In automotive applications, wood has been used both cosmetically and in some cases structurally since the earliest days of the motorcar. But dead trees have never been as handsome as on the postwar Chrysler Town & Country, particularly in convertible form.

Chrysler introduced the first Town & Country in 1941, offering it in a four-door eight-passenger wagon body style with wooden doors (made of white ash frames and Honduran mahogany panels) and side body panels flanking a steel roof. A few hundred more rolled out of the factory for the 1942 model year, but production was cut short by America’s entry into World War II. The Town & Country then returned for 1946 as a four-door sedan or two-door convertible.

A conspicuously luxurious offering in a car-hungry postwar America, the Town & Country was essentially a New Yorker from the windshield forward with opulent feel and features from the cowl back. The wood sections, built by Perkins Wood Products of Arkansas, shipped to Chrysler in Detroit for fitting by hand and final assembly. An expensive car to build and to buy, it went into both 1947 and 1948 with few improvements, although the sedan model was discontinued for 1949. That year also saw the end of the genuine Honduran mahogany panels, which Chrysler replaced with DI-NOC. For 1950, there was now a Town & Country 2-door hardtop which would be Chrysler’s last true “woodie.” The Town & Country nameplate continued on various large Chryslers, most of them station wagons, until the Town & Country minivan debuted for 1990. It’s these postwar T&Cs, though, that are the most glamorous and most valuable.

The convertibles in particular, of which fewer than 8500 were built over three years, is highly sought after. One of the few cars built after World War II that is recognized as a “Full Classic” by the Classic Car Club of America, it was a status symbol when it was new and today would garner instant admiration at any car show.