A tale of three unique Buicks

In the course of a 2004 estate dispersal, a long-hidden stash of General Motors-sourced photos showing GM Styling Shop Order (SO) cars from the 1950s came to light. The GM Photographic 8×10-inch prints of specially modified cars were among the many vintage treasures, automotive and otherwise, stored away at a historic farmstead near Romeo, Mich.

The rural property had been the residence of the late Waino (“Wayne”) Husko. Before retirement, Husko had been a supervisor in the Mechanical Engineering Development Group at the GM Tech Center.

Husko’s automotive collectibles comprised several cars, including a Packard Twelve town car originally owned by Dodge Brothers co-founder Horace Dodge’s son.

Also found stored in a building on Husko’s property was the only 1963 Corvette Sting Ray Z06 convertible built. Husko was the one-off’s original owner—it was built to his specification by the St. Louis Corvette Plant! (The amazing story of how the Z06 was found in—and sold out of—the Husko estate is recounted in the 2010 book, “The Corvette in the Barn.”)

The Old Cars reader who acquired Husko’s hoard of GM SO car images in 2004 recently began offering them on eBay. Old Cars Editor Angelo Van Bogart spotted the listings and obtained several photos featuring Cadillacs and Buicks with GM Styling special design features. The cars’ respective Shop Order numbers are pencilled on the photos’ backs.

Knowing the author is somewhat partial to Buicks, Angelo invited us to see what we could find about the two modified 1955 Buick convertibles—one a Roadmaster and the other a Century— illustrated in the Husko photos he obtained. The results of our research are reflected in this article.

The nature of GM Shop Order jobs

Shop Order (SO) cars were built or modified in GM Stying’s dedicated fabrication shops. These behind-the-curtain operations primarily supported Styling’s design studio needs, while additionally providing their specific services to other GM organizations.

SO numbers were primarily used to help GM accountants track project costs, and they weren’t just for vehicles. Styling’s fabrication shops built “bucks” for clay models, crafted auto show displays and executed numerous other GM special projects requiring hands-on skills.

A Shop Order vehicle typically has a special tag stamped with its SO number affixed to its firewall at upper right.

The most widely known SO cars were the 1953-1961 GM Motorama concept cars, completely hand-built customs that previewed potential styling and engineering advances. Many were also assigned “XP” numbers by GM Engineering, when experimental technical features were significantly included.

Other SO cars included production models modified for auto-show display. Such specials might have custom exterior paint and trim, and/or special interior trim and details. Some also show-cased experimental engineering features.

SO cars were also done for important personages outside of GM. Some were built for heads of state. SO 2597, a 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine, was modified for U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and apparently further worked over by the coachbuilding firm Hess & Eisenhardt. (The car would be primarily used by Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, during his administration).

Multiple specially modified SO Cadillacs, Buicks and at least one Chevrolet station wagon were delivered to Great Britain’s Edward, Duke of Windsor. Some SO individual customs were for entertainers—singer and Chevrolet pitch-person Dinah Shore among them.

Perhaps the least-known SO cars were those done for GM board members, senior executives and, occasionally, their family members. The 1955 Buicks we’ll momentarily discuss here were in this category.

SO cars modified from production models were assembled by their parent divisions before being transported to GM Styling for customization. Many divisional plants were equipped to spray special-order colors, although Styling did have its own paint shop.

In addition to non-production paint, individual SO cars might require the creation of special emblems, moldings and accessories. These were designed in the Styling studios, which released parts lists and design drawings to the shops for follow-through. Custom interior trim patterns and fabrics were handled by the “Trim Room” experts.

We don’t know when the Shop Order tracking methodology was introduced at GM. But Styling’s long tradition of building special cars for special people began not long after GM President Alfred P. Sloan brought California coachbuilder Harley J. Earl into GM early in 1927, having chosen him to establish a centralized design resource within the corporation. Earl’s resulting “Art & Colour” group was soon taking form. (After 1936, the now-larger design domain over which Earl ruled would be known as GM Styling.)

During 1928, the small group of stylists and technical engineers Earl had added to his fledgling Art & Colour staff designed and built a custom LaSalle “Sedan Cabriolet” for Lawrence J. Fisher, General Manager of Cadillac. Innovative both in appearance and construction, the low-slung and sleekly styled full custom was essentially the grand-daddy of all GM Styling Shop Order vehicles to come.

By the early 1950s, Shop Order projects were rapidly proliferating, and the Section’s expanded fabrication areas were humming with activity. By this time, these now included paint, metal and wood shops; hammer, milling and plastic/plaster rooms; drafting and engineering services; interior engineering; and fabric cutting and sewing rooms. These resources gave Styling the capability “to design, engineer and build cars … in a hurry,” the late GM Engineering Manager Ken Pickering told podcaster Kevin Walsh in 2015.

