But in America from the 1930s into the 1960s and even beyond, facelifts happened each model year following the new design's introduction.
The idea of facelifting was to make the next year's model different enough from the existing one that potential buyers would be pleased to be seen driving a car that was truly "new." And drivers of previous-years cars might be made to feel that their car was "old," and so be tempted to replace it with a "new" one.
That was what stylists referred to when they said that the first design on a multi-year production run was the most "pure" -- the often arbitrary facelifting degrading that purity.
Another purpose for facelifting was to preview some styling features that were set to appear on the next complete redesign.
So what often happened for three or four year production cycles would be as follows. The first model year would feature the supposedly "pure" design. Intermediate years would find arbitrary detail changes. The final-year styling would include a few "preview" details. An example is Pontiac for model years 1955-1957, the subject of today's post.
The last year of a two-year cycle (1953-1954). The general body shape is similar to the previous 1949-1952 series, so we might instead think in terms of a 1949-1954 cycle. What's interesting in the context of the discussion above is that there was virtually no thematic carryover from this design to the totally redesigned 1955 Pontiacs. One subtle preview is the stretched oval in the grille bar -- it harkens to the overall grille opening shape on '55s as seen in the image below.
Instead of traditional Silver Streaks running down the center of the hood, we find two, separated, sets of streaks.
The mid-1955-1957 cycle facelift retained the dual Silver Streaks. The grille and side trim are new.
Pontiac and Chevrolet shared the same basic body that was given a major facelift for 1957. The cowling and hood were lowered and the trim theme completely changed. The new grille design harkens to the 1935-1956 Silver Streaks, but there are no true streaks remaining.
The redesigned 1958 Pontiac. The side trim theme is retained with detail changes, as is the wide grille.
THe 1954 Pontiac as seen from the rear quarter.
Carried over are round tail lights. The Silver streaks are off the trunk lid and on the small tailfins.
Few changes here, though there's some new rear fender sculpting forward of the tail lights.
Entirely new theme here containing elements previewing 1958.
Both the '57 and '58 have rear fenderline extensions. Tail light assemblies have oval shapes in both designs. Trunk lid trim is about the same. But the tail lights are round again.
American cars were so consistent with annual facelifts often evolving their designs (if mainly superficially) that you could do a similar analysis of pretty much any car and each one would be interesting to car design nerds. And please do. You always notice some things I hadn't. And like other protonerds as a child I was carefully noting these changes for some unknown reason.
ReplyDeleteAnother obvious one was how headlights evolved to being integrated in the 1930's to early 40's (which you may have written about). Or 1956 Chrysler products all getting finnier in anticipation of 1957. And on and on.
Even in small ways: Ford Falcons had the same instrument pod for the first three years. Then the 1963 model had a new one that previewed the new style 1964 dashboard.
BTW: the 1955 dual streaks were still there in 1956, but were marching toward the fenders. Odd that they didn't eventually land there like they did in the rear.
I just realized that the reverse slant C pillar on 1958 Chevies and Pontiacs was originally used in the 1953-4 hardtops. It just skipped a generation.
ReplyDeleteAs a little kid I thought the big rounded rear fender shape on the 1953-4 bodies was oddly behind the times. It was. Even in the 1930's GM styling was often a combination of being ahead and behind at the same time (like with those headlights).