**The Joy of Restoring a 1946 Chrysler King Woody**

As I stepped into my recently acquired 1946 Chrysler King Woody, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and trepidation. The car had been sitting for decades, and its wooden body was in desperate need of restoration. But despite the challenges that lay ahead, I knew that this project would be a labor of love. And as I started to work on it, I realized just how fortunate I was to have stumbled upon such an incredible piece of automotive history.

The process of getting the car started proved to be a bit of an ordeal. The battery was dead, and the starter was failing, but with a bit of patience and elbow grease, we were finally able to get it going. Once started, the engine purred smoothly, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. As I worked on the car, I began to appreciate just how well-designed it was for its time. The transmission shifted smoothly, and the brakes performed flawlessly, despite being over 70 years old.

Despite its excellent condition, there were still several issues that needed to be addressed. The radio and heater didn't work, but the lights did come on – albeit one by one, at first. As I worked through each problem, I was struck by just how modern the car felt. It was as if it had been designed for a different era, one where cars were more practical and less concerned with style or performance. And yet, despite its age, the King Woody still drove surprisingly well – almost like a modern car.

One of the most surprising features of the car was its power-operated top. I couldn't believe that such a feature had been included in a 1946 Chrysler, but it was a testament to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the era's designers. With just a few simple steps, the top could be raised or lowered with ease – a truly clever touch.

As I continued to work on the car, I couldn't help but think about its history. It had been owned by several collectors over the years, each one leaving their mark on the vehicle in some way. And yet, despite its storied past, the King Woody still felt like a rare and special thing – a true treasure of the automotive world.

**The Market for Vintage Cars**

As I delved deeper into the world of vintage cars, I began to notice a trend that had been unfolding over the past few years. It seemed that prices for rare and unique vehicles were dropping – significantly, in some cases. The 1946 Chrysler King Woody was no exception, with its original estimate having been far higher than what I ultimately paid.

This phenomenon is not unique to classic cars, however. In recent years, we've seen a shift in the market towards more modern collectibles, such as limited-edition vehicles or high-performance cars. The prices for these items have skyrocketed, leaving collectors and enthusiasts scrambling to get their hands on the latest offerings. Meanwhile, vintage cars like the King Woody are finding themselves priced lower than ever before.

**The Rise of Radwood Era Cars**

One of the most fascinating developments in the world of classic cars is the rise of "Radwood" era vehicles – those from the 1950s and early 1960s that have gained a new following among enthusiasts. These cars, with their sleek designs and innovative features, are being rediscovered by younger collectors who are eager to own and restore them.

At the same time, cars from earlier eras – such as the 1930s and 1940s – are falling in value, while their popularity endures. The General Motors "Antique" designation, for example, has become increasingly valuable in recent years, despite its origins being somewhat dubious. Meanwhile, classic Chrysler cars like the King Woody are finding themselves priced lower than ever before.

**The Future of Classic Cars**

As I look to the future, I'm excited to see where the world of classic cars will go. With the rise of social media and online platforms, it's easier than ever for collectors and enthusiasts to connect with one another and share their passion. And yet, despite this increased accessibility, there are still many challenges facing the industry – from preservation and conservation to authenticity and provenance.

