Hoadley worked his entire career at Ford Motor Company, starting in 1941 as a modeler. After serving in the military during WWII, he returned to modeling working on the 3-ton truck which was later scaled down to the first F series truck. He later moved to the Mercury studio as head modeler, worked in the Advance Design studio and then the Advance Projects studio as head modeler in the 1950s. In 1958, he was sent to Germany to set up a modeling team, hire and train staff, and update equipment. He returned to the U.S. in 1967, and in 1968 was named manager of Modeling Services. He retired in 1978 and at the time of the interview owned a consulting firm, Hoadley Associates. Hoadley begins his detailed oral history discussing his family history and early interest in automobiles and design. He goes on to talk about his time at Ford in the 1940s under Eugene Gregorie’s leadership and how the department was organized, the process of design at the time, and the tools used by modelers at Ford. Hoadley discusses the changes to the design department after the war with the influx of designers from GM, as well as the changes to how modeling was approached by the two different companies. He then talks about his work in the Advanced studios and International Design during the early-mid 1950s under Alex Tremulis and Gil Spear, especially working on the Taunus, Vedette, and English Ford. He goes on to discuss setting up modeling work in Germany, developing a system for wind tunnel testing clay models, and an electronic system for scanning and milling clay models. He also discusses his input on the design for the 17M Taunus, P5 Taunus, Cardinal, and Escort. He goes on to discuss his return to the U.S. and role as Manager of Modeling Services. Hoadley goes into great detail about modernizing modeling at Ford through administrative changes, training, and particularly new equipment. His changes included DEA machines which heralded the beginning of computer aided design, innovations to frames, bridges, and tools used in modeling, and updating the formulas used for modeling clay. He wraps up discussing his retirement and consulting work through his firm Hoadley Associates.

Collection contains 13 cassettes, 13 WAV files, 13 MP3 files, 2 diskettes, 3 loose transcripts, and 2 bound transcripts.

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Automobile Design Techniques and Design Modeling: The Men, the Methods, and the Materials