Set of four 1941 'elephant ear' bumper ends on eBay

[Matt Harwood]

Priced about right, I recon.

 

1941 Buick bumper ends

[edinmass]

UGLY..........

 

 

am I thinking out loud again?

[kgreen]

10 hours ago, edinmass said:

UGLY..........

 

 

am I thinking out loud again?

That's OK ednowinfl, you weren't being political and your comment did not degrade the price.

[edinmass]

I find bolt on chrome..........from almost any year, and any make as "just too much"..........even factory accessories. Every car I have is the "basic" presentation. No Tripp lights, no extra mirrors, nothing additional.....I like staying to the designers true to form look. One wouldn't paint a beard on the Mona Lisa, or stick price tags on the cans of an Andy Warhol Campbells Soup painting. In the particular case of the bumper ends on the 41 Buick..........I'm quite sure they were an accessory because the majority of the people buying the car new didn't like the look. The great thing about America is to each his own. Just one more comment on "additional jewelry". Put it on your car, take it to Pebble Beach, and enjoy your day. You won't have to worry about carrying a trophy. The definite "in" way to show any car at any major show is without all the extra stuff on it. 

 

PS- Sa to price....why comment. I have no idea what Buick stuff sells for. And yes, I know factory accessories that are "rare" can get very expensive. Definition- Rare......an item no one wanted when it was new. "Elephant Ears" is hardly a compliment when describing any part of any car. That said, I like all Buicks right through the war. The were the best value of any General Motors product. 

 

 

Now the big test? Will they sell? Add in good chrome on top of the grand asking price, and they will be almost 2k on the car. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

I have a set of nice ends that I probably wouldn't sell for $2K, so the price on these scruffy ones doesn't seem out of line. They're currently on my Limited but I don't honestly love the look. I own them because I had the opportunity to buy them at what I thought was a reasonable price 10 years ago for my Century and they've been on the shelf ever since. Michael found them and threw them on the limo last year and I'm kind of 'meh' about the look. I agree with Ed that it might just be too much, especially since my car has fog lights (and a spotlight, which I would remove if I could).

 

I had a Super convertible coupe that looked dynamite with them, however, especially from the rear:

 

[Lawrence Helfand]

Never liked bumper ears as they interrupt the body line on my 41 century sedanete and visors for the same reason. such a beautiful form left clean. Spots as well are just clutter. Also find wide whites to be a distraction on about anything but ragtops. Less is more so I leave the gilding to the lillys

[Lawrence Helfand]

Why is it that European cars of the 30's 40's 50's 60's ..are devoid of all the goo ga's found on American cars. I do not include driving or fog lights in the clutter category. European owners leave their autos original and elegant and very very few are even shod with wide white wall tires. No air bagging slamming chopping folding spindling or mutilating or ugly ass oversize wheels. Plenty of go faster performance mods but little else is the hot rod culture there. I think they have a more mature and sophisticated sense of style or what is cool and are generally more respectful of the original design concepts. How many customized American cars are really better then the day they were on the showroom floor? 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Eye of the beholder comes to mind.

 

  Ben

[edinmass]

7 hours ago, Lawrence Helfand said:

Why is it that European cars of the 30's 40's 50's 60's ..are devoid of all the goo ga's found on American cars. I do not include driving or fog lights in the clutter category. European owners leave their autos original and elegant and very very few are even shod with wide white wall tires. No air bagging slamming chopping folding spindling or mutilating or ugly ass oversize wheels. Plenty of go faster performance mods but little else is the hot rod culture there. I think they have a more mature and sophisticated sense of style or what is cool and are generally more respectful of the original design concepts. How many customized American cars are really better then the day they were on the showroom floor? 

The phrase “you are 100 percent correct” comes to mind. You sir, have great taste and an excellent eye for automobiles. 

[Matt Harwood]

1 hour ago, Ben P. said:

**I don’t expect anyone to read all this - this question of modifications and add-on’s on this era of cars has long intrigued (and annoyed) me**
You just nailed it on the hotrod culture in the US vs Europe and YES they do have a more mature and sophisticated sense of style and RESPECT the original design concepts. 
Every time we gripe about ‘hotrods’ and whatever-mods I think, “You think that’s bad, you should see what they do to old houses — in fact you (the griper) are probably one of them!” It’s all straight lines and drywall. They go in, rip out all the curved plaster walls, out with the fireplace mantels and crown molding. It’s all straight lines and DRYWALL. Zero respect for history and somehow even less taste.

