By A.J. Baime | Photographs by Jesse Ilan Kornbluth for WSJ

Raymond Beniquez, 62, a retired automobile salvage yard owner who lives in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, on his 1939 Ford Deluxe Station Wagon, as told to A.J. Baime

Today, woodie station wagons are timeless emblems of Americana. Roughly from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Ford, Dodge, Chrysler and Chevy made this particular style of vehicle. They were used to take people from train stations into the countryside, which is where the term station wagon comes from. Later they were used as surfer vehicles, and the Beach Boys immortalized them in songs and photographs.

But in Puerto Rico, they have a different legacy. The woodie station wagon -- known locally as guagua de madera -- played a critical role in shaping midcentury rural transportation. They were used as taxis, and they were lifelines for small towns and mountainous communities. They carried people, sacks of charcoal, even live animals like chickens, pigs and goats. These woodies took a beating, which is where my family comes in. In the 1940s, my grandfather had a repair shop for woodie station wagons in a town called Isabela. He specialized in woodwork, and he taught my father how to work on the wood.

In 1969, my family was living in Brooklyn. My father, Ramón, owned a gas station and, inspired by his memories of his father in Puerto Rico, he bought a 1939 Ford woodie station wagon from a family in Connecticut, for $500. It was in good shape, but the engine was seized. I was 6 years old and I remember going to get the car. My uncle told me, "Come over here, look at this." He wound the clock on the dashboard and I remember listening to the tick, tick, tick.

My father began the first restoration in 1969 in his gas station garage, and I watched him work on the wooden doors in our Williamsburg apartment in Brooklyn. My uncles handled the steel and paint in their body and fender shops around New York. We moved back to Puerto Rico in 1973, and brought the 1939 Ford with us. My father drove me to car shows in this station wagon, and he taught me to work on wood, just as his father taught him.

My father died in 1992 and this woodie has been in my care since. She is a mechanical time capsule. The factory V-8 engine runs and is 100% perfect.

In 2019, I needed to work on the wood. Using the tradition passed down through three generations, I scraped off the old varnish using the blade of a planer. My son Raystephan helped me, adding a fourth generation to our story. I varnished the wood, pouring care into each brush stroke. A friend of mine sprayed on the final two coats, so it would look like glass.

My son had the idea to change the color. The car could be judged at car shows as original as long as the new paint was from the color chart of the 1939 Ford. He chose a color called Jefferson Blue. We finished the job using some meticulous restoration shops in Puerto Rico.

In 2022, the 1939 Ford received a Grand National award at an Antique Automobile Club of America car show here in Puerto Rico. In 2024, it won an AACA national award for best restored prewar Ford and, in February, my son and I flew to Charlotte, N.C., to receive it.

Today, there are very few woodie station wagons left in Puerto Rico. This one is a rolling testament to the Beniquez family and to the island of Puerto Rico's heritage.

Write to A.J. Baime at myride@wsj.com

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September 07, 2025 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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