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'50 Ford Woodie - from good
to better to best!

I own the 50 Ford Woodie pictured..."It has a LeBaron Bonney interior which has enabled me to earn a Dearborn award at the Western Ford National last year".
– Ed Johnson

My wife and I had been looking for a woodie and while we were out of town one came up for auction in Seattle and we missed it. Our friends said it didn’t sell so I tracked it down at a local auto dealer. The car was a “late” 1950 woodie had good paint. Everything else was a mess..just hitting the high spots, overdrive was mangled, engine was incorrect, wiring harness was hand made, interior including the moldings were “new” wrong, rear springs were shot, third seat was missing, chrome was fair, wood was fair, instrument panel had been butchered, heater, radio, clock, etc did not work and all the glass was fogged. Even the tires were the wrong size!

Started working on the car piece by piece including installing a new Lebaron Bonney interior. Finally got it up and running in a presentable condition so we decided to drive her to the western Early Ford V8 national in Rohnert Park, California. On the way down I blew the radiator, cracked the windshield and shorted the brake lights. I found a guy that did radiator work in his backyard and I also repaired the brake lights. Amazingly we took a second place in the concourse.

A few years and a new engine later we entered it in the Tacoma western national and we had improved it enough to take a first in concourse. Worked on it some more and last year we trailered it to Tecmecula, California to another western national where we finally acquired enough points to grab a Dearborn!

There’s still work to be done but it just keeps getting better and better.

We do drive the wagon out locally during the good weather and everyone smiles, they all love woodies. By the way this is the highest cowl numbered 50 Ford woodie on record which should mean that it was one of the last produced.