Mel Wolff and four of Tom Strobel’s creations
What inspired Plymouth to offer the Mod Top option on the 1969 Plymouths? Quite possibly it was the paint jobs created in 1966 by Chicago artist Tom Strobel, for Chicago Chrysler-Plymouth dealer Mel Wolff.
In the summer of 1969, I worked for Tom Strobel designing and building two sculptures that dispensed “art”. Strobel had acquired a couple of coin-operated machines that would, for the princely sum of 25 cents, deliver a clear plastic egg filled with “found art” that Strobel had stuffed into them. My assignment was to package the coin-op machine in an attention-grabbing fashion. I did the job with a tower painted in a Captain America theme (think Peter Fonda’s chopper in Easy Rider) topped with a Jacob’s Ladder that continuously emitted scary-sounding zaps. The crowds ate it up. I used Strobel’s Chrysler 300, complete with the Op Art paint job shown in the photo, as a parts chaser. Needless to say, that 300 drew its share of attention on the street.
The ’66 300 was big, really BIG!
Strobel didn’t confine himself to Op Art treatments, as you can see in the top photo with Mel Wolff. He created at least two cars, a Plymouth Satellite convertible and a Chrysler Newport, with floral treatments. Could they have influenced Plymouth to offer Mod Tops in 1969? Quite possibly. Mel Wolff had painted the cars to draw attention to his dealerships, and the Chrysler 300 with the Op Art treatment was featured in Playboy magazine, which gave his paint treatments national, if not international, exposure.
Strobel also gave his floral-themed treatment to a 1965 VW Microbus. It was beyond slow. Good times.
1966 Chrysler 300
These cars look like a low-budget version of John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls Royce…
Interesting possibility. The Pop Prints/Mod Tops turned out to be a flop; I think only some 900 were sold, and Chrysler sat on a lot of Pop Print vinyl.
It has been well documented that Chrysler overdyed some of the material to create the burgundy vinyl tops of later model Imperials (with disastrous results), but you’ve got to wonder if somewhere in the world there is STILL a stash of this unloved, unwanted stuff…
Here’s an interesting post on imperialclub.org about the unintentionally paisley Burgundy 1971 Imperial vinyl roof.
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1971/Paisley/
Interesting stuff, and somewhat sad in recalling what a different time it was in the sixties.
Chrysler, more than Ford or GM, was more into the avante-garde, and it wasn’t simply because of any artistic intent. Ford and GM surely had similiar ‘mod’ ideas but likely had done better cost analysis and found out that production costs for this kind of stuff was too prohibitive for the limited return on investment. Unless there was a good prospect of success (unlikely), they simply weren’t willing to give it go.
Not so with Chrysler. In fact, this sort of thing finally came to a head in 1971 with the (in)famous ‘billboard’ quarter panel ‘call-out’ stripes affixed to some Barracudas. The ‘strobe’ side stripe of the previous year’s AAR ‘Cuda had been a headache to not only look right, but apply, as well. But those huge panel stripes in 1971 were even worse in the level of manual labor required, and had to be applied meticulously to line up correctly. Otherwise, the stripe had to be completely removed and done over. It wasn’t exactly conducive to volume production and it’s unlikely that there was much profit in the price of the option (if any).
As can be imagined, the guys in charge of production didn’t exactly have kind words for the stylists on that one. For better or worse, all that wild stuff from Chrysler pretty much ended from 1972 forward.
The designs that Tom Strobel created for Mel Wolff had to have been prohibitively expensive and totally unsuited for mass production. But I doubt Wolff had anything more in mind than publicity. I have no idea whether more than four cars were produced, but I doubt it. I can attest that the Op Art design on the black Chrysler 300 that I drove was actually paint, not self-adhesive vinyl. The amount of time it must have taken to mask off this design must have been astronomical.
Hi,
I am Tom Strobel’s daughter. How fun to come across this while looking for old billboard images for a mural I am working on! I remember that Op-Art car too. And I do know that he taped off the paint to create those car paint-jobs, as well as his Op-Art paintings. Unbelievable really! I also remember those cars being used in conjunction with the McGovern campaign, or the Democratic National Convention, but I will have to check with my Mom about that. I loved reading about your memories of the culture capsules too!
I love that first shot! I have a Tom Strobel piece that’s huge, metal and covered with hologram eyes–they all wink when you walk by..definitely a conversation piece. It was borrowed by Neiman Marcus and used in a window a few years ago when they were showcasing designers from the 60′s.
Hey, the times were groovy and Peter Max was boss and Wavy Gravy spread cheer and the Berkeley Barb was the newspaper of choice and I should have created the PC, the mouse and GPI at that time and cashed in then provide the Web to the masses and I could have bought Mopar with the spare change in my pocket.
During Chrysler’s troubles a few years ago, I thought that I should have gotten on Facebook (or somewhere on the web) and got a million people to spend 100 dollars each to buy Chrysler back from Cerberus.
‘We the people’ (who had a $100 to blow) could have been owners (shareholders) in a truly public corporation.
Instead, ‘we the people’ kept Chrysler afloat long enough to GIVE to Marchionne and FIAT. I sure hope Sergio makes the best of it. Because if he f***ks it up, there will be Hell to pay.
I would have got in on that.
V. I. Lenin had similar ideas. It didn’t work out.
I remember seeing the top picture in an old copy of Motor Trend, with the caption, “Yikes, Stripes! And Other Auto Art.” It’s funny the little details that you can still remember years later, while you struggle to remember your new cell phone number.
“Chrysler 300 that I drove was actually paint, not self-adhesive vinyl. The amount of time it must have taken to mask off this design must have been astronomical.”
Those paint jobs are pretty sweet. We may make fun of some of the “fad” paint schemes from the 60s, 70s and early 80s (Especially the early 80s as shown below!) but the effort that those guys put into their craft took serious skill.
I think these guys were ahead of their time. When people tire of the monotony of silver and tan cars with beige interiors, I could see a return of this, esp with the evolution and relative low cost of vinyl car wrap.
Any color photos of these cars exist? I would love to see them! Thanks for posting.