The transparent roof panel is commonplace in the auto industry today, but it was a big deal back in 1954 when Ford Motor Co. offered the feature on the Ford Skyliner and Mercury Sun Valley.
1954 Ford Crestline Skyliner
Here in the 21st century, panoramic glass roof panels are nearly ubiquitous. Let’s see: We can find tempered glass roofs on Audi, Tesla, Mercedes, Chrysler, and Ford Mustang, to name but a few. Even value-priced Hyundai and Kia offer the feature these days. But when the Lincoln XL-500 dream car appeared at the 1953 Chicago Auto Show with a fully transparent top, it was seen as daringly futuristic, and it created a genuine sensation. At that point the Ford Motor Company was encouraged to move ahead with an adaptation of the idea on its production cars for 1954.
FoMoCo’s clear roof panel for the 1954 production models was reportedly created by L. David Ash, a versatile Ford designer whose credits include the 1969 Continental Mark III and the stainless steel tiara on the ’55-’56 Crown Victoria. While the cars are colloquially known as “Glass Tops,” the transparent roof insert was actually a molded sheet of quarter-inch Plexiglas supplied by Rohm & Haas of Philadelphia, the originator of the term Plexiglas for its line of acrylic plastic products. To manage heat and glare from the direct sunlight, a zip-in shade was provided.
The green-tinted transparent roof was available exclusively on the top-of-the-line Ford Crestline two-door hardtop and, as they shared the same greenhouse and roof stamping, on the Mercury Monterey hardtop as well. Ford’s version was called the Skyliner, while the Mercury was named the Sun Valley after the resort town in Idaho. Ford of Canada offered a Monarch Lucerne Sun Valley and a Meteor Rideau Skyliner, too.
Reasonably priced at $2,241, just $110 more than the standard hardtop, the Skyliner was a brisk seller in ’54 at more than 13,000 units, and the Sun Valley also did well, outselling the convertible. The feature was continued for 1955, but soon the sales numbers began to turn down. The Mercury Montclair version was dropped after ’55, while the Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner stayed on for one more year, selling a mere 603 units in ’56.
Some Skyliner and Sun Valley owners say cabin heat was the fatal flaw of the plastic top, while others disagree. But either way, once the initial demand for the novel feature was satisfied, it seems, the market quickly flattened out, and it was discontinued for ’57. We wouldn’t see transparent roof panels again from the Motor City for a few more decades.
1954 Mercury Monterey Sun Valley
As a longtime Mustang fan and owner, I’m intrigued by the first sentence of the second paragraph: “ We can find tempered glass roofs on Audi, Tesla, Mercedes, Chrysler, and Ford Mustang…”
Other than the panoramic roof of the Mach-E – which many Mustang purists condemn as “not real Mustang” – has any two-door Mustang had a factory-installed glass roof since the S197 offered one as an option from 2011 to 2015?
And?
Just wondering. I’ve always found it odd the Mustang’s main competitors (Camaro and Challenger) offer a moonroof, but in recent years Ford hasn’t. Must be low demand, or maybe Ford sees the convertible as filling this demand.
Our Tesla Y has the panoramic glass roof and there are no comfort problems at all. I think the tinting science has come a long way and the air conditioning no doubt helps a lot.
I’d still rather have an openable sunroof.
Some of the Tesla panoramic glass roofs did open, but only once. This was due to the factory robot tasked with putting the adhesive around the glass opening prior to fitting the glass panel, not doing it’s job. Some of the cars didn’t get any adhesive, and from what I read, those glass roofs opened on their own at about 50mph!
09 s197 a glass top was offered
1977 you could get a glass topLincoln Ford called them fixed sunroofs
I recall seeing a Lincoln Town Car equipped with one of these tinted and tempered glass roofs at an auto show, back in 1978. They were nicely done, and curved down slightly to follow the contours of the steel roof panel. I’m not sure I ever saw one again.
Excellent piece. One nit, though; there’s no such thing as “Plexiglass” from Rohm & Haas. The trademark for Rohm & Haas’ acrylic glass is “Plexiglas.”
My childhood neighbor was a research chemist at Rohm & Haas. He brought home damaged and scrap Plexiglas that his son and I used to make skidpads and ski jumps for my toy cars.
Thanks, good catch. We will make the correction.
Another car guy and I were taking a “Great Circle” route from Maryland to California and back, in the spring of 1978, when just outside Rapid City we found an old junkyard filled with cars dating back to the 1920s. The guy was selling parts at prices we never saw on the east coast: $1 for any hood ornament, as an example. Enameled grill badges for fifty cents! My friend who was from Germany, spent about $100 on hood ornaments & badges, for his collection back home!
I found a wrecked ’54 Sun Valley with the complete roof assembly, even the vinyl liner. I bought the entire roof for $12. Strapped it to the roof of my ’73 Dodge B-200 van. Carried it to the Pacific ocean, then back to Maryland via Texas & Mexico. Sold it at the big Carlisle car flea market that September for $1,200.
I have a distinct memory of my 5 year old self walking past one of these in 1957. It also had the built in record player option. What more did you need to make a life long motorhead?
You might be thinking of the Chrysler/CBS under dash 16 1/3 RPM record players from late 1956 to 1959, and called the Highway Hi-Fi. Ford and GM never offered in-car record players, however after Chrysler stopped selling them, in 1960 RCA did begin offering a 45 RPM version as an aftermarket item for all 12 volt cars. They played only extended play records, but several could be loaded onto the spindle to play for about 30 minutes total. Norelco also began selling a similar version that played single 45RPM records. Today the Highway Hi-Fi can be found without too much looking, but the RCA and Norelco units are fairly rare today.
But then again, I suppose it would be pretty easy to install one in a Ford or GM vehicle, provided one had the basic knowledge of electronics. For MoPaR cars, it was a simple job of connecting it with a 4-wire plug at the back of the signal-seeking AM radio, and I’m sure it could be re-wired to work with the Ford or GM radios.
I’m familiar with the Highway Hi-Fi, as my 1956 and 1958 Imperials had them.