The Transitional 1949 Dodge Wayfarer Line

The "Big Three" American automobile makers -- General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation -- held off introducing post- World War 2 redesigns until the 1949 model year.  (Exceptions were 1948 Cadillacs and Oldsmobile 98s.)

The prewar notion that streamlined-looking fastback styling was the wave of the future was largely abandoned, though every GM division did market some fastback models for 1949.  Chrysler did the same, but on a much smaller scale.  Plymouth built an entry-level fastback 2-door sedan, and Dodge had a semi-fastback similar in character to Mercury's '49 roofline.

And there was even more Chrysler experimentation in Dodge's Wayfarer line.  This experimentation required extra tooling expenses for what turned out to be fairly low-volume cars.  In those days, Chrysler Corporation ranked ahead of Ford in sales and was doing well financially, so its management must have thought that the risk of losing some money to gain market knowledge was worthwhile.

Let's take a look at Dodge's Wayfarer line.  Color images are of cars that were on Internet for-sale sites.

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Let's first view a 1949 mainstream Dodge Coronet 4-door sedan to provide context.  The sun visor above the windshield was a popular accessory in the late 1940s and early 50s.

This is a 1949 Wayfarer business coupe.  Business coupes had only one bench seat, but this allowed for larger trunk space for hauling business-related items.  That body style was dropped early in the 1950s.

And here is the Wayfarer Roadster, essentially a convertible version of the business coupe.  Only a small proportion were true roadsters with side curtains instead of roll-up windows -- most Dodge "Roadsters" were built with the latter.

Front three-quarter views of '49 Dodge Wayfarer sedans.

A 1950 Mercury showing its semi-fastback / semi- bustle-back styling.  The Dodge's bustle-back is smaller and gives the impression of being mostly a fastback.

Rear view of a '49 Wayfarer.  Compare this to the 1949 Plymouth P-17 fastback below.

This car and the Dodges shown above used the same roof tooling, the main difference is that the Dodge's B-pillar slants and the Plymouth's is vertical.  The Dodge bustle-back is due to a 4-inch longer wheelbase and 14 inches (35 cm) more overall length.  This added length would have required a different, more expensive fastback roof shape towards the rear, so the cheaper semi-fastback option was taken.

Finally, the Dodge Wayfarer sedan's fastback competition, a 1949 Pontiac Streamliner 2-door.  Much sleeker than the Dodge, but perhaps with a bit less trunk space -- a problem that led GM to dropping  fastbacks after the 1952 model year.

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.

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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.

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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.

That Long, Low 1960 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible

Harley Earl, General Motors' first styling director, famously advocated that cars should look long and low.  And if they couldn't be made physically low, stylists should try to make them appear low.

The Pontiac Bonneville line for model years 1959-1960 was among the last of the cars styled while he was in charge.  A Bonneville certainly looked long and low, because in fact it was those things.  Perhaps the longest and lowest-appearing model was the convertible.

This thought was driven home on my most recent visit to America's Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington.  Below are a few photos I took of a 1960 Pontiac Bonneville convertible on display there.

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Front view.  All the major character line folds and chrome accents are horizontal.  Compare to the more rounded 1950 Studebaker in the background.

Absent is a flowing fender line.  Instead I count at least five major horizontal design elements on the side seen here.  From top to bottom they are: (1) the top of the car body, (2) the character line along the shoulder that takes a short break on the aft side of the door, (3) the bulge immediately below that which is accented by (4) the long chrome strip, and (5) the bottom edge of the body.  The character line flowing aft of the rear wheel opening could be considered a sixth element.

The wide-angle lens setting I used might be exaggerating the appearance of the trunk and rear overhang.  (But not much: compare to the previous photo.)  In any case, seeing the car in person, I was so struck by the size of the overhang that I made sure to photograph it.  The horizontal styling theme served to emphasize this.

A large trunk is not necessarily a bad thing.  That's because it can hold plenty of luggage when long trips are taken.  Consider this an instance where an aspect of functionality (the Holy Grail of purist design) interferes with aesthetics: the long rear end unbalances the overall design.

Long as 1959-60 Pontiac Bonnevilles were, they were not the longest Pontiacs ever.  The length prize goes to some early 1970s models.  But that's a tale for another time.

