I'm part way through a restoration of a Cantrell bodied 56 Chevy Carryall. Cantrell closed their doors at the end of 56 and according to factory literature this truck was available only as a special order. You'll probably never see another one.

Very cool!! Keep us posted on the project and progress.

Excellent! I have two exposures to wood. A 1962 Chris Craft 20' skit boat that my dad owned from almost new. Bad experience. Then a 1949 Town and Country with 29k original miles ...good experience. It looks like you are very talented.

@alsancle Thanks! I've built a few wood boats, Chris Crafts, etc. Recently a 22' 1937 Gar Wood, there's a thread on that over at AACA. Another one on a 16' bent rib row boat that I just finished. I also have a 47 Town & Country convertible in the shop that I'm doing some repair work on.
@alsancle What are the two best days of boat owneship?

@rjones The day you buy it and the day you sell it. Many would say this applies to antique cars at least as well as it does to antique boats.
@NewOldWood 😀 You are so right my friend!

@NewOldWood Wooden boats are beautiful. But they make antique cars seem like a good idea. Here is our Chris Craft. 50 years of working on that thing and I shouldn't be bitter about it. But my dad would never let us go buy a decent ski boat because he hated fiberglass boats. I'm talking as an adult I was not allowed to buy a real boat. Had to use this one. Which sounded awesome and looked great and only left youy stranded 2 miles from your dock once or twice a season. And only sank twice in 50 years.

That is my dad working on it. In fairness he did 75% of the work right in to his 90s.


@alsancle Wood and water, generally speaking, are a bad combination. I wouldn't leave the dock in a wood boat today that still had its original bottom on it, no matter how good it looked. I've taken too many of them apart. I'm with your dad on one thing though, I hate fiberglass boats too. A wood hull gives you a noticeably smoother and quieter ride than a glass hull does. I've built a few of them, it's possible to get the advantages of both in one boat. 46 Chris Craft, and 37 Gar Wood. I built both.

@NewOldWood This was my wooden boat. had it for about 15 years and could never unravel the history so I let it go to someone more motivated than me. I might start a wooden boat topic in the feed one of these days.

@alsancle That looks awfully familiar, have I seen those pictures before, maybe at AACA?

@NewOldWood Yes. I think there is a boat thread on the AACA I posted to. Super cool boat but just something else to spent money on.

@NewOldWood Nice boat!

@alsancle

Was Cantrell based out of NY? How many of these bodies did they make? Or were they all custom?

@Rambler0155 Yes, Huntington, Long Island. Cantrell started building horse drawn wagons in the early 1900s and eventually switched to (mainly) truck bodies, suburbans, as they called them. They made bodies for anyone, including all of the big three. The bodies were something of a semi custom, the doors and roof would have to be made to fit the chassis that was supplied to them, the rest of the body was more standard. The body on this truck was called the "Huntington" and could have been fit to any chassis.

@NewOldWood I swear @TomLaferriere had a 34 Packard with a Cantrell body. I sent him a message to find me pictures.

@alsancle He did. I will find a picture. I might have one.

@Royale835Sedan I was wrong. It was Peter Mcavory bodied, also of NY.
https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf16/lots/r192-1934-packard-1105-super-eight-hunting-car-by-mcavoy-son/

@alsancle I know that one very well!

@NewOldWood That your garage hahaha? Maybe my favorite hunting conversion.

@alsancle That was my shop in Wisconsin, untill 2018, S Alabama these days. That was the last car I did up north, quite the project!

@NewOldWood Moving to warmer climates is not a bad idea.

I need to find pictures of the town and country my dad owned. It was really nice. He actually paid a bunch for it and ended up surfing the wood craze and sold it for more. That is hard to do.

@alsancle Nearly impossible today! Was it a convertible?

@NewOldWood I remeber it was really low miles. It must have been painted at some point looking at it now. I think he bought it in the late 80s and sold it sometimein the 90s. My recollection was he paid 40 ish and sold it for 55k. Btw, I've been threatening for years to scan these photos and you finally motivated me to do it.

@alsancle Just about the last year for any real wood. Some of those had wood grained vinyl on the panels, I redid the trunk lid on one of those with real wood veneer a couple years ago. Your dad should have held out another ten years, would have been a six figure car!

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/j-t-cantrell-company/ This is a good history on Cantrell that Hemmings did.

@NewOldWood wow I remember Tom collecting that 34 Packard a couple towns over from me here in CT. We get a call on coldest Saturday if the year "come on over her you have to see this". Did and it was a challenge to fit on his open trailer. Very cool car but I bet it was a challenge. Sheetmetal - hood was a mess as I recall as well. Love to see a current state pic!

Nice work.
