The Sun Valley Glass top cars are common today but when Ford introduced the 1954 bubble top twins -“Skyliner” and the Mercury “Sun Valley” - the concept was revolutionary. Or was it? The idea of a “bubbletop” was not new. In 1939 Designer John Tjaarda placed a one-piece plastic top on a 1939 Plymouth convertible sedan. This “see through” idea titillated automakers and the general public. Bright openness without the wind and noise was very appealing, but the early materials lacked rigidity. Plastic was primarily a colorful decoration. Suddenly the impetus to develop Plexiglas strong enough for a B-17 bomber made more sense than for a novel car top! Besides, commercial auto production stopped in early 1942.

Gordon M. Buehrig bolted Studebaker and joined the Dearborn boys in 1949 to design the Crestliner and the Victoria. His classic touches had graced early Packards, Duesenbergs and Stutz cars. For a while he worked for GM. His former mentor, Richard Loewy, had been a “see though top” enthusiast for years. Buehrig developed hinged clear panels for the experimental TASCO car long before the “T-top” idea became in vogue. [TASCO was an acronym for the American Sports Car Company and the only one built is displayed at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.]

Both Ford’s 1953 concept XL-500 and the later Mystere had clear plastic tops. Pillars raked forward to accent the radical design that supported the roof. When the “real” glasstops were born in 1954 as Ford Skyliners and Mercury Sun Valleys, the clear portion simply replaced half the roof of a pillarless coupe. Basically it was simply a green tinted insert over the front seat area. Ford piled on the prose to sell the car: “A freshness of view…A new gaiety and glamour [used before the word became corrupted!]…Vast new areas of visibility…You’re out of doors’ all year long…Fashionably first” and others.

From the get-go, there were problems. Ladies complained the green color distorted their makeup and the warmth melted the mascara. Motor Trend said, “It may make a young lady check her makeup. She might as well switch to green lipstick!” In this day before air conditioning, folks arrived “well-done” from the oven effect. Glare was also a problem. Ford quickly countered and stuck some thermometers in cars parked in the desert and defensively stated the steel top was only five degrees cooler. A flimsy curtain with multiple snaps was a quick fix but it often shrunk and was cumbersome to attach.

Ford’s love affair with glass even extended to the transparent dome Astra-dial speedometer. During the day this was supposed to give a rear indirect lighting effect to the numbers. A very few cars sported a window hood to display the new V-8 engine. These cars occasionally pop up at Hershey and AutoFair. From what I’ve been told, the dealer was supposed to have swapped it for a real hood after the sale.

For $80 more, Ford offered their new overhead-valve 130 hp V-8. By twisting the dealer’s arm a Mercury engine could be special ordered, but it was primarily a police option. Other 1954 features were warning lamps for the oil and amp gauges, - “idiot lights” – and power windows and seats.

Both models sold poorly. Mercury abandoned the concept in 1955 and Ford hung around another year. One reason was the price. The Skyliner cost $2164 – exactly the same as the convertible. How many were made? According to the book, Ford - The Complete History authored by Consumer Guide, 13,344 Skyliners and 9,761 Sun Valleys were sold in the first year. By contrast, Ford sold 36,685 convertibles and over 100,000 4-door sedans.

In 1957, the “Skyliner” removed the top completely as the name was switched to the “hide-away” steel top Ford. With over 600 feet of wire, 10 relays, 10 limit switches, 3 drive motors and yards of hydraulic tubing, it was fitting for the 1950’s gadget crowd! (And we wonder why the top won’t go down 45 years LATER!)

By the way, WHERE is Sun Valley? Sun Valley is an Idaho ski resort famous since the mid-1930s. Several famous movies have been filmed there, including the 1941 Sun Valley Serenade pairing the magnificent Sonja Henie with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

share your good work with the youth committee

By Fran Shore
AACA Youth Committee

The AACA Youth Committee is collecting information for its records, to learn what is happening in your Regions/Chapters and groups across our country, to involve or encourage young people to participate and enjoy our hobby. We consider “Youth” to be anyone within the ages of childhood on to quite a few years afterward.

