Oldsmobile's New 1948 GM "C" Body

The largest American automobile makers held off introducing redesigned cars until three or four years after World War 2 ended in 1945.  Instead, they relied on facelifted 1942 models through the 1948 model year.  In part, this was because the US government curtailed car production early in 1942 and it didn't resume until late 1945.  This implied that there would be strong demand for any kind new cars by people who otherwise might have purchased 1943-1945 models.  Also, a return to depressed, late-1930s-like economic conditions was expected by many, so perhaps fear of poor sales of expensively-tooled new models might have caused some hesitation by upper management.

As it turned out, demand for cars was strong, and the feared immediate postwar recession didn't happen.  So Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation did not market redesigned cars until the 1949 model year.

It was slightly different for industry leader General Motors.  New A and B bodies did not appear until 1949.  Affected brands were Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick.  Ditto for Oldsmobile's 70 and 80 series cars.  But a redesigned top-of-the-line C body was released for Cadillacs and Oldsmobile 98s.  It also was used for an extended 1949 model year for Buick's Super and Roadmaster lines.

This post deals with 1948 Oldsmobile 98s that had those new C bodies.

Gallery

This is a 1947 Olds 98 that used the previous C body.

And here is a 1948 Olds 98.  At this time, GM's legendary styling director Harley Earl favored large-radius rounded shapes. This might have been residue from circa-1940 thinking that cars of the future would have highly streamlined, teardrop-derived shapes.  But such designs looked bulky, so Earl compromised, placing rounded shapes on an otherwise fairly lithe basic platform.  The 1948 98s featured flow-through front fenders and retained distinct rear fenders to avoid visual bulk.  Dropping the fender tops below the belt line also helped in this regard.  Note the continuity in grille shape and side trim.  This tactic preserved brand identity when body designs were discarded and replaced.

I've used this photo in several places because it shows what a fine design the fastback version of the C body was.

Another new feature was curved windshield glass.  The technology for reliable (low manufacturing breakage rates) mass-production of curved, shatterproof automotive glass was in its earlier stages, so '48 C bodes featured divided, rather than one-piece windshields.

The same applied to the rear window (or backlight, in styling jargon), as can be seen in this "for sale" photo.

Another sales photo, but of a restored Oldsmobile 98.  The split window seems to make an otherwise pleasing design slightly cluttered.  On the other hand, it helps define the car's vintage.  For example, when Hudson enlarged the back window opening of some of its 1950 models, it too used two-piece glass.

Those Look-Alike 1982 General Motors Cars

Above is the embarrassing (to General Motors) Fortune Magazine cover of 22 August 1982 showing A-body cars from four different divisions with the same paint color.  Some background on the matter is here.

The similarity was a cost-cutting measure at the time the corporation was beginning to experience financial constraints due to loss of market share.  Thereafter, GM made a greater effort to make its various brands more visually distinctive again.

This post features front end designs of the models shown in Fortune in order to show what effort GM had made on that critical part of the car's brand identification.  The Fortune cover cars were posed to maximize their similarity.

Gallery

Taking the brands in alphabetical order, here is the 1982 Chevrolet Celebrity.  It features rectangular quad headlights paired with rectangular running and turn-indicator lights.  Between is a typical Chevrolet grid grille sporting the brand's traditional "bow tie" emblem.  The bumper is an unadorned horizontal element.

Chevrolet is GM's entry-level brand, whereas Buick in those days was slotted between Oldsmobile and Cadillac.  Shown here is a 1982 Buick Century from a Canadian brochure.  It too has rectangular quad headlights, but turn indicators are at the front of the fenders.  The grille, mounted higher than the Chevy's,  has a more elaborate grid design and there is a Buick badge at the center,

The 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera has a grid grille with a center plate holding the Olds badge.  This design was on other Oldsmobile models of that time, adding some brand flavor.  However, still other Olds models had different grille themes, so the effect was watered down.  Lights are arranged similarly to the Buick's.  The bumper is cut down a little to accommodate the grille design.

