VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1932 Woodkit

Hello
I am Karl from Austria. I have joined this forum in 2013 because I was about to begin the restoration of my 1932 four door sedan. In 2014 I ordered from Jim Rodman a complete woodkit for this car. I paid around 2000 Dollars as a down payment and then I had to go through the same experience as many of the guys posting here. I got told that it takes some more time, a little more patience is needed etc. This went on for quite a while. In 2017 my son was on a holiday trip across the USA and managed to visit Jim. He got a warm welcome and he was shown around his property. He also got shown something which supposedly was ”žmy“ woodkit with only a few items missing. My son was told it would take a little bit more time. In the beginning of 2020 even my long patience was overstreched and I wrote Jim a letter demanding either the delivery of my woodkit by May 2020 or the return of my down payment. To make it short, I got the money back finally. And so here I am back at square one after six years of waiting in vain. Some may wonder how I could leave the Chevy unattended for such a long time. Well in 2014 some changes in my life happened and I got overwhelmed by other projects and obligations so that I could not even think about the Chevy. Slowly I have some hope to be able to dedicate myself to the Chevy again. And so I am starting from square one my search for a complete woodkit. By browsing through this forum I see two companies mentioned in this context:
Classic Wood products
and
KC Wood mfg.
So my question now is which of the two companies I should preferably contact about this woodkit.
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Karl

Hello Karl. I totally understand about the time it's taken to get going on a project. My story is very similar. I also have a 32 four door, only recently have i gotten back on it. Sit for years because of life,family, work, funding, etc.. now kids are grown, i'm divorced and time to work on the car.
As to your question about Wood .. well, i'm sure everyone has a story but as for me... so far I've gotten my wood from Classic Wood. I've called and spoke to Bill at KC Wood, but he doesn't have all the patterns for a 32 4 door and is about a year behind schedule. Having said that, Classic Wood's patterns seem to be good but have been told by many on here some aren't and bolt holes don't always line up. So a tweek here and there are needed. I'm currently trying to figure out my main Sills, they fit and bolt holes line up, but something with my doers are way off .. i'm still working to see if it's something I did or if the wood is off. But their wait time is only about 3 months. BUT with the COVID thing .. put them behind a bit more. A piece I ordered back in March, I didn't get until mid August because they were shut down for a while.
There is also a guy in Canada Robin Baker who makes wood, mostly 31's, he's currently working on a set of door regulators for my 32 four door. He's on this site sometimes and here's his site : http://www.automotivewoodbodies.com/ and he has a Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/automotivecoachwork

Hope that helps and GOOD LUCK with the doors.. they are a Pain in the A$$ but I keep working on them anyway. haha.

I have been told by others that KC is a good source. He is a bit higher priced but when I spoke to him he said he guarantees the fit and he had my parts in stock,

Donner, Classic wood did 90% of my wood and I had the same problem. The original owner (Steve) did mine and relied on memory and what samples I had. MANY bolt holes did not line up, he was going to make the correctly but got cancer and died (sold the business before he passed) to the current owners. They wouldn't honor what Steve told me. I have had the same problems with my sills and windshield lower cross bar (which I am making myself) I am also having door problem and have been getting a lot of help from VCCA folks..

Yea, i was really hoping KC would have my wood parts since he does guarantee the fit, but i need the rear door hinge pillars for a 4 door. He had the two door rear pillers but told me it would be at least a year before he could get to it. I even tried to call Rodman just in case he would have them, but never answers the phone, have tried MANY times. Unfortunately, i'm not a wood maker and wouldn't be able to create my own so sort of stuck with Classic Wood. As i mentioned Robin in Canada makes good stuff and is working on parts for me, but he needs the originals to use as a pattern for 32's. He has most patterns for 31's.

Automotive wood bodies did not reply yet, but as it was mentioned, they seem not to be able to fabricate a complete woodkit for a 32. KC sent me a quote, but with the comment that it did not include all parts. Which brings for me the problem to find out which parts are missing and where to get them. So Classic Wood will be my next try and then I have to make a decision.

Good Luck! keep us posted!

Recently I installed two full door wood kits in a 34' pickup from KC. The fit virtually perfect with just a tad of adjustment needed to fit the metal. I know of only one piece of wood that KC makes that needs a little wood added to it and it's the front roof piece for the 31-32 cabriolet which is a very involved piece (one of his most expensive) to make. The difference with AWB (Jim Rodman) and KC is Jim has assembled many of his wood kits and installed the sheet metal on them. Bill has not. I do not know where KC's patterns came from but they appear to extremely accurate other than that one front roof piece. His deck rails are beautifully made and most all of his wood is sanded much finer than both AWB and Classic. The guys at Classic are good to work with and I believe would appreciate getting some accurate sample pieces to correct their patterns. I know every piece that I've gotten from them and it was wrong, they credited me my money back. Ricky will always try and work with you.
So what I'm saying is all three companies have their pluses and minuses and for the best, you WILL have to wait a long time. I personally have spoken with Bill about purchasing his business and we still discuss that. If I did, I would produce at a faster rate than he does (he admits he approaches his business as a part time endeavor). I am still considering it but if I do, it wouldn't be for a couple years as I need to take a break from the old car restoration scene as it's worn me out for now. If something changes in the mean time, I will definitely post it here as the VCCA members would be my main customers.

Hello there, I hadn't recieved any message from you? Just found this thread and I do not have patterns for 1932 so wouldn't be able to supply a kit. Actually I have not been supplying any "kits" as fit really cannot be gauranteed despite what anyone says. I have been primarily doing complete bodies.
Regards,

Hi
I finally ordered the wood kit at Classic Wood Products. The main reason is, because there is only one piece which they cannot supply. All others seem to be available.
So now I am up for a 6 months wait, then for some time of transport. I will decide later if air freight or sea freight is more practical.
Classic Wood does not supply any installation instructions so it will be a major challenge of fitting everything together. But I hope and I am sure that here in the forum I can find help and advice for this task. Until now I have been helped quite a lot here.
I cannot hope to find any help locally. In my country there exist probably a handful of the 1932 model of the Chevy, certainly less than 10. This car has never been imported here in its days. So all existing here are private imports. And I doubt that any of them has undergone such a thorough restoration with a complete new wood kit. At least I know of one 32 4 door sedan in my province which I can examine and take measures. That might help a bit.
So for now, thanks for all help so far and I will post here again when I have problems

There are a number of folks on this site that are very knowledgeable about the wood cars of the 30's. They have been really helpful to me on my 32 4dr.

In about 3-6 months I will be doing some wood work on a 30’ 4 dr body. I will be posting pictures and usually give a detailed explanation of my work as I go. I’m currently working on the chassis/drivetrain and the body will come after.
Here is the link to that restoration thread. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/338758-another-restoration-added-to-my-list-30%E2%80%99-chevy-4dr/?do=getNewComment