1947 Ford Deluxe Woodie - Hot Wood

There are a lot of guys out there who believe they can build a great-looking, great-driving hot rod. But, in reality, many of these guys only think they can build a good hot rod. Not only does it take a certain amount of expertise in metalworking or paint and body, but it also takes a great eye to make a car sit just right and look great, even when it's standing still.

Bob Oney, based in Lebanon, Ohio, has a great eye for building hot rods. Not only has he done just that on dozens of occasions in the past 25-plus years, but a handful of his creations have also been featured on the pages of this magazine over the years.

Bob built his first hot rod, a Deuce roadster, right after he graduated high school in 1971. Since then, Bob estimates he's built more than 45 cars, and probably two dozen of them from scratch. The scratch-built cars are done with parts he's collected over time, while others have come about by purchasing a fairly complete car and redoing it to his liking. Either way, the finished result is usually something that makes you want to sell your own ride and buy his, 'cuz that's the way they're supposed to look.

When most folks from across the country see a hot rod woodie, they often think of California-the sun, sand, and surf-and that's where this ride was first modified. A Cincinnati, Ohio, couple bought it in 1973, bringing the Washington Blue Ford home with the intentions of finishing it themselves.

But, that work was never completed, so the woodie sat in storage for more than 28 years. Bob, being the good hot rodder he is, knew of the car while growing up in that part of Ohio, and would occasionally ask if it was for sale, but the answer was always the same. Trouble was, every hot rodder in Ohio knew about the vehicle, and everyone would ask if it was for sale, usually offering a low-ball figure.

Bob believes he was in the right time and place when he recently made his respectable offer known to the couple. They decided to take him up on his offer and sold it to him, since they knew he wouldn't ruin the car.

When he got the car home and began to take it apart, only then did he fully realize how nice a car this woodie had been. The Washington Blue that was on the exterior was the original paint. One owner had started trying to make a hot rod out of it, painting the firewall a candy apple red, but the paintjob never progressed past that. There had also been an installation of a Mustang II frontend, but keep in mind that was done when that frontend was only a year or so old!

After getting everything blown apart, Bob checked the work on the IFS and found it was done right, so he decided to keep it in and start the build from there, adding a set of new Heidt's dropped spindles for the proper rake. The 8-inch 3.00:1 Maverick rear stayed in, too, to which Bob added a Chassis Engineering leaf spring setup. All four corners received Baer disc brakes, 12-1/2-inch up front, 13 1/2 in the rear, as well as 18x7 and 20x8 American Racing wheels.

Nothing says reliability like a Chevy crate engine, which is what Bob installed, though he did add a few new upgrades, such as an Edelbrock manifold and carb, Hooker headers, Taylor wires, a Crane camshaft, and a Walker radiator. Backed to a TH350 trans, Bob knows he'll be able to drive down the highway with no worries.

Another surprising find was how good the original wood was on the car. Even though it had been in storage for almost three decades, it was still a 20-year-old car when it went into hibernation, but Bob says 60 percent of the birch and maple was good enough to leave alone. One thing that was done by Mike Nickles, the wood expert from Traverse City, Michigan, Bob hired to help with the wood, was to replace all of the dark wood with a lighter shade, which gives the ride its overall blond appearance.

Little body and trim mods were done to the '47, too, including pie-cutting the hood and narrowing the front bumper 5 inches so it would fit against the body better. The rear bumper was left at stock width, though a '49 Chevy license plate surround was added to break up the long line of the bumper. Bob also manufactured the taillight setup for his ride, using '37 Ford housings and custom chrome stands. When all was said and done, Bob painted the car himself, using PPG Black acrylic enamel.

Another pleasant surprise for Bob was how nice all of the car's stainless steel was, including the dash trim pieces, so he left that alone, too. A pair of Haneline 3n1-series gauges was fitted into the dash, and vents for the Vintage Air A/C system were added at the dash's outer edge. A Juliano's steering wheel was color-matched to the rod's exterior, and bolted to a column out of a '70 Chevy van.

If you look up and past the wood slats that make up the roof structure, you'll see black suede material was used to create a headliner-kind of a rarity in a woodie, as they're usually vinyl. Black Haartz cloth was used on the exterior of the vehicle, but black leather was used inside, which was stitched up by Pro Auto's Steve Holcomb. Steve also covered the Wise Guys split bench front seat in the same cowhide, as well as the rear seat, which is actually a front bench seat out of an early '30s Ford. A charcoal German square-weave carpet also went in, which complements the otherwise black and blond interior.

Once together and driving, Bob says his woodie rides and drives like a late-model vehicle, and it's one of the most comfortable cars he's ever had-and that's saying something. Since he started out in 1971, Bob has certainly seen the hobby through all of its phases and, with a laugh, says the hobby is now full of old people! But, at 54 years old, he recently took his company's offer of early retirement and decided to expand his working on cars to include more customer vehicles-wiring, column installation, and so on. After seeing what he can do with his own cars, we can bet his customers are going to be happy with the way Bob will see their ride, too.