to purchase. The Grand Wagoneer is likely my top pick overall.
However that doesn’t mean I would purchase or look fondly on ANY current car on the market if all of a sudden one sprouted a wood option. Nowadays wood (and very preferably real) belongs inside instead of outside.
Ford did some nice wood on it’s wagons, but I also liked AMC’s efforts. This Matador is really nice.
Thanks for posting that – it’s a great-looking ride! Can’t see the front end, what year is that? Guessing a 1973…
It has flat tail lights and a 5mph bumper, so it’s 1974 +.
The silliest was the late 70s Subaru wagons. A yellowish trim line just above wheel well height and a tiny triangle of “wood” at the front.
We had a yellow 74? LTD country Squire that the wood grain was starting to fade. My dad worked in the automotive products division* at 3M so no problem. He heard about an experimental Dinoc renewal spray. On it went, and it looked great. 6 months later the engineer was walking through the parking lot at a softball game and saw to his horror a Country Squire that the passenger side Dinoc was white. Yep, it was ours. They learned something in the spray made it MORE UV susceptible. My mom worked nights so most days it was parked all day facing east in our driveway, the south (passenger) side faded out in no time.
*3Ms most profitable division during the Brougham era. Once he was working on a program to dye the plastic bumper caps for GM products. they found they could get a perfect match under florescent light, or sunlight, but not both. When GM told them “We sell the cars in showrooms, match them under florescent”, he felt vindicated that his last American car was a Studebaker. The Country Squire was my moms last American.
Ford even offered a wood paneled tailgate on their XLT pickups in the early 70’s.
I always liked the look of my ’62 Fairlane SW. The picture is of a ’63, but they looked almost identical to the ’63.
Well, if you are talking about U.S. sold vehicles, Loco, I hate to burst your bubble, but there were no 1962 Ford Fairlane station wagons. The mid-sized Fairlane line came out in 1962, but it did not include station wagons until the 1963 model year.
Also, somewhat surprisingly, there was a Fairlane Squire ‘wood’-trimmed wagon in the ’63 model year, but not in ’64 or ’65.
Could have sworn it was a ’62 but if what you say is true then I guess it was a ’63. Mine looked exactly like this one down the 260 V8 emblems. I don’t know why people down the 260, I thought it was a good engine. Not a rubber burning monster but had plenty of power for it’s size in a fairly light weight car and the engine not weighing much more than a 6. I often wished I had not sold it
I may be prejudiced, but the !955-56 Country Squires from Ford were the best well done and honorable mention to those models from 1949-1954 and from 1957-1970. They just looked RIGHT, whether or not the cars had real wood trim. Without a doubt, the worst were the GM models – across the board – from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Their wood appliqués looked like Helen Keller had influenced Virgil Exner on a moonlighting job for GM while under contract to Chrysler, and worked in the wee hours of the morning while he was half-asleep. (I saw an early-’70s Vega with the treatment…AAAAAGGGHHH!) Packard’s few efforts were so-so, if only for the fact that they had an image and a prestige to defend. I understand they used private coachbuilders to produce their station sedan bodies so they always could pass the buck. Mopar, nothing to say. Their cars had tasteful wood appliqué where the designers asked for it – but, thank God, they didn’t ask for it often.
Kudos to Studebaker, while in their death throes, for not having succumbed to the urge to give their few wagons a woody. Kaiser-Frazer showed rare restraint from what I remember (although they offered wood trim on their Traveller hatchback model and that looked quite good actually – only on the inside!), and Crosley was not in that market for the need to impress.
SUMMARY: Ford, the best; GM, the worst; and all of the others somewhere in between the two. Honorable mention to Kaiser-Frazer.
All I see when I see woodgrain cars is a burned and beat-up pea-green ’87 LeBaron Town &a Country convertible with vinyl flapping in the wind “…doin’ 78 miles per hour..”
FAIL.
I was never a fan of the fake wood and think the trend went on far too long; however, I think the only wagon my family ever had with wood siding was one of the best: the 1975 Jeep Wagoneer!
Ours was red with wood siding and a black and white checkered vinyl bench seat.
I’m rather partial to the 1973-75 treatment on Internationals.
Here’s mine.
Best; Any ’52-63 Country Squire. I really like how the single spear of framing is the only part of the wood effect ahead of the front wheels.
Worst; Ford Escort. A case where less would’ve been more, if they had kept the lower edge of the woodgrain at midflank body-side molding height where it was in the overhangs rather than extending it down almost to rocker panel level within the wheelbase it would’ve worked better imo.
