I’ve admitted over and over that I tend to dismiss cars made before 1960 unless they have that certain something that just grabs my eyes and commands my full attention. Take it however you want to take it, it’s just the way I’m programmed. I can walk by Deuce coupes and most hot rods all day long and admire the work that went into them, but to want one badly enough that I’d own it if given the opportunity to? Nah, I’m good. Few pre-1960 cars have that immediate effect on me, and the ones that do are usually pretty predictable: 1957-58 Mopars, especially Plymouths and DeSotos, 1957 Buicks and Chevrolets, and early 1950s Oldsmobiles come to mind immediately. But I usually see those cars either built or restored, and if you’ve ever tried to price a 1957 DeSoto Adventurer (easy six figures) then you know why my broke-ass usually looks towards more affordable fare.

Then there’s cars like this post-war Chrysler Town and Country. The second I saw this woody sitting on the floor, I was smitten. The woodwork is perfect. The paint is deep enough to swim in. The interior is unreal in perfection, the spoke wheels with knockoffs are a great choice, the whitewalls are equally on point, the chrome is factory fresh, and underhood, the modern Hemi dressed up to pay homage to the Chrysler FirePower Hemi left me a drooling idiot. I don’t want to know how much money was involved in this build. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if this was commissioned by a real car guy or if the owner just wrote a big enough check…whoever did the work bringing this Chrysler up to par deserves every last accolade they have coming. When these cars were coming off of the assembly lines in the late 1940s, they were already leftovers, a design that had first appeared in 1939. Sitting on the floor, you have to wonder what someone who saw these cars new would think if they could see this particular car as it is now.