Mystery Car.... 1959 Cadillac influence

[Eldorado James]

Surfing the Net on a Friday night......found a hilarious but interesting story on this car.  Let's post up a few pics for fun first..... What influences are at work here?

Eldorado James

[Bobby B]

James,
I'm feelin' "The Batmobile" here.......
                                               Bobby

[wrench]

1957 Dodge Coronet

https://goo.gl/images/KkwoBd

1959 Buick Invicta

https://goo.gl/images/VgQ3Xn

[Steve Passmore]

James,
I'm feelin' "The Batmobile" here.......
                                               Bobby

I'm feeling the Johny Cash song myself

[INTMD8]

2 59 coronet front ends   

[Eldorado James]

Have fun reading!  Good guesses.....but what car is at the center of all of this "creativity"?

https://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=John_Hychko%27s_1956_Studebaker

EJ

[35-709]

EJ, I see the "Polynesian" has been found, has it been saved/rebuilt or was it considered too far gone?

[Eldorado James]

I searched a bit the other day to find out....apparently not.  Somebody took some pics standing next to the rusting hulk and likely didn't buy it.....maybe it's out there somewhere for an ambitious hunter to find again....

EJ

[wrench]

RIP Rust in Pieces

Sorry, but that is one ugly car. I understand the Hot Rod ethos and all that jazz, and enjoy a good story about old school builders but most of those cars were ugly as sin.

I also know that some of those cars actually inspired Detroit designers, but that was just a negative feedback loop that resulted in some real crappy designs in that era.

I have spent enough time on Jalopy Journal and the H.A.M.B.  to gain an understanding of that philosophy.

I know that necessity is the mother of invention is how a lot of these kustom cars get built. You have a few parts laying around and a low budget or some beer fueled vision and voila you have a 59 Dodge fascia welded to a 59 Cadillac rear on a Studebaker frame.

I have hung out with a lot of guys like that and a lot of times they are just not quite right in the head.[hr

I am not even a big fan of Barris. For every stroke of genius car he did, there are ten others that are just pure bs.

Coddington, Paul, Jr, Jesse James and the rest are shameless self promoters to a genre of 'groupthink fabricators' with an occasional innovation and mostly stale cr*p.

Sorry, that's my humble opinion.

Also, I think I know where that junkyard is/or was, because not sure if it is still there. I will have to dig out a map and see if I can locate it again. It is in the Waterbury area.

[James Landi]

I believe it was Harley Earl who was being interviewed on the David Suskind show "Open End," and Suskind asked him about the the '59 tail end.  If I recall correctly, he stated something to the effect that once the car was produced, the design flair was no longer in vogue, and seeing the wings he, in effect, had encouraged made him cringe.  Trimming down those wings took several model years, but looking back on these designs allows for  renewed enthusiasm, appreciation, and, yes, understanding about that unique moment in time in post WWII America, when everything seemed possible, including these amazing flamboyant automobiles.   James