Humbug. IMHO, “best DiNoc” is an oxymoron. But I’ll nominate the Ford Flex for an honourable mention, for the tastefully evocative rendering of the impression of a woodie, without going over the top. I find it way more sincere than any of the fake woodies listed.
There’s no question it was Ford. They earned the moniker “Wagonmaster” largely based on the beauty of the aspirational Country Squire.
And all of you have done an exceptionally accurate job of selecting the best years and colors -EXCEPT- I believe the ’67 is another beauty not to be overlooked (although not the only one from the 60s, as you’ve all noted).
Yes, there were other great looking wagons (including the AMCs), but the Country Squire was the Cadillac of wagons.
the successive posts are some others that haven’t been mentioned – but they’re interesting.
A ’59 Merc
A ’60 Merc
Dean Wormer’s wife drove a ’60 Mercury wagon – not a woody, though – in Animal House. The taillights on those are something else.
Here’s a Ford Product we haven’t mentioned…
This is nominated for the ‘worst’.
The Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman artwork (they did all the 60s Pontiac ads) makes this Pontiac worthy of inclusion…
There’s no best take woodgrain wagon.
They’re all fabulous. Every one of ’em.
ANY Mercury Colony Park wagon. Dazzling in Di Noc. If the Lincoln division built a station wagon……..
Beat this for the worst woodie ever.
For what it is worth, I would go home with a smile on my face, if I had spotted one of these in traffic.
What a strange malady, that formica thing.The Japanese, who kowtowed to US tastes with far more expediency than the haughty Europeans, also got seriously infected with this bug in the ’70s. It’s hard to pick the worst. The VW Rabbit or the Datsun Sunny. Or the hearing aid beige 1980 Toyota Corolla wagon my mother used to have in the US… Basically, anything that had the plastiwood that wasn’t an American car.
As for the best, there are a few interesting bright spots in the pre-60s era. This Fiat 1100 by Vignale, for instance.
http://ddclassics.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/fiat130wagon_6437.jpg
AMC presented this rarely-seen configuration on their scarce hardtop Cross Country. Apparently AMC eschewed the fiberglass ‘maple’, decided a bit of Di-Noc framed with chrome was luxurious enough.
Whether out of good taste or poverty, Studebaker never offered a fake wood trimmed station wagon on their production models.
I mostly liked the wood look on wagons, but always *hated* that 72-73 Dodge Monaco’s Di Noc treatment.
Best is hard. The 61 Ford may have been the most thorough – take a look at the back.
“Wooden” headlight surrounds! That’s hardcore – and the Chrysler LeBaron, in both M and K iterations returned the favor.
There’s a reason I put that Monaco in there. It really was outrageous.
I hate to admit it, but I actually kind of like these 1968 Mercury woodies.
Late to the party, but nobody thought of this one? I’m not sure whether it’s among the best or the worst. Personally, I love it, but admittedly it’s absurd. The eye of the beholder, as they say…
In the late 1970s/early ’80s Chrysler must have had an entire fake forest that they needed to deplete based on all the fake wood they used.
Back in the early 1990s
I bought a used 1987 Plymouth Voyager woody van.. short wheel base model.
It was a med. gray color, looked pretty good with the fake wood IMO
Maybe someone can attach a picture since their is no mention / pictures of that van model seen on here ?
Sorry I have no picture of the exact color. My mom’s ’72 Estate Wagon was Copper w/ Di Noc and a Cream colored vinyl roof. The car was a fully loaded salesman’s driver. I thought is was very classy and now definitely very seventies!
Vista FTW
“Buy a car..a station wagon…a Ford station wagon, the big one The one with the wood on the sides.”
Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown (1968). If Steve McQueen said Ford, it MUST have been the coolest!
Indeed, and not once, but twice! Here’s the red ’67 they used for the first robbery, with Jack Weston – “Erwin” – behind the wheel. They used a white one for the 2nd robbery at the end of the movie.
Good call!
For the GM clamshell wagons, I like the Chevys Estate trim the best. And the warmer 73-76 tone of those.
Holy cow, I had a ’73 Monaco wagon that looked EXACTLY like the one pictured! Bought it in ’80 for the paltry sum of $30.00 (yes, THIRTY DOLLARS!!!), replaced a bad motor mount (big surprise 🙂 ) and an erratic ignition module (again, big surprise 🙂 ), drove it for a bit, then sold it for $375.00. Not too shabby IMHO.
Oh, and to answer the question at hand, there’s no doubt it was Ford that did it best. And their best was this, immortalized in “Goldfinger”, which BTW is also the Best Bond film.
Yes, and yes. On the Squire, the wooden spear on the front fender is the clincher for me.
