(first posted 10/5/2012) By 1969, flower power went mainstream…right up the Detroit River, even. Hoping to cash in on the latest fad, Chrysler unveiled one of the era’s more colorful options: The Mod Top–or more accurately, Pop Prints, since the treatment was not limited neither to the top nor to just one pattern or color. Get ready.
Here’s a ’69 Barracuda like the one shown in the ad. This car seems to make the rounds of the car shows; perhaps because it might be the only one with this particular combo.
Isn’t that cheerful?
Of course, there were several patterns; after all, your store wouldn’t have only one dress to sell.
Care to try on something in green?
If you were a bit too old for the flowered miniskirts in the Juniors Department, Plymouth’s Boutique also offered something for the more mature customer: the Fury Gran Coupe, with a slightly more subdued paisley-print top.
Here’s what it looked like close up. Given today’s interest in retro-’60s clothes and cars and such, I’m rather surprised no one’s tried it again. Perfect for a Chrysler 300.
Nowadays Toyota is using this trend selling diverse stickers to your Aygo city-car. Flowers are among them…
Mitsubishi used to offer a horrifying collection of optional designs on the sides, hood and tailgate of their i-MIEV. I’m relieved to find they’re no longer offered through the “Build and Price” feature on their web site. But the “Custom Graphics” page is still up, if you want to see just how bad they were.
Mitsu has put an excellent and practical EV out there. My buddy Paul’s very happy with his (all black) daily-driver i-MIEV after 9 months. But sticking flowers and leaves all over it realizes the stereotypical “toy car” EV image. What were they thinking? Glad it’s no longer offered.
The iMiEV itself will likely soon no longer be offered as they just can’t give them away. They sold a grand total of only 36 in all of the US in September, bringing the YTD total to 439.
They’re starting slow, with little or no advertising (unlike Nissan and GM), to get themselves and their dealers familiar with EVs. Big difference from any other car they’ve ever sold.
Besides, Mitsubishi’s a low-selling brand in the US. Best Selling Cars has a list of all models in the first nine months of 2012:
152 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport 13,126
154 Mitsubishi Lancer 12,768
156 Mitsubishi Galant 12,298
198 Mitsubishi Outlander 5,909
244 Mitsubishi Eclipse 1,099
258 Mitsubishi Endeavour 483
261 Mitsubishi i-MiEV 439
Speaking of Nissan and GM, it’s interesting to see the company their EVs are keeping:
134 Cadillac Escalade 16,437
135 Nissan Titan 16,406
136 Chevrolet Volt 16,348
137 Lexus GS 16,017
138 GMC Yukon XL 15,668
206 Dodge Cargo Van 5,279
207 Nissan LEAF 5,212
208 VW Eos 5,198
209 Mazda MX-5 5,081
210 Honda Insight 5,047
I’ll shut up now, after all CC is not TTAC 😉
They’ve sold reasonably well here in Norway.
As the Mitsubishi Miev, but also their corporate cousin/rebadge buddies of Peugeot and Citroen, forgot the name of those.
Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot iOn
Mitsubishi Endeavour. Now that’s a vehicle I had completely forgotten the existence of–had to google it to remember what it looked like.
To be fair, Wikipedia told me it ceased production in 2011, so those 483 sales for ’12 must have been leftovers.
When I was in Gr 11 a friend’s Dad bought one of these with the blue option. I thought it was super cool at the time, especially compared to my Dad’s basic green 4 dr. Plymouth Fury II.
I have never seen one of these in the wild! I’d have mistaken it for a custom job from a top shop.
After much searching, I think we’ve found the antithesis of today’s BMW/Euro-inspired pallet of deep charcoal metallic exteriors and sterling gray leather interiors.
