coronet design

[sgp0511]

I've always wondered who designed the coronet specifically the 1965 model? I've tried looking this up with no luck so far. Anyone know who did?

[sgp0511]

No one???? Anyone at least know who was head of dodge design dept in the early 60s?

[Jim 68cuda]

I've spoken with a couple of people over the years that were involved in design work at Chrysler in the 60's and 70's. Much of what I came away with was that one person might be responsible for one feature on a car, like a tail light or a grille etc, but there really weren't many cars that were pretty much designed by one person.
The 1962 B-bodies were the creation of Virgil Exner when he ordered the full size designs for the 62 Dodge and Plymouth be reduced in size at the last moment thinking that Ford's new mid size 62 Fairlane, and Chevrolet's new 1962 Chevy II Nova would replace full size Galaxies and Impalas. It was a fatal mistake for Virgil Exner and he was quickly booted out the door. Elwood Engle was lured away from Ford and he immediately set Chrysler's design team to work trying to make Chrysler products more visually appealing to the buying public. For 63, he left Exner's planned front end designs pretty much intact for the B-body Plymouth and Dodge, but focused energies instead on creating a better looking roof line, making the b-bodies a bit longer to be closer in size to the competition, and giving the cars a strong full length body line crease to eliminate the slab side look of the 62 B-bodies (the 62 designs had no styling flow from front to back). For 64 his team further cleaned up the B-body with cleaner looking front ends, a lower cowl, and a nicely tapered roof on 2 door hardtop models.
But all this time he also had his team at work designing the C-bodies which would finally give Plymouth a real full size car that could compete with the full size Ford and Chevy, as well as a redesigned 1964 Imperial that looked more like the 61 Lincoln and Thunderbird, that Engle had been responsible for at Ford, than the radical looking Imperials with free standing head lights and tail lights that the 64 Imperial replaced.
The B-body did give Engle a great base to start with to really go after the mid size market, so for 65 the Dodge B-body was given the shorter Plymouth wheelbase. I would expect that the design of the 65 Coronet consisted of several designers working on different options to fit around the 64 doors, cowls and roof lines with an objective mandated by Elwood Engle, to make it look as long and wide as possible as was his philosophy at both Ford and Chrysler.
On a side note, I expect that the 64-66 T-bird design was also pretty close to being set by the time he left Ford in 62. With that in mind, you may notice a similarity in the profile of the rear quarter panels of the 64-66 Thunderbird and the 66-67 Coronets and Chargers. The 66-67 B-bodies were the first B-bodies that had no left over exterior styling from the Virgil Exner days.
In answer to your question, Virgil Exner was responsible for the creation of the Chrysler B-body. For the 65 model year Elwood Engle was in charge of styling and he would have dictated the direction styling would take for the 65 Coronets and would have approved the over all look. Don't expect the person who designed the grille to be the same person who designed the tail lights or rear quarters, and be aware that once one component was decided upon, such as the quarter panels, then someone else (usually several people) were likely was given the task of designing proposals for tail lights or trim to fit the quarters.
Keep in mind that while Lee Iaccoca, as chief of styling at Ford, is credited with the design of the 65 Mustang, he didn't pen the design himself.

[sgp0511]

Wow awesome posts buys thanks for the history lesson