Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Customizing a Factory Custom? Continue reading the Original Blog Post
In my unwashed and unqualified opinion, the 40-41 Continental cannot be improved. The greenhouse and trunk bustle/spare are two of my favorite parts of the design. The high greenhouse gives the car a more "airy" feeling, making it seem a bit lighter and sportier. And the trunk is necessary to make it a true long distance American proto-GT. Not knocking the ideas, but the chopped / smoothed version is not nearly as distinctive and interesting as the original.
I've always thought they were clunky looking, never understood the appeal. I like the direction that @Jive-Bomber is pointing.
The Continentals are probably the closest to styling perfection as-is. What always amazes me is how big they LOOK compared to reality. E T Gregorie got that one down pat. I see the Skylark and Darrin stuff as "what if" models, based on factory production, so making customs based on or inspired by these cars is perfectly acceptable, if possibly a step backwards in some cases.
I love the 40-41 Continentals, a mild chop does help with the proportions, but it needs to keep the bustle.
The entire greenhouse is ripe for removal and replacement with something far sleeker. Anything which matches the way the fender taper and trail off would work well, and if the body is already sectioned, a lowering of the roof height should also be required to keep things in proportion. The stock trunk bustle works with the formal rear greenhouse area, but once that's gone, the bustle needs to go, too. Wouldn't mind seeing the rear fender skirts ditched, either, as there is plenty of visual flow without them.
Yeah I never understood how Lincoln, even mercury, made such a sexy car from the belt line down and stuck a Box on top. Lots of examples of it. with the nearly sectioned example I think you’d have to cut it in so many different directions to get it back to where it looks good that they’d be best left alone. Like trying to turn a 60’s rolls Royce into a 34 ford. I’m sure you could, but why?
I think pretty much every car could be improved upon in design, since the optimal design for appearance is not the optimal design for use. There has to be a compromise from the factory, whereas we as enthusiasts can just deal with then inconveniences a chopped/shaved/etc. car poses because we feel how good it looks outweighs the drawbacks. I think these Lincolns in particular could be improved significantly. I'm honestly just not that into them. Prob make a kick ass lowrider though. I do think the rarity and expense of these low-production models plays the most significant role in why they are not customized, or customized more often. Especially when the customization not only costs a significant amount of money, but also (usually) simultaneously devalues the car versus a restored example. It's relatively cheap and easy to find shoebox fords and tri-five chevys to chop up. If you want a customized car like a 56 Continental, Chevy Nomad, Kaiser Darrin... you're starting with a project car that is between $20-30K. Imagine the dude that wants a customized 300SL like Dean Jeffries painted. He gonna spend 1.4M to paint crab-claw flames on it?
That’s a hard one . I think you would have to completely redesign the roof and trunk to mimic the 40 ford / merc to get it to flow as a chop top or custom .maybe also a 50 Chevy or olds torpedo back kinda look and play with the rear fenders as well . doing one and not the other makes it not flow correctly it’s a fantastic design right out of the box , a bit clunky but definitely works over all and does not require modification. really , really easy car to screw up if you get the proportions wrong .
Those early Lincolns were ugly as sin. Awkward proportions... Cadillac would have been my choice of luxury car back then if I were in the market. Harley Earl was the king of design.
I think Jive Bomber almost nailed it. The trunk & chop are perfect, where it went wrong for me is the windows. I think the taper of the glass to the rear is to larger.
No mass-market design is perfect. This is demonstrated by the fact that the factories routinely restyle them every year or so. Any time I look at any car, my eye is looking for things that could be 'improved'. If you can't see anything, it's a lack of imagination on your part...
It's a 2-door. No Grande Dame or VIP is going to climb over an obstacle course to sit in the back. The rear side window looks a little like a Chinese puzzle. So for those 2 reasons, do away with the roll-down window function in the seldom-used back. There's nothing else wrong with it that a little longer hood wouldn't fix. EDIT: On that rear side window again: Delete and fill the fixed piece of side glass and keep the "roll-down" part, maybe slanted at the back. Too bad that there's a B-pillar. If you want to fix that, it would make a sexy hardtop that wouldn't be claustrophobic for the occasional rear passengers.
To my eye, the roof is a bit too long and too tall, and the clunky vent wing window in the quarter is kinda useless. I'd also prefer the bottom of the side windows, hood and trunk line to all line up on one plane. This would be really hard to do in real life. But in a digital picture, it only takes a few minutes to see the difference. I think with those changes (shown below), this car would pass for a coachbuilt custom, maybe even European.
@Squablow nearly nailed it. Conservative chop just for visual alignment. Make the sail panel on the side fuller but taper the window edge to match the deck rear line, which could be tipped fwd just a bit, almost not worth doing. The rear spare is the car's identity whether we like it or not, it was truly "Continental" in that time frame. Of course drop it overall 1", and done. As to the rest of the discussion like Packard Darrin, they too need help. I think the efforts of Oz and D'Agostino's "Gable" gave us what Darrin thought he was building. (Shagged from an image search) Not flawless to my eye. Less rake to the windshield and (gasp!) raise it up a wee bit, but conceptually spot on. No, not a real Darrin but built from a coupe just as Darrin did. My opinions, FWIW. A quick edit re: styling such icons; 46-7 Cadillac mod 62 conv, easy to improve to conventional custom thinking but there were tricks of the day for those unwilling to conform. A simple bolt-on went from wow to holy shit back then. 49 Roadmaster decklid bolts on. Latch, weather seal, all works. Why? Gives it a Continental "bustle" with no other changes. Who else knew that?
IMHO the 1941 Lincoln looks fancier and lighter compared to the conservative and heavy looking 1941 Cadillac Fleetwood. The greenhouse of the Lincoln is much more elegant than the Cadillac's.
Finally, someone posted a good-lookin' car in this thread! I know we're just throwing out opinions here but the 41 Cad 60 special to me is gorgeous. My dad had 2 of them when I was a kid, grandpa had a 41 Coupe for about 25 years until he passed.
Hopefully Rik Hoving chimes in, there is a shop in Europe building a very much corrected version of this car. I would also say these were high end cars of their time, so lit would be like someone nowadays modifying a Maybach or RR, which happens, but is a lot of money. That said it those days it would be Custom Coachwork, so the modifications would be common to other Customized cars of the era. I did some research, as there was fair priced one in my neighborhood with the V12 intact. I've seen 2 renders that make things work out correctly. IMO the rear can be improved with a streamlined trunk with the emobssed space still on it like the later Lincolns in 57ish. even the style some of the Mopars had in the late 50-early 60's Let me see what I can find. Found them. They did a shortening and fadeaway on a 42 style body in the in progress shot the other is a sketch I found on IG. Which is pretty cool too Found more pics of the Lincoln.
The problem is everyone is looking at it with 2023 eyes. But in 1941 that that car was outstanding. And I’m a Cadillac man.
I read somewhere that men's fashion was responsible for the too "tall" greenhouse. Men wore hats and the high top enabled them to drive with their hat on. In fact, some factory produced ads show the driver wearing a hat. In the 40s, Chevrolet offered a wire hat rack accessory which held the hat against the headliner for easy access when leaving the vehicle. If you watch any movie serial, it seems funny that no one ever seems to lose their hat even in a serious fist fight. So the design may have been dictated by marketing, not designer taste and preference. Personally, I prefer the convertible since the proportions are more pleasing. BTW, original designer Bob Gregorie preferred the post war version.
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