Adding to the rounded effect was the short-lived 1936 fashion for convex fencer's mask grilles. A fairly quick and easy means of reducing the nearly-universal design softness was to redesign the grille in more angular form. Oldsmobile did this in its 1937 facelift, and General Motors continued this for 1937 Pontiacs and Buicks. (GM's Chevrolets, Cadillacs and LaSalles had less-extreme fencer grilles, so 1937 grilles were less distinctly different.)
Today's post deals with Chrysler's initial retreat from roundness. In this case, it was the transition from 1937 to 1938.
Photos below are of cars listed for sale.
The grille is strongly convex with a vertical divider bar and a set of thinner horizontal bars. The grille opening extends only about two-thirds up the front of the car. Above it are chromed, grooved swaths extending most of the side lengths of the hood. Headlights are mounted on the car's body just below those swaths.
For 1938, the grille was slightly widened and extended upwards. The swath is gone, being replaced by conventional (for the times) chromed hot air exhausts on the sides of the hood.
Another view of a 1937 Chrysler. Those high-mounted headlight assemblies add to the bloated effect.
Dripping the mountings from the body to the fender catwalks makes the hood front and sides more visible with their crisper detailing. The overall styling is very mid-1930s, and not handsome, but the facelift was an improvement.
DeSotos were always a low budget variation on Chryslers, just enough to differentiate them. Their '37-38 front ends are interesting too, maybe better than the Chryslers. The '56 Desoto rear end was clearly a case of taking the Chrysler body and doing something with the tail lights just to be different, and then in '57-58 they replayed the "let's just stick 3 round tail lights in a space made for one big one" concept and IMO knocked it out of the park.
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