I don’t get this rhetoric, are everyone that buys BMW in America boring librarians or something? Yeah, you see plenty black/grey/white BMWs in Europe, but they can also often be found in blue,red, orange, brown, green, sometimes even bright yellow or hot red. My brother’s BMW 3 series stationwagon is secondhand, so the colour wasn’t his choice, but it’s a white exterior, with a light brown interior, with black accents on only some trim pieces. Hardly drab if you ask me.
Not sure of the sales/lease mix in Europe, but over here, a great many (most?) cars of the entry luxury/small executive class are leased rather than purchased. Therefore, regardless of colors offered by the manufacturer, dealers tend to stock boring, mainstream colors that won’t be hard to move as used vehicles when they come in off lease. This affects those not leasing as well because it’s hard to find an interesting or unusual color in dealer stock. And if you don’t choose from dealer stock but instead special order to get the color you want, you’re going to pay more. A LOT more. Because they’ll cut deals to move stock they already possess but have far less incentive to be generous on a special order.
Hence, drab city.
Other weird vinal roof ideas include the Cassini Matador coupe, which came in copper and matching accents throughout the car; and the 1970 Mercury Cougar, which offered a houndstooth vinal roof (with matching pattern on the seats).
You could plausibly argue that the early-50s Kaisers were the granddaddy of the trend, with their assortment of odd-ball roof and seat treatments (e.g., the Dragon).
That these treatments never caught on suggests that people are pretty conservative when it comes to automotive decor. At least you can change your clothes to match the occasion, season and fashion fads. Not so easy with a car.
Saturn tried to build in some fashion flexibility with its changeable accent panels, as did Packard with the flippable seat cushions on its 1955-56 Caribbean. Those ideas never caught on either.
Kaiser was an early adopter, to be sure (Dinosaur Vinyl!), but I know Chrysler started doing Tartan plaids earlier than that and I dimly recall that Chrysler also catalogued some “Indian blanket” [sic] patterns in the 40s. Not the same aesthetic, naturally, but the same idea.
I’m pretty sure the houndstooth pattern vinyl roof was also available on the Mustang in 1970.
I loved the Mopar “Highlanders” (Chrysler) of the 40’s and 50’s. I desperately wanted to take home to Hawaii from San Rafael (in 2009) a nice, clean, original, well-kept survivor ’48 Chrysler Windsor sedan . . . which had the highlander interior with not a tear, nor water stain on it. The di-noc/bakelite dash and plastic pieces (with lucite clear knobs) matched with the Highlander seats and door panels was a work of art. Oh well . . .
How ’bout the ’72 Pierre Cardin AMC Javelin?? AMC Levi’s editions?? The plaid “wild and crazy guy pattern” seats on the ’75 and ’76 Cadillac Calais?? Cadillac Talismans from the mid-seventies??
I remember the Plymouth Furys with the paisley roof quite well. Were they all brown? It seemed so. I can remember seeing one of the yellow Barracudas, but it was a long time ago. I don’t think I ever saw one of the green ones.
Forget not that today’s Gold Duster came with an alligator-grain roof at some point. How is it that the company with the most conservative (stodgy, even) styling stuck the most out-there trim combos on its cars? Miss Mopar’s bipolar nature coming through loud and clear here.
I have seen white with the paisley brown top and interior, and dark green with black top and tutone green interior.
Brown was the most common color on the 70 and 71 Fury Gran Coupes. In 71 they even had a 4 door hardtop Gran Coupe. The 70 was only available in 2 door post, based on the fury 2 2 door sedan. They put the sport fury grill and rear bumper and taillights from the Fury 3. The seats used the standard Sport Fury bench seat with the paisley inserts. In 71 they were closer to the Sport Fury 2 and 4 door. They all had 383 2bbl in 70, and in 71 they all had the 360 2bbl.
In 71 all the Gran Coupes had headlight wipers and washers.
My little Fury Gran Coupe brain dump. I have had a couple of these. The 70 was my favorite!