The '82 Pontiac Phoenix lacks quad headlights and has a version of the brand's divided grille theme put in place around 1960.

The sides of the four cars are indeed pretty similar though a close look reveals some character line and other subtle differences.  Brand differentiation was largely carried by the front ends, each version having identity cues similar to previous or concurrent models.  Besides the grilles, hoods were given different metal stamping treatments related to the shapes of the upper edges of the grille openings.  That entailed extra tooling expense, though the results are too subtle for most people to distinguish unless examples from the different brands were placed side-by-side.

My personal experience at the time was that while I could distinguish A-bodied brands from one another, I was strongly aware of how similar the cars seemed overall.  When the Fortune issue was published, I nodded in silent agreement.

UPDATE:

A reader (in a comment, below) with sharper eyes than mine notes that the appropriate Pontiac was the 6000, not the Phoenix. This becomes obvious when looking at four-door models rather than the two-door variety. Here is an image of a 4-door 6000 that I quickly grabbed off the web.

Here the hood stamping seems the same as that seen on the other cars, or nears so.  Another likely win for the bean counters who influenced this unfortunate experience for GM.

The Fencer's Mask Grille Fad of 1936

Even when American automobile design was evolving from discrete collections of parts to unified, "envelope" bodies during the period 1929-1949, fad and fashion did not take a holiday.

One styling fad was that of the "fencer's mask" grille that started in the 1935 model year, peaked in 1936 and was largely done by 1937.  These grilles were convex affairs that extended engine compartment ensembles about as far forward as the fronts of the fenders.

Which I think is why the fad collapsed so quickly.  Even in fairly minor frontal collisions, fenders and grilles could suffer damage.  The fenders could be pounded back into shape fairly easily in such events.  But the grilles with all their decorative bars and other details were more expensive to fix or replace.  So 1937 models featured grilles that were moved back a short ways and lost much or all of their convex shapes.

Roughly two-thirds of American brands took part in the fencer's mask fad.  Those that essentially didn't included Cadillac, LaSalle, DeSoto, Ford, Lincoln-Zephyr, Packard and Studebaker.  Those that did are shown below.

Gallery

1935 Oldsmobile
One the first fencer's mask grilles was on redesigned 1935 Oldsmobiles such as this one I photographed in Brussels a  few years ago.

1935 Pontiac with actress Helen Twelvetrees
The other early "mask" was on the '35 Pontiac that shared the Olds' body.  It also was the first year for the brand's famous (at the time) Silver Streaks.

1936 Buick - Barrett-Jackson photo
When Buicks were re-bodied for 1936, they too received a fencer's mask style grille.

1936 Chevrolet
The Chevrolet version's convexity was more restrained.

1936 Chrysler Airstream - for sale photo
Chrysler's fencer's mask fronts were extreme versions of the style.

1936 Dodge with movies star Ginger Rogers
Dodge shared Chrysler's body, but its grille is more restrained.

1936 Plymouth Mayflower - Mecum Auctions photo
Chrysler Corporation's entry-level Plymouth's grille thrusts about as far forward, but the painted central strip visually counteracts part of the convex effect.

1936 Hudson
Hudsons were redesigned for 1936 and received an especially fussy convex front.

1936 Nash Ambassador
The Nash fencer's mask version was clean-looking and raked back.

1936 Graham Cavalier - unsourced photo via Flicker
Like Plymouth, sheet metal diminishes the fencer's mask appearance on the Graham.

1936 Hupmobile - Streetside Classic photo
Hupp's grille is raked back in Nash's manner but nevertheless follows the fashion.

2015 Chrysler 200
This recent Chrysler 200 does not have a fencer's mask grille.  But its above-the-bumper grille-plus-headlights ensemble illustrates a theme on current cars that strikes me as being just as fad- or fashion-like as those grilles of 80 years ago were.

1955 Oldsmobile 88 Delta Concept

What were called dream cars were exciting back in the 1950s.  Usually General Motors' annual traveling cars and entertainment show, the Motorama, could be expected to have a good crop of them.  As far as I'm concerned, 1953-56 were the best years for Motorama.

