VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1916-1922 - Model 490 Replacement wood

I want/need to replace the wood in my 490. I've checked a few of the usual Chevy wood guys with no luck. Does anyone know where to get precut replacement wood or patterns?

I have not heard of anyone supplying pre-cut wood to 490s, but it cannot be impossible to get it done.

[quote=Solan]I have not heard of anyone supplying pre-cut wood to 490s, but it cannot be impossible to get it done.

I had hoped that I wouldn't have to go that route. We have a similar situation with my son's Willys. He has a 1935 Willys Panel Delivery that needs the wood replaced. We were told to have the wood "made" for his truck they would need the whole truck in the condition it is in for however long it without even a guess at a cost. Don't get me wrong.... I fully understand the amount of work involved. I guess that's part of the hobby when we start dealing with restoring such rare works of art.

For your son's Willys I would check with the WOKR (Willys Overland Knight Registry) It has been a long time since I belonged to that club but they did have all of the factory blueprints and would copy for a fee.

WOW! That's good news, I'll make sure he checks with them. Thank You.

A Swedish company offered recently a ready made set of ash to a 490 1921/22, Touring, for USD 3900, fob factory.
Here is the web site: http://www.mastergarage.nu/edlunds_eng.htm

They have around 200 sample sets, etc. and/or drawings to Chevrolets and other brands and have been in business for many years.

Here is a Norwegian company supplying wooden sets and sheet metal too:

http://www.mamut.net/sav/ Click on "Nettbutikk" and Chevrolet. To find the runningboards, write stigbrett in the search field.

If you have the vital parts/ends of the old wood it must be possible to get someone to make the parts in US, and at lower cost.

I pressume you can get almost every wooden part to T- & A-models from several stocks at quite reasonable prices, and have seen that the needed drawings to make the wood yourself may be bought as well.

As to our brand, the situation is far worse, and has been such for many years here in Nordic countries (and USA???). A huge lot of the drawings are missing and it looks like the demand for wooden parts is so much lower that most people struggle hard to get the needed parts and at a comparatively same low price as to the F**Ds.

Recently I was able to buy a lot of pin-striping drawings to Chevrolet models from the 30ties. They will be made available some later on the MO pages here.

If somebody have drawings of the wood to Chevrolet models, please arrange for a scan of each to be sent to our webmaster during this year.

As to the cost of replacement of all the wood, done by a restorer company, would be around USD 10.000, and the wood to a 31 here in Norway would be USD 6000-6500 if you install it yourself.

And as you say, the difficulties and delays during the prosess are numerous even when they can be foreseen, so the total will be higher than thought, at the end.

Let's keep this thread warm until we find the makers and the needed drawings!

I'm up for producing some drawings but I am missing so much wood in mine I can only come up with a few parts. I will take an inventory of what I have and see what I can draw up. Things like my firewall is near perfect and most of the door wood but not much else.
You have to picture my situation. I have a 1922 touring car that sat outside in the elements for about 30 years. I'm surprised how much has survived.

There surely are a few 490s in Pennsylvania. Maybe one of the owners is working on their body (490 that is) and has the upholstery out so the wood is accessible. If so taking a bunch of pictures (particularly the joints), measurements and making drawings (and/or patterns) should permit you or another to make the wood structure. I takes some extra time to fit the wood to the metal but can be done. I am in process of doing my third body using that process.

Found that sometimes it is smart to use inexpensive and easy to work with pine to produce a pattern before making the final part. That way if you make a mistake it is easy to either use another piece of wood or cut off the problem and glue on a replacement and try again. Since the part does not need to be structural or look or fit perfectly you can make them quickly and then take the time to get the final part right.

Send an email to Edlund in Sweden and ask if you could buy a copy of the drawings from him.

I sent Edlund an email, I'll let everyone know what I find out. Fortunately I live near Lancaster County where there are large numbers of Amish craftsmen that I'm sure can reproduce anything from the correct patterns.

Very rapid and nice work. I also would have liked to buy a set of drawings about the wood to the body of my 1916, so I might ask as well.

You are very fortunate to live near such a good source of old, solid craftsmanskill.

Except for the "missing" front door, would the wood parts to a Touring 490 be the same to all years from 1915/6 to 1922?

If so we could ask for more copies of the same printing.

I do not know if the wood is the same for 1915/6 to 1922. I am very new to the 490 world. I would imagine that some parts may be the same. If we can find part numbers for the wood pieces that would tell us. I'll see what I can find.

Jim.
Individual wood parts for the body were not listed as available in the parts books up to 1924. It would have been a task carried out by the local repair workshop or coach builder if they were damaged in service.