One thing is certain, however: classic cars like the 1946 Chrysler King Woody will continue to captivate audiences around the world. Whether they're being restored to their former glory or simply admired for their beauty and historical significance, these vehicles have a timeless appeal that transcends era and generation.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to V garage the dumbest Auto channel in all of YouTube but honestly I don't feel very stupid buying this it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen it's a 1946 Chrysler Town and Country convertible and I got it because we are quite literally having an extinction level event when it comes to the collectors of these cars they're all being sold off as the owners pass away the museums being closed the cars being sold off and that's why I was able to get this for about half of what it sold for 10 years ago this would have been a sixf figure car at one point and it certainly isn't that anymore so that's good news in the sense that I'm able to buy one of these for an affordable price but it's also bad news because the enthusiasm for these cars is literally dying out and there's not enough of us to replace them so what's the future when it comes to antique collector cars hopefully we're able to get some more fresh blood into this hobby because these cars they have a lot of appeal and not just because of looks and This Town and Country especially is a very very special car I bought this 46 Town and Country the king of the Woodies at an auction where an entire Museum was selling off their collection and it was a rare circumstance where the seller the person who actually built the collection was there to see it off usually it is families that have inherited this big collection or a museum and not enough of them are interested in continuing the museum so they sell off all the cars and take the money so it's nice in the sense that the man that built this collection was there to see it off but still the prices a lot of them went for below their estimat including This Town and Country which it's hard to believe because of how beautiful these things are and how nice they are to drive you're probably noticing that I don't have to shift this thing very much and that's because this has fluid drive basically a four-speed transmission and I'll show you how it works here I do have a clutch on the floor which I'm using right now this was pretty revolutionary when it came out out in the early 40s so I do have a clutch but I also have a torque converter so now we are in the low gears I can go from 1 to two where it shifts much like an automatic see it just shifted in the second and if I want to go into my high gears there's three same thing if I want to shift into fourth I just let off wait a second slight click and I'm in Top Gear and this thing's good for 80 85 mph uh 110 horsepower out of the straight 8 and that makes this car from 1946 be able to drive at modern car speeds but its other party trick is you come to a stop and you can stop without putting the clutch in because it still has a torque converter basically you only need to use the clutch and the gear selection when you first start it up and putting it into the gear or shifting from the low gears to the high gears otherwise you can drive around mostly like a normal automatic transmission which people living in New York living in San Francisco living in the cities in the 1940s taxi cab drivers this was a major godsend and a pretty Invincible beefy transmission to boot versus some early automatic so it was a game changer I'm going to pull off and turn around and I'm holding the camera with one hand and in a very old car it would normally be a problem this thing doesn't have power steering but it's not as heavy and cumbersome as you would think same with shifting putting it here into reverse and that straight eight power really good torque I'm not going to do a burnout in a car from 1946 and also so because it's been sitting for a very long time that's the one thing about Museum cars and what they announced with these that they've been sitting for a very long time and they're going to need basic service so when I do go for Speed in this Chrysler which is capable of here we go 40 50 this was when we start buffeting these old tires they are very much out around 55 that's 60 uh quite dangerous and also when I hit the brakes it does pull pretty hard in One Direction uh that's something that needs to be looked at by the car wizard we're going to need tires we're going to need brake attention there's a few little leaks and things but overall I'm so happy because this car is driving so darn well but really that's because there is not a lot to go wrong on these things they're so simple there's very little to break on these things and it's very easy to figure out when they do and so refreshing in an era of modern cars where you need computers to hook into everything to talk to different modules and figure out what has gone wrong in 1946 it's about the fanciest car money could buy but pretty much anybody could work on it and well it has wood yeah lots of wood in its construction which I shall show you on a tour of this beautiful Chrysler Town and Country but before we start the tour I would like to thank betterhelp for sponsoring today's video I use betterhelp to find a therapist last year and they helped me understand myself better and work through some issues the last year for me was was very chaotic and my better health therapist certainly helped me have new Clarity when it came to all the problems I was having and the happiness I have now is a direct result of that now I know there's a stigma when it comes to asking for therapy but there shouldn't be I started seeing a therapist on better help and it did help me a lot better help connects to you with a licensed therapist who is trained to listen and give you helpful unbiased advice and what makes better help so great