... Buick will build them.
... Buick Will Build Them
Cars haven’t always had windshields, introduced early on as an option for drivers who weren’t satisfied with goggles. This "brass-era" Buick not only has no windshield, but was built before the standardization of having the steering wheel on the left side.
And isinglass curtains -- my mother remembered that when it started raining you had to stop the touring car
and snap the curtains in, remembering "Oklahoma" and the song "Surrey with the fringe on top" and its line "The wheels are yeller, the upholstery's brown The dashboard's genuine leather With isinglass curtains," a motorcar carryover from horse and buggy days. These early Buicks have the isinglass curtains snapped on.
Apparently the curtains also were some aid to comfort for winter driving.
But from my viewpoint as Señor Safety Paterfamilias, the most significant advance in automobile design came in 1927 with the introduction of laminated safety glass to replace ordinary glass that on breaking would shatter into large, deadly sharp shards.
This enormous Buick sedan is about a 1933 year model.
This enormous Buick sedan is about a 1933 year model.
This Buick touring car is earlier --
Four wheel brakes, pneumatic tires also were added.
Seems to me my mother told me that her father would only buy open touring cars early on, would not buy sedans, closed cars, because of the terrible dangers of the glass in 1920s closed sedans with ordinary glass windows.
Seems to me my mother told me that her father would only buy open touring cars early on, would not buy sedans, closed cars, because of the terrible dangers of the glass in 1920s closed sedans with ordinary glass windows.
The decade of the nineteen-thirties was a time of further significant advances in automobile design. Instead of placing the engine behind the front axle and the radiator over the axle and a foot to a foot and a half behind the front bumper as in these cars,
including this station wagon as late as 1933,
auto manufacturers started placing the engine over the front axle instead of behind it,
and about simultaneously started placing the rear seat forward of the rear axle instead of right on top of it.
And except for models such as station wagons (which retained the fabric roofs until late into the 1940s)
moved away from roofs with the wood slat roof insert covered with fabric,
to solid metal roofs as in these 1936 Buicks with GM's "turret top." GM put their Fisher Body turret top in the 1935 Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile, apparently not in the Buick until 1936, but in the 1934 LaSalle. I'm having a bit of trouble trusting my online research when it states online facts different to my own true facts.
Ride, steering, handling, comfort, integrity and safety were vastly improved.
This Buick "flying lady" or "flying goddess" radiator ornament might be a theme for another blog post, another day.
This Buick "flying lady" or "flying goddess" radiator ornament might be a theme for another blog post, another day.
You can get the Bubba out of the Buick, but you can't get the Buick out of the Bubba.
TW
Several times, my mother expressed surprise that as much as I loved my grandfather Gentry and all the Chrysler cars he owned in his lifetime, I never had a Chrysler. We did have one Chrysler, a 1952 Saratoga club coupe that we bought in Japan for $100 and drove as a second car while we were there, but never a serious Chrysler. That bears correcting, perhaps?
Several times, my mother expressed surprise that as much as I loved my grandfather Gentry and all the Chrysler cars he owned in his lifetime, I never had a Chrysler. We did have one Chrysler, a 1952 Saratoga club coupe that we bought in Japan for $100 and drove as a second car while we were there, but never a serious Chrysler. That bears correcting, perhaps?