Wood Cars

These were made of wood (largely) and they worked pretty well:

... but these days, you'ld probably have to build five (cars), so they could test four to destruction before letting the fifth model on the road.

...worked pretty well.....Classic bit of understatement

Remember the spruce goose.

Early cars, early 1900s, had wooden bodies.

Morgan Motor Company does, today. Well a lot of it is wood.

How Morgan Cars Are Made Out of Wood (24 pics) - Izismile.com

There was a show on Discovery Channel, or one of the other "good" networks.

Nice pictures, thanks for the link.

Interesting that in picture 13 that both rear tyres are on the wrong sides.

In picture 14, only the front right and rear left are on the wrong axles!! Maybe a different build.

Other tyres either on the correct axle or not visible.....or of a type that are not rotation sensitive, on the later pictures.

At this stage of the build its not really important and probably gets corrected later.

Hopefully!!!

Somwhere in the long ago, wooden vehicles cropped up. It's a bit too easy to google, so is thus benath me ().

The 'wooden' joke leaves me in tears - but only because it misses the steel car jokes. Stel chassis, steel this that and the other. It steel goes. Del made me say it

My grandad had a Morgan 3-wheeler.

Barely remember it - I was only about 2 or 3 when he traded it in for something more family-friendly.

The new 3 wheeler looks great too.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Morgan_3_Wheeler_at_New_York_International_Auto_Show_2012.jpg

http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/home.html

I wooden mind having one of those.

Fill yer boots.

My brother did that about 15+ years ago and put it on a Ford F-100 frame.

He used wood from a huge 100 year old rain barrel for most of it.

He drives it to various truck shows in several states and has won numerous awards. He was in a some news papers and I think on a local TV news program.

He titled it in New York as a new car. I don't recall all the details, but it was actually a lot of fun getting the title done. The people he dealt with were amazed and provided a lot of help getting the paperwork for him.

We've been here before, but don't forget the Marcos made from plywood and glue. One version could do 185 mph. Now there's a scary thought :

If my memory serves me correctly, (from when I was a kid~~in the early 50's) there was a car kit that could be purchased and assembled which was called Miget King. Time frame wise, it would have probably been the same era as Whizzer motor bikes and Cushman Eagle motor scooters.

From what I can recall, they had a metal frame with a plywood body, (most likely marine plywood) 2 cylinder engine, and most likely NOT approved for highway driving. It was more of a novelty car. When you were in your pre-teens, they were pretty cool!!

I'd bet you could find a photo of one (or possibly the entire car) in Hemmings Motor News.

Regarding the Morgan, are they still legal in the USA?? I thought DOT had a problem with the frames being made of wood at one point in time.

From Lynn's photos, The frames appears to be a sheet metal structure.

The TATA company in India builds heavy trucks using mostly wood!(No joke)

They don't worry much about rust, just termites and carpenter bees!

There may be a punchline coming but, as Ronseto mentioned/intimated, it's very much about using available materials. Wood is a beautiful material, though I think we need to treat it with high regard because it's not somethig with infiite supply. Humankind is more than capable of doing Easter Island all over again. Without digressing too far, I'd suggest that we (as a whole) are already creating our very own version of Easter Island - one day people will be thinking 'how the crap' did we get in this position. It's very sad, but almost like that fable of the scorpion crossing the water. It's in our nature (thus quoth the dinosaur - apologies to literary types).

Two old country brothers bought a Ford Wagon,when they had the wooden side panels.

They drove it home,and stripped all of the wood off of it.

They looked at the results, and one of them said "You know, it looked better when it was still in the shipping crate!"

"Ducky"; Dr. Malliard of NCIS drives a Morgan.

The latest release, from Dogpatch, Arkansas:

Lil' Abner made it all the way to Alabama.

It has solid oak front forks and frame,cantilevered front shocks,with coil over absorbers,plywood rear fender and license bracket,a smooth finish on the Pussy willow (Salix Discolor) passenger seat and sissy bar. Removeable gas tank,disk front brakes,headlight, horn and license plate light.

Options include pressure treated frame,carpenter bee traps,saddle bags and brackets,chrome plated acorn nuts on all hardware,fire extinguisher,GPS,and LoJack,in case it is stolen.

For the true Cassanova, it is also available with a Poplar Sissy Bar.

Guaranteed to be a chick magnet!

There is also a California model available in Redwood.

I don't see duct tape, so it is not authentic. :)

The seat's make out of duct tape, with a hot water bottle for springs.