in my opinion is the ease and flexibility of it you can have therapy sessions as a phone call as a video chat or even via messaging if you prefer that whatever the most comfortable version of therapy is for you you can check it out for yourself at betterhelp.com hoovies betterhelp can match you with over 30,000 therapists in their Network which gives you access to a wider range of expertise than what may be available in your area like for me in the sticks and Kansas in my case they actually did a little too well and matched me with another midwesterner who's also really into cars so they certainly understood me in the therapy sessions and these sessions you'll be able to schedule at a time that is convenient for you people spend hours in the gym every week week so why not give your mind the same kind of attention over 4 million people have used better help to start living a healthier happier life so if you think you might benefit from therapy consider betterhelp click the link in the description or visit betterhelp.com hoies clicking that link helps support this Channel and it also gives you 10% off your first month of better help so you can connect with a therapist and see if it helps you now check out this amazing Woody when the Town and Country was first unveiled in 1941 it was marketed much like a crossover or SUV would be today a car perfect for the city to get around very practical very elegant and beautiful but also tough enough to handle a trip out into the country off-road for a hunt or whatever people did in the 1940s and all the 41s in early 42s were barrelback station wagons is what they called them seven passengers something I would picture a mountain lodge owning and they were called Barrel backs not just because of the shape of the car but also because a lot of the structure the body of the car was made out of wood now like I said they made these in 1941 and a bit in 1942 but that all stopped because of war production us involvement in World War II and the Town and Country didn't come back as a production car until the 1946 model year now a lot of cars didn't have many changes over that period of time five years had passed but there was no research and development in advancing the cars during that period so the cars came out mostly looking the same Chrysler though had a huge Advantage because just prior they had unveiled that incredible fluid drive transmission so it was already a pretty Cutting Edge car at the time but still they did make some improvements to the nose here and what a front end on the 1946 to 48 Town countries we have something kind of unique to these cars is the three dagmars right here one right in the center so you can bump cars along this one ALS has the optional fog lights which were Mopar accessories back then you can see the Mopar badge is riveted on there but also the grill comes to a beautiful Point as well giving a solid line all the way across on the 41s they had these piano opening hoods where they open sideways on these it opens like a traditional Hood but that hood ornament there also splitting the car in half just gorgeous and without the wood just looking at the front end and the drivetrain on this thing I have always loved these cars enough that I owned one a Chrysler New Yorker from 1949 a four-door sedan that I bought for 4500 bucks it's one of my earliest YouTube videos when it came time to sell I sort of did a promotional video and my delivery well it wasn't very good it's actually quite embarrassing this is new to my inventory it's a 1949 chryler New Yorker it has the spit Tire straight 8 with the fluid Drive semi-automatic transmission uh it's a beautiful uh original Survivor car a great indry level classic car that is going to stir loads of conversation when you pull up to a a cruise in or car show so I do have a familiarity with these car cars and at the time 10 plus years ago I never could have imagined owning a town in country because they were so expensive this was a major collectible at one point a style icon and I lusted after it so much that I even would buy the substitutes like a Jeep Grand Wagoner which wasn't real wood and then of course that Chrysler Town and Country the learon the K car that made me so mad I eventually buried it now I was able to eventually buy a real Woody a 1951 Ford Country Squire a Woody Wagon a beautiful car flathead Ford V8 but it did feel like a dinosaur when it came to the driving experience it had a three on the tree without overdrive so 5560 the car was just absolutely screaming that three on the tree pretty primitive and the car just felt crude and cheap this Chrysler it is the opposite of that that silky smooth straight eight just absolutely wonderful and plenty of power and torque that transmission I keep talking about really is a wonder and the interior quality is well well just incredible on this car the art deco gauges with Chrysler's Crown here just look absolutely amazing I have the police spotlights as well which I think is pretty cool the side view mirrors such an elegant almost looks like sculpture and then you go here and look at the speaker Grill oh my God it's just gorgeous and the Motorola stereo it does turn on and make some noise eventually once the tubes warm up but it doesn't work also this early automatic climate control I have never seen before it's not functioning but I assume that's what this is to change temperatures 80 70 60 50 some accessory I don't think this was Factory you can see the steering wheel as well just beautiful with that logo and the fluid drive and the horn well quite imposing when it works come on there it is another Spotlight on the other side and that crown and just look at the detailing in this door panel this was a very expensive car in the 1940s and the quality and the detail show now a few of my friends have looked at this car and were thinking it isn't a total complete restoration a lot of this seems original this interior at least this finish