Check out these beautiful quarter-scale replicas of the 1949 Ford—the accuracy and craftsmanship are a treat for the eye.
1949 Ford Custom Tudor Sedan
We’re going to start by declaring we don’t know much of anything about these quarter-scale 1949 Ford models, though we’ve been interested in them for a while. We first saw one of the photos long, long ago (in a young people’s publication, perhaps?) and when these images circulated on the internet several years ago, we were mesmerized again. The accuracy and craftsmanship are remarkable. For us, they’re works of art.
However, since then we’ve been unable to unearth any information at all about these replicas. To be perfectly frank, we’re posting up the photos now in the hope that you folks out there can tell us more about them, and if any of the models still exist. It may well be that this is a mystery only to us, and it would be only decent to recognize the artists who built them.
1949 Ford Custom Convertible Coupe
It’s a safe bet that these four replicas—Station Wagon, Tudor Sedan, Club Coupe, and Convertible Coupe, all in Custom trim—were produced by Ford as the 1949 models were close to production. The design path of the ’49 Ford happens to be a complicated, even controversial subject, but the models depict the cars in final production form, or very close to it. That and the degree of detail suggest that maybe they were produced for a presentation high up the corporate ladder.
1949 Ford Custom Club Coupe
Ford often relied on models in the vehicle development phase, like many automakers in these years. Studebaker for one created models with this level of detail, as evidenced by the well-known photo of designer Audrey Moore Hodges posing with a finely finished Studebaker convertible in scale form. We could say models were a tradition at the Ford Motor Company, as Henry Ford himself preferred working models to drawings and kept a department of modelmakers on staff. In the ’50s, Ford stylists even added battery power and radio control to their models (see our feature here).
Above is a more familiar image of a replica 1949 Mercury with Benson Ford, son of Edsel Ford and younger brother of Henry Ford II. From 1948 through 1956, he headed the Lincoln-Mercury division. It’s not unreasonable to presume this Mercury was built by the same modelers using the same process as the ’49 Fords, and it even appears to be on the same table. We included this photo as a visual reference for size. A ’49 Mercury in one-quarter scale would be not quite 52 inches long and 20 inches wide, a ’49 Ford only slightly smaller. Here in the 21st century, car designers build scale models every day—but on a computer display.
Sam Sandifer is a major collector of this type of model. I believe he may have dozens of different makes and scales
Do you think he may know something about these?
Sorry I don’t know anything about them, but man they are cool!
Back in the late ’30’s and ’40’s I remember going to the Ford Rotunda with my parents for new model introductions and was always mesmerized by the dioramas of Ford’s world-wide raw material sources, each of which had a scale model of one of the current year’s product lineup. In a separate large room there was also a huge landscaped diorama with a roadsign that popped up as a miniature model Ford honked as it passed another vehicle reading “Watch the Fords go by…” The scale models in this article are much more detailed than the ones I remember.
My, they’re gorgeous. I hope one turns up on Bring A Trailer. That would be a sensation. Club Coupe for me, please.
not too often a model fools me into thinking it’s a full size car-until I saw these.