It's usually not wise to evaluate the significance of a dream or concept (today's term) car when first shown.  It can take five or more years before the concept design can be compared to features appearing on production cars.  The 1955 Motorama is long gone, so I thought it might be interesting to put one of its dream cars into a proper context.

The car I have in mind is the Oldsmobile 88 Delta, a hardtop (pillarless) coupe, a popular body type back then.  I last mentioned it here when writing about odd dream car wheel openings.  Oldsmobiles were redesigned for the 1954 model year and due for a 1957 restyling.  The 88 Delta was probably designed during 1954 when the production '55 facelift was largely established and the basic body forms (though not all details) of the redesigned 1957s were known.

Gallery

This is a 1955 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday Coupe, the model current at the time of the Motorama.  It shared its body with Olds 88s, though details varied slightly.  The top has a large-radius curve above the side windows, the grille opening is close to being oval, and the wheel openings are wider towards the rear, having a half-teardrop shape.

And here is a publicity photo of the 88 Delta.

Its grille is not not oval, but the headlight assemblies are.

The roof is very similar to that of the 1955 production car, though the A-pillar is vertical instead of slanted.  The hood is lower relative to the fender line which has a dip where it passes the passenger compartment.  The car's design has a theme of roundedness, something appearing on other '55 Motorama cars such as the Chevrolet Biscayne and Pontiac Strato-Star.

The rear of the 88 Delta continues the rounded theme.  Exhaust pipes are part of the bumper ensemble and are oval like the headlight assemblies.  If the too-large Olds ringed-planet symbol was eliminated, this would be a tasteful design.

Compare this view of the 88 Delta to the car below.

Here is a 1957 Oldsmobile 98 four-door hardtop with one of the redesigned GM bodies that did not sell well.  The A-pillars are thin like the 88 Delta's, but retain the slant of previous production Oldsmobiles.  The grille opening is even more oval than the 1955 model's and wheel openings are in the same spirit as before.  Another carryover from the 88 Delta is a low hood, and the car seems a  little more rounded looking than the '55 model.  But it also seems that the 88 Delta did little in the way of anticipating restyled 1957 Oldsmobiles.

This makes me wonder what the point of the 88 Delta dream car design was.  It wasn't way-out futuristic, one of those styling staff showoff jobs.  Instead, with some changes to make it street-practical, it was basically what a future GM production car might have been.

Perhaps it, the Strato-Star and some other '55 Motorama dream cars represent a direction Harley Earl had in mind as his final designs before his 1958 retirement.  Such cars would have appeared in the 1959 or 1960 model years.  But the taut, finned, commercially successful 1957 Chrysler Corporation line provoked a rebellion in Earl's staff and GM styling took a direction different from that of the 88 Delta.

Rolling Analogy: 1973-77 Oldsmobile Cutlass

This post deals with the Oldsmobile Cutlass, model years 1973-77, a subset of Cutlasses sold over model years 1969-1999.  The Wikipedia entry on the Cutlass line for 1973-77 is here.

An interesting styling detail for that Cutlass vintage was side sculpting that clearly seems to have been inspired by the shape of the blade of a cutlass sword.  Actually, I don't know for certain if this was a conscious borrowing, so informed readers are invited to set the record straight in Comments.

Evidence follows:

Gallery

Cutlass sword, late 17th century English - image via Wikimedia

1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Colonnade Coupe
Compare the blade shown in the upper photo to the sheet metal sculpting aft of the front wheel opening.  The raised area (relative to the side curve seen at the center-rear of the door) has a horizontal fold that roughly corresponds to the blade's dull edge.  And the curved lower folds aft of the front wheel and forward of the rear wheel are quite similar in character to the cutting edge of the blade near its tip.

1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Colonnade Coupe
General view of an Olds Cutlass.

1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Colonnade Sedan
The same sculpting was on sedans as well as coupes.