here it has the right kind of patina to be original and this car actually left the factory as a red car and look at the inside of this door panel right here it's red the car obviously was repainted black but when they did that they probably just took the wood entirely off the car and didn't buy repainting that inside door panel which would also mean and it seems totally believable that this wood is original now the structure of the door is actually wood this isn't something that's just tacked on they actually use these in the construction in the frame of the door you look at the inside here yeah that is totally wood Ashwood to be exact and there is a metal skin right here that they put the mahogany inlay over and it continues here into the back this is something that car manufacturers were getting away from already in the mid to late 1940s this was purely a style choice and boy what a choice it was because from the back it looks almost like a yacht on the Italian Riviera like it's a crisc or a Reva or something and you see this latch here this is going into the wood because this trunk lid once again this is an entirely wood structure there is nothing metal in the frame of this thing and the trunk is another spot that looks suspiciously original at least the way this leather has worn and this horsehair carpet right here and you pull it back and there is a little bit of that original red paint so quite a mystery here I didn't get any information on the history of this car when I bought it other than it's been sitting in a museum for a very long time but look at the back end of this thing the rear quarter View is really where it's at even though the front is beautiful the back it's just stunning with that real wood and there's more labeling on the back here fluid Drive in the third brake light and Town and Country down here this illuminates the license plate everything has a purpose but they adorned it with plenty of bling in 1946 to make it just an absolutely stunning car now what isn't Factory are these wheels these look like an aftermarket wire wheel that you could buy with new Coker Tires which I sorely need again because this one has been sitting for so long but personally I like it I think it looks really good I wouldn't switch it back to the dog dish hubc caps and why don't we take a look under the hood of this thing it's just so pretty it's ridiculous so there is the straight8 the Spitfire as they called this back in the day which made very little sense because that was a British fighter in World War II and this being an American car obviously an engine spits fire so it makes sense in that way but it's not British but a nice twery smooth straight eight something I have always loved but in the older cars say something with a manual transmission like an old Packard or dusenberg you have a nonsynchronized gear box so shifting it even the guys that are really good at it grind the gears and it is a lot more effort to drive versus this with that fluid drive a really nice experience so you get the best of both worlds and this one does look very very stock underneath a lot of the wiring appears to have been replaced which is good because you don't want the car melting down but then there's a lot of stuff inside electrical wise that doesn't work and one obvious thing on this side is the heater core this is the coolant from the engine would go in and out to heat the cabin it's been disconnected cut off probably started leaking so something to address there if I ever want heat I'm also kind of curious I need to look up what bolted to this maybe it's missing its entire heater system but what isn't missing is its original oil bath air filter right here instead of a paper air filter like we're used to today there's a screen in here in a bowl of oil and the air flows through it and it catches all the dirt and keeps it from going into the engine a pretty cool system they call an oil bath system and that is still retained here we'll do a deeper dive mechanically with the car wizard but when it showed up it was leaking a little bit of coolant and it's still dripping out I just need to tighten this up a little bit more from the coolant drain and it appears to be leaking a bit from the oil filter it does drip some on the ground now it still retains its old school 6volt electrical system which is the 6vt battery here and you can see the ignition system here once again looking ancient but working really well and I'll start it up just so you can see how smooth and wonderful this engine is it's always easy to start pops right over sometimes it feels like there's not enough voltage getting to the starter and it'll click like the batteries did I don't know if it just needs the wiring cleaned up the contacts or whatever but when she's running so smooth so sound I am very lucky in that sense and very lucky that the transmission shifts as well as it does obviously that's all been gone through at some point the accessories a lot of them don't work like I said the radio the heater but the lights they do come on well I say they do actually this one's burned out the highbeam works but the fogs do as well looking so gorgeous on this thing and the tail lights well I do think they come on maybe maybe not uhoh so we do need some work back there but one thing that does actually work on this car which is a small miracle in itself is the top which is power operated in 1946 just wrap your head around that a total dinosaur of a car made out of wood with an old school pre-war straight A and it has a power operated top that is really simple and works super well it's this little lever right here a switch which you pull come on honey little bit of stage fright here come on we were out driving in the cold so it might be struggling a little bit so I'm going use my foot here to work the switch while I pull on it a little bit here come on there we go that woke it up just needed a little bit of help to get started but now