These wooden Jeeps and Broncos were built by a craftsman named Jack who posted these photos to a website called Cherry Bronco.com (site was live in 2010, but has been down for years). He made wooden vehicles and furniture as a hobby in his spare time.
In the case of the 1977 Cherry Ford Bronco below, as you can see in the before and after pics, the body was pretty trashed and in need of something new. The pieces are all 7/8″ to 1″ pieces glued and screwed together. The bumpers and trim are done in Oak and Ash. A single coat of linseed Oil and three coats of Marine Varnish protect the finish and the owners clean it with furniture polish. Surprisingly, the new wooden body is actually 300lbs lighter than the original metal.
Here’s a 1956 CJ-5
Here’s a 1966 CJ-5
Here’s a 1969 CJ-5
And a 1977 CJ-5
Owning one of these would be reason to quit smoking…these people have way to much time on there hands….send them my way! I have a log house they can play with.
Someone will know more about this then me; but the government actually experimented with wooden bodies for jeeps during WW2. So these wood jeeps have some roots 😉 . I’ve seen a few pictures but don’t recall where and didn’t find them with a quick internet search.
I found four pics of wooden prototypes on page 108 of Mark Askew’s book “Rare WW2 Jeeps”. One jeep was nicknamed Firewood and another Timber. The bodies and seats are made of wood, with plywood used. In the pics, the bodies look very similar to their wooden counterparts, at least from the outside. I’ve tried to find pics of them on the net.
According to Mark, the Firewood jeep was “tested over 3,346 miles 24 hours a day for 25 days” during February 1943.