Mel Wolff and four of Tom Strobel’s creations
(first posted 10/6/2012) What inspired Plymouth to offer the Mod Top option on the 1969 Plymouths? Quite possibly it was the paint jobs created in 1966 by Chicago artist Tom Strobel, for Chicago Chrysler-Plymouth dealer Mel Wolff.
In the summer of 1969, I worked for Tom Strobel designing and building two sculptures that dispensed “art”. Strobel had acquired a couple of coin-operated machines that would, for the princely sum of 25 cents, deliver a clear plastic egg filled with “found art” that Strobel had stuffed into them. My assignment was to package the coin-op machine in an attention-grabbing fashion. I did the job with a tower painted in a Captain America theme (think Peter Fonda’s chopper in Easy Rider) topped with a Jacob’s Ladder that continuously emitted scary-sounding zaps. The crowds ate it up. I used Strobel’s Chrysler 300, complete with the Op Art paint job shown in the photo, as a parts chaser. Needless to say, that 300 drew its share of attention on the street.
The ’66 300 was big, really BIG!
Strobel didn’t confine himself to Op Art treatments, as you can see in the top photo with Mel Wolff. He created at least two cars, a Plymouth Satellite convertible and a Chrysler Newport, with floral treatments. Could they have influenced Plymouth to offer Mod Tops in 1969? Quite possibly. Mel Wolff had painted the cars to draw attention to his dealerships, and the Chrysler 300 with the Op Art treatment was featured in Playboy magazine, which gave his paint treatments national, if not international, exposure.
Strobel also gave his floral-themed treatment to a 1965 VW Microbus. It was beyond slow. Good times.
These cars look like a low-budget version of John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls Royce…
Interesting possibility. The Pop Prints/Mod Tops turned out to be a flop; I think only some 900 were sold, and Chrysler sat on a lot of Pop Print vinyl.
It has been well documented that Chrysler overdyed some of the material to create the burgundy vinyl tops of later model Imperials (with disastrous results), but you’ve got to wonder if somewhere in the world there is STILL a stash of this unloved, unwanted stuff…
Here’s an interesting post on imperialclub.org about the unintentionally paisley Burgundy 1971 Imperial vinyl roof.
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1971/Paisley/
This is a little late, but Mod Top production, while not good, wasn’t quite that bad. In the other, more complete Mod Top CC, I found numbers that indicated there were a total of 2876 cars that got the Mod Top. The lion’s share of those were 1969 Satellites and Barracudas to the tune of 2574 (the 1969 Barracuda, alone, had 936), with only Barracudas in 1970 getting a total of 84.
The remainder were spread over various 1969 A- and B-body Dodges (including musclecars) but the numbers were in the low double (and sometimes single) digits. So, in the context of rarity, a 1969 Dodge ‘floral print’ (Mod Top was used exclusively with Plymouth) would be the most sought after, specifically, a 1969 Super Bee coupe, of which only 8 got the floral print top.
Interesting stuff, and somewhat sad in recalling what a different time it was in the sixties.
Chrysler, more than Ford or GM, was more into the avante-garde, and it wasn’t simply because of any artistic intent. Ford and GM surely had similiar ‘mod’ ideas but likely had done better cost analysis and found out that production costs for this kind of stuff was too prohibitive for the limited return on investment. Unless there was a good prospect of success (unlikely), they simply weren’t willing to give it go.
Not so with Chrysler. In fact, this sort of thing finally came to a head in 1971 with the (in)famous ‘billboard’ quarter panel ‘call-out’ stripes affixed to some Barracudas. The ‘strobe’ side stripe of the previous year’s AAR ‘Cuda had been a headache to not only look right, but apply, as well. But those huge panel stripes in 1971 were even worse in the level of manual labor required, and had to be applied meticulously to line up correctly. Otherwise, the stripe had to be completely removed and done over. It wasn’t exactly conducive to volume production and it’s unlikely that there was much profit in the price of the option (if any).
As can be imagined, the guys in charge of production didn’t exactly have kind words for the stylists on that one. For better or worse, all that wild stuff from Chrysler pretty much ended from 1972 forward.
The designs that Tom Strobel created for Mel Wolff had to have been prohibitively expensive and totally unsuited for mass production. But I doubt Wolff had anything more in mind than publicity. I have no idea whether more than four cars were produced, but I doubt it. I can attest that the Op Art design on the black Chrysler 300 that I drove was actually paint, not self-adhesive vinyl. The amount of time it must have taken to mask off this design must have been astronomical.
