58L-Y8

If a single headlight is good enough for the Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive, its good enough for our Garford!

A 'guilty pleasure' of sorts, but only in the nicest way: a 1962 Dodge Custom 880. What makes this oddity of interest was the hurried aspect of its being brought to market under duress by Dodge dealers livid at seeing the downsized, oddly-styled '62 Dodges and initially no 'full-sized' Dodge to sell. An amalgam of components i.e. 1961 Dodge Polara front clip grafted onto a 1962 Chrysler Newport body plus various carry-overs such as the '61 Dodge instrument panel, etc. The chassis and powertrain are the typical robust Mopar units shared with Chryslers. But other than the four door sedan, all other body styles such as the convertible (684) and hardtop station wagons (6-pass - 1174) and (9-pass - 890) are all relatively low numbers sold and few survivors now. If you like driving a car to any show, be it a Mopar gathering or general, showing up in a '62 Dodge Custom 880 is a guarantee you will be the ONLY one there and have to field more than one "what the heck Dodge is this?" question. The 1963-'64 880's are also rather nice and interesting, but received a pleasant but bland restyled front which removed much of the uniqueness of '62.

The '29 Buick 116 models had painted headlight shells, may have been true for the 121 also. Chrome-plated headlights were an option then for various makes.

Walt, Thanks for taking the time to check your archives, the LeBaron question applies to any make chassis that might have received their very last full custom body for private passenger car use, i.e. the one that shared no panels with production units. I have yet to recognize which Derham-bodied late car might qualify for that title. Quite true, expert is a misused term, since there is always more to learn, but you are the closest we have in pre-WWII custom coachwork and the firms that built it. Just know that there is a cadre of us who appreciate all your careful and thorough research and writing on the subject. The wide availability of American cars throughout Europe pre-war is evidenced in most all the general view photos of the overall display layouts of various major shows. The hanging signs over each exhibit frequently appear divided between American and European carmakers.

Of those marvelous 1934-'35 Studebaker Land Cruisers, the Presidents are four inches longer mid-ship, the difference is in the front doors-driver's compartment. For a tall person, more legroom and no aching back. Only one '34 President Land Cruiser is extant, maybe two-three '35 Presidents. Since I have the attention of the acknowledged pre-WWII custom coachbuilding business expert, regarding Della Chrysler's one-off 1937 Chrysler Custom Imperial town car by LeBaron: Was that car the very last full-custom body for private passenger car use that LeBaron built? The Newport phaetons and Thunderbolt retractable hardtop coupes were built foremost as show cars. All the bodies that received LeBaron custom work for Packard and Chrysler were based on production bodies on through 1941. So, did Della Chrysler get the very last full-custom LeBaron coachbuilt body? BTW, I love that car too, absolutely floored when I saw it at Hershey a few years ago, simply unforgettable!

Hey, AJ has the ultimate in 'white whales' in my book: the REO Royale Dietrich sport sedan. The master design work of two of the giants, Amos Northup and Ray Dietrich, plus its an early example of the nascent 3-box sedan configuration that wouldn't see volume production until young Bill Mitchell developed the sporty LaSalle sedan that became the '38 Cadillac 60 Special.

Yes, the '60 Edsel four door sedans turn up quite often. After all, that was the highest production model. As a kid I used to see a portly older fellow who drove a medium-pea green '60 Edsel four door sedan who was nicknamed "Ducky" Beardsley! As in "There goes Ducky in his '60 Edsel..."

A.J. You had a Morty Seinfeld 'Cat-Lack'!!!!

We had a '63 Monterey Custom breezeway four door sedan back then, very nice driving and riding, the rear window a plus. But, yes, looked like it was a committee-style effort, which essentially it was. Being almost completely shared with the Ford, their mandate was: "Here's a Ford platform, see what you can do to make it look and feel like a Mercury. Other than the breezeway top with extended deck and generally Mercury-specific styling, there wasn't dime's worth of difference between that '63 Monterey and the '63 Galaxie 500 four door hardtop that preceded it in the way the car drove, rode or felt overall. The '64 Parklane or Marauder four door hardtop is the choicest of that series.

A 1920 ReVere touring appeared at Hershey in the early 2000's, offered by Hyman, Ltd.

A closer look at the fine '32 Auburn speedster.

