Brocade Interiors And The Rim-Blow Steering Wheel: Cold Start

Cs Lincoln Rimblow Top
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The Broughamization of America was a very real, very powerful thing. Throughout most of the 1970s, powerful broughamic rays inundated our nation, causing carpet to grow into thick, rich piles, roofs to become envinyl’d, windows opera-ized, lapels to grow to unheard of sizes, mustaches thickened, and everything generally became severely broughamized. One clear example of this is how car interiors grew protective layers of brocade as a result. Also, there was the rim-blow steering wheel, which isn’t necessarily related to broghamization, but sure is funny.

Lincoln, of course, was one of the most susceptible – or receptive – to the broughamic influences, and really leaned in, really reveled in it all. Look at all the layers of ornament on that Continental up top; it wasn’t enough to just cover the headlamps, for example, they had to add ornate fake grillework onto those covers. Every edge got chrome trim. Every roof vinyl. It was a dazzling time.

Look at this interior:

Cs Lincoln Brocade 1

Holy crap, right? What’s that made out of, salvaged wedding dresses? Look on the door cards, too. It’s fucking Versailles in there.

Cs Lincoln Brocade2

And the colors! Sapphire and emerald! Different brocade patterns! Some ornate thing stamped into the pliant door vinyl! What a time to be in cars!

Cs Lincoln Rimblow 1

And then, of course, there’s this: the Rim-Blow steering wheel.

Now, to modern ears, we hear a hyphenated combination of slang terms for analingus and fellatio and that captures our attention, like a bag of chowder flung at a brick wall, hard. The reality is almost as exciting.

You see, between about 1969 to 1974 most American carmakers – including Ford, GM, AMC, Chrysler, all the big ones, – decided that Americans should be freed of the tyranny of having to honk their horns by pushing buttons or rings or areas in the center of the wheel, and instead should be allowed to honk by squeezing the wheel rim.

And thus the Rim-Blow wheel was born.

To honk the horn, you just needed to squeeze anywhere on the wheel rim – the “button” was a rubber insert on the inside circumference of the wheel. You can see it as a blue band up above.

Here’s how it worked:

So, nothing to do with any oral-based sexual acts at all! Who knew!

The rubber on these tended to dry and contract, making the horn hard to activate, or worse, honking nonstop. These fell out of favor after a few years, but if you encounter a car with one, see if you can give it a squeeze.

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Mercedes Streeter

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87 thoughts on “Brocade Interiors And The Rim-Blow Steering Wheel: Cold Start”

  3. If only Americans weren’t so afraid of color, we might have cool interiors like those again. Instead, we have black/white/gray cars with the edgy folks now buying (horrors) a blue car.

    Interiors these days can apparently only be a black well of boredom, the most indecisive color of all time – gray or some form of tan, which is the color of true defeat.

    Looking around at interiors on YT, it looks like people are equally boring and fearful in their selection of home decor colors.

    Here’s why we’re polarized – everything, including cars, has been reduced to either black or white. People have no idea how to make a decision if there are more than two options.

  6. Oddly enough I have been driving a 77 Cadillac lately. The bro-ham vibe is kind of fun. Definitely feel like listening to the GTA San Andreas theme whenever I’m driving it.

  7. Our family had a 1971 Pontiac Catalina Brougham! The green brocade was awesome. The car was brown with a green vinyl top and had the 400 cubic inch engine! I would love to own one of these! I found a 1971 Catalina Brougham for sale, but it had the optional vinyl interior which was a deal breaker! A 1971 Grand Ville or Bonneville with a brocade interior would work too!

  9. I’m old enough to remember when the term brocade, as related to vehicles, referred to intricate, ornate patterned fabric interiors. Today it just means a cavalcade of of jacked-up pickup trucks.

    To get the most out of those rim-blow horns, you had to first squeeze from the bottom of the wheel and work your way up and around to ensure you got all the beep out.

  10. And then, of course, there’s this: the Rim-Blow steering wheel.
    …
    The reality is almost as exciting.

    I was thinking a steering wheel cocaine dispenser.