It was within the GM Styling and GM Engineering shops that GM’s first slate of seven Motorama concept cars were created for the traveling show’s fantastic 1953 tour. GM Research stepped in to help, when needed.

Harlow H. Curtice: A ‘Buick Man’

It was also during 1953 that Harlow H. Curtice became General Motors president. After taking the helm at the then-struggling Buick Division two decades before, Curtice had legendarily saved the make from its near-fatal Great Depression woes. He lead a regenerated Buick brand to record sales in 1940 and 1941, following up by propelling the division to tremendous feats of military production for Allied forces in World War II.

When Curtice became a GM Executive Vice-President in 1948, his office was moved to the corporation’s Detroit headquarters, but he remained a Buick man at heart. He kept his family residence in Flint, Buick’s hometown, even after becoming president of GM in 1953.

When TIME Magazine named Curtice its “1955 Man of the Year,” its biography of him noted, “He [Curtice] lives in a relatively modest red brick corner house, with a three-car garage. In the garage: his wife’s Buick Roadmaster convertible, daughter Dorothy Anne’s Buick Century convertible, and his personal, flashy Buick Skylark convertible, now being hopped up with a new experimental engine and transmission.” (Curtice’s Buicks were usually personalized and often equipped with advanced features for him to test.)

When we saw Angelo’s photos of SO 2505, we recalled TIME’s mention of Dorothy Anne’s Century convertible. Initially, we thought we could be looking at her car. However, zooming in on the SO Buick’s custom deck-lid emblem revealed it was monogrammed “MLB.”

A quick web search informed us that the Curtices’ eldest daughter, Mary Lelia, 24, had married Robert C. Bishop in November 1954, and so by 1955, her initials were, indeed, “MLB.”

The question then became, could there have been more than one 1955 Century convertible for the Curtice daughters? We emailed scans of Angelo’s Buick images to Christo Datini, manager of GM Design Archive & Special Collections, asking for help.

Christo responded that he’d found the originals of the prints obtained by Angelo, as well as a few others in the series, in the GM Photographic archives.

In regards to the SO 1955 Century images, Christo wrote, “The photographer’s notes indicate that this series depicts two 1955 Century convertibles for Harlow Curtice’s two daughters. Their SO numbers are 2503 and 2505.”

Christo’s input strongly infers that it was Dorothy Anne, 23 years old and a college student in 1955, who received the SO 2503 Century. (The third Curtice daughter, Catherine Dale, then 17, apparently didn’t receive a custom 1955 Buick convertible.)

Christo attached additional images from the GM Photographic shoot, most of them interior views. He also copied for us the internal 1955 Shop Orders index page listing the cars. The line entries for both 2503 and 2505 are annotated “Mr. Curtice’s Daughter,” confirming the intended recipients.

GM Photographic’s Neil Madler shot the “go-around” of the Curtice daughters’ SO Century convertibles on March 30, 1955. We assume the sister cars were delivered soon after.

These 1955 SO cars were completed after the annually recurring rush to build Motorama cars. The Buicks were also finished in the midst of GM Styling’s move to the new General Motors Technical Center in Warren.

Construction had began on the Tech Center campus in 1949, and GM Engineering operations were settling into their new quarters there by 1951-’52. GM Research and Process Development followed, as their buildings were completed. The beautiful and spacious buildings housing Styling’s studios and fabrication ancillaries were among the last to be occupied. By late 1954, Styling’s transfer to Warren was reportedly nearly complete.

However, the March 1955 images of the SO Centurys appear to have been taken in Styling’s 11th-floor photo studio/viewing auditorium at the GM Research Building—aka “Argonaut Building.” (The 11th floor’s special ceiling lights are reflected on a rear bumper in one of the photos, and the turntable upon which SO 2025 was positioned was another built-in feature.)Located behind the GM headquarters building in Detroit’s New Center area, the building had been Styling’s home since 1937.

In Madler’s black-and-white images, SO 2505 appears to be painted a medium metallic color. It may be a custom hue, but we can’t say for sure. Nor do we know if both SO Centurys were the same color.

Christo also scanned the projects’ original “Styling Section Parts List” sheet which documents that both cars had the same exterior modifications. It lists the specially designed exterior features shared by the two Buicks, complete with Styling’s drawing numbers. A typed notation states that the cars were “same as production except as listed.”

The list confirmed special features we’d noted, and our comments on them follow:

• The custom sweepspear moldings on the SO twins are more slender than production ’55 Buicks. Their nearly flat surface and thin cross-section echoes the cast sweepspears of Buick’s 1953 Skylark. (Standard 1955 sweepspear trim pieces were stamped stainless, with a broader profile and a raised ridge in cross-section.)

• The SO Centurys’ series scripts are completely different than those of production models, and are placed higher on the rear quarters.

