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| The Wood N Carr carves out their niche By Ofelia Saenz, Signal Tribune staff writer 
It's been 32 years since Doug and Suzy Carr started their classic car restoration company, the Wood N Carr. The husband and wife team met in a high school art class while students in Lakewood. After graduation, the couple took off on a cross-country motorcycle tour. At the end of the trip they were sure of at least two things: they wanted to be together, and they wanted to start their own business. The Wood N Carr specializes in restoring woodie station wagons from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Out-of-state customers can take advantage of their website, which features wood repair patterns distributed through their nationwide mail-order service. The Wood N Carr also rents out restored cars for movies, commercials, music videos and other promotional events. The Carrs don't have much competition; what they do is part of a very specialized market. The restoration process for woodies is time consuming, labor intensive and a difficult trade to both teach and learn. "My husband was someone who had a talent for teaching himself how to do this," says Suzy. "It takes a lot of dedication on the part of both the person who's doing the work and the customer." Classic cars have always been hot in Southern California, and the woodie station wagon is no exception. Although the majority of these cars were built from 1946 to 1951, surfers, using them to easily haul their surfboards around, made them popular again beginning in the early '60s. Since then they have continually gained in favor among classic car enthusiasts "A lot of [entertainment] people are trying to get a hold of [woodies] because they remind them of the glamour of old Hollywood," says Suzy. Over the years, the Wood N Carr's clients have included such high profile names as director Steven Spielberg, musical group the Beach Boys and cable network MTV. When Chrysler decided to replicate the woodie style on the PT Cruiser, the car company came to the Wood N Carr for direction. "We did the original prototype in wood for them," says Carr, "then they mass produced it in plastic." Since then, many Chrysler customers have brought their PT Cruisers to the Wood N Carr and asked to replace the plastic with a real wood application. According to Carr, "true woodies" are becoming increasingly rare because of the wood used. Originally the cars were primarily done in Eastern hard-rock maple with mahogany panels. Restorations are often done in a lighter, blonder wood on the panels to give the car a slightly more modern look, and also because the scarcity of the original woodsx makes them difficult to get a hold of and expensive. "Hard-rock maple is one of the hardest woods known," explains Carr. "It stands up to weather. It used to grow in endless supply in the Northeast, but like so many types of wood it's becoming harder and harder to get." The Wood N Carr is located at 2698 Junipero Avenue. For more information about restoration or rentals, call (562) 498-8730 or visit www.woodncarr.net. |