Never have I yet seen a 1960 Edsel Ranger four door hardtop, neither Standard (57A) 104 built or Deluxe (57B) 31 produced. I have seen the station wagon and all other styles. Never have I yet seen a 1958-'60 Ambassador four door hardtop station wagon. Others will come to mind over the week, we keep a mental list to check off. Added 4-18-2020 Never have I yet seen in the metal any of the 1933 Continental Beacon, Flyer or Ace models or the 1934 Beacon. Never have I yet seen in the metal a 1930 REO Flying Cloud Model 30 or '31 REO Royale 8-31

I would be interested to see the proof this Graham convertible was custom-bodied by Vesters & Neirinck of Brussels such as period photos. The V & N car had a stamped steel windshield frame from the sedan, this car has the built-up frame from individual pieces. When the side-windows are up, the door window has a square rear corner and a small quarter window fitted behind it, the V & N car has only nicely curved door windows, no small quarter windows. This car was in a small collection in the Finger Lakes Western New York area in the 1970's, evidence of after-market construction from a four door sedan and folding top mechanism from another contemporary make car. As they say, "a car of questionable provenance…" maybe some 'creative' attribution by an auction outfit... Also the center grille is the 1940 only continuously sized chrome grille bars.

Going out on a narrow limb with limb saw in hand, this phaeton is by Rollston. Its a one-off, shown once at Hershey years ago. Corrections?

Leave it to Saoutchik to see the extravagant potential of the 'Spirit-of-Motion" Graham. Wonder how LeTourneur & Marchand would have bodied one? Or better yet, Figoni & Falaschi, pretty wild, I'd bet!

My bad taste was formed at six years old, a '58-'60 Continental Mark III-IV-V. The very quintessence of silly '50's optimism, best described as "the pleasant insanity of innocent excess."

Very nice medium-priced $1,180 car, its a 1941 Studebaker President Deluxe-tone Cruising Sedan. The Cruising Sedans were the six-window style with the center-opening doors. Deluxe-tone refers to the two-tone color option on the accent panel between the chrome molding and the top being different from the main body. Studebaker offered a number of attractive two-tone color combinations. Raymond Loewy Associates contracted to do Studebaker's styling since 1936, hired many of the great talents of those days. The studio was headed by none other than Virgil Exner.

Quite true, the wide, brass beltline was one of the Fernandez & Darrin hallmarks. But, in the instance of the J542, the original design intent was to emphasize the hood length by deleting the chrome cowl band and lights, as well as the forward hood molding. By finishing it in a solid dark color contrasting with the lighter body, visually impresses with its unbroken length. This without the over-the-cowl full-length hood seen on the JN convertible coupe by Rollston. As Walt points out, side-mount spares are a circular form that our eyes fix on momentarily as we assess a design. Custom coach-builder designers then preferred to delete the side-mounts for that reason in a quest to emphasize hood length and unified design. On the skirted fenders: the original sweeping, open, gracefully ogee-curved Duesenberg J type contributed lightness, sportiness and elegance. Skirting those fenders to update them wasn't necessarily bad if deftly designed and executed. Unhappily, Bohmann & Schwartz had little design 'feel' for the detail, their efforts come out looking heavy and clumsy. Disclaimer: the views stated are those of the author, do not necessarily reflect those of AACA managers, this website, any of the fortunate owners of these fine motorcars. They are presented for your edification or amusement...

1953 Kaiser Carolina, the most basic plain-Jane model.

A less faded 1974...

Personally, the replacement of the original, sweeping, non-skirted, integrated one-piece fender units with the conventional, skirted fender/running-board update reduces some of the verve of the design. On the other hand, the single color is an major improvement. The heavy gold-plated molding extended forward on the hood is not an improvement either.

All the functional and safely reasons, better light spread and vehicle width definition for safer night driving ignores the fact that differentiation of one's cars for all the other myriad cars available was important to automakers too.

Its a '20's Paige car that had it body replaced with an available truck cab or one they cobbled together from a sedan body and box to use as a truck. Most like happened in the '30's when large cars in good condition with heavy chassis where converted for work because it was practical and cheap.

This is the 1930 P-A Series A convertible coupe by Derham, identified as such by Richard Burns Carson. Derham built this convertible coupe and the four door convertible phaeton under agreement with Hibbard and Darrin who developed the style, bodied many European chassis with it. In its four door configuraton, it took the dual cowl phaeton concept further civilizing it with roll-up door windows to mate with the windshields and closer-fitting top. The stylish flap of material between the windows fills the gap and adds to the cache. For the convertible coupe, simple, low, sleek rear deck without continued belt molding. Photos of the other chassis that received one or the other or each of the styles would be welcome: Packard, Stutz, Cadillac, Lincoln, Duesenberg, others you can recall. The '30 Packard 745 Derham appeared at Hershey in the 1990's, stunning proportions stopped me right in my tracks. Suppose you can tell I particularly like these designs...

Where's the '47 Packard?