History One-year only body styles, or "WTF were they thinking?

'57 through '61 saw a lot of styling changes among the big 3. Virgil Exner at Chrysler got an entirely new platform as did Ford, while GM did one more re-skin on their '55 models. Chrysler blew everyone away with their giant fins, Ford followed suit with more conservative versions, although Mercury got more radical styling. Rumor has it that GM, once being aware what was in the pipeline for '57, did a hurried restyle, adding fins to their line with varying amounts of success. IMO the Buick and Olds offerings were masterful jobs, while the Pontiac and Chevy less so. The Chevy in particular still showed it's tall boxy '55-56 shape in spite of the fins grafted on. Just my opinion... LOL

1958 saw a new platform for GM, so all-new styling was needed. 1958 was also Harley Earl's swan song, the last year he controlled GM styling before retiring. Earl wasn't a fan of fins (except for the Caddy, where they were a signature feature) and felt GM shouldn't follow trends but set them, so the '58s arrived without them compared to Ford and Chrysler. What buyers got was pure Earl; chrome trim slathered all over, with fake scoops, hash marks and 'accents' galore, Harley Earl at his gaudiest. I think one reason these cars are seldom seen anymore is the cost of restoring all those die-cast chrome bits, particularly the Pontiac, Olds and especially the Buick. Sales weren't what was expected, so fins returned to GM in '59 with a vengeance. And while Earl had 'supervised' the styling for these and the '60-61 models, Bill Mitchell took over in '59 and all those 'extra' gee-gaws pretty much vanished at GM.

Fins were pretty much gone in '62, even Chrysler dropped them. Mercury was the lone exception, keeping small ones to '64.

 

Cadillac still had fins all the way to ‘65 on their 75 Series sedans and limos.
The rear quarters emulated incognito fins for about 20 more years.

 

I didn't go through the entire thread, but I bet no one mentioned the 1961 Rambler Ambassador! That's the ONLY one-year-only body from AMC/Rambler. Really it's just the front end styling, the overall body is the same as the other 58-62 models. But they changed the front clip after just one year of dismal sales. It was too "European looking" (actually what the stylist were going for!) for American tastes and had to be changed. AMC couldn't afford such things, but since it was just a front clip it didn't hurt too much...

 

Got to agree. '58 Chevy and '58 Buick are the only cars that I can think of that the more chrome you add, the better they look.

 

41 Ford pickup 6 cylinder? They redesigned the hood latch and receiver, moved the radiator forward to fit a longer engine. Plus a different tail gate since they could no longer say V8 on all of them. All that expense to mount a 6 banger just so we can tear them all out and put proper V8s back in them. Why?

 

I like 6s

 

The late 50s, early 60s were tumultuous times for Pontiac. 1959 was the first year for the new arrowhead emblem, the game-changing wide track, and the spilt (paired) front grille. There was new blood coming on board and old blood hanging on to not get pushed aside. They were like 2 packs of coyotes running in circles pissing on rocks to mark their territories.
The retro single-style grille got a reprieve for 1960 as a dying quiver before the split grille was re-adopted permanently in 1961.

 

@farna mentioned the '61 Ambassador. 270 horsepower in a 3566 pound car wasn't a slouch in those days. The front end isn't one I can remember seeing.

 

thanks for the pics-don't recall those either!!

 

WOW, what a looker..........

 

1950 Studebaker Land Cruiser; one-year-only on the 120" wheelbase. I've driven these and they were better than the Big Three BOP, Mercury, DeSoto in most ride, handling and fuel economy categories.


jack vines

 

I’d drive it

 

chrysler/cad/buick and you get this!-nice 'grouping'