Anthony's '49 Chev "Woody" Wagon
My son Anthony Czaja owns this 1949 Chevrolet Tin woody Wagon. Anthony and I, with the help of my other two sons Matthew and Daniel did all the work on this car in our Ohio home garage.
Anthony built the car with the intentions of shipping it to Hawaii, where he and his wife now live. A few arrangements still have to be made before that happens. In the mean time, someone has to exercise the woody and that lucky person is me.
This car had several layers and shades of dark green paint, when Anthony brought it home to Ohio from a barn in Northwestern Tennessee. There were several indications of scraping and gouging, where evidently people had at one time or another checked to see if there was wood buried beneath the dark green paint. Rolling up their sleeves Anthony and his wife started the process of removing the paint in preparation, for, the image they had in their minds of what this old wagon could look like.
Anthony decided he would try to paint the wood grain on the car himself. He not only succeeded painting the wood grain, but one of his biggest compliments is, when watching from a distance, a person approaches his car, looks it all over, practically puts their nose on the wood grain, and before walking away taps the wood grain panel with their knuckle or finger to help determine if it's Detroit tin or WOOD.
The plan for the wagon was to have a mostly stock appearance, with a more modern drive train and handling characteristic
A 1977 Chevrolet Malibu with 20,000 original miles was purchased as a donor. The Inline 250 cubic inch, 6 cylinder engine, automatic transmission, steering column, fuse box and wiring harness were all gleaned from the Malibu and installed into the Tin Woody. A rear end from a early 80s Buick regal was set upon a Street Rod Engineering leaf spring kit, and bolted in. The Mustang II front cross member and suspension also, came from Street Rod Engineering.
No one had an off the shelf gas tank to replace the peculiar designed rusted out wagon tank. After many inquiries and internet searches, we came in contact with Hector of Ricks Rod Shop in El Paso Texas and after several discussions of measurements, shapes etc, they built a custom made stainless steel gas tank for the wagon and shipped it to us.
Anthony did all the painting, added tinted glass all around except for the windshield, wrapped stock rims with Coker wide whites and looks forward to the day, that him and his bride can drive the 49 up to the North Shore on Oahu.
Joe & Steffanie Czaja, Columbus, Ohio
Below is the "before" version