Although some regions of the US are worse than others. I recall vividly as a kid being on a trip to the East coast. My mother admired all the 18th century row-houses and remarked, “I wish we had this (in Michigan).” My aunt snapped back, “WHY? They’d just tear it down.” She was right. In the US, if it’s old it’s because real estate it sits on isn’t very valuable or it wasn’t in the way. In Europe, if it’s new(er) it’s because what was there before was bombed out during some war.

 

All the goo ga accessories on 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s cars? Well, that’s actually something else. In the US by the early 1920’s when most people owned Fords and nearly all cars were black (not a situation in Europe where one pretty much had to be upper class to own an automobile period) an entire parallel industry developed offering accessories to ‘personalize’ cars. That just didn’t exist in Europe. The more unique or obscure - the more desirable. When I was a kid these items were high value on these restored cars. Hotly collectible. Today, not so much thankfully.

In his memoirs, ‘My Years With General Motors’, Alfred P. Salon briefly described the full scale REVOLT dealers staged when in 1932/33 they had come out with a handful of models with an integral trunk. Trunks were of course part of that parallel industry of accessories. If it became integral on all models that industry would be wiped out, but the dealer who got a cut from each one was better positioned to take on GM. They did. They lost. The crushing depression had a lot to do with it and GM just went ahead and went with it anyway and nearly immediately all the other manufacturers followed suit (that’s not to say GM invented the integral trunk - I don’t think they did - but they certainly incorporated it quickly).

The rest of the goo ga’s though - they flourished. I’m pretty sure they peaked in the 1950’s then slowly went away. I had a post-war Studebaker that had every accessory available minus the external sun visor. Stu advertised that all their dealer offered accessories were designed by Studebaker and I think they were. Most of it was stainless steel -not chrome- and to my eyes it all fit the car well and did not look like afterthoughts. The gas door guard and vent shields were particularly tasteful.

I do think Matt is right though, the bumper ends in question do look great on his Super convertible. Not sure they would on all models.

 

I think there's a definite difference between factory-designed and approved accessories and flat-out customization. Customization rarely works as well as the original design, even from the greats. Sometimes customization was nothing more than being different to be different, or trying something so radical just to see if it could be done. Those designs are rarely successful. The stylists at major automakers and custom body builders knew what they were doing and it would be hard to be better than they were at their jobs.

 

It was fashion, of course, but whenever I contemplate changing something on a car, I look at what the designers were doing and decide whether what I like is in line with what they would have considered. As a good example, I just got a brand new car but I HATE the OEM wheels. I'm going to replace them. But I'm looking at designs that are in line with what the designers put on the car--a multi-spoke design. You can always spot a wheel upgrade that was done using what the owner liked rather than what the designers used. That's a mistake. I typically gravitate towards simple 5-spoke alloy wheels, but they would look really wrong on this new car. So I'll choose something that isn't what I would have chosen myself but hopefully something that the designers would like. It matters if you don't want it to look weird (see all the late-model Challengers running around with Torque Thrusts for a good example). 

 

I love old houses almost as much as old cars--we live in a 1913 Victorian, drafty windows and all. One of the main reasons I bought it was that all the original woodwork, tile, and leaded glass windows were preserved. My father (b. 1938) says that when he was a kid, all the houses had hardwood floors and natural wood trim but that if you were affluent, you could afford paint and carpets, so you painted the trim and put carpets over the wood floors to look more modern and to show off your wealth a bit. It was just fashion of the period I suppose. Sadly, someone painted our fireplace mantle, but it's on the list of things to restore when we get to it. Everything else, however, is lovely...

 

      

 

  

 

 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

I stand by my statement. Not saying where I stand, just not necessary.  Thank God we are able to have our opinions and not all be the same.

 

  Ben

[kgreen]

On 10/10/2020 at 7:29 PM, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

I stand by my statement. Not saying where I stand, just not necessary.  Thank God we are able to have our opinions and not all be the same.

 

  Ben

I'm fast coming to the opinion that my opinion is worthless except to potentially alienate other people.  I find great value in your statement about the necessity of stating your standing.