Dedicated in May 1953, Ford Motor Company’s new $11 million “Styling Center” opened on Oakwood Boulevard in Dearborn, Michigan. The campus spanned a half-mile, and it featured state-of-the-art amenities for its time, including an outdoor courtyard, engineering shops, studios, and office space. One of the first cars to come out of that creative space was the 1954 Ford Customline.
Photo courtesy of Hemmings
“From many thousands of sketches, the choice was narrowed to a select few,” an introductory video said. You can check out the video here:
While out for a walk over the weekend, I came across an informal car show in my neighborhood. Just as I walked through the parking lot, the owner of this turquoise 1954 Ford Customline coupe was getting in his car to head out. I asked him what engine it had, and he said it was an inline-six. It sounded great.
The Customline was a mid-range model available in coupe, sedan, and station wagon body styles that was produced from 1952-1956. In the Ford hierarchy, it slotted between the Mainline and the Crestline, and it carried a price tag of around $1,700.
The Customline was marketed for its value: One advertisement said, “What you get for your money when you buy a new car determines how much pleasure it will give you while you own it. That’s why, before you buy any car, it will pay you to visit a Ford dealer and check Ford’s many ‘worth more’ features.” Some of those features included an available Y-block V-8, I-block six, ball-joint front suspension, “Fordomatic Drive” automatic transmission, and clean exterior lines. Ford also promoted its models’ resale value with the slogan “Worth more when you buy it. Worth more when you sell it.”
The turquoise and white two-tone exterior looked rust-free and in great shape, with features including chrome brightwork, fender-mounted driver-side mirror, body side moldings, steel wheels, and whitewall tires. I didn’t notice until reviewing my photos after the fact that the car actually had bowtie-branded hubcaps on it. Mild identity crisis, perhaps.
I didn’t get a look at the interior nor the engine bay because the owner was pulling away, but I did spot (and very much appreciate) the pair of fuzzy dice hanging from his rearview mirror. It was great to see one of the Ford Styling Center’s earliest creations still proudly strutting its stuff on modern-day roads.
By the way, the Styling Center (which was later re-branded as the Product Development Center) was demolished around 2020 to make way for a new “walkable campus” that could house 20,000 employees. A shame, I think, since it would have been cool to retain that main rotunda building (or at least a part of it) for a heritage museum filled with some of the iconic 1950s cars created there.