that it's going totally fine coming down 1946 Tech right here bam you just pull it down into these indents on both sides screw in the top and you're off so simple so a bit of atrophy obviously from this car sitting for so long a few electronics and things to sort out but overall I am so so happy with it even as is it drives so nice and that's why Chrysler marketed this car as so easy to drive in 1946 a woman could handle it no problem a bit of an edgy thing to say nowadays but back then it really was a thing these cars could be very difficult to drive and cumbersome and this one feels a lot more like a modern car than it does an antique even though well geez look at it and the price I paid $58,000 for it at auction which was below its auction estimate and I think a total bargain it's a trend we're certainly seeing as more of these get offered from Collections and museums and getting dumped flooded into the market that they don't reach their estimate but it's not just the Chryslers it's just about anything something unique like a cord 810 or 8812 those were very unique cars for the time front-wheel drive four-speed manual transmission overdrive that was controlled by vacuum the shifts it was still a manual but it a little itty bitty shifter uh those are not bringing near what their estimates thought they should and in years it keeps getting lower and lower and lower also the mid-50s Packer Caribbeans with that innovated suspension system sort of an active hydraulic suspension and a really cool look they're bringing lower and lower money under their estimates but even General cars General antiques like a modela they're worth half of what they were 15 20 years ago because young people like me just aren't interested in them and the Boomers my parents they want cars obviously that were cool in their era Growing Up So In the late 50s is where that begins for for them so the fin cars like a 57 Chevy still very strong going into the 60s with the muscle cars the 70s that kind of stuff still going strong and gen xers and Millennials like me as we start to make more money we're running the same thing cars that were exotic in the 80s and 90s we're seeing an explosion and growth and values there meanwhile these old dinosaurs the prices continue to drop now there are certainly exceptions especially with the blue chip highend collector cars which as the rich get richer they continue to get more expensive like a 300 SL go wing or the right years of dusenberg or Packard or an old race car obviously those are getting even more expensive but the second or third tier collectors like this well they've gotten more affordable to where I'm able to buy it and I am absolutely thrilled to own this car to go through the process of sorting it out and making videos for you it's actually kind of dumb when you think about it because this isn't a very good investment longterm compared to a lot of the other radwood era cars behind me but honestly I don't care that's not why I buy cars I'm so excited to own this Chrysler and I'll probably lose money if I ever sell it but I can't imagine it's look at that wood it's the King Woody thank you so much for watchingwelcome to V garage the dumbest Auto channel in all of YouTube but honestly I don't feel very stupid buying this it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen it's a 1946 Chrysler Town and Country convertible and I got it because we are quite literally having an extinction level event when it comes to the collectors of these cars they're all being sold off as the owners pass away the museums being closed the cars being sold off and that's why I was able to get this for about half of what it sold for 10 years ago this would have been a sixf figure car at one point and it certainly isn't that anymore so that's good news in the sense that I'm able to buy one of these for an affordable price but it's also bad news because the enthusiasm for these cars is literally dying out and there's not enough of us to replace them so what's the future when it comes to antique collector cars hopefully we're able to get some more fresh blood into this hobby because these cars they have a lot of appeal and not just because of looks and This Town and Country especially is a very very special car I bought this 46 Town and Country the king of the Woodies at an auction where an entire Museum was selling off their collection and it was a rare circumstance where the seller the person who actually built the collection was there to see it off usually it is families that have inherited this big collection or a museum and not enough of them are interested in continuing the museum so they sell off all the cars and take the money so it's nice in the sense that the man that built this collection was there to see it off but still the prices a lot of them went for below their estimat including This Town and Country which it's hard to believe because of how beautiful these things are and how nice they are to drive you're probably noticing that I don't have to shift this thing very much and that's because this has fluid drive basically a four-speed transmission and I'll show you how it works here I do have a clutch on the floor which I'm using right now this was pretty revolutionary when it came out out in the early 40s so I do have a clutch but I also have a torque converter so now we are in the low gears I can go from 1 to two where it shifts much like an automatic see it just shifted in the second and if I want to go into my high gears there's three same thing if I want to shift into fourth I just let off wait a second slight click and I'm in Top Gear and this thing's good for 80 85 mph uh 110 horsepower out of the straight 8 and that makes this car from 1946 be able to drive at modern car speeds but its other party trick is you come to a stop and you can stop without putting the clutch in because it still has a torque converter basically you only need to use the clutch and the gear