  11. When considering all the synonyms for rim and blow (in this context) I could come up with in 10 seconds (edge, toot, honk, blast), I guess rim blow is fine for a name?

    Though Jason mentioned something about squeezing …

  12. My grandparents would always buy the nicest Delta-88 with Versailles curtain upholstery. Then they would pay to have it covered in plastic diamond patterned vinyl because it was too nice to actually sit on. They would trade in the car 2 years later and the next buyer got brand new fancy upholstery.

      1. My grandmother did that also, we figured she was trying to keep everything nice in case the Pope was in the neighborhood one day and decided to pop in for coffee

      3. I remember having to sit on those plastic covers as a kid. Not the best of things during an East Texas August when it’s 100 degrees in the shade and the humidity is up around 90.

    2. Hot and sticky in the summer and cold and slippery in the winter. People who complain about leather have no idea how bad that diamond patterned vinyl was. Memories….

    3. I’m trying to picture what diamond patterned vinyl would be….. do you have a picture? I googled, but I’m not quite sure what I’m looking for.

        1. Oh, interesting! I’d seen the smooth plastic inside houses, but never textured stuff. I imagine the textured version was for more traction in cars (theoretically).

  13. A friend’s parents had a 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special gifted to them by a wealthy relative. It had an ivy-patterned black brocade interior, and it was lovely. I felt like royalty being driven around in it.

    1. It was absolutely an interior design in one of my grandparents’ cars – my granny’s 1973 Delta 88, the only car I remember her driving my entire life until her death. It was only one model year newer than I am.

  15. We had a new 73 LTD wagon with that god damned stupid horn thing. It was a huge pain in the ass. It would blow at the most inopportune times, or not at all. If I recall correctly, you could just mash the center of the wheel to use the horn though.

    BTW, my dumb cousin Anal Lingus never did get the memo about how the tongue should or should not be used. And he always smelled like shit…Thanks for the memories.

    1. My first car was the ’74 Country Squire version. I think it was optional that year with Ford. Thankfully, whoever owned the car before my dad bought the car with the standard steering wheel.

  16. I can’t say that the idea of horn activation this way wouldn’t have come to the minds of Detroit-based automakers if they’d been exposed to the cultural currents of the coasts, but they would have called it something different if they’d ever been to New York or California for anything other than a sales conference at a Marriott.

          1. Admittedly I’m being a bit severe with the line drawing – certainly Chelsea would have been part of the rim-blow district of the era, as would Times Square and Eighth Avenue in the Forties, where the more adventurous business traveler might take up the offer of an open-air travel agent for a twenty-dollar trip around the world. But that would t have been talked about in corporate New York at the time, and most certainly not in corporate Detroit. Rim-blow may have been a feature of the auto industry, but the other meaning of the former would never have been broached in Bloomfield Hills and the latter would only come up on special occasions such as milestone birthdays, major promotions and a really good sale at the fur salon at Hudson’s, at least before 1972.

  17. My uncle or someone when I was young had a car with one of those horns and he was always hitting it while driving. Drove him nuts and it eventually failed as mentioned to where it wouldn’t work or constantly blew and he disconnected the horn, I forget, and I didn’t experience it, I only remember hearing about it and that’s one of those useless pieces of information that stuck over far more important things. I think that was my uncle’s tata car, which I named for its dark brown paint and that he had run over dog shit on the way over to visit one time and it had been flung up the side, which I found hilarious, but I don’t remember what that car actually was as I was only 2 or 3 (we moved shortly after), so I might have that car mixed up with a different one. Anyway, I definitely would have hated that feature as I hate horns as it is and one that would activate more readily would have a disabling master switch put in that would only be switched on to pass inspection.

    1. Then, later in the decade, Ford got even dumber than that, and moved the horn button to the end of the turn signal stalk.

      My mom’s 1979 Mercury Grand Marquis had that, and I’m sure she kept bruises on her hands for the 3-year she owned it, from slapping the center of the steering wheel and forgetting about the stupid turn signal stalk horn button.

