More Woodies: Wagons

This rare 1939 Chrysler Imperial station wagon is one of the more elegant examples of the woodie wagon. It is very much a period piece with its sidemounted spare tires, wide whitewalls, split two-piece windshield and "waterfall" front styling. It was also the first Chrysler with headlamps recessed into the front fenders. Engine is a 323.5-cubic-inch straight eight rated at 132 horsepower.

This 1941 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon is basically a four-door sedan with wooden doors and trunk lid and luggage carrier on top.

John North Willys was an auto dealer in Elmira, N.Y., who took over the Overland Auto Co. after it ceased production of the cars he was selling in 1906. He took a train to Indianapolis, to where the company had moved from its 1903 beginning in Terra Haute, and assumed leadership of the near-bankrupt firm. He renamed it the Willys-Overland Co. and moved it to Toledo, Ohio, where launched a very successful operation which from 1912 through World War I was second only to Ford Motor Co.'s mighty Model T in production and sales. But Willys engaged in some qustionable acquisitions and in the post-World War I recession, the company needed help. Chase Manhattan Bank offered it on condition that Walter P. Chrysler, recently resigned from General Motors as president of Buick, be brough in to salvage its fortunes, which he did. The Great Depression very nearly did in Willys again, but a contract to build Jeeps in Word War II saved it. The company's last civilian effort before switching to war production was the Willys Americar, which included this rare 1941 Willys Americar woodie station wagon in its lineup.