Thursday, July 14, 2022

The 1942 Oldsmobile's Complicated Grille

I've read here and there that General Motors' Oldsmobile Division was once the corporation's "experimental" outfit, the place where new concepts were tested in the marketplace.  That was probably the case in the late 1939 when Olds introduced GM's Hydramatic automatic transmission.  Another example is the "Rocket" V-8 motor introduced for 1949.

Another, lesser instance just might be the elaborate grille-bumper that appeared on 1942 B-44 Oldsmobiles.  It was around only for that model year, and when production resumed postwar, Oldsmobile grilles featured a simple design.

Let's take a look.

Gallery

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser - unknown source
Fog lights obscure part of the grille, but this photo serves as an establishment shot showing the grille design in its context.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser - factory image
The front of the car has been worked over by GM's photo retouchers to provide more detail clarity.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser Convertible - Bonhams auction photo
The upper and lower openings have the same detailing, but in differing scale.  What seems odd, out of place, is the bold horizontal bar at mid-level.  Its form changes from plain to a central segment with vertical grooves.  Elsewhere, headlights are inboard from the sides of the fenders.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser Convertible - Bonhams
Close-up view.  Those tall bumper guards are not accessories, but an integral feature.  Note that they touch and help support the central horizontal bar that might conceptually be an auxiliary bumpetette.

Grille details - unknown source
Another close-up view.

Front bumper structure - unknown soure
This shows that the frame's front crossbar includes the main air intake.  The relationship of the bumper guards and horizontal grille bar is clearly indicated.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser Convertible - for sale car
This shows how far ahead of the lower air intake the bumper guards are and how deep the horizontal bar is.  All told, an odd design that might have been expensive to repair if damaged.

2 comments:

John Reinan said...

Another great post. Thank you, keep 'em coming. I've always been fascinated by this front end.

dberger223 said...

As usual a great post. Another weird grill to me is the 1955 Chrysler