A couple of months ago we ran a piece about Jim Leonard’s 1968 Firebird.

The background information in that story included a few little known details of the design stages of the Firebird. Paul Deeson read the story and stopped by the LA View office.

 

“How did you know all that about the Firebird?” asked Deeson.“I was there when they began the project. I did the very first drawing of it.” Then he pulled a stack of old pencil drawings out of an art carrying case. There were early renditions of not only the Firebird, but scores of other cars. Some of the drawings were of familiar vehicles, others were clearly concept cars.

 

Deeson explained that he began working for General Motors as a designer in 1954.He retired in 1994 as assistant chief designer.During his 40-year career he participated in some of GM’s greatest projects.

 

We talked for several hours and he told me the story behind a few of his rare drawings.He began with the Firebird.

 

“They (several GM executives) sat us down around a table and described what they had in mind,” said Deesen.“The Camaro was already in the clay stage so we had to fit the Pontiac design into their black metal. Black metal ... that’s what they called the sheet metal that the Firebird and Camaro would share.

 

“So I knew it was going to be a four-passenger sports car, and I knew the approximate size of the thing,” recalled Deeson.

 

“After I met with the executives, they put me in a little room.

 

This was the very first drawing of the Firebird. I did it in a small room all by myself.” Of course the actual Firebird changed considerably from the initial drawings. But the general shape and Pontiac flavor are clear in Deeson’s first sketch.

 

Toward the end of his career Deeson had the opportunity to work on the last generation of the F-car. I wonder how many designers can say they worked on the first and last models of a car that had a 35-year run? Deeson loved working as a designer.

 

“It was exciting work,” he said.

 

“But it was also stressful. I always had five bosses, and I had to take what they told me and work it in without affecting what the other bosses wanted.

 

And they were always changing their minds.” Designers were not married to one General Motors brand for their entire career. They were moved around a lot.

 

“They didn’t want us working with the same guys too much,” said Deeson.“They thought moving us around would stimulate our creativity.And they were right. It did make us think differently.” In 1966 Deeson was asked to make the earliest drawings of the GMC MotorHome.He was given some perimeters and got to work.

 

“The original idea was to produce a vehicle that would sleep six people and be priced under $10,000,” recalls Deeson.“But then the people at Winnebago started complaining that GM was doing predatory pricing, so they upped it to $15,000.” Of course by the time it was introduced in 1972, the GMC MotorHome had a base price of $27,500.

 

It was marketed at the “MotorHome that doesn’t look like a box or ride like a truck.” “The first drawings had a low windshield, which we really liked,’ said Deeson.“But the big shots said we couldn’t use that windshield because pedestrians would look up the passenger’s dress.How ridiculous! But you can see that they did use the front end design; they just flattened it out a bit.” Deeson also had drawing of the S-10 Blazer, which was introduced in the 1983 model year.

 

Deeson was called on in the late 1970s to begin the styling process.

 

“The idea behind the Blazer was to use as many parts from the (S-10) pickup truck line as possible,” said Deeson.

 

“Notice on the first drawings that the glass wraps around the rear of the car,” pointed out Deeson.“This was reminiscent of the Chevy Nomad. In fact,we wanted to call it that, but the sales guys said no.” Instead they called new minitruck the S-10 Blazer, a name which causes confusion to this day because Chevrolet was selling a full-sized Blazer at the time. To make matters worse, GMC was selling the same vehicle under the moniker of Jimmy.

 

But all that naming and marketing stuff was of no concern to Deeson.He was a designer. Over the years he worked on designs for Cadillac, Lotus, Buick Chevrolet and GMC Truck and Bus.Much of his work never saw the light of day.

 

For instance, in the mid-sixties he was asked to work on an entry-level car for the Mexican market.

“They gave me all sorts of parameters,” recalls Deeson.

 

“Like they wanted to use the same molds for the front and rear of the car. That would save a lot of money. They also wanted to use the same glass on the front and rear.” That one didn’t make the cut.

But scores of others did.

If you know of an interesting automobile, please contact James McCarter by e-mail at jmccarter@ laview.net or call 810-245-9343.

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