Art & Inspiration What was the most one year change from cool to ugly?

^^ I almost purchased the '60 in the pics above^^ Car was here in Vancouver. It ended up being $$pricey$$ and out of my realm, but was a very nice car.
As for the Edsel, I really like all 3 years, but the '58 Citation was the clown prince of the trio.

 

I actually like the ‘60 Edsel better than the ‘59. Maybe that’s why I’ve got 3 cars that made the list!

 

Can someone with a tape measure tell me if a '60 Ford trunk lid is wider than a '28-31 Ford trunk lid? One of the features that killed any hope of selling one to Dad back when they were new.

Bob

 

Chevy '37-'39 to '40..

 

I'm pretty sure they were wider than the model a trunk lid....
Got anymore pictures of that Starliner?????.....

 

Yup, and that change also killed the Skyliner model.

 

I think the 37 is one of the best looking Fords.


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Most of the 1938 Fords and '39 standards were destroyed on stock tracks, and nobody in the stands cared.

 

Is there a fancy name for the shape on that '60 Ford fin trim? Whatever it is study it, EVERY new car on the road today uses it, gravel pan, rolled pan, tail light, exhaust cut out. Good or bad I find it annoying that everyone uses it.

 

58 to 59

 

Some that I felt were a disappointment from the previous year:
65 Fairlane ( though there has been one blue drag car posted on this site recently that I do like)
58 Ford
58 Olds and Buicks
66 Falcon
But the older I get the more I find myself appreciating clean, original or restored cars of any year and manufacturer. Well, except maybe those catfish mouthed Packards ( poorly rebadged Studes ) of the 50's.

 

18 to 17

 

Uhhh, shoebox ford's and mercs 49-51aren't hot rod material? Hmmmmmm....

I can dig the end of an era, but the shoebox and mercs make some of the most beautiful hot rods on the road.

 

I don't see mention of what happened to the 63 and a half Galaxie in 64.

 

By the 50 year old accepted definition of a hot rod, No the Mercs & the Shoeboxes are not hot rods.

Back in the late 60's, the guys at Rod & Custom Mag. considered a street rod/hot rod to be a pre-'49. In the early '70s, the NSRA legitimized that definition with their street/hot rod cut-off date of 1948 (pre'49). That is how the world defined Street/Hot Rods for the last 50 years...a pre-49 Modified Vehicle.

There are plenty of descriptions for post-48 rides. Custom, Custom Rod, Lead Sled, Resto-mod, Pro-Mod, Gasser, Street Machine. Muscle Car etc...but by the accepted definition, it's not a Hot Rod

It appears the term Hot Rod has become some kind of "magical" word that some people feel is IMPORTANT to apply to their vehicle. It is NOT a magical term, it's just the long standing DEFINITION...of a pre'49 modified vehicle.

 

I Love everything 64 and older. 65 not as much.

 

Said it the best ^^^^^^^^

My vote is the 57-58 T-Bird, way too much going on.

I'm a sucker for a wrap around windsheild though. The backward canted A-pillar is gorgeous IMHO. Chrysler were more conservative in the A-pillar...but that's the only conservative styling of late 50s Chrysler.

I do love any pre-'65 car/truck though.

 

A couple more;
51-52 Mercury
54-55 Hudson. The 56 was even worse.
55-56 Nash. As fugly as the 55 was, the 56 was the coup de grace.

Agree on just about anything 57-58. 1958 was such a bad year, a complete makeover for 59 was in order.
40-41 wasn't kind to Dodge or Desoto either.

 

There have been many ugly cars built throughout the years. But, 1958 I general was the great step backwards to me. Especially General Motors. And of the cars from them, the Buick and Oldsmobile took the greatest step backwards. It lok like somebody in A GM warehouse found all the unused chrome, polished aluminum, and stainless steel left over from a previous years. The Buick grille caused hardware stores grief because they used up all the square drawer pulls to make the Buick grille. The Oldsmobile taillights look like aluminum cups with red lenses in the bottom answer slots cut in the sides capped off by an obnoxious chrome spear and and all the old stainless strips in the world cut up and stuck on the quarter panel. Don't even get me started on the gazillion pound taillight casting made from pot metal on the Buicks! The bumpers on both of them are attractive only to the blind guy that designed them. But in all fairness, the finned aluminum drums on the Buick were cool looking. But, on Buick, the only time you got to see them was at a tire shop, junk yard, of if you got run over by one and then, YOU didn't care!

 

I was going to tell you about a sweet 58 Buick. I guess I will keep it to myself.

 

Not a change from "cool to ugly" but I honestly think the Ford -31 coupe looks better than the -32.
The sole reason is that little curvature at the top of the -31 trunk, that connects to the rear of the cab.

 

I had a chance to buy a 60 wagon but passed. It looked very plain to me. Jumped on a 61 though. To me it wasn’t a throwback, more of a correcting a wrong. Just my opinion which doesn’t mean much. I don’t have any “desirable” cars. I also like the square bird and the over the top Chrysler’s from the 50s-60s.

 

I think 56-57 Buick and Mercury is the biggest drop in looks personally, and the same can be said for basically any GM from 1957 into 1958. That said, many of the 58s weren't bad looking, the Chevy and Cadillac in particular, but needed some cleaning up and were generally inferior stylistically to their immediate predecessors. Thinking about it now, I don't know if I've ever seen a good looking 58 Buick, though.

 

Lmao. Well heck, if that's what a magazine said! You say that's how the world defines it, and I don't think that's true at all, but whatever. Cute cartoon too, that's very clever.

If that's true, may as well make the year cutoff on the hamb 1948, no?

 

I was there too HRP, but not so much the 37, although they were stepchild for-like-ever, but the 38 dlx/39 std. I thought the design staff bumped their collective heads and came out with a "WTF IS THAT!" model. Fast fwd about 15-18yrs ago, I pass by a typical weekday cruise night in a big parking lot and decide to pull in. I walk up behind a lovely 39 tudor, the beloved 'sloper' in a dark color (blue or black), see 2 tail lights thinking "..ah deluxe..." and go around to the front. Imagine my surprise to find it was a std. I was shocked, stricken even. As I say in my build thread it's as if it even winked at me. Car was dropped just right, steelies and small caps, not too "street roddy" in the interior. Never ever saw those cars in that way before and I was in love. Never looked at a 38 dlx/39 std the same since. Like the dirty farm girl that dressed up and became the belle of the ball, and today totally stock or rodded I enjoy my epiphany of appreciation. I'll dare say I prefer the std over the deluxe (vice/verse for the 38) but I always did prefer a std 40. Even in my youth I though a 37 made for a great rod but an ugly stocker and pretty much toe that line today. Good stuff...

 

In my opinion, the '39 DeLuxe was the best looking of that whole bunch. Including the '40.

 

55 f100 to 56 f100 is possibly the worst I've seen. This may be the most unpopular post on this thread, I understand. But ford took a BIG step back with the 56 in my eyes.

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i now find i like so many cars i used to hate . but 55 to 56 f100 was a big improvement to me .after seeing the frnt wheels moved forward in one i now hate all that havnt been corrected !! 58 buicks gota be #1 and im a buick lover !!

 

IMO...Pretty much every manufaturer 1957-1958. Very few good lookin' cars built in 1958...again IMO!
But hell, I wouldn't turn down a good deal on a '58 Impala!