Creative Mid-1950s Aft Window Designs

I think the period 1948-1961 was the most interesting in terms of American automobile styling.  That's interesting -- not best; other time frames might have produced more outstanding designs, though I haven't yet given such comparisons much thought.

Today's post deals with creative -- not standard, large-volume production -- approaches dealing with the C-pillar - backlight window zone of "bustleback" cars.

Three of the three examples chosen are drawings, and one is a low-production car (fewer than 20,000 examples).

Gallery

I wrote about this 1953 Wayne Takeuchi design here.  It's a sort of Old Switcheroo on early-mid 1950s hardtop coupes.  Such cars lacked a B-pillar extending from the aft of the door to the roof.  Instead, the side windows when raised were simply joined by thin chrome frame pieces.  Takeuchi's design features a conventional B-Pillar, but the C-pillar is a thin chrome join between the quarter windows and the backlight.  Analogous to the hardtop's missing B-pillar, this minimal C-pillar is non-structural.  A clever design that to my knowledge never saw production.

Another view.  The target car was a Lincoln, though Takeuchi was an Art Center student and not employed by Ford Motor Company.

This 1956 sketch by General Motors' Pete Wozena is one of the many wild idea concepts encouraged by styling executives over the years.  The objective was to create a large number of design possibilities, a few of which might be useful for production.  Here, the wraparound, wrap-over backlight is surely different, but impossible to manufacture reliably at the time.  Not to mention the visual distortion it would generate.  Plus, the shape of the wraparound windshield is different as well -- note the silly and structurally questionable A-pillar.  Credit Wozena for being highly imaginative.

This drawing and the following are by Carl Cameron when he worked at Ford.  These designs were made during the "Quicksilver" project -- planning the restyled 1960 Ford.

Both cars are "hardtop" sedans.  Note the aft side windows that have strongly stated shapes and provide an interesting transition from the side windows to the backlight.  That said, those designs strike me as being structurally flimsy.

The production example is the 1956 Lincoln Primiere sedan -- Mecum Auction photo.

The interesting detail is that small, triangular window with its adjoining triangular chrome panel.  That little window could easily have been eliminated because it had no functional value.  As a matter of fact, it was eliminated for the 1957 facelift.