I didn’t mention in the video but Pontiac full size and intermediate cars from 63-67 were also awesome in Hardtop trim. I love the vertically stacked headlights during that period of time for Pontiac.
4 door hardtops are definitley overlooked, but I feel they get more and more attention and respect as time goes by. Love the fact that you advocate positively for this body style! I have a '70 Ford Torino Brougham 4 door hardtop. It's got hideaway headlight, which really sets the car off, and it looks (to me anyway) a bit more elegant than it's 2-door siblings. And it's a couple of pounds lighter than it's comparingly equipped 2-door siblings as well. Gives me the muscle car experience for a fraction of the cost.
Hooray! Somebody finally has "seen the light" regarding that ideal body-style: the four-door hardtop. The reason why they were so overlooked over the last few decades... is the sheer, massive CONFORMITY within the narrow minds of most performance-oriented car nuts. Said people would rather have a two-door SEDAN over a four-door HARDTOP... even the few that know what the latter is. Here's a good trivia question: what manufacturer was the last to build and sell a four-door hardtop? Here's a hint: said cars also optionally offered something that had already faded away: front door VENT windows. I welcome answers.
Okay. The four-door hardtops began with GM in 1955.. but they ended in the mid-1970s: not very long, historically. Also, not only do four-door hardtops not have a "B" pillar, they also do not have a full frame around the big door windows that sedans do. This is easily seen when a four-door hardtop door is open and the big window is down. [Yes, Ford made some "pillared" four-door hardtops in the 1970s, but they're not pure hardtops.] As far as station wagons go, besides the Chryslers, were a few Buick and Oldsmobiles in the late 1950s...... and a few (rare) Rambler wagons of the same period.
I love the open feel of a hardtop. Particularly 4 door hardtops. Verts are nice, but the sun beats down too much during the day. On our jeep I keep the top up and the sides off. The 4 door hardtop has a similar feel.
Definitely have a soft spot for 4 door hardtops. Can’t stand those people who say “2 doors too many”, kind of silly to worry about something trivial as that. Sometimes, you have to take what you can get, not all Classic cars are muscle cars from the 60’s and frankly they are just pimped out economy cars of the era. One day, full size body on frame cars will be more sought after once people realize that economy and muscle cars of the 60’s and early 70’s paved the way for today’s modern car sizes (big is best in my book). Never really liked the idea of small cars since it’s easy to outgrow them and will end up spending more when you have to upgrade to something bigger, most full sized cars from the 60’s were sensibly sized for the average person and family.
In 1964, our family bought a new Buick Wildcat 4 door hardtop, beige with a saddle color leather interior (special order). The Buick habit was continued in 1973 with a new Electra 225 Limited 4 door hardtop in dark metallic blue with a white vinyl top (all the rage back then). When I got older, in 1984, I bought a used 1972 Cadillac Sedan de Ville 4 door hardtop as a fixer upper car. It was in metallic turquoise with a white vinyl top and turquoise brocade cloth interior. That car was lots and lots of fun ! Every time we went somewhere, all my friends wanted to take the Caddy since it was such a huge car and every trip was an adventure. In the summer, the side windows were let down and the whole car filled with outside air. It was a blast ! You mentioned station wagons without B pillars. The ones that came to mind were the 1957-1958 Buick Estate Wagons and Oldsmobile Fiesta Wagons and the 1957-1958 Mercury Wagons Starting around 1957 through 1960, automobile styles went totally over the top and garish with all the huge fins... outlandish styling, but those were styles and times we could never forget Here are some links to pics of some pillarless station wagons from the late 1950's: www.hemmings.com/stories/article/1957-buick-riviera-estate-wagons www.hemmings.com/stories/article/1958-buick-special-riviera-estate-wagon www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week/car-of-the-week-1957-oldsmobile-super-88-fiesta-station-wagon bringatrailer.com/2016/02/11/rare-four-door-hardtop-wagon-1958-oldsmobile-super-88-fiesta/ davidsclassiccars.com/mercury/228748-colony-park-1957-station-wagon.html www.streetsideclassics.com/vehicles/4508-cha/1958-mercury-commuter-6-passenger-hardtop-wagon Gasoline was very cheap back then (like 28 cents a galllon) and the notion of environmental responsibility or climate change hadn't been invented yet
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Even though this has been one of my least popular videos, it’s one that I thoroughly enjoyed putting together. It’s so nice to see that it resonated with you, and I’ll definitely check out some of those links for the pillarless wagons.
