(first posted 6/10/2015) How can we have Convertible Week without a four-door convertible Continental? Long, low, and lithe. Rival Cadillac may have been at the top of its styling game in the early-mid 1960s, effectively capturing the upper-class Zeitgeist – but I’d have one of these over any contemporary Caddy.
I found this one at the Mecum auction in May, in case the context of these photos doesn’t make it clear. It’s a beautiful restoration.
That Wedgwood blue interior is soooooo dreeeeeamy.
The four-door convertible Continental was a postwar anomaly, as this body style’s time otherwise ended before World War II. This 1936 Cadillac Series 75 convertible represented the genre at the auction, at least on the day I visited.
This is what constituted a luxury interior in the 1930s. That banjo-string steering wheel is a nice touch.
What other four-door convertibles can you think of? Year(s), makes, models, and photos if you’ve got ‘em, in the comments, please.
Mercedes made a 4 door S Class convertible for the show circuit…also the bizarre Nissan Murano is another modern example
Alas, the Murano was a two-door when it came in convertible guise…
You are correct, sir! Can’t win them all…
Does the current four-door Jeep Wrangler count? 🙂
I’d say yes.
1951 Frazer Manhattan convertible. These were built along with their Kaiser cousins from 1949-1951.
Always thought these were sharp, if rare, cars. Normally fixed window frames on a convertible just look so wrong, but I’ll give this one a pass.
Nice !
Another, and very special, four-door convertible: a 1985 Mercedes-Benz (W126) 380 SEL by Caruna from Switzerland. Ordered by Princess (formerly known as Queen) Juliana in 1984. It took 10 months to build it.
More pictures here: http://www.autoblog.nl/image-gallery?file=Mercedes/380_SEL_Caruna/
If we’re considering coachbuilt cars, ASC did some convertible conversions on the Chrysler 300C. They called them the 300C “Helios”.
My coachbuilt favourite.
Oh yesss! The Frua car. Inspiration for Lady Penelope’s pink Rolls perhaps?
Dunno which one I’d prefer more.
Kaiser offered a four-door convertible in 1949 and 1950, and companion make Frazer offered one from 1949 through 1951. The corporation didn’t offer a two-door model until the second-generation Kaiser debuted for 1951. Interestingly, it never offered a convertible version of either the Henry J or the second-generation Kaiser.
You and Tonyola beat me to the K-F convertibles, which are (I believe) the only postwar American 4 door convertibles other than the 60s Continental. Here is the Kaiser.
I don`t think it can be called a true convertible because the side window frames remained stationary. Only the top above the frames rolled down, like on the `51 Nash convertible. Still, a beautiful car with a luxury interior that probably bettered the comnemporary Cadillac.
Oldsmobile and Buick offered 4-door convertible models of their top full-size models in the 1930s up until 1941.
Here is the Mercedes I mentioned, they called it the Ocean Drive concept. Love it!
The convertible sedan was a fad in the 30s and seemed to be offered by more companies than not, if only for a year or two. But they started to disappear in the late 30s and most (if not all) were gone by 1942. Here is the ’38 Studebaker President which was, I believe, Stude’s last entry.
Is it just me or does the interior of the Cadillac put you in mind of a WW II military vehicle of some kind? That gray instrument panel with amber tinted gauges….in a car with an otherwise brown interior, looks wrong. Yet a matching brown instrument panel would NOT appear to fix the situation.
OTOH, that blue interior in the Lincoln with the “pillow-topped” seats just looks so gorgeous.
BMW 502 + Coachbuilder Baur = four-door convertible.
Baur also made this E36 3-Series convertible, although technically it’s a targa.
Buy one. A Bimmer Baur owned by Brendan Saur.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-outtake-1937-pontiac-deluxe-eight-convertible-sedan-americas-finest-low-priced-car/
Don’t forget the 1938 Cadillac Fleetwood convertible, commonly used as a taxi in New Delhi.
(Seen here in “Tintin in Tibet”)
There’s this one here. ::runs away and hides::
Works for me!
I was so into VW beetles in the early ’70s, yet never gave the “Thing” the time of day. Now, I’d love to have a pristine 181.
