Crawford Slason, a resident of Watertown, is making progress on his most recent restoration project, a 1924 Ford Lincoln that he will convert into a searchlight vehicle.

He’s carefully measured, patterned and cut new wood to replace the rotten oak under the metal skin and swapped out the original engine, frozen with corrosion after standing in the weather for many years, for a Ford motor that runs well.

Mr. Slason told Voices, “The car companies didn’t have the technology to stamp large pieces of metal so they built wood cars and nailed smaller pieces of sheet metal on top.”

A collection of almost a dozen vintage search lights in various sizes, including a few at least a foot in diameter, await the restoration of the rear end of the vehicle.