'36 Cord "Coppertone"

Gordon Buehrig’s Cord is often said to be one of the most beautiful automobiles ever designed. Its gestation is a story of perseverance.

 The famous Cord is based on a design that Buehrig first penned when he worked as a stylist in the art and color division of General Motors under the legendary Harley Earl. Buehrig’s design, done for a company contest, was rejected.

 When Buehrig moved to Duesenberg, he was asked to design a lower-cost, baby Duesenberg, and he worked up a design based on the one rejected by GM. It had front-wheel drive, outrigger radiators and an aerodynamic shape punctuated with art deco details. The little Duesenberg never happened, but when Buehrig was asked to design a new Cord, he resurrected his design once again. Five prototypes were built for the 1935 New York auto show, and the car left showgoers in awe.

 Paul Bryant of Prairie Village is a retired physics professor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a Cord enthusiast of the highest order. He has restored three Cords, and his most recent is the Coppertone Cord. Coppertone, so named because of the copper plating on its louvers, is one of the five prototypes, and it was shown at the ’35 New York show. Bryant found the car nearly 30 years ago in Minden Mines, Mo.

 Bryant knew his car was a very early model, or perhaps one of the prototypes, because many of its elements seemed different from standard. He contacted Buehrig about the car, and Buehrig asked Bryant to bring the glovebox door to the annual Cord celebration in Auburn, Ind. There, Buehrig scratched through the paint on the back of the door and found the original deep-wine color.

 Buehrig later stopped in Prairie Village enroute to Michigan from his summer home in Arizona. Upon a closer examination of the entire car he verified that it was, indeed, one of the earliest prototypes, although it had been modified along the way. Bryant asked Buehrig how he should restore it. “Just as I designed it,” Buehrig said.

 To that end, Bryant has worked to bring the car back to its original configuration. He copper-plated the louvers, made hubcaps without holes and restored the headlights to their side-opening configuration.

 Today, Bryant’s work of many years is nearly complete. He plans to unveil the finished car next year at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Ind.