American

1947 Pontiac Streamliner Deluxe-Eight Woodie Wagon

After the Second World War, The Greatest Generation set out to define the American Dream. Education was inexpensive, jobs were plentiful, and the ever-expanding suburb housing market offered affordable home ownership for young newlyweds ready to pop a bun in the oven. These all-American families needed transportation to take Jimmy Jr. and little sister Sally to and from school, escort the family on cross-country excursions, and pick up visiting family from the airport.

Thankfully, the Big Three in Detroit offered family haulers in spades. From big body coupes and convertibles, four-door sedans, and wagons—the ultimate roadway utility vehicle of the 1950s—when did we collectively trade these in for SUV? Of the many trim levels offered, a five door Woodie made the boldest statement. There’s just something so inviting about warm wood slab sided wagons. All the American Iron makers offered long roofs during the period, but the Pontiac Streamliner might be the most red, white, and blue.

Make no mistake: if you drove a Pontiac Streamliner Woodie estate in the late 1940s and 1950s, your family was doing A-OK. Large, powerful, luxurious, expensive, and finished in enough brightwork to make a B17 Flying Fortress jealous and more bark than the Redwood National Park, the Pontiac Streamliner Woodie was the epitome of American excess when American excess was something to be proud of, guilt free.

This 1947 Pontiac Streamliner Deluxe-Eight Woodie Wagon is probably the cleanest example on earth—likely even nicer than when it left the Ionia factory 70 years ago. In the 1990s, a carpenter by the name of Chris Messano picked up this then battered Pontiac in hopes that some day, he’d restore the car back to its former glory. Over the years, Chris Messano Woodworks earned a well-deserved reputation for being the United States’ (if not the world’s) finest Woodie panel restorer. After a decade of labor totaling more than 5,000 man hours, the no-expense-spared resurrection was complete.

The woodwork alone totaled more than $65,000, the bodywork and dark nonmetallic paint job cost upwards of $25,000, and the upholstery fetched $15,000 to fabricate. But it’s not the restoration expense tally that makes this motorcar exceptional, it’s the inconceivable attention to detail that elevates this restored Woodie from wonderful to extraordinary.

For example, the door hinges are estimated to have more than 80 hours of work, the $3,000 rain channels had to be handmade, and the front floor mats required the construction of custom molds to ensure the carpets sat properly. Under the long hood lies the original numbers-matching Deluxe-Eight engine, rebuilt and topped with the appropriate valve covers. Perhaps most impressively, every bolt was painted with no thread mark scarring on the finish!

Chris unveiled the the car at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance where it received 2nd place in the GM Woody Class—which we’re told was a dice roll win and after seeing the car first hand we’re inclined to agree. Since the restoration, the car has seen just 700 miles of use and maintains Chris’ impeccable standards throughout. Every feature on the car works precisely as it should down to the passenger side dash mounted clock and flip-down taillights so the car can be legally driven with the tailgate down—how trick is that?

-On loan from The Mike Malamut personal collection

1941 Chrysler Town & Country Barrel Back Wagon

In 1941, Chrysler introduced a unique wood-bodied car to the six-cylinder Windsor line. Neither sedan nor station wagon, it had a fastback profile with twin hinged doors at the rear. In contrast to most wood-bodied utility vehicles, the new Town and Country Car, as the company initially called it, had lavishly-varnished wood inside and quality upholstery.

This first edition of the Town and Country has become known as the “barrelback,” from its rounded rear styling combined with “clamshell” rear doors. The doors lead to a large and useful storage area behind the rear passenger seats. An innovation taken for granted today, the rearmost seat could be stowed in a forward position, enlarging the cargo area, or placed rearward, increasing passenger legroom. A nine-passenger version was also offered, with a limousine-type folding bench seat between the two rows of standard seats.

Exactly 999 were built, 200 of them in six-passenger configuration and the rest as nine-seaters. In addition, a single prototype was built on an eight-cylinder chassis. A similar lineup was continued into 1942, with nearly identical production despite the war-shortened model year. This car features original wood, a 6 cylinder, and fluid drive semi automatic transmission. It is thought that only 15 remain.

Model C-28. 108 bhp, 241.5 cu. in. L-head inline six-cylinder engine, four-speed Vacamatic semi-automatic Fluid Drive transmission, coil spring independent front suspension, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 121.5″

-On loan from The Mike Malamut personal collection

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Wagon

The two-door Nomad differed from other station wagons of the era by having unique styling more reminiscent of a hardtop sedan than that of a standard station wagon. Chevrolet shared this body with its sister Pontiac, which marketed their version as the Pontiac Safari.
The Nomad’s unique design had its roots in a General Motors Motorama show car of the same name that was shared with the Corvette, Pontiac Bonneville Special, and the Oldsmobile F-88. The Concept was introduced at the GM Motorama in 1954 as one of Head Stylist Harley Earl’s “dream cars”.
GM approved production of the vehicle if the design could be transferred to its standard model, because top GM brass felt that they could sell more models if it were attached to the popular Bel Air model. In fact, following the product debut in 1955, it was not uncommon for the car to be referred to as the Chevy “Bel Air Nomad”.

While considered to be a milestone vehicle design, General Motors discontinued the original Nomad Sport Wagon at the end of the 1957 model year due to low sales and the introduction of a new body for 1958.