selection when you first start it up and putting it into the gear or shifting from the low gears to the high gears otherwise you can drive around mostly like a normal automatic transmission which people living in New York living in San Francisco living in the cities in the 1940s taxi cab drivers this was a major godsend and a pretty Invincible beefy transmission to boot versus some early automatic so it was a game changer I'm going to pull off and turn around and I'm holding the camera with one hand and in a very old car it would normally be a problem this thing doesn't have power steering but it's not as heavy and cumbersome as you would think same with shifting putting it here into reverse and that straight eight power really good torque I'm not going to do a burnout in a car from 1946 and also so because it's been sitting for a very long time that's the one thing about Museum cars and what they announced with these that they've been sitting for a very long time and they're going to need basic service so when I do go for Speed in this Chrysler which is capable of here we go 40 50 this was when we start buffeting these old tires they are very much out around 55 that's 60 uh quite dangerous and also when I hit the brakes it does pull pretty hard in One Direction uh that's something that needs to be looked at by the car wizard we're going to need tires we're going to need brake attention there's a few little leaks and things but overall I'm so happy because this car is driving so darn well but really that's because there is not a lot to go wrong on these things they're so simple there's very little to break on these things and it's very easy to figure out when they do and so refreshing in an era of modern cars where you need computers to hook into everything to talk to different modules and figure out what has gone wrong in 1946 it's about the fanciest car money could buy but pretty much anybody could work on it and well it has wood yeah lots of wood in its construction which I shall show you on a tour of this beautiful Chrysler Town and Country but before we start the tour I would like to thank betterhelp for sponsoring today's video I use betterhelp to find a therapist last year and they helped me understand myself better and work through some issues the last year for me was was very chaotic and my better health therapist certainly helped me have new Clarity when it came to all the problems I was having and the happiness I have now is a direct result of that now I know there's a stigma when it comes to asking for therapy but there shouldn't be I started seeing a therapist on better help and it did help me a lot better help connects to you with a licensed therapist who is trained to listen and give you helpful unbiased advice and what makes better help so great in my opinion is the ease and flexibility of it you can have therapy sessions as a phone call as a video chat or even via messaging if you prefer that whatever the most comfortable version of therapy is for you you can check it out for yourself at betterhelp.com hoovies betterhelp can match you with over 30,000 therapists in their Network which gives you access to a wider range of expertise than what may be available in your area like for me in the sticks and Kansas in my case they actually did a little too well and matched me with another midwesterner who's also really into cars so they certainly understood me in the therapy sessions and these sessions you'll be able to schedule at a time that is convenient for you people spend hours in the gym every week week so why not give your mind the same kind of attention over 4 million people have used better help to start living a healthier happier life so if you think you might benefit from therapy consider betterhelp click the link in the description or visit betterhelp.com hoies clicking that link helps support this Channel and it also gives you 10% off your first month of better help so you can connect with a therapist and see if it helps you now check out this amazing Woody when the Town and Country was first unveiled in 1941 it was marketed much like a crossover or SUV would be today a car perfect for the city to get around very practical very elegant and beautiful but also tough enough to handle a trip out into the country off-road for a hunt or whatever people did in the 1940s and all the 41s in early 42s were barrelback station wagons is what they called them seven passengers something I would picture a mountain lodge owning and they were called Barrel backs not just because of the shape of the car but also because a lot of the structure the body of the car was made out of wood now like I said they made these in 1941 and a bit in 1942 but that all stopped because of war production us involvement in World War II and the Town and Country didn't come back as a production car until the 1946 model year now a lot of cars didn't have many changes over that period of time five years had passed but there was no research and development in advancing the cars during that period so the cars came out mostly looking the same Chrysler though had a huge Advantage because just prior they had unveiled that incredible fluid drive transmission so it was already a pretty Cutting Edge car at the time but still they did make some improvements to the nose here and what a front end on the 1946 to 48 Town countries we have something kind of unique to these cars is the three dagmars right here one right in the center so you can bump cars along this one ALS has the optional fog lights which were Mopar accessories back then you can see the Mopar badge is riveted on there but also the grill comes to a beautiful Point as well giving a solid line all the way across on the 41s they had these piano opening hoods where they open sideways on these it opens like a traditional Hood but that hood ornament there also splitting the car in half just gorgeous and without the wood just looking at the front end and the