True Confession….Was in Walmart the other day and saw that a Matchbox sized collector version of the Goldfinger Ford Wagon was available. The woodgrain detail was excellent…
Was tempted to buy it, but no room on my bookshelves for another model car.
How was the Di-Noc holding up? The “framing” of the panels on those was *interesting*.
Even tho it was only 7 years old when I bought it the DiNoc was beginning to peel, especially on the tailgate.
My mother’s 1977 Ford Pinto Squire was just like this one, only in Forest Green. It had the “deluxe” plaid cloth interior with seats featuring metal decorative trim inexplicably placed in just to right position to seer the shorts-clad legs of anyone unfortunate enough to sit on one in South Carolina’s scorching hot summers…plus I believe the air conditioning quit within two months of the warranty expiration. Not a favorite memory, but it’s the only Di-Noc clad vehicle in my family I can recall. BTW, the Di-Noc held up better than the car. It was toast by 1982.
I always liked the early 80’s Country Squire and early 80’s Buick Electra Estate wagon with its lighter woodgrain. Always classy to me.
Me too…
Yes the Buick wore it quite well!
Great with the turbine wheels as well!
If it weren’t for the center caps and tiny fins between the machined spokes(I never noticed those until now) those were identical to the Vector wheels made famous on the a certain famous orange Dodge Charger. Always struck me as a oddly cool wheel for a family station wagon, but I’m not complaining!
Seeing all these “woodies” together has made me realize how terrible they really are. This may not seem like much, but it’s really something for a card carrying member of the 50s-60s Country Squire generation. I coasted on those good associations–and ad copy–despite drawing the line when Chrysler started on minivans and PT Cruisers. Now I’m working backward from there and seeing the horror: mid-90s GM wagons, Chrysler Town and Country, 70s Vista Cruiser, and always Fords and Mercurys, all with the charm of chintzy 70s furniture. Even a rare 1954 Country Squire from back when it all began is a heavy-handed jumble of mismatched fakery. Awful.
How about some pickups?
How about another?
I kinda like this one, though I’d leave off the vinyl roof, and the color wpuldha e tone the jade green metallic offered in 73, along with the turbine wheels, and raised white lettered tires.
My favorite is the ’68 Country Squire, as in the first photo. (Full disclosure: my mom had one in navy blue, and it was the car in which I learned to drive.)
The Fords were nearly always the best “woody” examples. I really like the ’67 as well, but prefer the cleaner trim on the ’68, without all the chrome fasteners.
If I tripped across a good ’68 I’d be tempted to buy it, improve the suspension (it was an understeering pig), update the engine and brakes, and stroll memory lane.
The original is still the best. Not so practical on that ’60 Ford or some others though. How do you handle dings on such a wide car with that trim? Wife had an ’87 LeSabre with this situation. I just let it go. Wish I had the LeSabre back.
FoMoCo, Not even a contest.
Which ones and why? I stand by my 2016 comments above; best were all ’52-63 Country Squires with only a single spear of “wood” thrusting forward of the rear wheels, worst the ’80s Escorts with the plastiwood extending far too low within the wheelbase and looking unbalanced compared to the overhangs. Both Fords.
*front* wheels…
Early ’50s to late ’60s Ford, absolutely. We (Dad & Mom) had a blue ’59 and tan ’68 Squire, it was THE suburban family car to own. No one did it better. A neighbor had a black ’55 Squire with red interior, the classiest wagon I’ve ever seen.
Ford Squire 100E it was just a Thames van underneath the plastiwood sidings
The best solution was to evoke wood siding rather than to fake it, quasi-literally: as evinced by the Ford Flex, with its indented side strakes.
An interesting styling device. The ribbed look suggests strength, also maybe subtly evoking the load bed of a pickup truck, Ford’s ultimate ace in the tough-image quasi-off-road marketplace. Pretty clever really… 🙂
Ford was well-known then as being the “Wagon Master”. Not saying they were the best, but they were darn good. I also liked the Impala/Caprice wagons and the Chrysler ones.
Overall I would say the full size fords 60’s – ’91 were the most consistent in having the best “woodie look.” **
I think it was a good move for Ford to get rid of the “plank look” DiNoc on their squires and go to the Colony Park style DiNoc.
I take exception to the Country Squire trim around the DiNoc. After several years the light color wrap around wood grain aluminum trim blistered, peeled, and looked like crap.
The Colony Park did it much better with DiNoc in the middle of the trim.
Owning 3 Ford “woodies”, to me one of their best features was DiNoc’s ability to absorb parking lot dings.
Let’s not forget the 1st post-war American all steel station wagon. The body panel pressings of these Willy’s wagons seemed like they were designed with a faux woody look in mind.