Don’t have any photos handy. But, other than the ones already mentioned:
-Mercedes made a 4-door cabriolet/phaeton version of the 300 “Adenauer” W186
-Ford produced a 4-door phaeton in 1939; FDR had one at his Florida residence. It existed in ’38 also, and maybe ’37, also but was gone by ’40. One would think there was a Mercury version as well.
The remarkable Adenauer Benz (found on the web, I’ve never been lucky enough to see one):
The first Mercury in 1939 was a 4 door convertible. Also,for what its worth,Chevy produced a 4 door convertible for the show circuit .It was a `66 Caprice called “ElCaribe”.
Oh boy! You weren’t kidding. Look at what I found on the Interwebs!
The custom interior is phenomenal. Full length armrests to accommodate the power window switches – and factory air! Caprice as Cadillac indeed.
I like this a lot, but I’d put 1965 details on it to perfect it. 😉
I saw a 1963-64 Lincoln Continental 4 door convertible. I couldn’t get a good look at it, because it was driving, but I remember it was a four door Lincoln, with suicide rear opening doors. It would’ve been nice to talk to the owner(s) about the car, find out more about it. 🙂
Some pre-war Mercedes had four doors as well. W31 for example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Mercedes_Benz_G4_1938.jpg
I suppose we’re not counting Limousines/parade cars? The Continental has already been mentioned, but there have been other open-topped presidential limos, like the early 50’s Lincoln used by Eisenhower (and still in the fleet in the Kennedy presidency I think). There have also been open-roofed ZiL and Chaika parade cars in the Soviet Union, and one cannot forget the gorgeous Citroen SM Presidentielle.
Chrysler built three Imperial Dual Cowl Parade Phaeton in 1952. One went to City of Los Angeles, one to City of New York and the third was reserved for the (Eisenhower) White House but technically still owned by Chrysler since government regulations precluded accepting the car from Chrysler as a gift.
All three vehicles underwent a refresh in 1956 and they still exist today. LA and NYC still have their cars. The Eisenhower car is in the Petersen Museum collection.
Yes ~
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I have driven it .
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My Buddy who maintains it because the young guys won’t touch it .
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-Nate
Front view .
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-Nate
I understand that both the Petersen’s (Detroit) car and the City of LA car were at an event years ag . Both cars are white with similar interiors. The museum’s staffer went to move the Detroit Car and the Mayor’s security detail thought he was trying to steal the city’s vehicle! My understanding is that a gun was drawn, until said security guy was made to understand that there are TWO virtually identical cars in Los Angeles.
I don’t think the cars have been together since then!
Thanx for the story PDQ ~ one of my first jobs when I hired on was sourcing hard parts for this car , most of the Parts guys & Mechanics said no parts were available and it should be salvaged , , they wouldn’t have done that , just left it under a cover on P3 below City Hall East .
A few years ago the rear end began to howl and instead of proper repair , they had my buddy Chris replace it drum to drum with a Dodge Police car unit , more’s the pity as it’s only original once .
When I drove it and replaced the exhaust system , the front seat wasn’t adjustable ~ good thing I had a 32″ inseam .
-Nate
My understanding was the third car was stationed in Detroit, and primarily used there. It was never in the White House fleet, although there was a customized ’55 or ’56 Crown Imperial with a “hardtop” rear section – frameless rear doors and operable quarter windows. And a sunroof, IIRC.
The third one was indeed referred to as “The Detroit Car”. The Secret Service was not allowed to accept the car as a gift, so Chrysler garaged the car and it was transported from Detroit to wherever the President/Vice President/etc were going to be.
The refreshed Detroit Car was unveiled New Years Day in Pasadena, Ca . Vice-President Nixon rode in the car in the Rose Parade and Carl Breer (a native of Los Angeles) presented Nixon with the keys to the car at the Rose Bowl game
The Jeep Wrangler is a multipurpose 4 door Convertible that I would like to own.
Especially with the release of the Entourage movie, I really admire the ’65 Lincoln. Maybe it’s because it steals the spotlight despite all the blatantly “placed” Cadillac hardware in the movie.
If we are going with obscure one-offs, there was this 1964 Studebaker built by the Israili assembly operation for the Prime Minister of Israel.
