(first posted 2/22/2017) By 1955, mainstream American auto design was committed to the envelope body. Although vestigial saddle bags remained on some cars, and small dips in the belt line on others (particularly at GM) whispered goodbye to the hips of early postwar designs, the new Plymouths displayed an unbroken fender line from head to tail lamp. Searching for novel places to screw color breaks onto smooth flanks, mid century stylists turned to swoops and check marks of brightwork that often had little visual connection to the shapes they floated on. None more so than at Plymouth.
Time to take the Belvedere shopping at some other studios for a makeover.
The top ‘o the line, Plymouth Belvedere is often cited as the sterling example of The School of Contrived Chrome Trim. The little blazer crest under a buddhist temple of stainless that crowed, “Oh, Belvedere!” to class-conscious middle income buyers remains a conundrum to tastemakers many decades later. Collectible Automobile held a reader contest to design a “new improved version” of the ’56 Belvedere in 1991, and our own J. P. Cavanaugh collected some ideas for the ’55 some twenty years later. I parodied the Belvedere’s side trim in an early piece which imagined dead (Dali, Calder, Warhol…) and living (Banksy, Watterson) ghost artists’ styles applied to “fix” the Plymouth.
But, then I thought, why not offer the same challenge to designers of the day who didn’t work for Chrysler Corporation?
Let’s look at the 1955 Plymouth, reconfigured with trim from some of its contemporaries. I won’t comment on the success or lack of it in these treatments; that’s what forums are for…
First, we check out a model from the “Ford Agency”.
Plymouth had 3 tiers of trim in its lineup for ’55: Plaza, Savoy and Belvedere. In honor of Dearborn’s contribution to our project, We will add another top model, the Furilane. Note that the stylists might feel mandated to retain the Plymouth Crest in the car’s chrome dip. To our relief, Plymouth didn’t have separate headlamp doors as Ford did, so we don’t have to decide whether to carry the outside color around to the inside of the ring.
Then, well go to the number one seller. Step right up and meet the new 1955 Plymouth Bel Vedaire.
Now, a quick side trip to South Bend, Indiana where we get to look over a Plazadent Speedster.
Just for fun, let’s cheat a bit to imagine the Plazadent with a C pillar similar to Studebaker’s. Though an expensive stamping change would be required, the reverse curve echoes the hooded lamps at each end of the car.
Our next stop is Kenosha, Wisconsin where American Motors stylists apply the ’55 Nash’s “Colorforms” clamshell side treatment to the Ambellssador.
This last, fading independent, Kaiser suggests relatively simple adornment: a wide chrome band. The Manhatteer lends itself best to simple two toning, using just the roof.
Then, it’s on to Flint, Michigan to rejoin GM, where Buick designers give their version the Full Porthole. This is a Roadrunster V-8.
Buick didn’t make a 6 cylinder car, but Plymouth did. Here’s a study for a Roadrunster “6”, showing its fitting, asymmetrical, porthole treatment.
Had it been produced in series, the experimental 1955 Plymouth Gasturbine might sport a “monoport”.
Oldsmobile donates it’s Starfire ornamentation, more easily grafted onto the straight sides of the Plymouth than the premier Holiday 98 series. What we get is the new Starvoye Sport Coupe.
If it seems we missed FoMoCo’s division named for the wing footed god of speed, there’s a reason. To make the Moperrey, we really do have to cheat; the only way for Mercury stylists to graft their trim on to the Plymouth would be to completely change the door and rear fender stampings.
It’s better that we should get back to the original, smooth sided design that Plymouth stylists had to work with. That way we can put the Pontiac guys on it for the new Savoy Chief. Looks as though they grabbed the chance to leave the silver streaks off of the hood.
Someone already customized their real life 1955 Plymouth with a motif that’s not too far off. Searching the web showed no evidence that this chrome swoop is a factory design. Maybe it was taken off of a Pontiac. Anyone know differently?
That was fun. Thanks for posting.
+1
FUN ! .
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I actually like the Furilane .
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-Nate
The Belve-Nash looks like what Chrysler should have done!
