I was browsing YouTube for vintage LeMans footage when I found this two-part clip on the design and development of the shoebox Ford. Of course, the footage sugar coats what was actually a very tumultuous process and time for Ford. The company was jus... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Thanks Ryan, those shots really brought back some memories - several of the people in the design pictures were still there in 1963 when I joined that group. The design development process isn't so different even now - although the techniques now include computers, milling machines, and fast or virtual prototyping which has reduced the time required from 4 or more years to less than 2. Fun stuff to look at. Al
Imagine the pressure that the designers and engineers had to face during this time. They had the weight of the auto world resting on their shoulders. I get tweaked when I don't get enough time to work on a magazine cover.
Nice post, good flicks! As an Industrial Designer, I can appreciate all the "upfront" developement that takes place for a new product. It's interesting to note, how much the process has changed!
Very enjoyable-I remember reading that Ford bet the farm on the '49-if it failed, Ford would've gone under. Same story with the Taurus. I am glad these old films have been preserved and shared.
Pretty cool stuff! One thing though; Ford was just as much in dire straits back then as they were in the early Eighties and as they are now. The '49 Ford saved their neck as did the Taurus in the Eighties. What will it be this time? Seeing the modelers throw clay on the buck brought back shivers of my Art Center modeling instrutor, Joe Farrer, screaming from across the room; "Hey carnutofthedecade; you've got a flat spot on your roof!".
i do enjoy these historical editorials of yours Ryan. keep em comin. God knows i don't have the time to do the research and internet browsing so it is nice when someone else does the leg work for ya.
Cool ... sugar coated for sure ... but cool! I dug the "Styling" room "under lock & key" : ... think how cool would it have been to work there ... and come up with this kind of stuff:
I like shoeboxes actually, but got to agree with hundsoncustom, not that far head in reality when compared to other smaller "odd" brands out at the time. Some of those early Lincoln sketches were looking a heck of a lot like a Studebaker bullet nose too. Actual true innovation and creativity is not the strength of any of the Big three today and not surprisingly seems the case was true back then as well. Truth be told, being big is a measure of success, but the mass comes at the price of creativity and flexibility. The bigger, heavier the car, the harder it is to corner - same with the mother ship. Ford was working on this and Raymond Loewy was working towards the '53 Studebakers just 4 years later. Put a '53 Studebaker next to a '49 Shoebox and ask yourself if they look like 4 years apart? Also, another funny thing to note in those videos, is how cool and more clean and modern the inside of the executives house felt in the first video to the older 40's car he drove up in which was very sweet looking, but definitely seemed dated compared to the inside of his office. Just an odd note of how people were viewing modernism, design and the future. They definitley had an appreciation for the future that I think we as Americans has lost to some degree. While I do love the old cars, I think we can even still have a far more promising future if we choose to make it. Love that intercom/phone system they were using. That's cool, I want one of those. Regardless, I still like and appreciate a nice shoebox, either a custom or stock.
Cool stuff! It would be cool to actually own one of the full scale drawings. I wonder if any still exist that aren't behind lock and key?
Hey! Draw your own! Find a '49 Ford, photograph and measure it. You can then make a scale drawing of the car. Then pick up some Clearprint vellum (a brand of paper), some black photo tape in various widths. Staple the Clearprint at the top corners to a long enough wall and let it hang for a couple of days. Then stretch out the balance of the paper and staple it (staple the corners in an arc). Next either project your photos or scale drawing of a '49 Ford elevation onto the wall and trace with a pencil, then go over with the photo tape. You can buy an air brush to paint it like they are doing, or use markers and pastels, or even colored pencils!
I have thought many times of doing one, but I was just wondering if stuff like that gets vaulted up or destroyed
Man the one thing that I like was when they where doing the mock up drawing for head and leg room the mock up human they used had a fedora on!!! Man that is cool as hell they even made sure you had hat room too!! I also liked how they designed the car for someone to cherish for a long time "like their house" not just enogh to get them through their payment.. Man things have changed... -COS
Loved the videos specially that fast back Merc, and in the artist sketches that econoline like truck.
Gee, all those grueling torture tests, and yet not a single hood flew open? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=308306&highlight=shoebox+hoods How did Chevy sales keep up with Ford all those years, before the Chevy V-8 came on the scene? Seems like Ford (and practically everyone else) would have been running rings around Chevy, just based on the availability of better engines?
Wow just think...those videos about design and the process are what I get to do everyday...and its still about the same as it was years ago--- infact, I think I'm on some videos online somewhere smearing clay on the Camaro Concept car from a few years ago...cool stuff... How about those sketches of Lincolns and Merc that didn't make it into production....man wouldn't they make some awesome Customs for the road today?!?!?!
Sure, technology allows us to move faster in the process of designing but the fundamentals of it all still go back unchanged since 1936. We still rely on Wall mounted tape drawings for templates, and we still use clay bucks (Foam shapes covered in clay to build on) Lifesize drawings are on the walls aswell; but they get printed off from the computer. Some of the designers who have 30+ years tend to go old school and use pastels and airbrushes, but that's too far inbetween. 3d rendering/computer modeling (Alais/autostudio) has only been use for under 20years as a modeling tool, but at the end of the day they still need to walk around a 3d object they can touch and hang tape lines and change by "hand".... so its pretty cool that this end of design hasn't been lost totally to technology.
Actually that's another member of the Ford family. It's a 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Town Sedan with it's trademark front wheelwell trim. http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/brochures/Lincoln/1949/pages/1949%20Lincoln%20(1)_jpg.htm -Andy
I showed the first part of this to my mentor at work, whose father worked at Ford as a designer from 1941 (off during the war years) back @'45 -1970 something///, He's watching the beginning and that shot of Henry, he said his nickname was "Hank the Deuce" and he remembered meeting him as a small child, Then to the Stylists, the first designer/stylist drawing was a guy named Bill Boyer,and they pass over the guy sketching the lincoln and he says...holy shit, that's my dad;( Jack Mills). He has some of those drawings at home. I guess that actual picture of that green lincoln is hanging up at the Ford Design studio according to his brother that recently retired from there. Anyway...Thought I'd share....Good find again Ryan! This guy ended up calling his 90something mother on the phone saying..."mom, I just saw dad this morning"
Boys, boys, you're missing out. That film is available at archive.org under the title "human Bridge" It's a shame because the last part is missing. there are lots of great films archived there. search on auto or automotive. You'll be there hours I promise. Mart.
I love Industrial Design. I always wanted to be a car designer. I think that if I could draw better and if I had known it was called "Industrial Design," that I might have chosen that as a career path. I don't think I learned that until I was done with engineering/grad school. Oh, well, I got a heck of an education into the theory of how engines work. I guess that's ok. ;-) Now I sketch them and plan them, but resources, mostly time, are in short supply lately, so they are not yet being built.
The Jalopy Journal
