I was having a conversation with myself about cars, as I sometimes do, and I observed that prewar American convertibles didn't have quarter windows, but postwar converts did. Then I recalled that '42 Ford converts had them, and a little research revealed that so did Merc, Cadillac, Buick, and Chevrolet. 1941, no; but '42, yes. '41 Ford: blind quarters '42 Ford: quarter windows Small potatoes, perhaps, but this was a fairly significant change in the styling of the convertible top. It's interesting to me that it seems to have happened just at the eve of WW2, when there was not a whole lot of radical styling change going on. Any other design-y guys on here who know more than I do about this particular development? Anybody know of manufacturers who built 2-door converts with quarter windows before the 1942 models?
not alot of choices among the big three, Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge. had quarter windows in 1941. Hudson added them in 1938
and that quarter window is one of the main reasons I've always perferred '46-48 over the early 40's convertibles.
That's interesting. I can't think of many instances where GM and Ford followed a design direction established by Chrysler or (even more so) Hudson, but that does appear to be the case.
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