From Wood to Steel: Ford Motor Company Station Wagons Circa 1950

This post is one of a series dealing with the American transition to all-steel station wagon bodies from part-wood construction.  This took place during model years near 1950 for various carmakers, though timing varied.

Today's subject is Ford Motor Company station wagons.  They were found on the company's Ford and Mercury brands, but not on line-topper Lincolns.  Commentary is in the image captions below.

Gallery

1947 Mercury Station Wagon - for-sale photo
This is representative of Ford's wood-based wagons in the period before post- World War 2 redesigns appeared.

1947 Mercury Station Wagon
Abaft of the cowling and windshield, wood framing and panelling predominated.

1947 Mercury Station Wagon
Note the thickness of the framing.  Such cars required a good deal of upkeep for the wood in the form of cleaning and perhaps re-varnishing.  This almost surely inhibited sales.  Price was another consideration.  A wagon such as shown here cost more than 30 percent more than a four-door sedan.

1949 Ford Station Wagon - Mecum auction photo
Redesigned Ford and Mercury station wagons featured less wood than before: note the metal top.  There was steel framing combined with wood paneling and somewhat decorative wood frames.  (This is guesswork on my part, based on photos.  Please comment on this matter if you are knowledgeable regarding construction of these cars.)

1949 Ford Station Wagon
Redesigned Ford and Mercury wagons were two-door models only.

1949 Ford Station Wagon
Steel framing is evident in this rear-quarter view.

1949 Mercury Station Wagon - RM Auctions photo
I am curious regarding the front door of the Mercury wagon.  Note how it contains a continuation of the front fender line -- not exactly like that on all-steel Mercurys.  Was this shaping atop a metal foundation?  Or was it strictly wood-based.  Please comment if you know for sure.

1952 Ford Station Wagon - factory photo
The Ford Motor Company line was redesigned for the 1952 model year.  Station wagons were all-metal.  Here is a two-door wagon with no wood trim.

1952 Ford Country Squire - for-sale photo

This four-door wagon has applied-wood side décor.  The window frame "wood" is actually a set of decals.

1952 Mercury Custom Station Wagon - RM Auctions
Here is the Mercury version.

Long and Short Hood Cars with Same Basic Bodies

Back in the days before the US federal government mandated fuel efficiency goals, before car shapes had to be wind-tunnel tested, before body-on-frame construction was abandoned, carmakers were able to achieve a good deal of variation on basic car body components.

One such instance was the length of a car's hood.  A long hood suggested it housed a large, powerful motor, whereas a short hood implied an ordinary engine.  These perceptions stemmed from the 1920s and 1930s when in-line eight cylinder motors (and V-16s) were long and required a long hood.  The other extreme was a four-cylinder (or V-8) engine that didn't need a long hood.  Of course, some cars had long hoods and comparatively short (straight-six or V-12) motors, the long hood being largely for marketing purposes.

Today's post presents a few examples of American cars that had hoods of varying length attached to the same basic four-door sedan bodies.  Images below are of cars listed for sale unless otherwise noted.

Gallery

1948 Plymouth 4-door sedan
Chrysler Corporation used the same basic body across its entire line during the 1940s and into the early '50s.  Above is a Plymouth, Chrysler's entry-level brand using the Corporation's body used 1940-1948.

1948 Chrysler New Yorker 4-door sedan
And here is a top-of-the-line Chrysler New Yorker.  The cars are essentially the same abaft of the cowling.  Plymouths had inline-six motors whereas New Yorkers had straight-eight engines -- partly justifying differing hood lengths.  The Chrysler's wheelbase is 10 inches (254 mm) longer than the Plymouth's.

1950 Packard Eight DeLuxe Touring Sedan
Packard facelifted its 1941-vintage Clipper body for the 1948 model year.  The car above has a 120-in wheelbase.

1948 Packard Custom Eight Touring Sedan
Packard's more expensive models such as this featured 127-in wheelbases -- seven inches (178mm) longer.  All 1948 Packards had inline-eight cylinder motors.

1948 Packard Super Eight Convertible
Packard appearance differences might be more apparent where convertible coupés are concerned.  This short-wheelbase car seems rather stubby.

1950 Packard Custom Victoria Convertible - Mecum auction photo
But the long hood makes this otherwise unattractive 1948-1950 vintage Packard presentable, even impressive.

1950 Buick Super C-body 4-door sedan - Mecum auction photo
Less dramatic are the differing hood lengths for these Buicks.

1950 Roadmaster C-body 4-door sedan - factory photo
The Roadmaster wheelbase is four inches (102mm) longer than that of the Super in the previous image.  All Buicks also had straight-eight engines in those days.

Some Opel Kapitän Facelifts

German automobile maker Opel (Wikipedia entry here) was purchased by General Motors around 1930, eventually selling it in 2017.

