1942 Chrysler Windsor Town and Country Woodie Wagon

This 1942 Chrysler Town & Country sedan was one of the last civilian vehicles produced before Chrysler turned their full focus to the production of Sherman tanks for the war effort. This car rolled off the assembly line on January 20, 1942, and all civilian vehicle production ceased in February.

This woody is known as a 'black-out' model due to its lack of bright trim. Materials such as chrome, nickel, copper, steel, and rubber were considered government priority-requiring the trim on the 1942 vehicles to be deleted or painted.

This Chrysler Town & Country sedan is one of only 1,000 produced in 1942. Only 20 of the 150 six-passenger models built survive today. This Town & Country was originally purchased by E.S. Carpenter for ESCAR Motion Picture Services before being obtained by the current owner.

This 1942 Chrysler Town & Country is one of the very last civilian vehicles produced in January 1942. It came off the assembly line one month after Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and just before Chrysler built Sherman tanks began rolling off the assembly lines.

Not only is this vehicle one of the rarest of Town & Country vehicles, but only the pre-war T&C were in this configuration, and it is one of two remaining 'black out' vehicles. Thanks to Tojo and Hitler the monochrome paint scheme predated our current monochrome paint schemes by 50 years. Most of the typically chromed trim is painted and the overall level of trim is even less than the regular, pre-war, production vehicles.

Richard Larger rescued this rare vehicle from the burning 'Hough' area of Cleveland in 1966. The vehicle mileage was 22k at the time and it essentially had not been driven for the previous 15 years. The original owner, E.S. Carpenter, had used the vehicle for his industrial training film company in the 1940s and was very meticulous about its care. The vehicle has reportedly never seen snow and it's rarely been exposed to rain. All of the wood and interior are completely original owing to the low protected use of the car during its first years.

1941 and 1942 Town & Country are unique from their post-war successors; they are not the sedan and convertible models that were produced from 1946 to 1951. These pre-war vehicles are also not station wagons but rather a combination of sedan and wagon. Built on the Windsor sedan chassis these cars were mostly hand-built and only 1,100 vehicles were produced before war production in 1942. Fewer than 200 6 passenger vehicles, like this, were produced and less than 20 are now known to remain.