drivetrain on this thing I have always loved these cars enough that I owned one a Chrysler New Yorker from 1949 a four-door sedan that I bought for 4500 bucks it's one of my earliest YouTube videos when it came time to sell I sort of did a promotional video and my delivery well it wasn't very good it's actually quite embarrassing this is new to my inventory it's a 1949 chryler New Yorker it has the spit Tire straight 8 with the fluid Drive semi-automatic transmission uh it's a beautiful uh original Survivor car a great indry level classic car that is going to stir loads of conversation when you pull up to a a cruise in or car show so I do have a familiarity with these car cars and at the time 10 plus years ago I never could have imagined owning a town in country because they were so expensive this was a major collectible at one point a style icon and I lusted after it so much that I even would buy the substitutes like a Jeep Grand Wagoner which wasn't real wood and then of course that Chrysler Town and Country the learon the K car that made me so mad I eventually buried it now I was able to eventually buy a real Woody a 1951 Ford Country Squire a Woody Wagon a beautiful car flathead Ford V8 but it did feel like a dinosaur when it came to the driving experience it had a three on the tree without overdrive so 5560 the car was just absolutely screaming that three on the tree pretty primitive and the car just felt crude and cheap this Chrysler it is the opposite of that that silky smooth straight eight just absolutely wonderful and plenty of power and torque that transmission I keep talking about really is a wonder and the interior quality is well well just incredible on this car the art deco gauges with Chrysler's Crown here just look absolutely amazing I have the police spotlights as well which I think is pretty cool the side view mirrors such an elegant almost looks like sculpture and then you go here and look at the speaker Grill oh my God it's just gorgeous and the Motorola stereo it does turn on and make some noise eventually once the tubes warm up but it doesn't work also this early automatic climate control I have never seen before it's not functioning but I assume that's what this is to change temperatures 80 70 60 50 some accessory I don't think this was Factory you can see the steering wheel as well just beautiful with that logo and the fluid drive and the horn well quite imposing when it works come on there it is another Spotlight on the other side and that crown and just look at the detailing in this door panel this was a very expensive car in the 1940s and the quality and the detail show now a few of my friends have looked at this car and were thinking it isn't a total complete restoration a lot of this seems original this interior at least this finish here it has the right kind of patina to be original and this car actually left the factory as a red car and look at the inside of this door panel right here it's red the car obviously was repainted black but when they did that they probably just took the wood entirely off the car and didn't buy repainting that inside door panel which would also mean and it seems totally believable that this wood is original now the structure of the door is actually wood this isn't something that's just tacked on they actually use these in the construction in the frame of the door you look at the inside here yeah that is totally wood Ashwood to be exact and there is a metal skin right here that they put the mahogany inlay over and it continues here into the back this is something that car manufacturers were getting away from already in the mid to late 1940s this was purely a style choice and boy what a choice it was because from the back it looks almost like a yacht on the Italian Riviera like it's a crisc or a Reva or something and you see this latch here this is going into the wood because this trunk lid once again this is an entirely wood structure there is nothing metal in the frame of this thing and the trunk is another spot that looks suspiciously original at least the way this leather has worn and this horsehair carpet right here and you pull it back and there is a little bit of that original red paint so quite a mystery here I didn't get any information on the history of this car when I bought it other than it's been sitting in a museum for a very long time but look at the back end of this thing the rear quarter View is really where it's at even though the front is beautiful the back it's just stunning with that real wood and there's more labeling on the back here fluid Drive in the third brake light and Town and Country down here this illuminates the license plate everything has a purpose but they adorned it with plenty of bling in 1946 to make it just an absolutely stunning car now what isn't Factory are these wheels these look like an aftermarket wire wheel that you could buy with new Coker Tires which I sorely need again because this one has been sitting for so long but personally I like it I think it looks really good I wouldn't switch it back to the dog dish hubc caps and why don't we take a look under the hood of this thing it's just so pretty it's ridiculous so there is the straight8 the Spitfire as they called this back in the day which made very little sense because that was a British fighter in World War II and this being an American car obviously an engine spits fire so it makes sense in that way but it's not British but a nice twery smooth straight eight something I have always loved but in the older cars say something with a manual transmission like an old Packard or dusenberg you have a nonsynchronized gear box so shifting it even the guys that are really good at it grind the gears and it is a lot more effort to drive versus this with that fluid drive a really nice experience so you get the best of both worlds and this one does look very very stock underneath a lot of the wiring appears to have been replaced which is