Words and Photos: Jerry Mull
Back in the early 1960s, the surfing craze began here in Southern California. Surfers found that inexpensive and overlooked “Woodie Wagons” were the perfect vehicles to transport their longboards to and from the beach. I thought it would be fun to get one and use it for camping out, but at 16, I was too young and too broke. However, as I approached high school graduation, I got a little money from my family and started looking around to see what $185 would get me.
In June 1964, my younger sister came home one day, all excited that she had found a woodie for sale in nearby Lynwood, CA. The car was sitting in the dirt parking lot of a “Nudie Bar” of all places. Stupid me, I made the classic mistake of looking at the car in the dark AND in the rain. The mother of the actual owner, Terry Elam, was selling the car since Terry had been recently drafted into the Army and sent off to the Vietnam War. She swore the engine was a fresh rebuild and worth the $125 she was asking for the car. I was so glossy-eyed, I took the plunge and bought it.
Why my father ever let me buy that mess of a car, I’ll never know. In reality, it was a parts car at best. Every fender was dented and rusted, the grille was missing, so was the front bumper. There was no dash trim, no cloth top, four different tires and rims, a too-narrow ’40 Ford rear-end and all three seats were missing. The only seat came from a 2-door sedan and wasn’t bolted to the floor. As a matter of fact, Terry had built a crudely crafted wooden platform from an old redwood gate, to place the seat on. Every time you took off, the seat tilted backwards.
The wood wasn’t so great either, with rot starting in the left rear quarter panel and the engine had high mileage. In short, the car was a worn out. But this crummy wagon became the best educational tool I could imagine. Due to the fact that I was constantly trying to keep the car running and had no cash, I learned the hard way how to rebuild the car. Over the next few years I learned about woodworking, electrical wiring, mechanicals and painting, all while going to college and working as many hours as I could to help fund it. Piece by piece, the car started to come together.
I pulled the ailing flathead out and replaced it with a 1956 Chevy V8 that I got from a running but trashed 1947 Mercury woodie. That $75 Mercury also provided a lot of the wood. I found missing parts from many varied sources. The long-gone vintage Ford Junkyard in Azusa,CA provided many goodies, including the center seat. The wood from four separate junked wagon were used to re-do the wood on my car. I bought a perfect front clip and other parts from a young fellow who was tearing apart a beautiful stock black ’48 Ford Convertible to put it on a ’55 Chevy chassis. His screwed-up idea resulted in a disassembled convertible with a bunch of parts I could use on my car.
After sanding thru about 6 coats of different colored paints I discovered the original color was Glade Green, so I went with that color. I sprayed it myself in my Dad’s garage using nitrocellulose lacquer and a small compressor. By 1968, it was in several major Los Angeles car shows and actually started winning trophies. Deemed too nice, the car was no longer my daily driver. I kept it garaged while I drove my newly acquired ’55 Chevy 210 Sedan to and from college and work.
Over the years, the car went through various appearances. For the 1970 Rod & Custom magazine article it appeared in, it had chrome wheels, wide Firestone Indy rear tires and small Pirellis up from. The rear end assembly was completely chrome plated. A couple of years later, in Street Rodder Magazine the look was a bit toned down with more conventional radial tires all the way around. Eventually I ditched the chrome wheels and went for the stock look with stock rims and wide white Firestone tires.
Jerry Mull with his ’29 Ford Roadster.
As time passed, the car became more of a Garage Queen. I stopped driving it to California Woodie events like Wavecrest and LA Wood. When I purchased my 1929 Ford Roadster hot rod in March of 2009, I sold it to my buddy’s cousin,Bill, knowing it was going to a good home. Bill immediately took the car to a restoration shop where they removed all the wood and refinished it.
Over the next couple of years, Bill took the car to the next level adding accessories such as a metal spare tire cover, a visor, fog lamps and much more. More recently he had the car repainted, changed the tires again, added a new fabric roof and more detailing. As a Class Manager at the annual Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance, I happily accepted the task of putting together an AMERICAN WOODIE CLASS this year. I got even more excited when I realized Bill could possibly enter my old car in the Class as a Display Only vehicle. So it came to be that the car I purchased in 1964 had came full circle, from a junker to a Concours Car in just over 50 years.
I was so very proud to see her on the grass there at Trump’s National Golf Course, amongst all those other beautiful cars. Yes, you have came a long way baby!
