VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Country Club wood trim package

Seeings how I have pretty much given up this debate.................

Here's some interesting reading......................

In the late 40'sAftermarket wood kits, designed to be applied by the owner, made their appearance during these years. These "woody-izing" kits could be screwed to the sides of non-woody vehicles and came from New York's Belbod Company as well as Engineered Enterprises of Detroit via Chevrolet's Fisher Body division

In Post War 1948 a Company called "Engineered Enterprises Inc. Michigan" introduced a Chevrolet solution for competitors like Ford Sportsman and Chrysler Town and Country: The idea was to produce a Modest car for a Man of Means a Woody for the Man who had lived through the Great Depression and was now Wealthy but was still conservative in nature. The Country Club was born, marking those belonging to a "Country Club set" on the Companies brochure a Blue Car was used. Within 12 months the company had gone bankrupt making this extremely rare (Blue was rarest), ironically Fords Convertible Sportsman disappeared along with the Chrysler Town and Country.

Seeing I was the first person to "doubt" the C.C. kit in this thread I would be glad to do a short "questioning" article. I had mentioned this to Kate way back at the beginning. She is understanding of the problem and even suggested it.

Dave,
As the Chairman of the VCCA Judging Committee, I suggest you write the article. Why? Because it will eventually be the Judging Committee that makes the decision to recommend an action or no action to the Board of Directors. That is also the Committee that authors the wording in the Judging Manual. The input from the VCCA membership can be checked by the Committee with consolation with Technical Advisers and other knowledgeable people and sources.

In the book “by John D. Robertson” the picture of the Coupe with a wood kit is just a rendering and not an actual picture of a car. I am forming a conclusion/theory that since the wood kit was offered in 1948 only that the wood kit was being considered by GM but didn’t materialize. Consider the following:
One, being a drastic model change coming up in 1949. Note that in 1949 the wagon model did not use wood, rather metal panels with wood finish.
Two, all other GM makes (Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac) were moving away from wood all together on the bodies.

Actually the 1949 wagon was available in wood or steel. The wood was discontinued for 1950.

DTM...If you want to do the article it is OK with me.

That is not really true. There are factory photos of Chevrolets with aftermarket accessories installed....among which are double sided white wall tires, aftermarket accessory trunks and etc. There are also factory photos showing displays at the Chevrolet dealership with aftermarket accessories for sale. If there was a profit to be made on an accessory the Chevrolet dealer would not only sell the aftermarket accessory but install it at extra cost as well.

My all original 1932 Chevrolet barn survivor is a prime example. I am second owner of the car and when the original owner purchased the car from our local Chevrolet dealer back in 1932 (at the time it was Pierce-Allen Chevrolet in Medford, Oregon) he had the Chevrolet dealer install an aftermarket Kari-Keen accessory trunk unit on the car (at extra cost) before he took delivery of his brand new 1932 Chevrolet.

"Any feature, option, or accessory shown in the original
factory or dealer catalog, sales literature, company service
bulletins, or other original Chevrolet or General Motors
literature, is accepted for judging."

If this paragraph is the RULE of VCCA judging, the C.C, kit is not a factory kit.

Why involved 8,000 members, with 8,000 opinions, if the rule is clearly stated in the above paragraph?

Who wrote this ?

They are both historical foot notes....One from hemming's and the other from woody magazine.....As you can see there are many, many opinions on this topic out there, some in print and others verbal...To date these appear to be only opinions!!!Many say GM was involved and some say not.....Remember this thread started with the statements made in OUR OWN G&D MAGAZINE........

Never, never believe magazine or book articles. They are more often than not very inaccurate.
Also one article appears and the next one follows suit and copies it and all of a sudden it is taken as gospel.

Chevrolet didn't worry abot selling cars in 1948. Inspite of being still a post war design and the new 1949
Ford was already introduced in June of 1948 there was still a high demand for the 1948 Chevrolet. INfact a year later a used 1948 Chevroleet Fleetline sold for more than a used 1949 Ford.
The cars like the Ford Sportsman and Chrysler Town & Country were very limited production models and never profitable.
The Heritage Center is of no help other than what is available on their site.....and has also despensed some inaccurate information.

So, since it is now 66 years after the fact and no hard proof exist either for or against, the official ruling is, the club will simply ignore it. For '48 only, or '47 and '48.

So Gene what inaccurate information did they dispense????

As I stated in my 10/31 post on this subject I think it would be entirely possible that a dealer could have one of more 47s on hand when the 48s were introduced in Feb 48 (I believe that was the month) so it could be possible to have CC kit installed on some 47s.
I mistakenly omitted stating that the brochures advertising the CC Kit show the kit installed on 47 model vehicles so it certainly would appear the maker of the kit meant it to be sold to 47 & 48 Chevrolet buyers.

Dick,where did you get that date of inception? BTW when you search,country club wood package,you run into an article about you and your car...Great stuff " Congrats

I was referring to the month the 48 model cars were introduced. I'm pretty sure that is correct. I'm sure Gene or someone else can confirm or correct.

The 1948's were introduced in Feb...production began 1-12-48.

Being that there was six pages of discussion, regarding the Country Club Kit, will VCCA Judging look into this issue, to determine if the kit will be permitted, as a GM accessory, or not ?

Curious as to the next step, if there is a next step, or not.

The "next step" has been taken. Will be in a forthcoming G&D.

Hum mm, Forward I hope?

That is our intention. Our meaning more than one person.

OK, will look forward to the info provided in the G&D.

OK then............