50 Desoto dash panel made from steel ...primed..gonna add some custom trim here and there,,,.gauges on the way...
From So Cal: The Mission San Luis Rey is located at 4050 Mission Avenue in Oceanside, and was designated California State Historical Landmark #239 in 1936. The 1815 Mission Church was designated National Historic Landmark #70000142 in 1970. Hello, That old photo is interesting as it is not just an old mission in a long line of missions in California from those very early history days. We had once decided to find all of the old missions built along the coastal and slightly inland areas from San Diego to San Francisco. Our elementary grade level son, even had a school project about Missions of California and it was a required subject, but a fun one to help make and finish. But, the long coastal tour took several years of road trips to see one, then another. Not all of them in one or two week vacation road trips… But, after gazing at the old, Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, California, it took on a different connotation. No, it was located next to the Camp Pendleton entrance location and along the San Luis Rey River area in the early days. It was a memory of our own elementary school days in the Westside of Long Beach playground. Our elementary school provided all students to enjoy hanging around the school playground by providing a safe place to play and enjoy all different sports activities. There was a certified playground director and his usual college age assistant all year around for the activities. The school district and local playgrounds, plus the Long Beach Recreation Department had a good set up, as each playground had sports teams to play against other playgrounds on Saturday mornings. Our old guy drove a Plymouth 5 window sedan and it was a classic. every Saturday, we would all pile in to his car until the amount of players increased as the sports moved to a different team activities. For basketball, we did not need a large car because only 7 little kids were usually on the playground team. Since the assistant also had a car, it was comfy to travel to the other parks and playgrounds for the competitive games. Jnaki But, as baseball season rolled around, now, 9 to 11 players needed transportation to the Saturday games. So, crammed into the Plymouth sedan was one way and also crammed into the small VW sedan were the remaining players. Each had their plus and minus factors. Plus factor was being selected to play on the traveling team. The minus factor was the Plymouth had cigar smoke packed into the sedan. And, the VW sedan had a nice looking driver, but the whole car and occupants took on the smell of heavy perfume… So, which was worse? The Plymouth sedan was similar until I looked again at the old photo. This woman was driving a custom car back in those old days…! and it was a carbon copy Dodge. A set of Appletons, full rear fender skirts, smooth moon style hubcaps and super wide white wall tires. Yes, some models during those early times could be ordered at the dealer with Appleton spotlights as extras and skirts were popular on family sedans. So, this car could have been one of those dealer built semi-custom sedans or the woman was a true custom car fanatic !!! As long as early custom cars were around, this one got the Chrysler Wire Wheels, skinny whitewalls and a nice side header outlet, just in case an open road was found… And, there were plenty of open roads in the Mission San Luis Rey area back in those early days… YRMV
I love the look of this car. Just saw a nice deal on a similar Plymouth up in Seattle in an original sea foam green color. Pretty tempting at $2500. However it’s a 4 door.
Could be an early production 49. The Dodge cars, like other Chrysler cars changed little until 1949 when the new mid-year models appeared as a "Second Series." According to the Standard Catalog Chrysler 1924-1990 book.
My 49 Dodge pickup. Those missing grille and stainless front end trim parts are expensive and hard to find!
Hello, I was drawing a version of this light blue 48 Dodge Coupe, as I thought that was what our old playground coach drove during our elementary school days. But, as I got into the actual art work, I realized that a bunch of elementary school kids could not all fit into the car seats. (At least half of a baseball team... the other half went with a young college age girl assitant coach, who drove her own car...) So, I started on a larger rear window version of the same year model. The one in the crowded garage sure looks like a 48 version with the "squarish" grille. Jnaki I eventually gave it some custom touches to make the Dodge sedan a little larger for our cigar smoking baseball/basketball elementary school coach and all of us that piled into the car. YRMV
I think this car was originally built by a guy out of Vegas back around 2015 or so ... I think he was a part of the Dragstrip Zombies CC.
The Jalopy Journal
