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I am trying to determine just how many Pilothouse Woody wagons remain. I am primarily interested in a count of those built by Campbell Body Works aka Mid State ). The company was located in Waterloo, New York, and built wood bodies from sometime in the 30's up until at least 1950. The used multiple makes of chassis, but I am interested in the Pilothouse Dodges. Mine is on a 1949 B1B 108 1/2 ton chassis. I have seen pictures of several on the internet, and this forum, but can never get a good count of how many still survive. Several of the ones I have seen were built by Cantrell. There are several differences in the ones built by Campbell and Cantrell. The Cantrell units are four doors, while the 1/2 ton Campell units have 3 (a driver's door, and two doors on the right. The tailgate on the Cantrell cars is a good bit taller, which results in about a 4" narrower rear window. Also the Campbell cars have the gas filler externally, with the gas cap located in the center of the panel behind the drivers door. That is where the rear door is on the Cantrell cars, and I was told the gas filler is beneath the drivers seat. Not sure about Cantrell, but I know that Campbell built units using everything from 1/2 ton to full size "school bus" units, probably on a 1 ton chassis. If you know of one of these units please post the information and a picture if you have one. I am just curious how many are left, and how many are still in operation. I have attached pictures of mine. When Dad bought it new in 1949, and as it appears today. It is a Campbell unit. (they may have been called Highlanders, but I am not sure.) Mike

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1949-dodge-woody-stationwagon-on-b1b-12-ton-chassis/

My wife and I just returned from the 10th Annual Woodies in the Valley show in Visalia CA yesterday but weren't sure we were going to make it home without a tow truck I've been driving the '40 Plymouth now for a couple of years and I've never had an overheating problem, including driving around in the summer at temperatures over 100°. I got the motor from an old Mopar racer who had rebuilt it, new distribution tube, etc. and it always ran like a top. It had 160° thermostat, which after reading various posts here, seemed like I was asking for sludge trouble in the future (apparently the engine doesn't get hot enough to burn off the moisture which creates problems), so I did what you're not supposed to do right before a trip and changed the thermostat to a 180° unit from Napa. Immediately the gauge registered 20° hotter which made sense. We left Saturday morning, outside temperature in the 50s, and drove 60 miles on the freeway with no issues. We had a lot of fun at the show, caught up with old friends, tc., and then caravanned through the countryside, which included driving through some small local downtown areas very slowly. Outside temps were in the low 70s. Immediately it pegged the temperature gage – I couldn't even see the needle it was so far off the scale. We pulled over and clouds of steam were coming out of the bottom area of the radiator. After cooling down we added water only, and filled it to overflowing. As I was looking among the group for some anti-freeze, a couple of the old-timers told me that unpressurized flatheads do better in hot weather with pure water rather than an anti-freeze mix. Now with more water than coolant,in the stock, honeycomb radiator, the gauge went back down to about 170° and stayed there the whole rest of the trip. I had never heard this before- I would think that adding anything to water would change its boiling point and be better. Thoughts?

Almost done! I am 99% done with the wagon, which is a good thing since Woodies on the Wharf in Santa Cruz, is only 10 days away! My son Jeff is helping me do the final door fitment, reattach the running boards, and do the final systems check. We painted it in my shop 2 weeks ago, and I plan to take it to my cousin's tire shop on Monday to have the alignment checked and to make sure I didn't leave out some critical component. We plan to drive it to the show from home (Sanger), a 300 mile round trip, and just heard that the weather will be hot that day-107 degrees, so we will be leaving early. I need one last part and I'm not sure exactly what it looks like-it's the spare tire holder-the metal piece that rotates down on to the spare to hold it in place. Plymouth mounted the spare inset into the back of the front seat, so it's definitely unusual. Something about being more easily accessible for the ladies, I think. Any Plymouth woodie owners out there have a pic? Cheers! Bob

I've been working to get the '40 woodie on the road, and the glass from the B pillar back slides in the fuzzy tracks and uses spring-loaded pins to lock them in place. There are 4 pin knobs and 8 slide handles needed for each wagon, and they are made out of the same ivory colored plastic that the other dash knobs are. Needless to say,most are missing and none are usable. I think I found a guy that can cast them for me- he restores old radios and makes replacement radio knobs. He said the price is dependent on quantity (of course) and wanted to know approximately how many sets? I thought I'd ping you all to gauge interest, and if they are as good as his radio knobs look, we might also want to give him a few dash knobs with lettering to see what he can come up with. So, assuming the price isn't too crazy, how many folks are interested?

