Wondering about a woodie

By John Gunnell

A car you don’t see a lot is a 1946-1948 Oldsmobile woodie station wagon. The Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile 1897-1997 says they made 140 of them in 1946, 1,460 in 1947 and 2,707 in 1948. That means that 4,307 of these wagons were built, but you can’t swear it by us.

We have only seen two of these cars in the sheet metal and one on a reproduction tin sign. The art on the sign came from an Olds ad or sales literature, so we have only seen two of these cars in 43 years of hobby involvement. Now, we’re wondering if both cars we saw were the same one, before and after restoration.

Maybe someone out there knows the answer to this question. It would be interesting to find out for certain whether the unrestored car that we saw many years ago on a trip to the East Coasts was the same one that popped up in fully restored condition at the 2015 Milwaukee Masterpiece.

The car we saw years ago was being towed when we spotted it on the approach to one of two bridges that connect Staten Island, N.Y., with New Jersey. We think it was the Outerbridge Crossing, but it could have been the Goethals Bridge. The Olds station wagon was in what we call “barn find” condition today. But we’re sure it was heading for a complete restoration.

The 1946 Oldsmobile station wagon at The Milwaukee Masterpiece was a completely restored example. It was finished in maroon (which we believe was the same color that car we saw years ago was painted). A placard said that the car belonged to Tim Sheridan. All of the Olds woodies we mentioned were six-cylinder Special Series 66 models.

We’re wondering whether Tim Sheridan knows whether his car was ever in New Jersey. It would be interesting if both of the 1946-1948 Olds wagons we saw were actually the same car.