Edsel, We Hardly Knew Ya

I've always had a fondness for the Edsel. As a car-consumed young person, I eagerly followed the gestation of Ford's "E-car" in the press and broadcast news reports. When the car was unveiled on September 4, 1957, just five days before my 13th birthday, I was elated. The car was dramatic in a way that hadn't been seen since, perhaps, the Step-down Hudson of 1948. I was not, however, enamored of the name, for unlike most Americans I was fully aware of Edsel Ford and his automotive legacy - and shared the Ford family view that attaching his name to an automobile accrued some measure of risk. Little did we know, however, that it would become a synonym for failure.

The 1958 Edsel was bold in its styling, which people either liked or hated (I liked it; still do). I was also bold in its market approach: two niches in the Ford catalog, one between Mercury and Lincoln and another between Ford and Mercury. There were two sizes and four series, from the top Citation and Corsair on a 124-inch wheelbase, Pacer and Ranger on Ford's 118 and 116-inch wheelbases. Exclusive Edsel features included "Teletouch" push button transmission control on the steering wheel, a novel heating and ventilating system, and a dashboard-mounted tachometer and compass. Engines were designated not by their horsepower or displacement but by their torque figures.

Any one of these innovations might have been risky; together they were a disaster. The public stayed away in droves, and the make that was supposed to plug alleged "holes" in the Ford catalog sold barely 63,000 cars, less than half Mercury's total and one fifth that of Buick or one third of Pontiac, and it was supposed to compete with both of them.

For 1959, retrenchment was the word, one wheelbase and two series of Ford-based cars, Corsair and Ranger. The "horsecollar" grille became an ornament on a Ford nose, though the rear retained its boomerang fin theme. Sales fell by a third, in a generally improving market.

By the 1960 model year it was really over. The car became a Ford clone with a grille resembling the previous year's Pontiac. Inside and out it was plain that it was a Ford, with Ford engines - including a six introduced for 1959. Conventional wisdom says the convertible, with 76 built, was the rarest, but acutally the nine-passenger Villager wagon, at 59 units, was the champion underachiever.

On November 19, 1959, the Edsel was given a lethal injection and the last car rolled off the line. In retrospect it seems like a foolhardy venture, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. The Edsel is sometimes described as poorly engineered, but aside from features, like Teletouch, not fully developed it was no worse than any other 1958 Ford product.

Were I to indulge in an Edsel, which one would I buy? I'd probably go whole hog with a '58 Citation convertible. It's unlikely it would be a prizewinner; it certainly wouldn't be a trailer queen.

Port-o-Walls

Wayne Graefen collects interesting stuff. He just bought a whole car in order to get a set of vintage Port-o-Walls. If you're around my age you remember Port-o-Walls; you probably even had them on one of your cars. Port-o-Walls were rings of white rubber that attached to your blackwall tires to make them look like whitewalls, without the expense of actually buying new tires. You simply deflated your tire, broke the bead, and stuffed the Port-o-Wall between the tire and the rim. Re-inflated, voila, your tires looked like genuine whitewalls, the rings now held on by tire pressure.

You could buy Port-o-Walls at Western Auto or Pep Boys or from the ubiquitous J.C. Whitney catalog, which good customers received about once a week. J.C. Whitney sold them for $3.95 a set. For $7.95 you could get them in genuine butyl rubber, which wouldn't turn yellow after a few months. If you didn't have $3.95 you could buy a kit of white rubber to paint your whitewalls on. Despite what the catalog said, they were not so good with tubeless tires, but by that time real whitewalls had come down in price and increased in availability.

One of the first things I did when I started driving the family Nash Rambler was to put on a set of Port-o-Walls. The car had always looked rather drab without them. When I bought my '40 DeSoto I got a set for it, too, although by the time this picture was taken I had removed them to put on my friend Tod's '36 Plymouth: They were portable, after all... (The red wheels on the DeSoto look odd without whitewalls. With the Port-o-Walls I thought they looked nifty. I got the idea from a 1950 Buick, which used a similar accent scheme.)

Chrysler Corporation used another approach to whitewalls after World War II. Many Mopars came with metal whitewalls ("spats?") that were held on like a wheel cover. Smaller in diameter than real whitewalls or Port-o-Walls, they provided a nice accent to the car. To my mind, a correctly-restored 1946-48 Chrysler should have them.

South Bend Sidewinder

Fred Summers faults me for not including Studebaker with the cars of 1940 offering sidemounts. Truth to tell, I avoided mentioning Studebaker in the CarPort installment on fender-mounted spares because I wasn't sure just when the South Bend automaker took them off the options list. To prove his thesis, Fred sends pix of this '40 President State Sedan he found a few years ago in Paducah, Kentucky.

Thankfully, he pointed out how to distinguish it from a '39, as the changes were very subtle. Most obvious, even if you don't know your Studies, are the sealed beam headlights, which all but a few automakers adopted for the 1940 model year. Careful comparison with the 1939 President will also show different bumpers, hood side trim, and elimination of both the emblem on the stainless trim separating the grilles and the hood ornament.

Although, as many cars, Studebakers were often equipped with sidemounts in 1931 and '32 (even the low-priced "companion" Rockne offered them), by 1935 they were seldom seen. Even the catalog, which listed "two spare wheels mounted in mudguard wells" as Deluxe Equipment for all but the entry level Champion model, illustrated them only on one car, the President Regal Limousine.

So if Studebaker, Buick, Cadillac and Packard were the last US cars to offer sidemounts pre-war, when did the others abandon them...Olds and Pontiac, for example? DeSoto and Dodge?

Fred has another question for the CarPort: which American marque was the first to take all spare tires indoors, on all models, with no option for sidemounts or outside rear tire, and in what year? I think I know, but I'd like to know what you think. Email your answer to the CarPort.

Resolution

Our culture deems that when one year gives way to another we take stock and resolve to better ourselves for the next twelvemonth. In 1978, I resolved to build a garage.

My car collection was under cover, but it was 25 miles away, which meant I spent more time driving to and fro than I did on the cars. The only solution was a garage on home turf, one big enough to shelter not only my collectibles but also the everyday cars. I spent the spring drawing plans for a two-story structure to fit at the back of our lot.

When summer came, the excavators showed up and dug a big hole. At the bottom we poured stout footings, then the foundation contractors put up the reinforced concrete walls. For the main level we used steel joists, covered with a concrete deck. Steel I-beams supported the attic floor, for a clear span interior.

The framing I did myself, constructing four bays on the upper level, The lower level was one large open area, accessed from the end. The finishing touches were complete on Christmas Eve 1979, in time for Angus, my 1925 Hudson, to take up residence before the first snowfall. For Christmas my wife Jill gave me a weathervane with Angus's silhouette, which she had spent hours making when I was not at home. We installed it atop a martin house on the roof.

In Foster fashion, we've spent 25 years filling it up, so now most of our everyday cars sit outside. I'm installing new overhead doors and it's about due for a new roof. My worst habit is a tolerance for clutter, and my garage has it. If you don't have a garage, perhaps your resolution for 2006 should be to build one. If you have a garage and it's messy like mine, resolve, like me, to clean it up. Happy new year, and may all our resolutions come true.