The Nomad’s relatively short wheelbase and overall length in comparison to Chevrolet coupes, sedans and station wagons of the same time period show modern similar characteristics to hatchbacks in later years. The platform used was GM’s smallest, a two-door bodystyle with a rear bench seat that folded down to accommodate cargo, and a two-piece tailgate with a glass upper portion that swung up, with a tailgate that folded down were the features that made the Nomad very popular.

-Part of the Malamut Auto Museum Foundation

1965 Chevrolet Greenbrier

An automatic with a 110HP six-cylinder engine, it boasts a deluxe interior and exterior, and original upholstery.

This was General Motor’s attempt to compete with the Volkswagen Microbus. The Corvair has more room, more power, and can carry a heavier load with twice the horsepower. Unfortunately, due to Ralph Nader’s mission to have GM stop building Corvairs (due, in his opinion, to their questionable safety), 1965 was the last year for the Greenbrier Family Wagon. This vehicle is a mostly-original California car that continues to roll down the highway. It has never been in an accident, which is a testament to GM and possibly contradicts Mr. Nader’s findings.

-On loan from The Mike Malamut personal collection

1947 Pontiac Streamliner Woody

After WWII, American automakers were limited on steel to make the bodies and parts for their production cars. Thus, leaving the automaker inconsistent to change or update the styling cues for many of their vehicles. However of all the Big Three middle-price makes, Pontiac was the only one to vary the looks of their models from 1946-1948. The Streamliner came with two engine types, a straight 6 and straight 8. This 47 Streamliner Wagon has the straight 8 and can also seat up to 8 passengers. The full-body woody became discontinued in 49, which resulted in Pontiac making a half bodied model just for that year only, and was changed to all steel in 1950, ending the wooden era.

1955 Studebaker President

When Mike was a kid, his father owned a Studebaker just like this one – same color. When Mike saw this car in Pennsylvania, he knew he had to have it.

-Part of the Mike Malamut Personal Collection

1965 Corvair Corsa

-Part of the Mike Malamut Personal Collection

1975 Jeep Cherokee S

The Cherokee was a redesigned reintroduction of a two-door body style, with a single fixed rear side window with an optional flip-out section. Previously, a two-door version had been available in the Jeep Wagoneer line from 1963 to 1967, although this had the same pillar and window configuration as the four-door Wagoneer.

The Cherokee was marketed as the “sporty” two-door variant of Jeep’s station wagon. This 1975 Jeep Cherokee is a blue over blue two-door wagon that was sold new in New Jersey and reportedly remained with its original owner for 28 years. The truck spent time in Texas. The 360ci V8 was rebuilt and fitted with a replacement long block in 2013. Power is sent to all four wheels through a three-speed automatic transmission and Quadra-Trac four-wheel drive. Exterior equipment includes a chrome roof rack, a rear ball hitch, and a manually retractable rear window.

-Part of the Mike Malamut Personal Collection

1950 Pontiac Eight Star Chief Wagon

-Part of the Mike Malamut Personal Collection

1960 Chevrolet Corvair 700 Sedan

During 1959 and 1960, the Big Three automakers planned to introduce their own “compact” cars. Ford and Chrysler’s designs were scaled-down versions of the conventional American car, using four- or six-cylinder engines instead of V8s, and with bodies about 20% smaller than their standard cars.

An exception to this strategy was the Chevrolet Corvair. Chevrolet designed a car that deviated from traditional American norms of design, powered by an air-cooled, horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine with many major components in aluminum. The first time Chevrolet manufactured an air-cooled engine was briefly in 1923 with the Chevrolet Series M Copper-Cooled, which due to engineering challenges, was deemed a failure. The Corvair engine was mounted in the rear of the car, driving the rear wheels through a compact transaxle. Suspension was independent at all four wheels. Bodywork used monocoque rather that body-on-frame construction. The tires were a wider, low-profile design mounted on wider wheels. The styling was unconventional for Detroit, with no tail-fins or chrome grille. Its engineering earned numerous patents. Time magazine put Ed Cole and the Corvair on the cover, and Motor Trend named the Corvair as the 1960 “Car of the Year”.

The 1960 Corvair 569 and 769 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities to keep the price competitive, with the 500 (standard model) selling for under $2,000. Powered by the Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine with 80 hp (60 kW; 81 PS) and mated to a three-speed manual or optional extra-cost two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission (RPO 360), the Corvair was designed to have comparable acceleration to the six-cylinder full-sized Chevrolet Biscayne. The Corvair’s unique design included the “Quadri-Flex” independent suspension and “Unipack Power Team” of engine, transmission, and rear axle combined into a single unit. Similar to designs of European cars such as Porsche, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and others, “Quadri-Flex” used coil springs at all four wheels with independent rear suspension arms incorporated at the rear. Specially designed 6.5 by 13-inch four-ply tires mounted on 5.5 by 13 inch wheels were standard equipment. Available options included RPO 360, the Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission ($146), RPO 118, a gasoline heater ($74), RPO 119, an AM tube radio ($54), and by February 1960, the rear folding seat (formerly $32) was standard. Chevrolet produced 47,683 of the 569 model and 139,208 769 model deluxe sedans in 1960.

-Part of the Mike Malamut Personal Collection