My #1 COAL was a 69 Dodge Coronet 500 coupe copper bronze with the tan alligator grain vinyl roof. I always thought that the Mopar roof material looked much better than the offerings from Ford or GM. My #3 COAL was a Buick colonnade coupe with a half vinyl roof. COAL #2 had the best kind of vinyl roof. The kind that folds down into the trunk. That was on a 55 Chevy BelAir.
I don’t know that it was contradictory. While Chrysler was reluctant for many years to do anything very adventurous in styling — a direct result of the Airflow, after which the stylists said they had a hard time getting anything approved unless it was already on a commercially successful competitor (and, implicitly, already somewhat dated) — trim and fabric was cheap, didn’t have to be used line-wide, and could be abandoned without many tears if it didn’t sell. If all exterior styling were that easy, Chrysler would have been less reticent about it.
The Gran Coupe was introduced in the Plymouth line for the spring of ’70. In ’70 and ’71 they were brown-only coupes. In the spring of ’71, Plymouth had also an all brown “Gran Sedan” – four door hardtop with the same paisley treatment.
Your choice of Mopar drivetrains available in the full-sizers at the time (starting with the 318 2-bbl on up).
I recall the Gran Fury with the paisley top, only saw it in brown. The Dusters had a lizard grain top, remember seeing a bunch, cream or pale yellow, with the medium brown tops. Don’t recall any other color.
Never saw the hippie print in the Barracuda or any other car. Didn’t think any company would do that. Not really good for business. The exec who approved that was tripping on something illegal.
I remember test driving a 318 Plymouth Satellite 2-dr hardtop in yellow with the flower roof at the Erie, PA Plymouth dealer at 12th and Strawberry (no, not kidding on the street name). Decided I couldn’t be seen in such a car.
My late uncle had a red 1971 Fury Gran Coupe with the “Mod Top” option, it complemented his Gold ’69 Sport Fury convertible, and both I still have…Besides, it matches my dress tie I got from Harry Winston in Calgary in ’77. Pretty cool, Huh?
The Gran Coupe had nothing to do with the Mod Top. It merely received a paisley vinyl top.
Have a look at this.
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1971/Paisley/
By the way, for those of you who may not know the Imperial Club site, let me tell you that it is an amazing resource for anyone interested in Imperials and is one of the most user-friendly and well laid out sites devoted to a single make.
Before I discovered Curbside Classic way back when on TTAC, the Imperial Club site was one of my most-visited sites. It is very comprehensive, and easy to lose 2-3 hours reading the various articles. It doesn’t hurt that I absolutely love Imperials!
Here’s an updated link. The old one no longer works. https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Yr/1971/paisley1/index.htm
Never seen one but I like it that is a trend that could return the Jap car makers constantly recycle others ideas this is probably on the way
These two don’t seem particularly thrilled about it.
“Gosh, thanks Grandma.”
Looks like a screen shot from a Horror Movie.
There was also ‘denim’ seats in AMC cars and Jeeps. Also, there was a “Denim” vinyl top on 1975 era Dodge Colt.
The blue mod top is dashing but the green mod top is stellar. Anyways, here’s a link to Mod top for sale in Florida, it’s a blue satellite coupe with a mod top interior:
http://www.cars-on-line.com/43884.html
I can only imagine what Dick MacAdam, then VP of Chrysler design, must have thought of the ‘mod’ tops. MacAdam was the guy who damn-near killed one of the most endearing traits of the wildly successful 1968 Roadrunner, i.e., the cartoon door decals, once declaring, “There aren’t going to be any damn cartoons on any of my cars!”.
Well, through some trickery and subterfuge, the decals went on the car (but MacAdam demanded that he be the one to pick which ones to use, resulting in the quite lame, black and white, one-year only, ‘walking’ 1968 Roadrunner decals).
After the surprising success of the Roadrunner, wild decals became all the rage at Chrysler for a brief time (as evidenced by the Mod Tops). But MacAdam would have the last-laugh as it became all too clear that decals and stripes weren’t anywhere near the great styling feature (or even marketing tool) on which to rely exclusively.
