Customs Early custom or movie prop mystery solved. 1942 was an odd styling year

1948 film “On Our Merry Way”
Car was driven by the bad guy

looks like a fleetline with a bunch of trim from other cars.

 

1942 Oldsmobile

 

Well I be.
Ya learn sumthin every day.
Just a custom paint job

car looked gaudy enough to be custom.

 

Couldnt name this one either

 

'39 Dodge

 

Thanks.

 

Of course there’s a dodge !
I’d drive ‘em both

 

Me too.
But that Oldsmobile, imagine the versions that hit the garbage cans at GM.

 

If there hadn't been a war, the next few years of Oldsmobiles might have been really bad? They sure got their act together for the 46 models, though, they had a beautiful grill

 

If the steering wheel hadn't been obviously visible on the left side, I would have guessed it to be a Holden.

 

Jim is right about the '46, Olds got it together.

 

One thing that is interesting about this car is, it's a convertible sedan (tudor). Most convertibles are coupe based. That's interesting.

 

That Olds has the most confusing front end treatment I've seen yet

 

The car is a standard GM ‘A’ Body Cabriolet (Convertible) used by Chevy, Pontiac Olds and Buick in 1942 and all but Buick from ‘46 thru ‘48. It is the same basic coupe body with a folding top. Only the angle of the photograph makes it look different by not showing the trunk lid’s actual length.

Actually, that convertible body shell began with ‘41 models of those brands. The overall length of the top was the same, but in ‘41 there was no quarter window. The quarter window was adopted for ‘42, same as Ford/Mercury (‘41 vs ‘42) in those years.

The other significant ‘A’ Body change was the door ‘pontoon’ front fender extensions. The ‘A’ Body was produced in slant pillar coupe, 2dr/4dr sedan and the Cabriolet. GM also produced a variety of ‘B’ & ‘C’ Bodies for all makes but Chevrolet.

Ray

 

most 1942 GM cars are funny looking compared to 1941's and the same model post war. maybe because we are not used to seeing them very often.

saw one at the Bay Bombs show a few months back, they look really sharp when all done up and chromed.

 

The 42 Olds is one of the rare missteps in GM front end styling during the 30s-60s.

A face for radio, as they say.

 

Fooled me. I thought there was no way this thing was from GMs styling department
Wonder if anyone was fired over this

 

Olds corporate had way more important things on their minds than styling during that period. 98% of Olds production was being converted to wartime product, and they did a great job ...

 

It takes the same effort to tool up and manufacture ugly as it does not ugly

 

You can see the 1950s in that grille. It makes me wonder where things would have gone.......
if there was no war.

 

I guess I’m weird. I like it better than the later grill.

 

I didnot like the later grill either.

 

Good luck finding any parts for a 42 Oldsmobile.

 

At first glance I thought it was a “Merc-Olet” but it reminded me a bit of a ‘42 Pontiac. I agree those ‘42s from GM had some unusual grille treatment but I like both the Olds and Pontiacs....unusual to say the least and rare. Check out the ‘42 Pontiacs.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’d drive the wheels off it. But if GM never built this and some guy customized a grill set up like this, man would that be an interesting thread to read.

 

Probably not, he was probably drafted

 

The '41 Olds was kind of an "odd duck" as well, this one also in the convertible sedan version.

 

Boy @VANDENPLAS ..... when you bought that Murc-you-ree, you really turned a corner didn't you!

 

'41 and '42 models from all manufacturers were a weird conglomeration of design features. Detroit had been involved in planning for or actually building war materiel since '39 and '40, so development $$ didn't all go into new car designs. '41's got about halfway to new stuff, '42 was just cosmetic (remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder) add-ons to get as many cars out the door until WW II started and production ceased (there was no surprise among corporate 'generals' that there would be a war that stopped production). During the early years of the war, committing resources to new design was forbidden by the government, but in '44, as the end of the war in sight, design work began on '46 models, which were refinements of the hastily put together '42's. Due to the short '42 selling season, not many cars were sold by any manufacturer, and as cars were used pretty hard during the war years, the low initial numbers translated to very few survivors, so we're not used to seeing many of these monstrosities (thank goodness). '42 was kind of the '58 of prewar cars, in terms of ugly add-ons, IMHO.