History A Tip of the Hat to the 2 door Hardtop.

When I consider one of the greatest American car body designs of the 1950s, the 2 door hardtop is pretty near the top of the list. I personally LOVE two door wagons, but there is no doubt that the 'pillarless coupe' made a far wider impact for many y... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

 

The idea of a hardtop seems silly on paper.. "let's make convertible with a hard-top that doesn't come off" .. Mmmkay.

But they nailed it. I love them. Some things need to be seen to be understood.

 

I gotta agree with you Jive-Bomber. Some might argue that tail fins were the defining style of the 50's, but truth to tell, most of the fins detracted from the lines of the car (that's only my opinions of course). Love the hardtops, 2 and 4-door.

 

I'm a fan of coupes myself, but in pure stock form hardtops are the best looking body style of almost any make/model car. And I know in 1949 or '50 coupes must have looked really old and outdated and those hardtops must have seemed so sleek and modern. It's really the end of cars that look horrible stock and soooo good chopped.

Pat Ganahl blames Larry Watson for killing off traditional customizing but I think hardtops did it. (Why chop when you can buy a hardtop and just lower it and look just as sleek?)

In fact, the '53 Chevy sedan in my avatar is chopped to the same height as a stock Bel Air hardtop!

 

I hate that my '54 is NOT a hardtop. They just look way better right off the bat.

 

In my opinion there is nothing that looks better than a 57-58 MoPar 4 door hardtop car. They look a mile long and so sleek with all the windows rolled down.

 

hmmmmmm how about a tudoor hardtop wagon...?

 

My first car was a 50 Oldsmobile Holiday Hardtop custom. It was nosed, decked, chrome fender decorations removed lowered [dago'ed], hopped up 303, painted naples orange and had the first set of baby moons in town. I was 16, ignorant and poor. I loved that car, but by the time I got it was worn out. It was banned from the high school parking lot because it leaked trans fluid so bad kids were tracking it into the halls. I ended up trading it in for a 55 chevy, also a hardtop. My friends told me the olds went down the road sideways. I still wish I had that car back now that I would be able to fix it. That's the way it goes youth is wasted on the young!

 

Hardtops Rule!

 

Nice talking point Jive Bomber, I agree with both you and Dan Hay. On paper it just seems silly but the major manufacturers went ahead and tried it anyway and wha la, history is made.

The pillarless hardtops make it look like the top of the car is floating. Proper chops on customs only further enhance this look if done right


Fryguy

 

Two door hardtops are almost certainly my favorite body style and one that is sadly almost entirely gone from today's auto marketplace.

The early ones are great but some of the best-looking ones came a bit later, in '57, on the Dodge and Plymouth. The profile of that roof seems simple, perfect and beautiful.

 

I liked them so much that I got one.

 

The two door hardtops are beautiful! And some of the four doors were ever nicer, seemed to flow with the body lines. And then there were the pillar-less wagons, 57 Olds and Buicks. And the Chryslers.

 

I agree they are the best. I searched and searched for a 49 to 54 Chevy H/T before I got my coupe but just couldn't find one.......I could afford,
They do bring the top dollar.

 

Hard tops are just plain cool, and at the risk of being "Upper Class" (which I guarantee you I ain't) are very elegant...
And as said many 4 doors also fall into this category, such as '56 Chevy, '57 Ford, and several others...
Great picture..
Also....
Can anyone tell me what the original term "Hard Top" meant ?? As the post version also had a 'Hard' top...

 

Because it looked like a convertible[soft-top]...?

 

I love them too. One of the things I like most about the hardtops is that when you roll all the windows down, you didn't need air conditioning to get cool.

Except for that trip I took through El Paso in summer....nothing helped then.

 

It's a shame this body type has all but disappeared.......To my knowledge only one 2 door pillar-less (hard-top) coupe is made today and that is the MB CL coupe ((AKA) or the S Class Coupe').........Today the term "hard top" seems to apply to the retractable top coupes........

 

The name was originally "hard top convertible" later shortened to "hardtop".

 

In addition to the GM models mentioned by Jive-Bomber, Pontiac also introduced a 2 door hardtop. Here is a photo of my 1950 Catalina, I regret letting it get away, I won't make that same mistake with my '57!

 

Mopar definitely had it going on.

 

I don't know about other brands but hard top Chevys had chrome bows on the headliner to simulate a soft top.

 

my 56 olds has them chrome bows too...

 

Factory Hardtops are the best! Here is my 53 Belair driver and my 51 Belair future kustom project.

 

The proportions of this coupe are simply perfect. While it doesn't technically have a 'B' pillar you might still refer to this as an early hard top. No sheet metal frame remains on the door when the window is lowered, and in fact it's the same door used on their conv cpe, what they called a "Coupe Roadster". This is a 1934 Packard 2/4 coupe on the 1101 chassis with a 136" WB. In my mind it was among the earliest of hard tops.

 

My two Victorias:

 

I'm thinking that "The General" was actually paying attention to chopped traditional custom rooflines when the first hardtops were conceived.

 

The `63 Chevy hartop even has sort of faux convertible top bow shapes pressed into the roof.

 

53 Coupe Deville

 

All the cool kids had hardtops... according to my ol' man