This post deals with 1949 model year dashboards. 1949 was the year when most American carmakers launched redesigned automobiles. (The early post- World War 2 models were facelifted prewar designs, though Studebaker was redesigned for 1947, Hudson for 1948, and Kaiser-Frazer was a new postwar company.)
Unless noted, images below are of cars for sale or are of unknown origin. Cars are grouped by manufacturer and, where appropriate, in ascending order of luxury for a manufacturer.
Instruments are clustered in the round fixture, while a small clock is next to the glove box.
A half-circle speedometer arched over the odometer, while gauges flank. The central round item is the radio speaker. These were pre-transistor days, so radios were large because they contained vacuum tubes.
Similar speedometer to Pontiac. Here the gauges are arranged on its periphery. Radio controls are mounted high at the center of the dashboard along with the clock.
Nice large round instruments.
A clean design with a sort of holdover horizontal strip layout from a prewar dashboard fad.
Ford's grille featured a round spinner, so a round speedometer-plus-gauges element continues that theme. An ergonomic defect in an otherwise nice design is that all the knobs are the same shape, therefore hard to identify at night.
Somewhat similar to the Pontiac layout. The projected gauge mount creates fussiness, visual clutter.
An oddly sterile design for a top-of-the-line brand. The location of the clock between the instrument clusters makes no ergonomic sense to me.
A pleasant, simple design, though the chrome strip could be a source of glare in certain lighting conditions.
Squares and rectangles for Dodge, unlike sister-brand Plymouth's circular theme.
Another oddly spartan design for a mid-price brand.
Another all-in one instrument cluster. The coaming is padded.
Simple, functional, not interesting or exciting. But Champions were entry-level Studebakers.
Packard's postwar redesign happened for the 1951 model year, so to keep subjects postwar, I'm showing the '51 Packard dashboard here. This layout strikes me as practical, with some soft curves suggesting luxury.
The ultimate single-unit instrument cluster. The rest of the dashboard seems almost naked, in contrast.
A surprisingly spartan design compared to the others.
Large clocks were common prewar. The dominant item is the radio ensemble.
The top-of-the-line Frazer dashboard seems a bit less luxurious than stablemate Kaiser's.
The FoMoCo products were mostly the only ones that really left the 40's behind and were definitely in the new world of early midcentury modern design. Oddly, compared to its more 40's style cheaper bodymates, the Chrysler too.
ReplyDeleteThe Studebaker Champion dashboard is actually rather luxuriously trimmed, particularly compared with the poverty spec exterior. A Land Cruiser dashboard is about the same. That pretty steering wheel indicates it's a deluxe Champion. The really base model steering wheel is pretty grim even for 1949.
Of course the Nash Uniscope departs pretty radically from prewar design, but like the rest of the car down a mostly dead end path.
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