Milt Antonick

Antonick was the supervisor responsible for compacts and pony cars in the Plymouth Exterior Studio. Working under Milt was Neil Walling, who would become Chrysler's Director of Advanced and Exterior Large Car, Small Car, and Minivan Design but then was a junior stylist. He had been working on full-size Plymouths before being pulled in to work on what became the Duster.

"I was asked to do some sketches," Walling recalls. "It was what I call a 'quick-hitter' project. We didn't have much lead time. Since the fender and door lower were carryover Valiant, we had to come up with a design that came off all those existing crease lines -- five of them, no less. We did tape drawings trying to get a better flow; sportier and more creative.

Subject ID: 35194

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Antonick was the supervisor responsible for compacts and pony cars in the Plymouth Exterior Studio. Working under Milt was Neil Walling, who would become Chrysler's Director of Advanced and Exterior Large Car, Small Car, and Minivan Design but then was a junior stylist. He had been working on full-size Plymouths before being pulled in to work on what became the Duster.

"I was asked to do some sketches," Walling recalls. "It was what I call a 'quick-hitter' project. We didn't have much lead time. Since the fender and door lower were carryover Valiant, we had to come up with a design that came off all those existing crease lines -- five of them, no less. We did tape drawings trying to get a better flow; sportier and more creative.

"Still, it was an extraordinarily tough tooling budget. All of the package had to be carryover, including the wheelbase, together with carryover front-end sheet-metal, cowl, front and rear bumpers, door lowers, quarter-panel inner structure, etc. The Plymouth stylists could do anything they wanted as long as they held these hardpoints. Their task was to come up with a close-coupled looking coupe while stuck with a carryover floor-pan on a 108-inch wheelbase with immense rear overhang. Even the overall length -- 188.4 inches -- had to exactly match the four-door sedan. 'Junkyard styling' I called it: making do by creating something of value mostly out of what's available. Milt Antonick excelled at it."

Subject ID: 35194

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