The 1940 Ford Deluxe Convertible Coupe may be one of the prettiest cars that Ford ever produced. This car has the styling of Ford Motor Company’s Bob Gregorie’s design department along with a lot of influence from Edsel Ford. Edsel Ford’s main challenge at the automaker was to convince the elder Henry Ford to approve innovations.
The Styling of the 1940 Ford
Bob Gregorie, formally Eugene T. Gregorie, was a designer who worked for Ford a couple of times. A high school dropout, Gregorie began his designing career as a yacht designer on the east coast, moved to General Motors in Detroit during the Great Depression, was recruited to Ford Motor by Edsel Ford and departed the company after Edsel Ford’s unexpected death in 1943.
After being hired at Ford in 1932 Gregorie soon became head of Ford’s design department in 1935 and worked closely with Edsel Ford. One of Gregorie’s first assignments with Ford was to design a car for the European market which he did with Ford’s Model Y.
The 1940 Ford had clean styling which was actually introduced in 1939 and was freshened up for the 1940 model year. Major changes were on the front end along with a new interior and dashboard. The car is noted for it’s sleek roof curves and it’s split angular windshield as well as it’s fully integrated grille. The 1940 Ford was one of the first streamlined cars from Ford. It was also one of the first V-8 cars in it’s price range.
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