Other than our own 1962 Lincoln convertible, which was desert tan with a beige/tan interior, the only convertible sedans I knew personally were two maroon-on-tan 1939 (or so) Lincolns that a neighbor up the lake from us had for a while when I was a kid. I got to ride in one of them once, just half a mile or so to the school bus stop. Yes, it was ok in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s to have one’s elementary school kids walk a mile to the bus stop. How times have changed….
We were still doing that in the ’70s – about two miles. Mom would also let us ride our bike up to the local Zayres store, about six miles each way. Times *have* changed.
1979 Lincoln Continental
Sure wish Lincoln had made a convertible 4-dr Continental to ’76 as part of their regular production. . .Do you know which coach builder created this ’79? I love the end result with this body style. . .stunning!
Silcco.
Another convertible that stands out, same coachbuilder.
If I recall correctly, President Lyndon Johnson used a Lincoln Continental, four door convertible, to hunt deer on his ranch in Texas.
I think I remember reading that the President would chase the deer, cross-lots, at high speed with the Secret Service trying to keep up in a following car.
My 1961 Lincoln Continental 4 door convertible in glorious 3D, at the Tee Pee Hotel.
Tee Pee Hotel. That’s intense!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ll stop now.)
It’s JFK’s car on a secret meet with Marilyn…
RE : TeePee Motel ~
I have always wanted to drive one of my oldies and stay there , are they clean and well maintained ? .
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I don’t need the Ritz but taking SWMBO out of state to discover a dump worse than Motel 6 isn’t a wise thing for my to do .
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TIA ,
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-Nate
Yes, they were completely redone a few years ago. Really neat. Go back in time. I used to go passed them with my parents back in the 1950s on the trip from Victoria to Gilmer.
Thanx Bill ! .
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-Nate
Most US sourced cars were built as Phaetons in Aussie back in the days but as the 30s came to a close the popularity of open cars declined and no more were built, There is a 36 Buick 4 door ragtop roaming local roads it tows a 36 Mullins trailer featuring original Buick rims.
What about the Citroen Visa Decapotable.It is a bit weird looking
Does that name translate to “decapitated?”
Hehehe… decapitated.. that would be very French, wouldn’t it?
“Capote” is a fabric top. So a “décapotable” is a soft-top that can be folded away, i.e. a drop-head or convertible.
Strictly speaking though, this Visa is a “découvrable” (and that was its official name, BTW). That means part of the roof can be folded away; the window frames / B & C posts remain at least partially in place.
So the Frazer Manhattan could be called a “découvrable”, as opposed to the Conti, which is a full “décapotable”.
These were pretty popular until the late 50s. Factory découvrables include the 2CV, 4CV, Peugeot 202 and 203, Simca 5, Ford Vedette, etc. Some cars that did not include a découvrable could be modified by specialized coachbuilders, e.g. AEAT for the Traction Avant or the DS.
In Germany, there were quite a few as well — auf Deutsch: “cabriolimousine”.
Here’s the one I’m working on (1925 Dodge Brothers touring car)…
Very nice!
Your dog looks like our dog.
That Lincoln, pure car porn!
A previous owners chop job on a ’67 Impala Sport Sedan gave me a 4 dr convertible for a few years in the early ’80s.
It was more rigid than you’d think, although when I used the bumper jack on the rear,
the rear door panel gaps nearly disappeared. They came back when on its wheels again.
I see nobody has thus far mentioned the soft-top Hummer H1. Or does that not count, being a truck.
Not my call to make, of course…but if I can throw the Jeep Wrangler into the comments, I can’t see much of a problem with the H1.
Plus, according to the official rules of “Convertible Week” as posted this past weekend, anything with an open top counts! 🙂
Since this discussion has ranged from production vehicles into coachbuilt cars, how about one of my favorites–the 1997 Chrysler Phaeton concept. It’s an unabashedly retro homage to the 40’s Newport Phaetons and 50’s Parade Phaeton, but I just love the design of the thing. Immediately captured my attention when it came out and still looks good to me nearly 20 years later. Retractable rear compartment windshield, folding hardtop, 5.4 liter V12. Plus, escaping the inglorious fate of many concepts, it survived the show circuit and is now part of the collection of the Walter P. Chrysler museum.
Here’s the 1940 Chrysler Newport, which also provided styling direction for the Jaguar XK120.
Wow , please keep ’em coming ! I never heard of the Citroen before .
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Maybe one of those old Volvo Flop Tops ? .