Hi,
I am Tom Strobel’s daughter. How fun to come across this while looking for old billboard images for a mural I am working on! I remember that Op-Art car too. And I do know that he taped off the paint to create those car paint-jobs, as well as his Op-Art paintings. Unbelievable really! I also remember those cars being used in conjunction with the McGovern campaign, or the Democratic National Convention, but I will have to check with my Mom about that. I loved reading about your memories of the culture capsules too!
I love that first shot! I have a Tom Strobel piece that’s huge, metal and covered with hologram eyes–they all wink when you walk by..definitely a conversation piece. It was borrowed by Neiman Marcus and used in a window a few years ago when they were showcasing designers from the 60’s.
I’m Mel’s daughter
Those cars were strictly for publicity
Not for any other reason
Nothing to do with politics
I have had what my family calls “the eye box” in my living room since the 60’s and love love love it still. It is the op art lucite box displaying the same eye from different directions. It has always been displayed on an tall column clear lucite stand.
Sheila, this is Woody Wallace. It was my idea to do the designs on the cars for Mel. I was his public relations person thru Aaron Cushman agency. I was told to talk to your father about the idea. He convinced me not to go to NY for someone to do the cars and volunteered to do it. We became fast friends for years even riding horses together in Barrington. As Mel’s daughter says, it was strictly for publicity which it got worldwide. I still have the press kits and all the infornation. And for your skeptics out there the Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine credited me and I have copies of that too, written by Clarence Page. I have three of your father’s wonderful paintings you might like to see and a couple of his op art paintings I can give you. Sherwood Lee Wallace
Hey, the times were groovy and Peter Max was boss and Wavy Gravy spread cheer and the Berkeley Barb was the newspaper of choice and I should have created the PC, the mouse and GPI at that time and cashed in then provide the Web to the masses and I could have bought Mopar with the spare change in my pocket.
During Chrysler’s troubles a few years ago, I thought that I should have gotten on Facebook (or somewhere on the web) and got a million people to spend 100 dollars each to buy Chrysler back from Cerberus.
‘We the people’ (who had a $100 to blow) could have been owners (shareholders) in a truly public corporation.
Instead, ‘we the people’ kept Chrysler afloat long enough to GIVE to Marchionne and FIAT. I sure hope Sergio makes the best of it. Because if he f***ks it up, there will be Hell to pay.
I would have got in on that.
V. I. Lenin had similar ideas. It didn’t work out.
I remember seeing the top picture in an old copy of Motor Trend, with the caption, “Yikes, Stripes! And Other Auto Art.” It’s funny the little details that you can still remember years later, while you struggle to remember your new cell phone number.
“Chrysler 300 that I drove was actually paint, not self-adhesive vinyl. The amount of time it must have taken to mask off this design must have been astronomical.”
Those paint jobs are pretty sweet. We may make fun of some of the “fad” paint schemes from the 60s, 70s and early 80s (Especially the early 80s as shown below!) but the effort that those guys put into their craft took serious skill.
I think these guys were ahead of their time. When people tire of the monotony of silver and tan cars with beige interiors, I could see a return of this, esp with the evolution and relative low cost of vinyl car wrap.
Any color photos of these cars exist? I would love to see them! Thanks for posting.
The question that’s been bugging me for days, ever since the other mod top repost in fact, especially because no amount of searching yielded any results, is the following:
Has anyone ever put an aloha shirt pattern on his car? How is it possible that such a prominent element of American fashion completely went by cars, let alone custom ones?
I love features on the odd, unusual and rare. I do recall seeing a couple of the mod-top Plymouths back in the day. And, living close to where the Mopar Nationals is held, have seen a few more in more recent years.
One has to wonder what ever became of those Tom Strobel customized cars from the Mel Wolff dealership. Would certainly be collectible though not easily restored in regards to the exterior.
Interesting stuff. Time you all knew. Auto Art was MY idea and I hired Tom who was a dear friend to do the designs for me for Mel Wolff who was my client The floral at the time was not finished, it lacked the outlining. Yes, I have many pictures of these cars. The idea was licensed to Meyercord Corporation who made decals but they never followed up. There were 5 cars in all. You are missing the houndstooth one, which I have pictures of. Tom did paint the cars and said he would put any one of those designs on someone’s car for $300. Chrysler sent a crew to film the cars and sent out a video worldwide. It all got international publicity. If you doubt me there is a Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine article at the time that documents all this in an interview of me. Good to hear about Tom’s daughter. Sherwood “Woody” Wallace
I have the Motor Trend magazine that shows the 4 cars from Wolff Chrysler Plymouth on S Western Ave in Chicago, wouldn’t you love to have those cars in your garage today, that would be awesome if you could do that on the new cars, picture Hellcats with that look!!!