Woodie Wagon: 1969 Ford Torino Squire
Who remembers the “Woodie” wagons of the 1940s and 1950s, when they made station wagon bodies out of real wood? They got too expensive to produce and maintain, so cheaper steel-bodied wagons became the thing. But they kept their wood look although the panels were fiberglass, plastic, or even decals that were simply laid on. Such is the case with the 1969 Ford Torino Squire (or Country Squire), like this one with a 390 cubic inch V8. We’re told it’s a drivable car as-is, or you could opt to restore it. A tip from Gunter Kramer, this Ford is in Somerset, California, and this once-stylish wagon is available here on craigslist for $5,500.
Ford kept faux paneled wagons going for several decades and at one time you could get one as a compact, intermediate, or full-size vehicle. When Ford redesigned their Fairlane mid-sized products in 1968, the high-end model was now called the Torino (named after the city in Italy). The cars were little changed in 1969 and the Torino Squire was the top dog. In ’69, Ford built three versions of their mid-size wagon: the standard Fairlane (10,900 copies), Fairlane 500 (12,900 units), and Torino Squire (14,500 vehicles), with the seller’s copy being from the most popular group.
Not much information is imparted about this 54-year-old transport. It has one of the biggest engines that Ford offered in those days, paired (of course) with an automatic transmission. The seller says you can “drive it like it is” which implies it needs no mechanical attention, but its surroundings suggest otherwise. It has power steering and brakes, and someone has converted the rear brakes to discs to match the front ones.
The interior nneds cleaning clean while the body is okay. It has a few fixable dents and the high-end wood appliques may have seen better days. You could restore it and have a wagon that few others are likely to show up with at Cars & Coffee. Or let it serve as a workhorse in its present condition and not worry if it gets a few more dings and nicks.
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Comments
All these years later, and it’s still in the crate. . .
Side swiped two trees.
Ford still had the ignition on the dash this year.
The ignition has been upgraded to a Dura-Spark with what looks like a MSD coil.Probably with a 4bbl underneath the air cleaner?Good for at least 320hp and 400+ftlbs torque.Plenty of power and has good potential..
After market aluminum radiator too, nice upgrade.
Surprising that with the big engine and the Torino upgrade it wasn’t equipped with AC.
Reverse lights are messed up not sure if I can get some or 3D print them I would remove the wood grain trim and fix the body so it looks like it was never there Dual exhaust and lower it nice black steel wheels with decent caps and you have a nice cruiser
Remove the wood grain?! That’s crazy talk. The wood grain makes this car exceptional. I would look for additional wood grain and put it on the roof and hood. Wow, I love this car.
With the 390 and C6 it’s an odd one. Would make an interesting build, no doubt. They didn’t make that many like this one . The left rear looks like newer adhesive wood, but all in all looks to be solid car. Was built for the highway with that differential, still very cool.
I’m not so sure what’s odd about it, but the 390 was the base FE big block, only the 428 was bigger, unless the “385” family 429 was available by then, I’ll have to do some research on that. The C6 was the “big” automatic transmission, only small-block motors (351 or smaller) got the C4 automatic transmission. there’s no mention of the rear end gearing in the Barn Finds ad, so I’ll have to check the source ad for additional information. These were not set up as drag racers, but as family “highway haulers”, so a “tall” cruising gear (numerically low) in the differential would be expected, to keep the rpm’s down on the highway and the gas mileage up. “High” mileage is of course a relative term, given that this bad boy would have a hard time reaching the high side of 20 mpg cruising down the Interstate at 70 mph with a full load of passengers and cargo onboard! Towing a trailer would be worse, because mileage probably wouldn’t crack 10 mpg, and the rear end would be geared lower (numerically high), to get a heavy trailer moving from a standing start, which would hurt highway mileage.
You can smell these interior pictures and it’s not a good smell.
This would be fun to bring to cruise-ins, too. Plenty of power, that’s for sure. These cars were everywhere when I was a little kid.
390’n C6, itsa truck. We usta use 1 to bring in our cord wood each fall. Monster, and ur right… more Di-Noc (windows, wheels, ur idea – roof).
In 1970, the Torino was a unibody car, so I’ll go out on a limb here, and assume that the wagon was also a unibody car. While I have nothing against unibody cars in general (after all, all modern cars are made that way), I would be concerned if I were to put a unibody wagon to heavy use, such as trailer towing. For heavy use, give me something with a full perimeter frame under it, like the third generation (1972-76) Torino, or the full-size Galaxy 500/LTD wagons from Ford.
This example looks like the basics are O.K., but it could stand a deep cleaning, but as always, without an in-person inspection, there could be numerous gremlins lurking under those DiNoc decals!
The ad says the price is $9500.
At $5500, maybe I’d consider it, but at $9500, uh, no. It looks like it’s going to need too much work to justify the higher price.
I had a friend with one of these years ago. He delivered papers with. Ok I have never seen or heard of this since but while he did some sort of maintenance to it he lifted the tranny lines from their holder and did not put them back in. Over the next several months the lines rubbed a hole in the oil pan. Well it eventually let loose and while he was rolling along in the middle of the night he seized the engine. Another one I fed to the car muncher. Not many of these left. There is a farm I pass once in a while and this car’s doppelganger lies parked under a tree where it has likely been since George H. W. was president.