1950 Buick Digital Restyling

1950 BUICK DIGITAL RESTYLING

In 2011 I created several digital styling studies for Dan Christensen in Denmark. Dan’s plan was to built a classic restyled 1950 Buick with wonderful styling.

Before the digital restyling process begun, Dan and I talked about his dream car. We looking at other cars or elements from cars that he liked. And he listed all the things he wanted, and did not wanted to see in his own dream custom. I would create several views of his Buick with the restyling done digitally to visualize the final car. This way Dan had a visual guidance when it came time to start the building of his car. I starting with a side view to get the most important aspect of this car, the chop as good as possible and to figure out what needed to be done on the real car to recreate this.

The 1950 Buicks are not the easiest cars to get right when chopping. In this case we wanted to create the ultimate chop with the best possible profile. The window trim and stainless would have to be heavily modified or made from scratch for the best effect. Once the chop was finalized and approved on, a few versions with other customizing elements were created.
Once the side view customizing was agreed on, a front 3/4 view was created.This view would show the new grille and headlights treatment.

Sadly some time after the front 3/4 views were done, the project came to an halt. Some time later, Dan decided to sell the project car and move on with other things.
With all the Digital Restyling finished we figured it would be nice to show them here. And perhaps somebody else will get inspired by them.

The first photo shows the stock 1950 Buick Dan had bought for the project.

First things to do was to get the stance of the car right, removed the emblems and handles etc. Then the chop was handled. At the rear a set of 1951 Cadillac taillights are fitted to the modified rear fenders. The typical Cadillac tail fin was not used which resulted in a much smoother flow.

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The final side view

The final approved side view. The rear fenders were reshaped more. 1949 Cadillac taillights were used and they flow better with the shape of the trunk than the 1951 models we used in an earlier version.  The rear fender character line was moved up about an inch to meet with the bottom of the taillight. The lower back portion of the rear fender was extended and set at an angle to flow better with the taillights and the rest of the car.

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The front 3/4 view of Dan’s Buick that we would use for the Digital Restyling.

The first step was to get the car lowered as we did on the side view. The unwanted trim was removed and the rear fenders were modified to match the side view (with 1951 Cadillac taillights). Dan wanted to have stock headlight rings for a classic look, but with frenched lights. The Grille teeth were extended and the front bumper was replaced by a reshaped rear bumper from the same year Buick. Resulting in a much cleaner look. I actually liked this front the best.

Next was getting the top chopped in the same way as the side view. On this version the rear bumper used on the front was reshaped at the center with the guards removed for an ultimate smooth look.

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The final front 3/4 view

The final front 3/4 view shows the use of a 1953 Buick grille and the modified rear bumper used below it.








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