Chrysler’s 1969-1973 Fuselage Styling theme wasn’t a smash hit when it was new, but the look holds up surprisingly well today. Here’s the story with a big photo gallery.
Unveiled in August of 1968, Chrysler’s Fuselage Styling, as it was called, was employed on all the corporations’s full-size C-body cars—Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler and Imperial—for the 1969 model year. In lavender prose, a 1969 Chrysler ad described the design theme this way:
Your next car can have a fresh new styling concept. A fluid curved line that shapes a cylinder instead of a box. Every cubic inch of space is functional, designed to complement its occupants.Your next car can enclose you in this cockpit of curved glass windows, soft vinyl seats, and sound-absorbing ceiling. A quiet array of lighted instruments gauges is within your reach.Your next car can give you sweeping visibility, more comfort, complete performance, and a joyous heart.
If we may translate: In the fuselage look, curved side glass that leaned in at the top of the greenhouse, coupled with body sides that bowed inward at the rocker panels, created a subtle cylindrical shape that reminded stylists of an airliner fuselage in cross-section—hence the name Fuselage Styling, as shown in this ad:
In other aspects, the styling language was conventional and conservative. Body sides for all four car divisions were smooth, nondescript. The details were concentrated at the front and rear of the bodies, with rectangular-frame bumpers in thick chrome, sculpted taillamps, and on many models, hidden headlamps. It was a spare, clean look.
Maybe too spare and clean. The design theme didn’t generate sufficient differentiation among the four Chrysler brands: They all look very much the same, from Plymouth to Imperial. And there wasn’t much about the styling to distinguish the Chrysler C-bodies from the competition at Ford and General Motors, either. Sales of Chrysler’s full-size models continued to erode across the four brands, and the corporation abandoned Fuselage Styling for 1974.
Could be, however, that the design approach that made the Chrysler fuselage cars seem plain and boring in 1972 now makes them appear crisp and fresh. All these decades later, the look has held up surprisingly well. Do you agree? Gallery below. Click on any image to launch a slide show.
I didn’t realize that there was a name for it… that makes it OK then.
Loved those cars! Some of the best looking ever! Remember these commercials? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTnZ6v8WioU
I thought it was very good looking on the Plymouths and particularly the Chryslers, but didn’t like how Dodge did up the front and back of their cars. Though it wasn’t ‘fuselage’, I also thought the 1971 redesign of the Satellite and Charger was very handsome. Most of the Mopars of the late Sixties / early Seventies were well done. Then came the girder beam bumpers and everyone suffered.
Actually, the ’71 B bodies were fuselage in approach as well.
The overall fuselage design has held up well, but man these cars were big. Interestingly, the Plymouth and Dodges had a different body than the Chryslers and Imperials – only the latter was a true fuselage in ’69-’71 as the C-pillar was slightly inset from the lower body.