      1. A ’78 Fairmont Futura that I’d rent from the local Ford dealer had that. I think one of my Renaults had that too.

        The last car I owned with that was my Chevy Volt, but the stalk one was a “quiet beep” meant for pedestrians who didn’t hear you in electric mode. The regular horn was in the usual spot.

      2. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. Another dumb idea that relegates the horn to useless. In an emergency warning situation, it’s unlikely to be able to activate it. I guess it still works for someone picking someone up to announce their presence, but my policy post animal noise PA system* was always: if I’m giving you a ride, you need to be ready and waiting so I don’t have to use the horn.

        *I used to love that animal sound system. One of the sound effects was two dogs barking at each other. Arriving at someone’s house who owned a dog made it amusing to have to announce I was there as that thing invariably set off any real dogs who heard it.

  18. I recall hearing a story about my dad driving around in a rental car in the 70s that had a rim-blow steering wheel. He got cut off and hit/gripped the horn too tightly and it wouldn’t shut back off. He then drove for over an hour with the horn blaring before he couldn’t handle it anymore and pulled over and ripped the wiring out of the horn. I have never experienced a rim-blow steering wheel, but I don’t think I’d have made it more than five minutes before disabling the horn.

    1. I remember one of my relatives’ Cadillac had the rim-blow horn. In the days of over-boosted power steering, you never had to grip the wheel — you could spin it with your fingertips even when the car wasn’t moving.

      The idea was that you’d only ever have to grip the wheel tightly if you needed to avoid a hazard, and so you could sound the horn just by squeezing the wheel a little more instead of moving a hand or fingers to hit a button.

      It was the idea. No one ever said it turned out to be a good idea.

      1. Side note- when did the days of over boosted power steering end? My ’95 f150 has super easy one finger power steering, although I mostly drive my non power steering Honda with one finger too.

  20. That opening paragraph and premise is pure gold.

    Jason, if you ever had a creative writing teacher in high school or college, they must have been either amazed and inspired by the workings of your imagination, or terrified and are still in therapy to this day. 😛

  21. At least the interiors of the time were interesting to look at. By the 90s dreary greys and blacks were the norm. Thankfully real colors have started coming back as have more fabrics and design.

    1. I grew up in the 70s… American car interiors weren’t just interesting, they were an experience. Kind of like an acid trip is an experience. They pretty much were designed to envelop your senses with sheer faux-Baroque (Fauxroque?) excess.

      1. Not all 70s cars had the wild interiors. Cheaper cars had a lot plainer fabrics. I would take any of those fabrics over the vinyl or leather in newer cars. Expensive cars leather (Bridge Of Weir in Lincolns come to mind) are a lot more livable then the crap in cheap cars.

    2. It’s hard to believe, but back in the ’80s, the monochrome interiors were seen as refreshingly sleek and forward-looking compared with the complicated baroque chintz of the ’70s.

      And now-contemptible medium gray was the height of this-is-what-starship-cockpits-look-like futurism even! Esp. when paired with digital instruments.

      1. Started even earlier, Reliant bragged about switching the interiors of their cheaper 3 wheeled Regal and 4 wheeled Rebel to all plain black vinyl in the late ’60s, ads called it the “Scimitar Look”.

        Previously, they had a couple color choices, some contrasting colors, and available wood grain dash, but the Scimitar was all black inside, and that was considered sportier and more modern looking

        1. I do remember back when jet black interiors were seen as high-end performance-y, due I guess to domestic muscle cars going as cheap as possible and European sportscars sporting that look. Definitely makes everything tighter and more cockpit like.

          Most everyday cars at the time couldn’t be had with the black, and luxury cars tended to have lighter tones, so it had this aura of cool. I remember seeing them as a kid and loving how the various chrome touches and gauge colors stood out.

          Now of course we’re all sick of it, and to me, it looks odd when it’s NOT on a low-slung performance vehicle.

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