I traded some years ago for this pair of early, big car quarters. One has what looks like a golf club door opening (sadly no door). I'm thinking early 30s but could be a bit older. Any thoughts on who built cars with this feature? I'll add pics tomorrow.
The higher end cars seemed to favor them. These days it would be a good place to stash an AR50 or a belt-fed.
A lot of those high-end cars would have been coachbuilt. Manufacturers would farm out bodywork in total to independent coachbuilders. The relationships between ch***is manufacturers and coachbuilders was often complex, with manufacturers trying to keep control over the image the bodies impart by selecting approved coachbuilders, or having coachbuilders work to the ch***is manufacturer's designer's instructions, etc., while other coachbuilders were keen to make a big splash with dramatic designs, because in that market you couldn't really deny a customer a bare rolling ch***is. That's why you got the most rakish Duesenbergs, for instance, like the Bohman & Schwartz and Fernandez & Darrin cars, later in the '30s when ACD weren't in a financial position to dictate coachwork. But that's where, a decade or two earlier, the golf club door came from. Bespoke coachwork could have all kinds of quirks incorporated as a result of the customer's hobbies, p***ions, or eccentricities. Think of the cars built for Indian nobility, specially equipped for hunting; or the Esders Bugatti T41, which lacked headlights because it would never be driven at night. For a keen golfer, having a car specially adapted for golfing trips would certainly be an exhibition of con****uous consumption; though as a golf-bag compartment is useful for a lot of stuff other than golf bags, the golf club door subsequently became a pretty much painless status symbol. Hence that feature making it into upper-mid-market factory coachwork.
1930 Packard. HRP I believe only the socially elite could afford they type of cars that offered perks like golf doors. HRP
Any pics of your quarter panels? I have always wanted to build a roadster with a club door...and a V12.
The 1934 Pierce Arrow convertible at the collection I work for has a golf club door. Most high end coupes, roadsters, and convertibles in the late 20's and 30's had them.
My pal Willis in Sacramento restored cl***ic '30s Chryslers mostly, he had a Cabriolet and a roadster (both Chryslers) with golf club doors. He found a '28 Plymouth roadster that was 'next', and it had a golf club door. I asked about the door (in a Plymouth!) and Willis said it was obviously a retro addition. Very professional job, and dated by its inner wood framing.
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