In the late 1930s GM sent Frank Hershey and other stylists, including Strother MacMinn, to Opel.  The first "Americanized" design was that of the new Opel Kapitän line, launched in the spring of 1939.  (Kapitän zur See was a German naval rank, corresponding to a US Navy or Royal Navy rank of Captain, not the lesser army Captain rank.  By the way, a German army captain is called a Hauptmann.)

Kapitän production ended in 1940 due to World War 2, and did not resume until 1947 using the prewar body.  There was a major facelift for the 1951 model year followed by a 1954 redesign and its 1956 facelift.  These are discussed below.  Images are either factory sourced, of cars listed for sale, or from sources I could not identify for certain.

Gallery

Opel Kapitän Modell 1939
Seen from this angle, the car has a strong American appearance.  The passenger compartment seems very late-1930s, as is the grille.  The most advanced feature is the front fenders extending over the front doors, something GM did not introduce in the USA until the 1941 Cadillac Sixty Special and then for most of its 1942 line.

On the other hand, the rear had a European character.  Note the backlight windows and the spare tire mounted on the trunk lid.

Opel Kapitän Modell 1947
1947 Kapitäns were nearly identical to prewar cars.  The main difference was use of standardized sealed-beam headlights that required modest reshaping of the front fender faces.

From this perspective the Kapitän could easily be confused with a USA 1942 General Motors car.  Its rear end was essentially unchanged, however.

Opel Kapitän Modell 1951
A facelifted 1951 Kapitän seen from a similar angle.  The grille and hood have been redesigned, the former using bold chromed shapes in the contemporary American vein.

Closer view of the revised front end.

Side view.  Chrome trim was added along the beltline and over the rear fender.  But the major change was a new, longer rear end.  No more fastback with a spare tire cover.  Instead a bustle back similar to American practice.

Rear quarter view showing the new design.

1947 Chevrolet Fleetmaster
An example of 1940s General Motors' American styling: Note the similarity of the passenger compartments.

Opel Kapitän Modell 1954
Here is a retouched publicity image of the redesigned 1954 Kapitän.  The body is of the postwar "envelope" ilk, but poorly shaped.  Perhaps unavoidable from a packaging standpoint is the high roof crown.

The oddest features are the after curve of the fender combined with the beltline extension aft to the projecting tail light assemblies.  There is a certain logic to that feature, though the result strikes me as being especially awkward.

Side view of the 1954 design.

Opel Kapitän Modell 1956
Side view of the 1956 facelift.  The main charge is the addition of more chrome.

The front got a new grille, hood and "frenched" headlight bezels that provided a more contemporary style.

Tail light assemblies were restyled, but the result was little or no improvement.  The three-piece backlight is now one-piece.  The 1958 model year saw another redesign.

From Wood to Steel: Chrysler Corporation Station Wagons Circa 1950

Until the late 1940s, American station wagons (or "breaks" as they are called in England and some other places) had bodies with extensive wood interior and exterior structure and cladding.  A very few years later, American station wagons had all-steel bodies.

Today's post features Chrysler Corporation's transition.  Images below are from Chrysler or are of cars listed for sale unless otherwise noted.

Gallery

1948 Plymouth DeLuxe Station Wagon
Post- World War 2 Chrysler Corporation station wagons were found only for the entry-level Plymouth brand.  A likely reason is that Plymouths retained short, prewar fenders whereas all other Chrysler brands had been facelifted with front fenders extending over the front doors.  Therefore, it was easier to place wooden wagon bodies on Plymouths due to no need for shaping front door wood cladding.  Note the cut lines on the B-pillar and the after edge of the rear side door: these are characteristic of wood construction.

1948 Plymouth DeLuxe Station Wagon - photo via Old Cars Weekly
Showing the tailgate and other wood detailing.

1950 Plymouth Woodie Station Wagon
The entire Chrysler Corporation line was redesigned for 1949, and this 1950 model is unchanged aside from a restyled grille.  Front fenders continued to shade into the front doors.  Nevertheless, "Woodie" type bodies appeared on several brands.  This Plymouth's rear has much less wood than on the previous station wagon.  Door cut lines indicate the wooden structure.  Note the curved wooden panels on the front door that allow some blending with the front fender.

1949 Plymouth Special DeLuxe Woodie Station Wagon - via Vintage Trailer Museum
A true 1949 Plymouth station wagon.

1949 Plymouth Suburban
Plymouths also received all-steel station wagon bodies for 1949 as seen here.  The Suburban was a two-door car, whereas Woodie Plymouths had four doors.

1949 Plymouth Suburban
Aft quarter view.

1949 Chrysler Royal Station Wagon
The Corporation's top-level station wagon.  The front door appears to be steel-clad, unlike Plymouth's Woodies.

