God is in the potmetal

Pardon the play on words, but Mies Van der Rohe would have said that if he worked in the auto industry up until the 1970's.

Up until then cars used a cheap cast alloy called pot metal that was chromed and affixed to the cars. It was more than just the name of the car or its submodel.  It was about casting the illusion of grandeur, power or who know what.  Manufacturers used real typography and created fonts to tell a story.  None of that ariel or helvetica plactic clued on crap they use today.  It was real metal, dipped in chrome and affixed to the car with nuts and bolts.

The need to reduce weight put an end to the creative use of potmetal back in the 70's.  Blandness ensued wih the malaise era cars and continue to day with simple nomentclature made of plastic.  Shift from names that told a story to alpha-numeric soup makes me batty.  I really hate it.

Here's just a couple of examples of potmetal art from the 29th Fabulous Fords Forever show that took place this last weekend.  Good stuff maynard.