+1
The Bel Vedaire looks very nice, the Ambelissador just looks sad. The Moparrey looks like it might belong on the Dodge more than the Plymouth, as it seems to want to make the car look more upscale, vis a vis Merc vs Ford. Nice artwork!
I always did like the 55 Belvedere HT.
Didn’t care for the 56 model as well when narrow fins were added to the rear fenders.
55 Belvedere HTs are super rare to see anywhere now days. I can rem. as a kid, an older guy in the neighborhood bought one new it was a tangerine color with a black roof and sides like the stock pic. seen at top . I thought the dash mounted AT gear selector was so cool then.
I like the Plymouth Plazadent and the Roadrunner styling studies best. This was an interesting and fun post!
With the exception of the ventiports added to make it more-Buicklike, pretty much every alternative version looks better.
My mother’s maiden aunt had a 56 Belvedere 2 door hardtop…in solid grey. Aunt Teresa was very conservative and very frugal so any thoughts about “sporty” 2 tone paint jobs never went anywhere.
BTW, I’m not a fan of the 55 OR 56 Plymouths, but if it was a choice between just those two I’d pick the 56.
Never realized until just now how similar the 56 Plymouth looks to a 57 Chevy….at least the rear half, front half is very vaguely similar to the 56 Chevy.
“Furilane” wins this exercise. Far and away.
Great fun!
I’ll take the Savoy Chief.
Simply Mahvelous! Almost all of them look better than the factory effort. OK, not the Ambellssador.
One nit, your Moparray lacks the most distinctive part of the 2 tone design, those odd little strips along the top of the beltline that come down from the base of the greenhouse.
The only one you missed is the Belvidipper, featuring the only 1955 two toning job that looked less organic to the body deign than the 55 Belvedere.
Hang in there, JP… it’s coming.
Moperrey with “arm pads” like Robert Young in “Father Knows Best”
Although, I should have called this one a “Montvedere”, given the only ’55 Merc with ‘patches’ was the Montclair.
I always liked the 55-56 Plymouth…my Aunt had a 56. Like the Studebaker, Nash and Kaiser treatments best. The Mercury,,,,no,,,just no.
Studebaker and Ambassador treatments look the best.
If I was to customize a Belvedere that’s the look I would aim for.
In stock form I expect to see Statler and Waldorf in the front seat.
No Packard trim designs? For shame.
No Packard trim designs? For shame.
Actually, when I saw the Kaiser version with the wide horizontal strip, before I read the caption, I thought it was a riff on a 56 Packard.
See my response below to Lgbpop…
55 Plymouth Diecast I happened to have handy
The Ambellsador really screams for fender skirts on the front axle. Then one could gain a bit more continuity on color.
Some of these, particularly the Ford theme, drastically improve upon things.
The Ambellssador would be my pick. The black takes up most of the bulk, the remaining red almost looks slim above and below. It does need a chrome edge around the front wheel and maybe three strakes running down the side.
The Ford and Buick versions work for me, though the mongrel mob gang colour scheme might need changing
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1955+plymouth+belvedere+PHOTOS&t=h_&ia=images&iax=1
Click on any Picture………………
What an entertaining post. I think I’d vote for the Roadrunster (sans portholes) and the Savoy Chief. The Furilane (love all the names…) looks great in profile, but there was something unresolved with the Ford’s front fender wrap, to my eye at least.
The full length treatments seem to work the best though, communicating length, sleekness, and speed when they’re done well. From that viewpoint the Bel Vedaire reminds me of how conservative and static Chevrolet’s treatment looked in comparison to some of its sharper contemporaries.
Dang. ANY of those are better-looking than the factory treatment.
Should have done a Belverribean, with tri-tone paint treatment!
Watch for it!
You asked for it, you got it…
This might be the best one, particularly since it blends in so well with the Plymouth’s quarter panel crease. In fact, I could have seen this car pretty much wiping-out just about all of the Packard’s meager sales.
It needn’t have been limited to those colors, either. It’s just a really good looking tri-color paint scheme and a shame it’s not the route Plymouth decided to take.
That is fantastic
A convertible version would be just about perfect.