I always liked the cartoon “Twister” . . . . (the ’71 and ’72 Duster Twister . . an appearance package available on the Duster much like the Malibu “Heavy Chevy” of that period).
I suspect that the little Duster tornado was a rip-off of the Tazmanian Devil Warner Bros. cartoon, but after Chrysler got the Roadrunner cartoon relatively cheaply, it’s unlikely that Warner was going to make the same mistake twice and let Taz go for the same low price.
It was a knock-off of the Looney Tunes character. In the Duster article in Collectible Automobile back in about 1999, author Jeff Godshall (who was a junior stylist at Highland Park in the ’60s and ’70s) said that they wanted to use it, but Warner Brothers wanted way too much money. The cartoon tornado was the compromise.
“But MacAdam would have the last-laugh as it became all too clear that decals and stripes weren’t anywhere near the great styling feature (or even marketing tool) on which to rely exclusively”
You say that like Road Runner was nothing more than a stripe package.
As with the GTO, the Roadrunner marketing image was a huge part of the complete package. While the Roadrunner would have sold well without the cartoon decals (and purple ‘meep-meep’ horn, for that matter), it wouldn’t have been the stunning success it turned out to be. As evidence, just look at the mechanically identical Dodge Super Bee, sales of which were never anywhere near that of the Roadrunner.
And although the original Roadrunner and its contemporaries of the day were certainly more than stripe packages, in just a few short years, many so-called performance cars would be exactly that (including the Volaré Roadrunner, which actually came standard with a 225 slant-six).
The Duster was a car that actually made very effective use of the stripe package kinship with the higher-performance models. Although they might have had a low-performance 225 or 318 under the hood, Chrysler put some very nice looking stripes on the sides and rear decks of non-340 Dusters, making them every bit as attractive as those with the big quarter-panel 340 engine call-outs.
My Auntie and late Uncle had a ’71 Gran Coupe. The brown paisley top and the paisley inserts on the high back seats. Their’s was powered by a 2-pot 360 V-8. I admit, I like the ’70 with the Sport Fury wheels pictured above. At the time, I thought the Gran Coupe looked like a turd. I do remember the “mod top” Mopars, but the only ones I ever remember seeing was a ’68 Barracuda . . . I was about nine years old at the time; it was new and I remember seeing it on the streets of . . . of all places . . . Quincy, Illinois.
I like it for the fact that it’s certainly nostalgic, but…wow.
Personally I find it reminds me of the vinyl tablecloths my mom used to put on our kitchen table.
IN addition to all the other makes that offered “designer” treatments, let’s not forget that Oldsmobile offered a couple of designer packages. In 1978 they offered two Indian-themed packages, the Tahoe for the Cutlass Salon, and the Mojave, which was exclusive to my all-time favorite car, the Cutlass Supreme Brougham. I remember the first time I saw one it was around 1987, and I thought that it was quite fetching! It left such an impression on me that even though I don’t remember ever seeing another one out in the wild, I never forgot it.
Several years ago I found for sale, what I would be willing to bet is one of the last remaining showroom advertisements for the Mojave option. Yes, I bought it, and I framed it and here it is 🙂
There was also the Chrysler Newport Navajo, available in 1973 (and maybe ’74?) From what I can tell, the Navajo package involved a burnt orange exterior with white top, and white seats with black/brown/orange striped inserts, as well as an orange carpet. That’s one car I’d snatch up quickly if I could.
“Look what Plymouth’s up to now”…was to the tune of Spanky & Our Gang’s “Sunday Will Never Be The Same”. Dodge had turned “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” into “Dodge is turning up the fever now” for ’69.
It was butt-naked under that paisley top. Bare metal…which started to rust on the dealer lots here back east.
The fact that those paisley tops quickly began fading under the sun didn’t help matter any, either. Combined with the low number produced, it’s a big reason they’re such a rare find today (at least an original one).
