1946 Oldsmobile Woodie... well sort of

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In the early post-war years, Europe was trying to recover from the immense damage caused by the war. To Europeans, everything American was synonymous with prosperity, and some of the most admired icons were the impressive American cars, with their vivid colours, whitewall tyres and abundant chrome.

For most people, the possibility of acquiring one of these “modern” cars was out of reach, so many turned to converting their existing vehicles to resemble the latest American designs.

The pseudo-Oldsmobile woodie in the photographs is one such curious conversion. The chassis appears to be from an early 1930s Nash, which was transformed by the company Carrocería Vert of Girona (near Barcelona). The Vert workshop was founded in the late 1890s and, in the pre-war years, was very successful, specialising in coachbuilt buses and trucks.

In the post-war era, chassis and materials were scarce, and this Nash-Olds was created almost as a caricature of the original model. But one thing is certain: when the car was completed and presented to its owner, he was most probably the happiest man in town.

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