Very cool mock-ups! I really enjoy this series of yours and the effort you put into it Barry! Is it weird that I kind of like the Mercury one?
hehehehehehehehehe. Is that an inlet or outlet on the Gasturbine?
Nice work! You do this all in Photoshop?
Yes. I became wedded to it ten years ago. I actually design in it, which drives my boss nuts.
I love this! My favorites are the Kaiser and Ford variants, although on the latter, I’d place the dip lower, so the rear horizontal portion of the chrome lines up with the character line on the quarter panel.
The Olds had as contrived a two-toning as the stock Belvedere.
Thought of that, but the character line droops a bit from front to back, so that would affect the look of the chrome in a weird way.
Thank you. I always enjoy “what if” scenarios. Yours gets a person to thinking. Maybe the Ambellssador with portholes would look like a formal car to me? The Furilane is probably the sport model. The ’55 Belvedere lends itself to so many treatments without looking ridiculous to me. The designers could have gone in so many different directions as you have shown so nice and tastsefully.
The Moparrey stamping change wasn’t essential for Mercury styling. The Mercury wagon used the standard Ford body with Merc side trim.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/cc/dc/99/ccdc9989db3d212490e90445608581fc.jpg
Cool! I really like this sort of post – so often things work out better-looking than what went into production. In the case of the ’55-6 Plymouths’ side trim, that’s not hard!
Now if you’d crossed a De Soto with a Pontiac, you could have called it a Fire Chief.
the one that attracted me the most was the one that no one else seemed to pick…
the Plymouth Manhattan
I thought it looked classy, fun but not overdone.
that’s ok though, one of my favourites from the last few years was the Nissan Cube and even my nearest and dearest questioned my sanity on that one!
If you think about it, the Plymouth looked a lot like the ’56 Lincoln, it would look good with the Lincoln’s trim!
Amazing how a little paint and trim makes this car look like its competitors and contemporaries. Honestly, I’m not that opposed to how Plymouth did its paint and trim.
It’s funny that the trim and paint combos were easily identifiable with their manufacturers. The basic, blocky shape of the Plymouth looked like most other cars on the market. The differentiation was all in the trim. So,I guess all Fifties cars look alike?
What a scream. Definitely like the Ambassador and Kaiser sourced trim.
Quite an Enjoyable post! 🙂
Some of those are really attractive.
Problem is they would have competed with Dodge and Chrysler and that couldn’t be allowed to happen!
I finally got a look at these today (late to the party as usual). The ’55 Bel Air treatment was cool, but with those Plymouth Belvedere lines, I would’ve liked to have seen the ” ’56 Bel Vedaire ” treatment on this car. Great post, Barry.
The ‘chrome swoop’ on the black two-door sedan is a ’54 Olds motif. Perhaps not FROM an actual ’54 Olds (there’d be more chrome fared into the top trailing edge of the door), but definitely the line, most often used to divide a two-tone color.
A well done and enjoyable, entry, Barry Koch.
Eggscelent! Love the way you hit all the manufacturer’s on their design take. Several of them look like real possibilities. I like the Chevy version the best, besides the original Plymouth design.
You could have some more fun with the chrome trim from other countries’ cars too, with the added bonus that most Americans and Canadians wouldn’t know where they came from. Holden had some lovely trim patterns and colours in the late fifties. Here’s the ’58 FC:
And the ’59 FB.
SWEET .
-Nate
A great post. It’s interesting how immediately identifiable most of the trims are. The Ford, Chevrolet, and Buick trims in particular are unmistakable signatures of their brands – almost logos.
It’s also interesting that with these revolutionary simplified body forms, stylists then decided to carve them into random shapes, almost as if they had doubts about consumer reaction to the basic concept. In some ways it’s more the treatment one would expect at the ‘tired’ end of a design cycle than at the beginning.
But then the results in so many cases looked great! I suppose the simpler forms were also a blank canvas that designers could play with endlessly to create many looks – the perfect consumer item. Was that approach intentional from the beginning, or was it serendipitous? There must have been some interesting discussions in the design studios.