My wife and I just had our first child*, which means I've been spending less time in the garage and more time at my desk watching her sleep. And while I've been keeping watch I've had some time to play around in Photoshop, seeing how a Box Town Car would look with a different treatment of the rear fenders. I don't have the skills to do any of this work for real, but I thought the results were interesting enough to share.
I tried smoothing out the rear wheel arch entirely, like the '75-'77 Continentals or the '90s Roadmasters or Fleetwoods. I think it helps ground the car a lot more. Boxes seem to feel a lot more upright than Barges, and a lot of that is probably due to the greenhouse. But by eliminating the second, equally-sized wheel arch, the car seems a lot more horizontal. Maybe even boat-like. A Box will never have the presence of a Barge, if only because of its smaller footprint. But with the mild 'aero' refresh from '85+, I think this fender redesign would remain sympathetic to that end. Of course GM went in a similar direction in the '90s with their sedans, but something has always felt off about them to me. Maybe they're a little too streamlined, too lacking in details. A Box TC doesn't really suffer from that problem.
I also think that continuing the belt line brightwork all the way around the vinyl top reinforces this feeling. I've seen this done on some Box TCs, but I don't understand which ones got it and why they didn't do it for all of them. The little upturned curve where the C-pillar meets the trunk seems like a deliberate callback to the same move on the Barges, but then they hid it by matching that molding to the vinyl top.
An easier move would be to keep the flare and just cap the arch, either permanently or with a fender skirt. It's not quite as clean a look, but I think so long as the brightwork was modified appropriately it could still work. You still gain an uninterrupted slab side behind the front wheels, which the stock rear wheel arches both break up and direct the eye up into the greenhouse.
*Obligatory kid pic:
I tried smoothing out the rear wheel arch entirely, like the '75-'77 Continentals or the '90s Roadmasters or Fleetwoods. I think it helps ground the car a lot more. Boxes seem to feel a lot more upright than Barges, and a lot of that is probably due to the greenhouse. But by eliminating the second, equally-sized wheel arch, the car seems a lot more horizontal. Maybe even boat-like. A Box will never have the presence of a Barge, if only because of its smaller footprint. But with the mild 'aero' refresh from '85+, I think this fender redesign would remain sympathetic to that end. Of course GM went in a similar direction in the '90s with their sedans, but something has always felt off about them to me. Maybe they're a little too streamlined, too lacking in details. A Box TC doesn't really suffer from that problem.
I also think that continuing the belt line brightwork all the way around the vinyl top reinforces this feeling. I've seen this done on some Box TCs, but I don't understand which ones got it and why they didn't do it for all of them. The little upturned curve where the C-pillar meets the trunk seems like a deliberate callback to the same move on the Barges, but then they hid it by matching that molding to the vinyl top.
An easier move would be to keep the flare and just cap the arch, either permanently or with a fender skirt. It's not quite as clean a look, but I think so long as the brightwork was modified appropriately it could still work. You still gain an uninterrupted slab side behind the front wheels, which the stock rear wheel arches both break up and direct the eye up into the greenhouse.
*Obligatory kid pic:
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