good because you don't want the car melting down but then there's a lot of stuff inside electrical wise that doesn't work and one obvious thing on this side is the heater core this is the coolant from the engine would go in and out to heat the cabin it's been disconnected cut off probably started leaking so something to address there if I ever want heat I'm also kind of curious I need to look up what bolted to this maybe it's missing its entire heater system but what isn't missing is its original oil bath air filter right here instead of a paper air filter like we're used to today there's a screen in here in a bowl of oil and the air flows through it and it catches all the dirt and keeps it from going into the engine a pretty cool system they call an oil bath system and that is still retained here we'll do a deeper dive mechanically with the car wizard but when it showed up it was leaking a little bit of coolant and it's still dripping out I just need to tighten this up a little bit more from the coolant drain and it appears to be leaking a bit from the oil filter it does drip some on the ground now it still retains its old school 6volt electrical system which is the 6vt battery here and you can see the ignition system here once again looking ancient but working really well and I'll start it up just so you can see how smooth and wonderful this engine is it's always easy to start pops right over sometimes it feels like there's not enough voltage getting to the starter and it'll click like the batteries did I don't know if it just needs the wiring cleaned up the contacts or whatever but when she's running so smooth so sound I am very lucky in that sense and very lucky that the transmission shifts as well as it does obviously that's all been gone through at some point the accessories a lot of them don't work like I said the radio the heater but the lights they do come on well I say they do actually this one's burned out the highbeam works but the fogs do as well looking so gorgeous on this thing and the tail lights well I do think they come on maybe maybe not uhoh so we do need some work back there but one thing that does actually work on this car which is a small miracle in itself is the top which is power operated in 1946 just wrap your head around that a total dinosaur of a car made out of wood with an old school pre-war straight A and it has a power operated top that is really simple and works super well it's this little lever right here a switch which you pull come on honey little bit of stage fright here come on we were out driving in the cold so it might be struggling a little bit so I'm going use my foot here to work the switch while I pull on it a little bit here come on there we go that woke it up just needed a little bit of help to get started but now that it's going totally fine coming down 1946 Tech right here bam you just pull it down into these indents on both sides screw in the top and you're off so simple so a bit of atrophy obviously from this car sitting for so long a few electronics and things to sort out but overall I am so so happy with it even as is it drives so nice and that's why Chrysler marketed this car as so easy to drive in 1946 a woman could handle it no problem a bit of an edgy thing to say nowadays but back then it really was a thing these cars could be very difficult to drive and cumbersome and this one feels a lot more like a modern car than it does an antique even though well geez look at it and the price I paid $58,000 for it at auction which was below its auction estimate and I think a total bargain it's a trend we're certainly seeing as more of these get offered from Collections and museums and getting dumped flooded into the market that they don't reach their estimate but it's not just the Chryslers it's just about anything something unique like a cord 810 or 8812 those were very unique cars for the time front-wheel drive four-speed manual transmission overdrive that was controlled by vacuum the shifts it was still a manual but it a little itty bitty shifter uh those are not bringing near what their estimates thought they should and in years it keeps getting lower and lower and lower also the mid-50s Packer Caribbeans with that innovated suspension system sort of an active hydraulic suspension and a really cool look they're bringing lower and lower money under their estimates but even General cars General antiques like a modela they're worth half of what they were 15 20 years ago because young people like me just aren't interested in them and the Boomers my parents they want cars obviously that were cool in their era Growing Up So In the late 50s is where that begins for for them so the fin cars like a 57 Chevy still very strong going into the 60s with the muscle cars the 70s that kind of stuff still going strong and gen xers and Millennials like me as we start to make more money we're running the same thing cars that were exotic in the 80s and 90s we're seeing an explosion and growth and values there meanwhile these old dinosaurs the prices continue to drop now there are certainly exceptions especially with the blue chip highend collector cars which as the rich get richer they continue to get more expensive like a 300 SL go wing or the right years of dusenberg or Packard or an old race car obviously those are getting even more expensive but the second or third tier collectors like this well they've gotten more affordable to where I'm able to buy it and I am absolutely thrilled to own this car to go through the process of sorting it out and making videos for you it's actually kind of dumb when you think about it because this isn't a very good investment longterm compared to a lot of the other radwood era cars behind me but honestly I don't care that's not why I buy cars I'm so excited to own this Chrysler and I'll probably lose money if I ever sell it but I can't imagine it's look at that wood it's the King Woody thank you so much for watching\n"