Case Studies

Our Customer's Challenge

A car collector from downstate Michigan brought us a 1948 Nash Suburban Woodie.  The car had spent about 20 years in a junkyard before it was rescued and restoration work began. Our customer purchased the car from the person that had started the restoration and had installed new wood. The customer asked us to complete all of the fitting, blending, finishing, and final assembly of the wood pieces on the car.

The Solution

While Nash built many steel versions of this car, they only produced about a 1,000 Woodie versions over a three year timeframe. This made it a difficult car to find to reference for our work, but we were able to find a restored Nash Suburban Woodie in Michigan. All wood parts for the car had to be checked for fit and clearances with other pieces along with the blending and shaping of the pieces. After all of the fit and prep work was completed, numerous coats of finish were applied to bring out the rich colors of the ash body framework and mahogany panels on the car. Considerable time was spent finish sanding between coats along with final sanding and polishing to achieve a rich gloss shine to make the wood pieces glisten.  All of the wood body pieces are attached to the car body with screws, which are all turned in by hand - no scratches allowed.

The Results

The 1948 Nash restoration produced an absolutely beautiful car. The owner took the car to the 2005 Nash Club Nashionals held in Pontiac, Michigan and was awarded "Best in Show” for the work that went into restoring this graceful car. The woodwork and lines on the car were complex, yet graceful with a very smooth flow into the back of the car. The overall appearance of the car was very sharp and it shone brightly in the sun. Of the eight woodies we've restored over the years, this is one of our favorites.