Oldsmobile's Curious Vista-Cruiser Station Wagon

The Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser station wagon and the similar Buick Sport Wagon were built in three series, 1964-67, 1968-72 and 1973-77, as this reference mentions.

Only the first two series concern us because they featured a raised roof aft of the C-pillar with slit-windows at its front and sides.  These cars featured a third row of seats, so perhaps the raised roof and its fenestration were marketed as amenities for the passengers stuck in back.  The third-row seatbacks (and the seats, presumably, though they were placed over the differential) were at the same level as the other seats, so the extra height was probably not necessary for headroom purposes.  But the feature might have lessened any claustrophobia for passengers during daylight hours.

The "Vista" label was borrowed from a railcar concept (see here), marketed as Vista-Dome by at least one railroad, the Burlington.  So it was a short marketing step from Vista-Dome to Vista-Cruiser for Oldsmobile.

Sales of nearly 60,000 first-series Vista-Cruisers (plus perhaps 25,000 Buick Sport Wagons) were enough to justify continuing the concept when Oldsmobiles and Buicks were redesigned for the 1968 model year.

Although there was nothing really wrong with the Vista-Cruiser concept, there was little that was right about it either, so far as I am concerned.  It was basically a fairly small market niche that General Motors could afford to fill in those days.

As for styling, the raised roof added bulk to the overall design of the car and unbalanced it somewhat.

Gallery

1964 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser

1964 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser advertisement
This links the car to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, where General Motors had a pavilion.

1967 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser, rear 3/4 view

1968 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser
The style appeared again when Oldsmobiles were given redesigned bodies.

1972 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser
The final version.

Bentley R-Type Continental: Oldsmobile Styling?

In the 1953 Fawcett Book Sports Car Album, John Wheelock Freeman made the following remarks regarding the Bentley R-Type Continental:

* * * * *The Continental Sports [Saloon] is, frankly, a snob-appeal car.  From the first, its makers unabashedly publicized it as being for the rare discriminating owner who combines unlimited driving skill with an unlimited bank balance.  Production is limited to one per month, for export only, although this situation may change.  Bodywork is a two-door five passenger closed coupé, built in special light alloy by H. J. Mulliner, whose mother seems to have been frightened by a '51 Chevrolet shortly before H. J.'s birth.  The windshield is curved in the worst American style, is placed disturbingly far from the driver.  If you don't like this piece of work, you can take your chassis in a huff to the nearest Italian coachbuilder.
* * * * *
Freeman was a consultant for the 1953 Museum of Modern Art "10 Automobiles" exhibit -- but perhaps not for the famous 1951 8 Automobiles that featured an Army Jeep along with a Cord, a Cisitalia (lent by Freeman) and others.  And if you read his 1953 book, you might detect more than a whiff of elitism, if not snobbery.

For more on the car, built 1952-55, link here (scroll down).

But what of the connection Freeman made regarding Bentley Continental and General Motors styling?

Gallery

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan advertising
Rather than the 1951 Chevrolet, I think the '49 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Club Sedan's styling is closest to the Bentley's.  Its design appeared for the 1948 model year and featured a horizontal chromed strip along the front fender and front door that aligned with the strip on the rear fender.  This was removed for 1949 98s, making for a better comparison to the Bentley.

1952 Bentley R-Type Continental (unknown photo source)
Perhaps the strongest resemblance is from the side.  The cars are 2-door models with fastback styling.  They feature a front fender that sweeps across the door, connecting to a separate rear fender.  General impression aside, details do not correspond.

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan (unknown photo source)

1952 Bentley R-Type Continental - Fiskens sales photo
The front ends are considerably different in part because the Bentley retains its traditional grille along with headlamps placed close by.

1949 Oldsmobile 98 Club Sedan (unknown photo source)

1955 Bentley R-Type Continental - RM Auctions photo
Fastback styling differs considerably in that the the Bentley's back is a broad expanse, whereas the Oldsmobile's tapers towards the center with catwalks filling the space to the rear fenders.  The latter are raised over nearby sheet metal at the very rear in both cases, another superficial similarity.