• The list confirms that the bright rocker-panel moldings were specified for the two SO cars.

• The far-forward placement of the rearview mirrors atop the front fenders reflects 1950s European sports/racing influences. Custom chromed moulding strips visually connect the mirrors to production headlamp bezels.

• Although a non-production grille was specified for both Centurys, SO 2025’s grille is of the production design. Its finish does appear less reflective than chrome; perhaps it had an anodized gold surface.

• A Buick crest is incorporated into the grille center badge in place of the production 1955 tri-color disc.

• The wire wheels are of the “Skylark” type optional on 1955 Buicks.

• A custom ornament/lift ensemble is seen on the production deck lid. The emblem somewhat anticipates the 1956 design. The monogram letters are laid out around the center of the emblem. (The parts list verifies that separate sets of letters were ordered for the two cars.)

The Century exterior views suggest that Madler used SO 2025 to represent both daughters’ cars for the exteriors portion of his shoot.

The interior photos, taken in a different setting than the exteriors, may show SO 2023. We cannot be certain if both cars had the same custom interior design, but it seems likely so.

Here, we noted the non-production sew patterns for the contrasting-color pleated seat inserts, along with a custom appearance for sidewall and door trim pads. The interior was richly detailed; even the seat side-trim panels look to be custom designs.

A third custom Buick

Additionally included among Angelo’s photos was a single GM Photographic print of another SO 1955 Buick, this one a Roadmaster convertible. Signed “Johnson” and dated March 3, 1955, this Buick convertible is identified as SO 2471. The photos of it look to have been taken in a fabrication shop area, also likely in the GM Research Building.

Angelo’s photo, and additional images of the car provided by Christo, show but one non-stock exterior anomaly—SO 2471 lacked the broad bright trim panel aft of the rear wheelhouse that was seen on production 1955 Roadmasters.

Subtle distinctions identifying SO 2471 as a Roadmaster include its gold-toned badge beneath the door Ventipane (vent window), gold-toned hood ornament and specific wheel covers, distinguished by stamped-in center “spinners.” Both Roadmasters and Supers had four front fender Ventiports (portholes) in 1955.

The Roadmaster is two-toned, with the darker color below the sweepspear. Again, we don’t know if it was painted production colors.

Interior photos of SO 2471 show a full custom interior, beautifully turned out in a monochromatic scheme. The seat insert shape here resembles that of certain future Buicks.

We wondered, was SO 2471 the 1955 Roadmaster convertible Mrs. Curtice drove, as mentioned in TIME? In this instance, there would be no clear-cut answer, it turned out.

Photographer Johnson logged the car as a “1955 Buick Roadmaster for Ned Nickles,” Christo told us. Buick’s chief designer from the late 1940s into the mid ’50s, Nickles is known to have had other SO Buicks built for his use—perhaps most famously, his 1948 Roadmaster convertible equipped with the forerunner of Buick’s famous “portholes.” Alternately, Christo noted, the Roadmaster could have been photographed, “… for a project [Nickles] managed.”

Christo additionally noted that SO 2471 is not listed on the archives’ SO cars index, adding that, except for the Curtice daughters’ 1955 Century convertibles, no other 1955 Buicks are manifested. Possibly, then, Mrs. Curtice’s ’55 Roadmaster was factory-stock.

Where are they now?

None of the three SO 1955 Buicks discussed here are known to have survived. The very few SO Buicks evolved from production models that are still with us include SO 2308, the Motorama-veteran 1954 Buick Landau that features 1930s classic car inspirations; SO 90022, the spectacular 1956 Century X convertible built for future GM Styling chief William Mitchell; and SO 90681, the extraordinarily unique 1960 Electra 225 convertible presented by GM Styling to Harlow Curtice after his 1958 retirement. A fair number of SO individual custom Cadillacs are also still with us.

The wonderful 1950s Motorama experimental cars saved by super collector Joe Bortz are the undoubtedly the most widely known and most coveted examples of SO concept-car specials extant.

During his 2015 podcast interview, Ken Pickering recalled that, after Harley Earl retired in late 1958, Earl’s personal file room in the Tech Center basement was “cleaned out” on Mitchell’s orders, to make space for a secretive Corvette design studio. Could it be the Husko SO prints were rescued from destruction at the time Earl’s files were discarded? We’ll never know, but we’re glad that he somehow saved them, and through another care-taker, some were passed to Angelo to be presented here.

Author’s note: Our special thanks to GM Design Archive & Special Collections Manager Christo Datini for providing the additional photos and documentation that helped us tell the stories, at least as far as presented here, of three Buicks that may have otherwise remained lost to history.

Editor’s note: Author Terry V. Boyce began serving on the Old Cars staff in 1974 and was editor into 1978.

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