"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!

A Few More from the Exner/Engel Period

Mythical 1962 Fury Commando Sport two-door hardtop. This was a base two-door post coupe, and I chopped it into this svelte pillarless coupe. Though there was a hardtop in the lineup, it looked nothing like this. I based the greenhouse shape of my Commando Sport on photos I've seen of clay models in Exner's studios of the time (thank you Collectible Automobile!) Apparently they were 'watered-down' quite a bit on the way to production, so I've just 'restored' the dramatic clay appearance... Instead of being considered one of his 'oddities' I think it could very easily have been one of his best. Just look at the way his fender bulges work perfectly when the rest of the car is purely styled. I think this could have been a cut-rate Thunderbird type car for Plymouth. I think a true test is that it looks impossibly elegant even with blackwall tires and steelie wheels/hubcaps! "Commando Sport" refers to the name of the top engine in this Fury.

A slightly resto-modded '62 Dodge Dart sedan. This is something like what Chip Foose could do with a simple Exner-bodied Dodge, one of his last 'pure' designs. I think 18 inch whitewalls with 'steelies' and dogdish hubcaps might be a new look! Ex's bodyside sculpting always competed with the extra chrome doodads that Marketing insisted on. Once you remove that stuff, Ex's pure forms are revealed, and they make total sense. I love the slight rise at the cowl. It took Engel a few years to get the money to flatten out this cowl design, a look he hated. The slight rise of the cowl on these Exner cars was meant to evoke the lines of classic speedboats and I think is a very classy touch.

Twelve years before the disco-era Cordoba was introduced, 1963, Chrysler could have made a long-hood, short-deck coupe to combat the Grand Prix, Thunderbird and Riviera in the burgeoning personal luxury coupe market. This was a New Yorker coupe to begin with, and I changed the proportions and simplifed the chrome trim a bit, in a nod to the simpler bodyside fad begun with the '62 Grand Prix. I think this series of large Chryslers is very underrated. They had a two-year-only body, with traces of the fuselage styling that would come in '69. They also had traces of the stillborn S series of large cars, the last styled by Exner as Engel was taking over. By adding the more classic-era proportions of a longer hood, shorter deck and slightly reworked formal C pillar, I think Ex's lines work even better. 

The Long and Winding Road(s)

1965 Plymouth Barracuda with revised lines.

Small Mercury Hybrid for China.

C H O P S — The same generic 'winding road' background was used in these two very different looking chops. The top one is a revised 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, with revisions to the C pillar mostly. This was also the Exner/Engel period at Chrysler, with Engel 'filling out the box' of Exner's earlier forms. The bottom photo shows a small Mercury for the Chinese-domestic market, the Monterery Hybrid. I used a high-tech feel with a totally different palette than the warmer, older 'Cuda image. I also use similar cobblestone images for the 'floors' in my chops. I have about 5 stock images that I use to create new ones for each chop. I consider using existing pieces of images like this to be the same as 'sampling' in music mixing and collage-work in other fields of art.  Plus, it's only a hobby after all, lol.

1964 Imperial Continental coupes. Huh?

Imperialista—production Imperial Continental?

C H O P S — I've always loved the Chrysler Imperials of the fifties and sixties, both the flamboyant Virgil Exner designed fifties flagships and the slightly more tailored Elwood Engel sixties versions. This is a 1964 Imperial coupe, Engel's facelift based on the same chassis Imperial had used since 1957. Engel had been hired away from Ford in the early sixties to replace Exner, and this is his first 'real' Imperial. Fresh off the classic '61 Lincoln, Engel really brought as much of a Lincoln Continental feel to the Imperial that he could, with cleaner bodysides, a squared off Continental trunk 'bulge' and a tasteful use of chrome highlights. Far from a fresh-sheet-of-paper design, needing to use the same wraparound windshield and 'hard point' from the formerly finned wonders, I think this series of Imperial is as striking as Exner's. There were awkward parts of the design, an overly tall roof and greenhouse, and the equal-length hood and taillights don't work for me, but overall they were quite tasteful and luxurious looking.

For the first chop above, I moved the cabin backwards on the body, to create a longer hood and shorter deck. I shortened the front overhang a bit as well, lowered the roof a bit and created Continental-type C pillars. This would be the 'volume' production version of an Imperial Coupe. The bespoke Crown Coupe is below. Much more drama to be had there!

A not-very-common 2 door limousine, the Crown Coupe.

This Crown Coupe takes the Imperial back in time in a way, creating an ultra luxurious Limousine Coupe, a bodystyle last seen (and very rarely at that) in the Thirties. The C pillars are huge, providing privacy for the two very special rear seat passengers. I've fared the bumpers into the body in a much more custom way, deleting much of their chrome and replacing it with mere outlines, also enhancing the 'propeller' motif and squared off Continental bulge of the Exner rear bumper. The rear bumper side 'bombs' are lengthened to balance out the C pillar, and I've slammed the roof down as much as possible to enhance the 'sinister' feeling. The LeBaron's already-small rear windshield was widened a bit but narrowed in height, better in keeping with the overall roof shape. Small 24KT gold "Crown Coupe" nameplates add the de rigeur snob appeal, tastefully, well as tasteful as gold nameplates can be. I've parked the Crown Coupe in front of a Frank Lloyd Wright home I found online, which is exactly the clientele Chrysler would have been striving for.

N O T E —  I'll be done with the book project by tonight. Back to work now!