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Rambler Custom Convertible ? (the Lois Lane car) .
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Some early VW Beetle Cabriolets ? I used to have some odd ones , a right hand drive 1954 was maybe my favorite VW Convertible .
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-Nate
On eBay at the moment (6/14/15): someone did a *nice* job of turning a ’66 Continental convertible into a ’69 (eBay listing, if curious, has a magazine article about the conversion):
I have a few pics that could be of interest…
1953 Cadillac series 75 by Saoutchik (made for King Ibn Saud)
1942 Cadillac phaeton by Derham (quite beautiful!)
1979 GAZ 14 Tchaika
’73 Imperial parade phaeton of the Peruvian President… No idea who made that…
I have a few more, but I’ll stop it there…
Ugliest for last — 1969 AWZ Sachsenring P240 Repräsentant, two made specially in Zwickau for the 20th anniversary of East Germany.
Hi there just found a 1984 caruna 4 door convertible would love to show you some photo .
There was that Kaiser 4 door convertible that I never considered a real convertible because the side window frames and that weird little window between the front and rear doors didn’t disappear with the top; other than that I don’t recall any factory 4 door convertibles. I saw a conversion done on a ’59 Cadillac four-window hardtop sedan to make it a convertible a few years back. (a convertible conversion? a converted convertible? I’m not sure what to call it…)
Except for that and the ’60s Continentals, I don’t recall any postwar convertibles cars. There’s been some SUVs (Hummer, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the new Bronco) that are 4 door convertibles of sorts but all the roll bars and window frames again make it not quite have that full droptop experience, although the removable doors (and fold-down windscreen on the Jeep) do bring you closer to the outdoors.
(first posted 6/10/2025) Wow! Back to the future!
Welcome! But it was a short ride; we’re back in 2015 now.
Packard in the early 1940’s.
The Cadillac Ciel concept car didn’t get a mention:
The Brits had a few, special bodied ones. RR’s 25-30 by Gurney Nutting was lovely, but the most vast and majestic was perhaps the Daimler DE36 Royal Phaeton by Hooper.
Come to think of it, the Ciel doesn’t have a top, so it’s a 4 door roadster, not a convertible.
1961 Lancia Flaminia presidential phaeton. 5 built.
Flaminias remain in government service. A Flaminia was used for the 2015 inauguration of President Sergio Mattarella.
Or the venerable 2CV. Also 4 doors and basically the same concept.
Here is a 1928 McLaughlin-Buick
Here is a 1959 Simca Presidentelle. In my youth, when I rode in a convertible, we rode at speeds up to 50 MPH. Above that, the rear seat was intolerable. We also did not ride with the top down in blazing high heat.
Here is a ZIL. I have no date on the photo.
The four door convertible sedan configuration should not be confused with the open touring car or phaeton. While both types have folding canvas tops, only the convertible sedan is fitted with roll-up glass side windows and removable B-pillar to full enclose the passenger compartment from inclement weather. The open touring car or phaeton could be fitted with canvas side curtains and an early plastic-like called isinglass for windows. They were clumsy to install, made ingress and egress more difficult, drafty, leaked in the rain and retained little heat in the winter, not the ideal solution.
The convertible sedan body configuration and engineering, being more complex and having more rigid alignment requirements, was initially developed by custom coachbuilding firms in the 1920’s to fit to luxury marque chassis. As would be expected, they were generally the most expensive body style on offer.
Production carmakers followed the lead of those coachbuilders and added the convertible sedan by the early 1930’s to their upscale series to impart a degree of prestige. Because they required so much more labor to build and trim than sedans and coupes, they were built in dedicated separate body assembly operations whether in-house or by production body-makers such as Briggs or Murray.
The list is extensive from approximate 1926 to 1942 of custom and production convertible sedans on the marques the offered them. If someone is interested, just ask and I’ll prepare the list.
THANK YOU ALL for sharing the fantastic photos ! .
Some I’d never heard of before .
FWIW, a Citroen 2-CV is a sun roof, not a Cabriolet, convertible or rag top .
-Nate
As best I can tell from all these wonderful pics and comments, the only other factory production 4-door convertible post-war was the Mercedes Adenauer W186 and W189, and even then, “production” only meant about 700 cars over 10 years.