[quote B8P0692H2P771HMK]Ford designer Elwood Engel oversaw the Lincoln/Mercury design studios that produced the 1957 Mercury. Note the lower half of the grille/bumper bar, with its divided spaces. It re-appeared on the rear of the 1964 Thunderbird. This time the spaces were filled with tail lights. But by then, Elwood was the design boss at Chrysler. And he always liked to recycle design ideas, hence the grille of the 1970 Dodge.[/quote] The '58 Mercury was even more pronounced with the bigger split grille. The '58 De Soto grille was a big improvement over the '57 by just a simple notch in the bottom rail.