George W. Walker was asked to go and inspect a future Ford design in secret in 1945 and give his opinion. He told Ford what they wanted to hear, that the design was not saleable as a Ford. In a boardroom meeting a suggestion was made to adapt this design to be the new 1949 Mercury, which was done to the displeasure of Gregoire who left the company. George W Walker was then commissioned to produce a new design in quick time, even though he was contracted to rivals Nash and to International Harvester. Walker engaged Dick Caleal recently free from Studebaker, and he got some Studebaker employees to moonlight and help him on the design. There is even a possibility that this Caleal design was actually a fully worked up proposal for a Studebaker model that had been rejected. Whatever the truth, it seems that the Caleal design involved the work of Bob Bourke and Holden 'Bob' koto. The Walker/Caleal proposal in quarter scale form came second to a design by Gregoire and both were then worked up into full scale models, with the Walker proposal undergoing several changes by Joe Oros, including the addition of the spinner in the middle of the grille. George Walker claims credit for the 1949, but what is true is that his team then worked on a new British Ford that was launched as the new Ford Consul/Zephyr models, and then went onto to create the first Ford Thunderbird.