Hello all. it's been a long time since I posted last time. I have a 1950 B-2-B Woodie that I'm getting geared up for the summer. It never really ran right last year but I managed. I had a shop put a new carb on and I think it's the wrong one. I have a fluid drive 4 speed. It's stalling on decline and will not stay running when I slowly let the clutch out while stopped or come to a stop without putting in the clutch. After looking over this site I'm hoping for a little guidance. The carb is a D6G1 and I don't think there is a dashpot. Before I go crazy trying to dial this thing in I want to make sure I've even working with the right set up. I attached a picture of the set up to see if that helps. Thanks guys, Jeremy Portland, Or

I have been making good progress on the P10 wagon since summer. As Don indicated, it doesn't rain anymore here in Fresno, so we can work on our cars 24hrs/day, 12 months /year. Here are a few progress pics. I put 10 coats of varnish on it last summer, and then fit the wood to the chassis this spring. Most of the metal pieces inside the car are powdercoated -there is a shop in Clovis - Kip's Powder Coating) that not only does great work, but is very reasonable too. I find myself powder coating parts that I hadn't thought of powder coating, like the piano hinges for the doors and tailgate, just because they make it so easy! I installed a split intake and exhaust manifold from George Asche, with two rebuilt Carters and had a local radiator shop make up a split exhaust that blends back into the single exhaust pipe. These are old time muffler guys and assured me that I didn't need dual exhausts, because of the size of the single pipe and the output of the 218 that I'm using. Good thing, because the placement of the gas tank, off to the drivers side, makes it pretty tough to route a second exhaust there. I also installed a George Asche OD that I bought from him 10 years ago and with the dual carbs and split exhaust, I can easily get it up to 65mph. Not sure how fast I want to go in a car made out of toothpicks, but it's nice to know that I will be able to keep up with traffic anyway. Next challenge : the seats.

I've been making good progress in the last month on what started out to be my 1940 Plymouth wagon project and now has turned into a '40-'41 wagon hybrid. A year ago January I found a '41 with great wood, but on a chassis that would need a ton of work.I wondered if it would fit the 1940 chassis/cowl that I had been working on since 2003. The differences between '40 and '41 wooden bodies (made by US Body and Forging Company) were minimal, so I did the frame measurements between the 2 years and asked around (thanks Jim Benjaminson!) and decided that the swap would work. I pulled the wood off the '41 and spent the summer applying 10 coats of varnish, hand sanding etc, between coats. I think it's looking pretty good. Right now I'm sorting out the mechanical and electrical systems, and the George Asche OD. I've upgraded some components - front disk brakes, dual master cylinder, OD, turn signals, Coker WW radials and halogen dash and headlights. I got the P20 engine from a guy in N. CA that runs his own auto repair shop and used to race the Mopar flathead 6s, so this one purrs like a kitten. I kept it 6 volt and as stock looking much as I could. I hope to put the wood to the metal in the spring. The hardest thing was choosing the color. They only came in Hampton Beige, with yellow brackets and trim - which I didn't care for. The color is the same green that Chevrolet used in the 1941-46 pickups and if you didn't specify a color- you got this green. It's all about the wood, and I think the green will enhance the look. I will be powder-coating the brackets and trim a dark bronze with just a hint of metal flake in it. The top will be black vinyl, the seats leather. I'll post more pictures as I go Bob Riding

I am dissassembing my cowl and getting it ready for painting. I'm now working out the dents and learning how to apply body filler where needed (sparingly!) I chose a 1941 Plymouth color - West Point Gold. I think this was the hardest decision of the whole restoration- the stock color was Hampton Beige and with a woodie it's all about the wood and I didn't feel that the beige really enhanced the wood. When I took the hinges off, I found a very thin anti-squeak material wherever there was metal-on-metal. It seems to be a burlap-like cloth - almost an oil-cloth, but very thin. I searched the forum and haven't found mention of it-just the fender and body panel anti squeak threads. A modern replacement would be fine. What have you guys used?

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but I guess someone will let me know. I'm restoring a '48 plymouth woodie and I'm looking for roof material in a tan or twill color. Bonney doesn't carry a tan. Any suggestions? Thanks. Howard Meziere