So it's kind of the opposite of offbeat, as it's a Mercury, but I haven't seen one done this way. More of a what if, as it's shown with a 'stock' body, but I got to wondering what you could do with a four door. I thought about Ford and Mercurys' practice, in the preceeding years, of doing short door business coupes and long door coupe sedan. What if they'd carried that over into the 1949/50 models and used a similar roofline to the earlier cars? I'll chop the top when I get a minute.
@James D I've seen pictures of one built using a 4 door with the 4 door front door length and a coupe roof with coupe quarter windows, but the proportions did not work well. Yours is better. But the Ford short roof coupe still used the Tudor sedan length doors, just with a shorter roof. I think for the Merc version, you'd need an intermediate door length. I like the concept though. I'd really like to see a short roof Lincoln Cosmo coupe, that's a roof that would benefit from a shorter version, if you could get it to flow right.
Sorry guys you can keep the cars on this one. I want the house. My dad's uncle had one of those stilt houses in the Hollywood hills that I really wanted to buy - but a million+ was out of my budget in the 80s.
Having seen how this turned out, I agree anbout the door length. I wanted to see it as it might have appeared, before I did anything else. I'm not sure Ford would have wanted to cough up for a mid length door as well as two door and four door doors (say door again James). The whole roof/gl***house on these cars is a little long as stock. The trunk area is kind of short looking. Which model Lincoln do you mean?
This one. They made a 2 door sedan, but no "coupe", and I think the 2 door sedan is a bit awkward. This would be an off-beat option for a custom, and I think a shortened roof coupe, probably based on the 4 door shell, has real potential.
Maybe coupe length doors (since we're guessing what the factory would use) but using the angled pillar section from the back of the 4 door rear doors, and about a foot less roof.
Hudson Commodore idea. These have a lot of roof, which needs to be reduced. 'Couped' the rear, but also raked the windshield back, which helps. It's not really chopped at the A pillars. Not sure it needs it. Maybe a little more. I tapered the swage line at the rear and rounded the front end of it to match the wheelarch. Lost most of the chrome on the rocker.
James, as usual you have your finger on the pulse of what potentially looks cool regardless of the starting vehicle. I really like your Mercury coupe. I wish the dummy spot and lakes pipes look would be done. Your renderings show a clean look is plenty to make a great custom.
Those tail lights were my favorite design element of the car, I've got a couple pairs plus a set of quarter panel cutoffs in case I ever find the right car to add them to. They look really good on 52-54 Fords as well, have seen a few. The 56-57 Clipper lights seem to get a lot more attention, and those look great on the right car, but these earlier ones have a great, smooth look as well.
I can't put my finger on it, but, this Metropolitan grabs me. The 215 injected Olds don't hurt either. View attachment 6711954
When it comes to customs, there are not many cars that can't be turned into very attractive custom creations. The difference is just how much work, time, money and resources do you need to sink into a particular car to turn an ugly duckling into the prom queen? Some cars are practically cheating because they look so good from the factory. Those are the 49-51 Mercs, Shoeboxes, basically any Chevy from 49-63, mid-50s Oldsmobiles, 55-57 Fords... Then there are others that need a little help, and others that are just plain old ugly. Is it possible to make a Studebaker a nice custom? Sure. We put a man on the moon. But you're fighting an uphill battle
I've seen a few 3 window conversions on the Mercs, but IMHO they don't work as well as others. That maybe a bias, or maybe it's just too far from the traditional "Merc" look. @James D, I appreciate your keen eye for design. Keep up the good work.
I know I'm only dealing with photoshop, but this is something I put some thought into. How would I get the most result in the least moves. Sure it would be easy to reshape a roof, or gl***, or do anything at all in photoshop, but I try not to do it, as it's not being honest about the expected result. (Which is also why I'm not keen on stylized renderings or even AI, as those will both just show you what you want to see, but they're short on reality.)
You can always be sure I'm watching ,and appreciating ! I am sorry I'm not better at remembering to push Like .Your stuff is amazing!
I know I commented on this truck in a prior thread, but this particular truck is a rare example IMHO where the chop significantly improves the styling of the truck. Often a chop on a pickup or ranchero/elcamino makes the vehicle look squashed. By the nature of the vehicle there is no way to "flow" out the roof into the rearward part of the car/truck, so it just comes down vertically. Here, a minimal chop still makes this look like a truck, just with much better proportions. Less is a lot more
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