I remember seeing one in the wild back in the 80’s and couldn’t believe that they would have done such a thing. I do sort of like the paisley imprint though.
That Barracuda Ad almost made me choke.
“And many other features with women-winning ways”
Try that now. I dare you!
“See your local Plymouth dealer. He has a whole mad, mod story. He’s fond of women, too”.
(wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
In 1977, Pontiac offered the striped “Valencia” interior as an option on the Bonneville Brougham. I remember seeing one once when I was on a vacation with my parents in Pennsylvania – it was in the parking lot of Hershey Park! I think the car was from Texas if I’m not mistaken. It was a black coupe with no vinyl top and it had the Valencia striped interior. I thought it was so cool to actually see that someone had ordered it! I also remember on the Cutlass Supreme Brougham they had offered in 1979 the Mojave interior – I saw it once and thought it was the coolest thing! In 1980 Buick had the Somerset Regal which had the tan and blue two-tone combo…I always thought they were so nice and very luxurious looking – there were actually quite a few of these in Rhode Island.
Ah, the Valencia Bonnevilles, maybe the last of the wild interior color schemes. The red one below was offered only in 1978; the somewhat more-restrained tan version was also available in 1977.
I don’t know that I’d call them the last of the wild color schemes–there were some crazy seat fabrics in the 80’s too. Not so much stripes, but odd patterns/graphics.
I saw one of these at one of the cruise-ins at South Park Mall; it was in one of my Cruise-In Classic posts. It wasn’t until just now that I noticed the California plates!
Once again CC brings back long suppressed memories…back in ’69 I had taken my Chevy to an auto upholstery shop to get the front set repaired. While the car was being worked on, I was reading an auto upholstery mag which featured a how to article on covering an entire car-to be exact a 1967 Impala-with paisley vinyl that was briefly popular in the swinging ’60’s. Personally I though it looked terrible-an idea who time had never come.
I don’t remember ever seeing any Barracuda-or for that matter any other car-with the paisley vinyl. It would be interesting to know exactly how many Chrysler vehicles were sold with this treatment.
From the ‘Mod Top Registry’ website:
According to the April/May 1994 issue of MoPar Muscle magazine,
here’s the Mod Top breakdown:
1969 Model Year VIN Model Mod Tops Produced
RH23 Satellite 1,637
BH23 Barracuda 937
LL23 Swinger hardtop 48
LM23 Swinger 340 50
LH23 Dart Custom 25
LP23 Dart GT hardtop 14
LS23 Dart GTS hardtop 16
WM21 Super Bee coupe 8
WM23 Super Bee hardtop 18
WH23 Coronet 440 hardtop 39
1970 model year
BH23 Barracuda Blue 26
BS23 ‘Cuda Blue 17
BH23 Barracuda Yellow 26
BS23 ‘Cuda Yellow <15
Total: ~ 2876
Given their propensity to quickly fade in the sun, I doubt there are many originals left.
The Dodges were not Mod Tops. They simply were floral tops, I believe.
Way back when in the 80’s I watched a neighbors blue Mod Top Satellite turn to a pile of rust in the driveway. It was a sad sight to say the least.
Does anyone remember the spectrum interior option on the Volare/Aspen twins? I’ve seen a few here and there over the years and there was a local Aspen R/T with T tops and the spectrum.
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2006/06/01/hmn_feature17.html
I remember seeing one of those Paisley Furies in Signal Hill, California about five or so years ago. In the new TV show “Golden Boy”, one of the main character drives one as well. It’s always nice to see an old Mopar on TV!
By the time the Mod Tops were released in 1969, the patterned roof was far from something completely new by the way. In 1961 Buick had already played with the thought of patterned convertible roofs for female buyers (covered by another article on Curbside Classic at some point in the past actually). This idea however never made it past the stage of crude mockups.
In 1967 and 1968 the Ford Mustang was supposedly available through some dealers as a so called “Branded” edition with several patterns of vinyl roofs and several colors of side stripes, though this is the only example I can even find.
