Cerny’s Suburban

I first saw George Cerny’s wagon in a feature story found in the January, 1955 issue of Rod & Custom Magazine. In fact, I bought that very issue at a swap meet in and around 1999 just to read more about the car. It was striking mostly for two reasons… First, the simple shape was so purposeful that the car felt tactile – even on paper. Second, it was a wagon built during a time when wagons were simply for moms and dorks. Novel…

The lead picture of this article was actually taken from a later 1950’s issue of Custom Car, but the rest of these shots came from the above mentioned R&C. I actually like the earlier version of the wagon better (sans extra trim and flames) and will focus primarily on that version here. It’s more my style…

Caption: The 1950 Plymouth Suburban was chopped 3″ in front and 4″ in back.

Caption: The rear fenders were molded to the body and ’36 Dodge taillights were frenched high on the quarters.

Caption: The grille features a combination of ’53 and ’54 Chevy grille pieces that float in a rounded opening.

George used the wagon mostly as a shop truck through the years, but each of his boys spent some time with the car in high school as well. By the late 1960’s, the boys had moved on and the wagon was sold. The new owner quickly wrecked the car and sent it off to dormancy. It the late 1980’s, one of George’s sons found the wagon and the three started a restoration along with their father.

Unfortunately, George died during the process of getting the wagon restored. The last I heard, the car was still in the possession of the sons and was still waiting for restoration. It’s always good to know when these cars are where they should be…