Plywood

[bob westphal]

A long time ago there was a fellow on the P-15 forum living in Tempe, AZ who owned a '46 Plymouth sedan woody. Does any one remember him? The reason I ask is that his is featured in the latest  Hemmings Classic Car "Lost & Found".

[Dodgeb4ya]

I remember seeing the car for sale at the Portland swap meet sometime in the 90's and talking to the original owner builder.

[Plymouthy Adams]

are you folks referring to Charlie Olson?   

[Dodgeb4ya]

I'm referring to the person who actually made the car before Charlie.

[Andydodge]

Well thats different......a lot of work has gone into it...........Hemmings never gets to Oz.is the car still around?...........andyd 

[Plymouthy Adams]

4 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

I'm referring to the person who actually made the car before Charlie.

 

I cannot recall if that name was ever divulged back in the day when it was on the forum a couple times......

[Dodgeb4ya]

I don't know what the builders name was..he was an older man with his wife selling it.

I don't recall any talk ever of who built it or where it came from.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Dodgeb4ya
Spelling error

[greg g]

He was a fairly regular participant in the early years of the forum. He did put up quite a few pics of the car.

[Plymouthy Adams]

59 minutes ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

I don't no what the builders name was..he was an older man with his wife selling it.

I don't recall any talk ever of who built it or where it came from.

 

I believe the very best credit Charlie ever gave to the builder was an older man with his own saw mill...

[Dodgeb4ya]

That is exactly what the builder owner told me.....A lot of 2X4 sized and sawn Douglas Fir wood....common around here.

[Ulu]

Doug Fir is good stuff for not quite being a real hardwood. My first engineering job in 1975 was designing trusses made of Doug fir, and it varies a lot. You have to select the best pieces to get really hard tough wood. Hem fir is usually like balsa wood by comparison. It was used for non-critical bits. 

[Dodgeb4ya]

An old ad...https://americandreamcars.com/1946plymouthphantomwoody4drsd1016.htm

[Frank Elder]

On 2/17/2020 at 9:37 AM, Ulu said:

Doug Fir is good stuff for not quite being a real hardwood. 

Tell that to the true dimensional doug fir 2 x 4s that reside in the walls of my 1910 house.....old growth timber hard as a granite slab...still cracking and popping during the winter and still seeping sap 110 years after being cut down.

I had to pre drill every hole for a nail or sheet rock screw....they just bent or snapped off, and boy did those drill bits get hot in a hurry...lol.

[Ulu]

Oh I get it.

Strictly speaking, it's a softwood plantation species, but it is abrasive and tough and hardens with age..

It's literally the Bread and butter of the forestry industry around these parts.

My house is 100% doug fir framing, and virtually all of this town was doug fir & hem fir, until light gage steel took over for commercial buildings.

New houses still are mainly doug fir.

Termites eat it, though they prefer other woods.

It absorbs water and gets dry rot readily compared to redwood or cedar, but still a tough wood for boat framing when well sealed.

 

[Dodgeb4ya]

The high quality big older growth Douglas Fir from around the Northwest is shipped to Japan and China.

So houses now built here are mostly built of what's called Hem Fir and Spruce...

Nothing as good as Doug Fir we had so much of...old growth beautiful wood.

Trees here today are 2nd or 3rd/4th growth now.

Not the six to twenty foot diameter monsters that all got cut years ago.

That was the good fir.

"Plwood" was made of lowly 2nd or 3rd growth fir...and is looking it.

Poor Plywood☹

Edited February 21, 2020 by Dodgeb4ya

[BobT-47P15]

I think I recall Plywood's owner became unhappy about something and left the forum....before he decided to sell.  Been a while.  There is a fellow from Kansas who appears at an area show here in s w Missouri who has built a woody P15 wagon from a four door sedan....is a street rod with a V8.  He says he had built some rods from Fords, but discovered the Plymouth has a stronger frame.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by BobT-47P15