And in 1970, simultaneously to the Mod Top, the Mercury Cougar was very briefly available with a houndstooth vinyl roof and of course matching seats.
Eff yeah. The mod tops and associated interiors, like wing-hood IH Loadstar trucks, are on my list of “Why can’t we have things that look like that now?”.
Geez, I had forgotten all about these. At our Ford-Mercury dealer in the early 70s, when a used car was proving difficult to sell, the used car manager would bring a guy to put some funky pattern vinyl top on the thing. Then he’d mark it up another $100. We laughed, but the car usually always sold shortly thereafter. Obviously an 18 year old apprentice wrench just didn’t understand the tastes of the average car buyer back then.
Memories! My late mother-in-law had one of these–exactly as pictured at the head of the article. We drove it quite a bit. Wish we still had it…but her other son wrecked it on a trip from Salt Lake City to Phoenix. Long gone, alas.
I remember when I had shirts that looked like that. It was a different world then.
1978 Porsche 928 Pasha interiors speak for themselves!
I love these.
Now that’s just fantastic.
Those floral vinyl tops remind me of bathroom wallpaper from the Era. It didn’t look any better over the toilet.
I have a Collectible Automobile magazine with an article on the 67/69 Barracuda by Jeffery Godshall, he briefly mentions these tops and states,
“The fabric supplier was the Toscany Company of New York City which specialized in shower curtains and vinyl tablecloths.”
Locally, we had a Chrysler Plastics and Vinyl division plant that turned out some funky stuff. You could buy butt rolls of material cheap. It was popular with boaters looking to recover seats on their boats.
Remember the Apple “Flower Power” and “Blue Dalmatian” special editions from 2001?
Was this repost inspired by the recent ‘La Femme’ feature? Interesting that it was Chrysler that came up with both ideas and then put them into production. Of course, they were much more clever with the Mod Top and weren’t as focused on the female market than the La Femme, but the implication is still clearly there.
Let us not forget the AMC Pacer’s Indian blanket interior…worked with a lady who had one of these & she loved it!
Sergio would never go for something like this. He’s become a bean counter. Afraid of risk. Walter Chrysler was a bold visionary. A man that understood the car business like few ever have.
Not exactly my thing, but at least these interior are a lot nicer than today`s ’50 shades of gray ‘,black, and tan interiors. Bring back some color!
I would be proud to own a mod top 69 Barracuda, as long at it was powered by a 340 and a 4 speed…
A close friend of mine had that exact Gran Fury – bronze paisley top and all. We used to cruise the South Side of Chicago in that beast, seeking ribs and fried chicken.
I was actually surprised when I saw this in 2008. Thought it was custom made.
Had never seen a vinyl roof like that.
There was a Chrysler Plastics and Vinyl division in my hometown growing up in the Seventies, and they sold end rolls of a lot of these shown.
My ever thrifty depression-era in laws had a number of those, used for chair seats and picnic table covers.
Very durable stuff.
More interesting was the advertised ” puncture proof tires.
WOW! If that green mod-topped 69 Super Bee (or ANY) is still in existence, I’ll bet they command a premium price nowadays!! 🙂
This brief (’69-’70) fad probably went well with the psychedelic drugs in fashion around the same time.
Make mine (the car, not the drugs) a ’70 Dart Custom 4-door, in Plum Crazy metallic purple with that green pattern we see in the 6th picture here, and a green (patterned?) interior.
Never saw a Mod or Floral Top back in the day, but there weren’t a lot of vinyl tops on low priced cars in my town back in the late 60s. That changed and I definitely remember a number of brown Gran Coupes.
The first year, the Gran Coupe really was a pillared coupe. It was around the time a number of state police and highway patrol agencies switched to four-door pursuits, and I’ve long suspected they found themselves going into CY 1970 with a bunch of Fury I coupes scheduled with no buyers and had an inspired moment.