"Seen Better Days." But Then, Who Hasn't?

1962 Dodge Lancer the artandcolour way…  Lily Munster meets Fred Sanford.

C H O P — This is one of my "classic" mash-up chops. The car was sampled from an article in The New York Times last year, and the background is a forlorn mansion for sale found in a Washington state newspaper. 

I changed the roofline and window shapes on this 1962 Dodge Lancer, Dodge's version the Plymouth Valiant. Both the Valiant and the Lancer sedans and coupes had a slim body contour line just under the windows, that wrapped upwards at the back of the rear doors and just ended abruptly, with no corresponding uptick in the window line. Their wagon equivalents used a "sixth" window behind the doors that slanted upwards, but the other body styles didn't, something I always thought looked like a mistake. I "fixed" it on this sedan, adding a wraparound rear window as well and both changes add a lot of character to the car and make "sense" of the original body contour. 

These cars were always described as "European" looking, so I added suicide doors, something I'm ready to do on almost any car, lol. I also changed the wheel covers from some aftermarket items on the original photograph to more original looking "steelies" with dog dish hubcaps, mismatched of course. I added a bit more rust and wear and tear to the car also, deliberately mismatching the rear door as well. I think as a composition, this mash-up works well. I know if I saw this scene on a street, I would have stopped to take this photo!