You could only buy hood bows and floor boards, or a complete door with everything including the inside trim, or a complete 490 replacement body, including the inside trim.

Thanks for clarifying, but even if the factory (Chevrolet) did not show such wooden parts, the body builders must have had drawings to their work on a car. I have seen some very few examples of such drawings to Chevrolets, and a lot more to F**Ds.
We have asked some of the many old body builders here in Norway if they still have such material, but so far in vain.

Has anyone here kept the old parts or any kind of drawing from a restoration of the body wood to a 490?

Have you checked with Autowood Restorations?

http://www.autowood.net/index.htm

I got an email back from Edlund:
"Hi.
sorry i don't have any patterns for the wood i did from the original i have,and some i did by my self.I may Have some old wood so i can do new wood and send this to you.?"

Looks like he didn't make any drawings so I guess it's up to us.

I believe I talked to him already. Great person but he does not have any patterns for the 490s.

I didn't know how far back the parts books went in listing wood parts. I also have a 1934 Chevy truck and I have seen the wood parts listed with part numbers and price in parts books for that but apparently the 490s are before thay started the practice.

I'm currently in the process of redoing the wood on a 1929 Oldsmobile for a friend. This is a Fisher body. I've also redone the wood on my 1926 Chev Touring a year or so ago. In my view, making templates or drawings good enough for someone else to do the woodwork without having the old wood and the sheet metal, would be a very difficult task. The problem is that most parts involve multiple angles and contours. I think most people who take on a job like this would simply try to reconstruct the old pieces using clues such as screw holes and the sheet metal and use these as templates for making the new pieces. Also the body is symetrical so if you have a good part from one side you can make a mirror image copy for the other side. Figuring out what each old piece is and how things fit together is much like putting a jig saw puzzle together and rather time consuming. So far I've clocked about 170 hours on this job, not counting a lot of "thinking" time. I've also cut up about 100 board feet of ash, a beautiful wood to work with. I should be done in a few more days, I hope.

In my opinion your comments here are quite correct. I have heard quite a few using same methods to reuse the old wood as samples for the new make, as there are not many Chevrolet drawings around, as far as I know.

Nevertheless the professional wood makers cut and finish each of the new parts in series and then collect them in sets for each car body. If or when you have all old parts or at least a piece of each part needed,right or mirror shown, it should be possible to make a number of sets to the same body type Each should mainly fit, and certainly after some sanding.

The Swedish company does not have more than a few drawings, may be none, and make the sets from old wood. I know from before that Straedet uses same method to make his sets, and they fit. We have tried to hunt down drawings during the last ten years here in Norway, but so far without any luck. I also asked the "Fisher" museum "over there" if they could have some papers stored in the shelves, but no.

Anybody around "sitting on" some drawings, from "any" years?

What is the correct type of wood to use for these cars. In particular, a 1920 Model T Chevrolet truck? Ash, Oak, Poplar?

In Norway/Scandinavia they would normally use ash, specially in the structures inside the body and doors. In Petrine/1931 they used pine in the back, inside of the cab and in upper parts of the bed.

But in Solan/490 i discovered that the original floor boards were some similar to a mahogany type/color look-a-like. The running boards were not necessarily original; and made of ply wood. The inside wood I am not sure about.

I have always been told Ash but I believe a mixture of different woods may be more correct.


What we need to do is use the machines in this video.

Instead of making the parts in plastic, send the information to a wood cnc router.

Not to mention the data could be kept online and shared.

Andy,
Chevrolet used a hodge-podge of wood species in their bodies. Most of the main structural parts were a more dense or stronger hardwood. Non-structural parts were anything from pine (yes they claimed hardwood but used some soft wood too), birch, poplar, beech, maple, etc to ash, oak. I have never found non-US woods in the bodies but if a shipping crate came from outside the US the wood could have been reused.

I suspect the dark wood in the previous post was walnut. Don't find much furniture grade wood in bodys.

I know that a variety of woods were used in Chevs. They were of course at the low or economy end of the car spectrum and were not above using shipping crates. The profit margin on manufacturing a Chev wasn't that great and any wasted wood would cut into this. F*rd did the same thing. In fact the story is that Old Henry would specify to his suppliers what quality and dimensions the crates had to be so he could reuse them. I think the higher priced cars tended to ash. It's strong and light weight - both desireable qualities in a car body. Ash will flex where oak will shatter. Also I don't see the point of trying to duplicate the variety of wood. Sure I could go to the trouble of identifying the wood used in each piece. It's much simpler to buy a bunch of ash and get the job done. I'm using red cedar for the roof slats because that is what the original was and its rot resistance.