Its sarcasm aside, Freeman's point has some validity.  The Continental, aside from the front ensemble, looks far more American than English, circa very early 1950s.

First-Generation American All-Steel Roofs

Before the mid-1930s, American closed cars had weatherproofed fabric inserts covering much of their roofs.  But the time for a change to all-metal roofs was at hand.  General Motors was first with its "Turret Top" line on many of its 1935 cars, and by the 1938 model year almost every closed car built in America had a roof of steel.

This post presents most of the brands having first-generation steel-topped bodies.  In almost every case, bodies had strongly rounded shapes in the "greenhouse" area and fenders.  This was due to limitations in 1930s sheet metal stamping technology as well as, in some cases, the need to stack body components in a nested fashion for shipment to assembly plants scattered across the United States.

Seen from today's perspective, most 1935-38 American cars looked awkward and dumpy due to the rounded body shapes that were enhanced by strongly rounded-off window corners -- especially those on General Motors cars.  GM's styling boss Harley Earl soon realized that all this roundedness was a mistake, and had his staff making corrections on 1937 cars, as I explained here.

Gallery

1935 Chevrolet Master De Luxe
Photographed at Berger Chevrolet, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Chevrolet's hood and grille were not rounded much, helping to offset the softness of much of the rest of the design.

1935 Oldsmobile

1935 Pontiac 2-door sedan
More examples of General Motors' early bodies featuring all-steel roofs.  These designs had a "streamline" theme that marked a strong break from the more angular designs of previous years.  These cars look "softer" than the Chevy because their hoods and grilles are more rounded to fit the rest of the theme.

1936 Dodge advertisement
For the following model year, many other brands followed GM's theme of rounded bodies and all-steel roofs.

1936 Chrysler Airstream
Photo by Lars-Göran Lindgren, Sweden.  Another example of Chrysler Corporation styling for 1936, but this in a photograph instead of an artist's distortions seen in the Dodge ad above.

1936 Hudson sales material
Another brand with a completely new design for 1936.  The side windows aren't as rounded as those of GM cars, but the rest of the car looks awkward and dumpy.  Interestingly, Hudson stylists were able firm up the exterior to keep up with the trend away from "soft" designs, as I discussed here.

1936 Nash DeLuxe Sedan
A busy, awkward design, but not as soft looking as the cars shown above.  The stretched teardrop shape of the hood air vent is comical in retrospect, but probably intended as a serious nod to aerodynamics when this model was styled.

1936 Studebaker President
Studebaker followed GM's lead from the cowling back, strongly rounded windows and all.  However, this was offset in the top-of-the-line President shown here by a long, straight hood.

1937 Ford DeLuxe Tudor - sales photo
An unfortunate, stubby design.  The crisp styling of the grille-hood ensemble along with the comparatively large windows made the Ford seem less bulbous than most of the cars pictured above.

1937 Plymouth Special DeLuxe - Barrett-Jackson photo
Plymouth didn't get rounded Chrysler bodies until the 1937 model year.

1938 Packard Six - sales photo
Packard was late to the all-steel roof theme.  Windows are strongly rounded in the manner of the 1935 GM cars shown above.  This was a curious mistake, because the folks at Packard must have had inklings that GM and others were moving toward flatter roofs and small-radius window corners.

* * * * *

1936 Lincoln Zephyr
Now for examples of designs that were more graceful that those of most other brands.  The Lincoln Zephyr does have large-radius window corners.  But the rest of the design is sharper from the boat-prow front to the fastback rear.

1936 Cord 810
Photo taken by me at the National Automobile Museum, Reno, Nevada.  Cord styling was outstanding.  Side windows had tightly-rounded corners.  Like the Zephyr in the previous photo, its roof is not as bulbous as those of most of the other cars shown above.  But the key design element is the firm hood-grille ensemble that is strong enough to complement the curved elements of the rest of the car.