We are aware that many of you are developing great programs for various age groups and are being successful with a lot of different ideas and programs. We want to learn what you are doing so that we may share these ideas with other Regions and Chapters. We are interested in any activities being offered to individuals or groups to whom your organization provides mentoring or otherwise works with. These may be 4-H or Scout sponsored activities connected to our antique automobile hobby. Or, they may include scholarship programs, Vo-Tec school involvement, or website efforts or newsletter information given for, or by young people; or, both of these ways of interacting with youth. Any other activities that include and encourage young children, or young adults are of great interest. Other items worth mentioning could be including young people or young adults on a nominating committee, distributing fliers, assisting with registration, welcoming entrants at shows, or even sponsoring holiday parties for them, or enlisting younger members in the planning of tours.

Please help us collect these ideas to better be able to share them. Send them to, Fran Shore, at: shoreinmedia@aol.com, by January 4, 2003. Or, mail to me at: 17 War Admiral Lane, Media. PA 19063. If you prefer to phone, call: (610) 566-9453.

My parting words to you fellow editors last quarter was “...and most of all, enjoy the job!” This, to me, translates to having fun working on your newsletter. These same words came back to me from a Hornets Nest Region member who was preparing an article for the “Our Corner” column, a new feature in the Members’ Parade by our lady members — she said, “I can tell you have a lot of fun doing the Members’ Parade each month, it shows in your work!”

Well, just last week Old Cars Weekly wrote an article about me as editor as well as fellow Hornets Nest Region members Bob Blake and Bob Allen with reference to Dave Turner’s work, all who write columns in the Members’ Parade. (If it were not for a fellow HNR member I would have missed the article.) The article started out by saying that “Brooke Davis, master editor of Members’ Parade, has a truck load of fun with each issue, and it shows.”

I think, to me at least, that this is the essence of a successful editor of an AACA newsletter — make it fun. To expound on this theme, let me tell you a few things I have done the past six months. Dave Turner, Members’ Parade monthly contributor, does in depth interviews with HNR members with a focus on newer members. He told me that he got the feeling that some members were not reading the newsletter each month. We got our heads together and came up with an inexpensive “promotion” and gave away a few dinners for two at Outback restaurant. I told members in the newsletter and at the monthly meetings that “the staff of Members’ Parade” were handing out prizes the next few issues. The first question was, “How do I win?” I said it was very simply, just read the newsletter and you’ll see.

The catch was that somewhere obscure within the newsletter, right in the middle of an article, was a phrase something to the effect “be the first to call the editor and win a free dinner for two.” Well, the response was tremendous and I started getting calls within hours of the newsletter hitting the members’ mail boxes. Some called and said they read through the it twice and didn’t see anything! One member called a week later, but I hated to return his message since I don’t like to see or hear grown men cry!

The latest “promotion” is a February Swim Suit edition which is being promoted to “rival the well known and famous Sports Illustrated annual swim suit edition.” This has caught the attention of most of the male members who are looking forward to babes in bikinis.

Wrong!

Several members of HNR came up with great ideas and the idea has started to snow ball. Vicky Myers is getting several lady members to pose for the camera with rented period swim suits from a local university drama department that Vicky found. Bob Blake is searching his archives for roaring 20s pictures of swim suit babes and is putting a picture of his wife in swim suit at Daytona Beach beside their 1958 Ford. I hope his wife isn’t too surprised!

One member loaned me pictures of his wife to be circa 1941 in several poses in a swim suit. Either she or he will be surprised too when the newsletter arrives at their house.

I think by now you get the picture. But there are sure to be some disappointed men in our group to find out there are no Sports Illustrated type babes!

In conclusion, think up ideas and be creative with your newsletters, and have fun doing it!

See you in the Spring 2003 issue, I hope!