1951 DeSoto Station Wagon - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
By 1951, Chrysler Corporation station wagons were all-steel.  Areas that appear wooden are actually steel covered by decals to provide a Woodie appearance.

1951 Chrysler Windsor Town and Country Station Wagon - photo source unknown
Here is a Chrysler with the same body as the DeSoto station wagon -- but lacking the fake wood.

"Form Follows Function" -- For Automobile Styling?

For more than a century a secular religion strongly held by many architects and designers is the idea that "form follows function," as mentioned in this link to Wikipedia.

The dean of the University of Washington architecture school, Arthur Herrman, was my instructor for a class on architectural history.  He was seriously hard-core when it came to form and function along with being true to one's building materials.  The following year I took first-year Architectural Design, where one student was gently, but firmly, told that his non-modernist apartment design was verbotten territory so far as the School of Architecture was concerned.

At that time I had been reading early books by American industrial designers (I was an ID major then). The goal of making designs where form was shaped by function was mentioned along with the need to streamline and simplify products.

I'm sure that this carried over to early automobile stylists, a number of whom had architectural backgrounds or had read some of those industrial design books.  Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that most stylists then and later tended to not practice "form follows function" to the nth degree.

That said, not long ago a Fiat stylist proclained himself a follower of the religion. The above Wikipedia link includes the following quote:

"If the design of an automobile conforms to its function—for instance the Fiat Multipla's shape, which is partly due to the desire to sit six people in two rows—then its form is said to follow its function." -- Fiat Multipla designer Roberto Giolito, via Automotive News Europe 19 July 2019 (link here).

I posted about my dislike of the Fiat Multipla design here.  Even if Giolito was correct in his statement (which I dispute to some degree), the result was not attractive.

But enough theorizing: The present post presents examples of designs that are fairly pure followers of the dictum.

Gallery

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1929
The redesign of this device was important in launching Raymond Loewy's career as an industrial designer.  This is what a pre-Loewy machine looked like.

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1930
And this is Loewy's version.  The functional parts are hidden by cladding that simplifies the appearance.  The main purely "functional" benefits are: (1) the machine is easier to operate, and (2) less dust will collect on the mechanisms, making it easier to maintain.

1926 Essex Coach
Now for automobile design.  Essex began making closed-body sedans of this style for the 1922 model year.  The car shown has a functional exterior design in that the main components are clearly seen: passenger compartment, doors and windows, radiator, headlights, bumper, fenders, running board.  However, the design seems awkward in terms of proportions -- especially the short hood that functionally houses a short, inline four cylinder motor.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
A luxury car of similar vintage.  Its functionality is of the same ilk as the Essex's.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
Note the separate trunk.  Thee are some decorative moldings below the windows that are non-functional in mechanical or layout terms.

1930c Audi Type T "Dresden"
The same can be said for this European design from the country that hosted the avant-garde Bauhaus design school.

1933 Tatra 77 prototype
Another function is aerodynamic streamlining which is related to fuel consumption efficiency.  For this function to dominate, components such as were mentioned with regard to the Essex are now merged  into a wind tunnel tested envelope shape.  Here the front fenders are not well integrated and the hood seems too stubby.  But the car is fairly attractive.

1939 Horch 930 S Stromlinie
The front fenders of this Horch are better integrated than those on the Tatra above.  However, the passenger compartment seems out of place.  That might be because it is functional in terms of passenger access, headroom and outside visibility -- not so functional in terms of streamlining.

1949 Nash
An American example of streamlining in the early post- World War 2 years.  The simple, slab sides cover what would have been wheel openings.  This streamlining contradicted the functional needs of easily accessing the tires and of a better turning radius.  The overall design seems too heavy looking.

1952 Saab 92
Saabs at the time were made by an aircraft company, so the body was wind tunnel tested.  This early Saab is attractive seen from this angle, though the back window seems to be placed too low.  Also, there is no trunk lid, making access quite inconvenient.  Two functional demerits there.

1951 Gutbrod Superior
Now for some designs that emphasize simplicity such as Loewy promoted.  The Gutbrod was a very small, inexpensive car.  Small cars can't carry much decoration, and the only decorative elements seen here are the simple grille bars and the nose crest.  All told, a fairly attractive design.

1952 Škoda 1200
This Škoda is larger than the Gutbrod, yet also has minimal decoration.  Although the exterior shapes are simple, they strike me as being awkwardly proportioned.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
A post- World War 2 design from an essentially new carmaker.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
Again, simplicity of forms is stressed, but like the later Škoda, the overall effect appears awkward.  Simplicity itself does not seem to guarantee aesthetic success.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another function of an automobile's design is being salable.  That usually means that a car's looks are in tune with current design fashions and the functions discussed above are sublimated to marketing prowess.  The 1957 Imperial is shown here because this design let to the brand's greatest production volume year in its history.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another view of this successful in marketing terms design.

Cross-posted at Art Contrarian