Failing Brands, Shared Body: Graham and Reo

What do you do if your automobile manufacturing company is at the lower end of the sales rank hierarchy while the country is in a Great Depression and overall car sales are about half of what they were in prosperous times.  One possibility is to reduce costs by sharing car body designs with a car maker in similar straits.  There are several cases of this happening in America and Europe, and the one featured here involved Graham-Paige and Reo for model years 1935 and 1936.

Information on Graham is here and that on Reo here.   As it happened, Graham-Paige ceased production in 1940 while Reo exited car business in 1936 to concentrate on trucks.

Like some other low-production car makers in those days, Graham and Reo sub-contracted many components of their cars to specialists, including bodies.   Staring in 1935 they each bought the same basic body from Hayes, with certain trim details customized for the sake of brand identity.

Gallery

One such "something about a Graham" was the body it shared with Reo.

Side view of a 1935 Graham.  Chrysler Airflow seating positioning hadn't trickled down to Hayes; note that the rear seat is above the rear axle as was the norm pre-Airflow.  The windshield is only slightly sloped back.  Perhaps the most advanced styling feature is the cautious fastback profile. This photo and the following one are from Lucky Collector Car Auctions.

Rear 3/4 view of the same car.  1935 was the model year that Pontiac introduced its famous Silver Streaks on its hood and grille.  Here the '35 Graham happens to have two sets of chromed streaks on its trunk lid.

This is an illustration of a 1935 Reo, so a few artistic liberties were probably taken to enhance appearance.  It does show that even fenders were shared with Graham.

Both brands had similar grille profiles and somewhat V'd front bumpers.  Differences include grille details, hood side vent designs and headlight mountings (on fenders for Graham, the sides of the radiator grille assembly for Reo).  Photo from the IMCDb web site, which explains the fuzzy quality of the image.

Graham for 1936.  The grille is a variation on the fashionable "fencer's mask" convex style.  Fenders were redesigned into more of a teardrop form, so the headlight attachments were moved to the car body.  An inexpensive cosmetic change was the detailing of the hood's side vents.

Same car from the rear.  Fastback slope was increased, so the aft side windows are much smaller than in 1935.  The trunk lid "streaks" are gone.  Photos from Niwot Auctions.

1936 Reos differ from Grahams mostly due lack of a fencer's mask grille.  Gone is the V'd front bumper.

Front of a for-sale '36 Reo showing its new pattern of grille bars, the vertical ones extending beyond the upper frame.

Rear of another for-sale Reo.  This has a bulged trunk that increases storage capacity, a common option in those days.  Chromed "steaks" that vanished from Grahams now appear here in simplified form.  This car has a divided back window like the '35 Graham shown above.  The 1936 Graham's backlight is not divided, but the window outlines are the same.

I include this Mecum Auctions photo of a 1937 Graham for completeness, as it represents the last version of that Hayes body.  The grille pattern has been simplified and the side hood vents restyled.  More costly changes are some fender reshaping and, especially, a new, V'd windshield.