Pontiac Silver Streak Evolution

Pontiac (background here) was for decades General Motors' second rung in its price/prestige hierarchy ladder, nested between entry-level Chevrolet and mid-range Oldsmobile.  For many years Pontiacs carried a strong visual identifier in the form of Silver Streaks -- bands of parallel chromed ridges running down the hood, sometimes over the grille, and for a while even along the center of the trunk.  I wrote about the initial Silver Streaks here.

Silver Streaks were found on Pontiacs for model years 1935-1956 inclusive, aside from 1943-45 when no cars were made due to World War 2.

One task Pontiac stylists faced was keeping the motif fresh-looking model year after model year.  What they produced is pictured below.

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1935
The theme started with a broad band containing many little streaks.

1936
No real difference for 1936.  Note that headlights are now attached to the main body rather than the catwalks.

1937
The streak band has been narrowed and emerges on the trunk.

1938
Minor streak changes for '38.

1939
For 1939 the motif is echoed by grille bars.

1940
Another new body, but the streaks retain their familiar form.

1941
The band widens for 1941.  The five streaks are now noticeably separated.  An echo of the previous streak design is seen below the headlights.

1942
Not much change for '42.

1946
The post-war grille had minor changes, but the streaks are as they were.  This is an interesting advertisement because it shows all the previous streak-bearing Pontiac front ends.

1947
Sales photo.  The grille is changed, but not the streaks.

1948
These Pontiacs have only three streaks, two narrow ones plus a larger central one.

1949
The redesigned '49s return to five streaks, but the larger central streak is retained.

1950

1951

1952
1950-52 Pontiac streaks are essentially the same.

1953
For the first time, we find split sreaks.

1954
Back to five streaks, but they are all the same size -- narrow.

1955
Another redesigned body.  There are two widely spaced streak sets.  Not visible are streak bands on the small rear fender fins.

1956
Barrett-Jackson auction photo.  The final model year for streaks.  They are essentially the same as the 1955 version.

Bunkie Knudsen's Long-Nose Cars

Semon Emil "Bunkie" Knudsen (1912-1998) was the son of General Motors' President William S. Knudsen who didn't quite gain the GM presidency himself, and so in February 1968 was hired by Ford Motor Company to be its president.

Knudesen then hired Larry Shinoda of Corvette styling fame to stir up Ford's design efforts.  This and others of his initiatives, combined with resistance from Ford people resulted in his August 1969 firing by Henry Ford II and eventual replacement by Lee Iacocca.  Knudesen's Wikipedia entry is here, and here is an appreciation from Hemmings.

One curious legacy of Knudsen's short Ford tenure was the introduction of long "noses" on the grilles of some of Ford's models.  The generally accepted story is that they were inspired by Pontiac front ends of the second half of the 1960s.  Knudsen was general manager of Pontiac 1956-61 and is credited with drastically changing the division's reputation and improving sales.  So even though he went on to other duties at GM, it's highly likely that he kept a fatherly eye on Pontiac.

Pontiacs began to grow noticeable central grille noses by around 1965 and these became fairly large by the 1969-1970 model years.  Even though he had left General Motors before the 1969 Pontiacs were announced in the fall of 1968, there is little reason to doubt that he was aware of the direction Pontiac styling was taking.  He liked this theme, and so had it applied on some 1970 Ford company models whose styling was set while he was president.

Here is some visual evidence:

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1965 Pontiac Grand Prix - Mecum auction photo

1968 Pontiac Bonneville - Barrett-Jackson auction photo

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
Examples of Pontiac styling that might have inspired some 1970 Ford Motor Company designs.

1970 Mercury Cyclone

1970 Mercury Montego Brougham

1970 Ford Thunderbird

The Ford Motor Company cars shown above have more extreme noses than the Pontiacs.  All of them, especially the Thunderbird, seem poorly protected from frontal impacts.

Aesthetically, I think the Thunderbird comes off best thanks to its more logical prow shaping.  The Mercurys feature a flat center section on their noses whose slightly blunt effect strikes me was less "natural" than the possibly ship-inspired Thunderbird nose.  The "gunsight" motif on the Cyclone is an actual design distraction that probably was a concession to marketing a high-performance car.

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Footnote: Here is the 1970 Ford Thunderbird Tridon concept car.  It was probably intended to help legitimize the long-nose styling theme, but quickly disappeared not long after Knudsen's departure from Ford.  Lee Iacocca had other ideas to implement such as vinyl-covered roofs and small "opera windows" on C-pillars.