Stopgap "Hardtops" -- Vinyl-Covered Coupes by Mercury and Lincoln

As I posted here, General Motors' "hardtop convertible" body type, launched for 1949, proved to be quite popular.  Popular enough the competitors brought out their versions as quickly as possible, as noted here.

Chrysler Corporation was able to market hardtops as early as the 1950 model year, but other firms weren't able to do so until 1951, 1952 and even 1953.  Chrysler created hardtops using its redesigned 1949 bodies, as did Ford in 1951.  Studebaker's redesign was for the 1947 model year, and its hardtop version based on the body didn't appear until 1952.  Most other hardtops appeared when companies redesigned their product lines.

Ford Motor Company tried to offer sporty competition to GM's hardtops using the expedient of putting vinyl covering on two-door coupés.  The idea probably was the vinyl would suggest that the coupés actually had raised cloth tops.  Resulting models were the Ford Crestliner (I deal with that in a separate post), the Mercury Monterey and the Lincoln Lido and Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri.

The basic body used by the Monterey and Lido did not lend itself well to hardtop styling, and potential sales volumes might not have been deemed likely to recover development costs.  The latter consideration almost surely was the case for the Capri, that name being continued for Lincoln's hardtop line when the redesigned 1952 cars were announced.

Below are images of Mercury and Lincoln faux-hardtops for 1950 and 1951.

Gallery

First, a 1949 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98 Holiday Coupe, part of GM's first-generation hardtop line that Mercury and Lincoln had to compete against.

1950 Mercury Monterey in a "for sale" photo.  The hardtop design language in those days worked best on boxier basic bodies.  The slinkier Mercury styling might have been a problematical, but not impossible, basis.

1950 Lincoln Lido, factory photo.  Lincolns for model years 1949-1951 used two different bodies.  Entry-level Lincolns like this one shared the Mercury body.

1950 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri, Cosmos having a unique-to-Lincoln (and quite possibly profit-killing) body.  The thin B-pillars give Capris more of a hardtop look, though this is somewhat counteracted by the rear-quarter side windows.  For sale photo.

A 1951 Mercury Monterey for sale.  The final model year for this body saw a controversial "facelift" in the form of rear fender extensions and a reshaped backlight.  My reference library lacks sales data on Montereys.

Lincoln Lidos got similar bodywork modifications for '51, as seen in this "for sale" photo.  Only 10,230 entry-level Lincoln coupes of all kinds were built 1950-51, so the number of Lido versions must have been small.

A for-sale 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri.  Cosmo coupe sales for these model years totaled 6,316, but I don't know how many were Capris.