Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: The Buick Y Job = First Factory Custom Continue reading the Original Blog Post
The size of design team,putting together good ideas an weeding out not so good ones,make a big def. on outcome. I love the Y Job. Awesome car and for many now days,don't see it in the EYE* of the time* ,it was super well done!. I also love even more so ,customs that look smooth as though a team did it. Weather done long ago or now,when things fit right,most can see it,even if they don't fully understand why they like one. This one struck me as pretty smooth,with a factory team look.
Yes, Cody is building a version of the E Job @Cody Walls https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/cody-walls-builds-the-e-job.1093095/
More GM propaganda. The Y Job was far from the first show car, experimental car, concept car or whatever you want to call it. The very name gives it away. The stylists who worked on it said the industry was full of experimental cars called "X This" and "X That" ( for experimental) and they figured their car was the next step beyond X, so they called it the Y Job. They also claim to have set up the first styling department under Harley Earl in 1927, but Pierce Arrow had a styling department in 1910. A man named Dawley designed all the factory bodies which were made of cast aluminum, and was responsible for the distinctive Pierce fender mounted headlights as well as other styling innovations. Having said that, GM was often the style leader from the thirties through the sixties thanks to Earl's taste and judgement.
GM was well underway to supremacy in in US market well before the YJob. The YJob was a fancy torpedo for Harley to finally blow Packard out of the water. And it did. Prior to that the 1933 Cadillac V16 Aerodynamic Coupe was possibly as important though largely under appreciated as the turning point. The Aerodynamic coupe represented the future of the automobile. Yes it was virtually unobtainable. In 1934 only 3 were ordered . My mate in Australia has one. It is incredible. All three survived. However the 1933 Show car disappeared in the 1960s and hasn’t resurfaced. But despite being a new envelope for design it is still a Coachbuilt body. That is of itself a reminder that custom bodies were built like the old stage coaches. Timber frames clad in metal with many styling flourishes harking back to the Cobb and co era. Florentine curves and architectural fittings. The engine and mechanicals had progressed exponentially. The V16 was a work of art, mechanically and aesthetically. The Aerodynamic Coupe despite being timber framed was designed from front to back so that everything carried the same theme of Aerodynamic form. Harley knew that the future was less like Cobb and Co and more like Lockheed. So I would venture that the Y job has no timber used other than perhaps a wheel chock (but probably not even the wheel chock). Because GM had 5 profitable divisions the indulgence of building a one off, could be amortised by each division and a clear road for the next 20 years was paved. It probably cost the equivalent of $20 million in today’s money. But that was was play money for GM . Packard had to be content with Darrin on Sunset Blvd providing a candle burst of optimism in comparison.
1933 Silver Arrow V12 by Pierce Arrow. Conceived as a show car, they built 5 of them for sale to the public. Your move Cadillac.
I had the opportunity to see the Y job at the Buick nationals in Allentown a few years ago.. I wasnt aware that it would be there, as I attended the show only to meet up with a friend. alas.. this rolled past us.. and I had the good sense that day to capture video..
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