Here’s a deep, deep dive into the Ford styling process in an original 1957 factory film.

If you’ve been thinking, “Jeez, this website sure features a lot of old factory styling films,” you’d be absolutely right. At Mac’s Motor City Garage, we share most every one we find. For us, words and still photos aren’t enough to describe the automotive design process through history, while films and narration can cover more ground and include far more detail. This one comes to us courtesy of the Ford Heritage Film and Video Collection at the National Motor Museum in the UK, and at 24 minutes it’s a deep dive into the Ford styling studios in 1957. If that’s too long for your internet time budget, we’ve previously posted a five-minute excerpt you can view here. 

In those days, styling at Ford was the personal kingdom of design vice president George Walker, described in Time magazine in November of 1957 as “the Cellini of chrome.” While not quite as well known today as Harley Earl, his counterpart at General Motors, Walker had the same far-ranging vision (and the same plus-sized ego, some say). From his studios came the exterior designs for all Ford products, from passenger cars to big trucks, while the experimental projects included nuclear-powered and gyroscope-controlled dream vehicles. At the climax of this film, we see the X-2000, a far-out concept that never got beyond the model stage but was later recreated in full size by an enthusiast in England, Andy Summers. Video below.