That was the Sierason System, windshield had a gold tint to it. Didn't see but a couple of them here in Texas. The second alternator a wire coming off of it that looked like about a number 6. It would not activate for a couple of minutes after you started the car and once it was turned on, you couldn't use any of the other power operated features in the car. It would in fact clear the ice off of the windshield in a few short minutes !! I saw a couple of Marks with it.
Here's one I ran into in a local yard. A '73-'74 Plymouth Satellite or Road Runner 2-door with a factory sunroof. The car was shot but I should have bought the roof off it. That guy had some great stuff in there and it's all scrapped now - a '58 New Yorker that looked complete, a '51 Merc coupe that looked complete, a pile (!) of 50s Hemis that were probably junk... somewhere there was supposed to be the front half of a 300A or 300B, too. Someone mentioned way early the factory '40s Chevy spinner wheels. I think they were standard on convertibles. Another yard I was in they'd ripped a car apart in the winter trying to scrap it and I come through six months later and trip over one of those wheels on the ground. How it survived not being run over by the loader, who knows, but even in crap shape it brought almost $500.
In 1956/7 I had a friend whose father had a 56 Chrysler 300B. It was a stick shift on the column. In 1958/9 I worked with a woman who drove a 1956 3 speed Chrysler 4 door.
That's odd - at the end of the 1956 production run Chevrolet had a lot of left over 265's that they offered as a 165hp option in the 57s until they ran out. All had 2bbl carbs, single exhaust and 3speeds. And the block was painted YELLOW, instead of Chevrolet orange.
How about a "Swiss Cheese" Pontiac. This is 1 of 14, and I know of another one near me that's been hidden away for over 30 years.
How about the 1955/56 Dodge "La Femme"? A $158 option marketed to the ladies, which included special paint, front fender badging, rosebud upholstery and a purse which held a face powder holder, lipstick holder, cigarette holder, cigarette lighter and comb. The purse was decorated with a large shield which could be engraved with the owner's name. The purse fit into a special holder in the back of the front seat. About 2500 were made, something like 60 are thought to still exist.
Anybody who wanted take the kids with, wanted performance and wanted dash padding to save those same kid's teeth when he had panic stops and who's priority wasn't style)
I bought a NOS Ford defroster a while back for my '62 Falcon project. Falcons sure need something back there.
"Factory electronic F.I. on 1958 Chrysler products"......would be SOLID GOLD today! The convertible appears to be a Desoto. Do you have any more info. on the car? I wonder how many survivors there are today?
Had a 1956 Mercury montclair 2dr hard-top with pwr windows, pwr seat, town&country (seeking radio) and the automatic greasing system for the front suspension. I had to replace the automatic transmission once and the torque converter was finned aluminum, don't know if that was factory or not, I was just a kid when i owned this car.
Probably the same car. The owner I believe is/was an electrical engineer. He rebuilt the 'brain box' with modern capacitors. There is a handful of EFI cars that didn't go back at the time they were recalled.
My Dad's OT 1969 Dodge Polara 2 door hardtop had the optional "Superlight" on the driver's side of the grill which when lit would throw out a rectangular beam way ahead of the car so you could see the road better. It was below the oncoming driver's eyesight so as not to blind them. It worked great on all of those trips up to northern Michigan at night.
I worked at a Dodge dealer 69-71 and I remember those superlights on some Polaras. But the strangest option was the Mod Top (I know that is what Plymouth called them, I don't know for certain what Dodge called the option). There was a green Dart GTS, 383, auto, with a green flowered vinyl top and interior sitting in the new car storage area -- what a strange combination! Sent from my SCH-S720C using H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yeah, the mid-fifties Ford automatics were 'air cooled', had that two-piece finned torque convertor and a big air scoop on the bellhousing to direct air to it....
Worked at a dealership when I was a kid. Brand new 65 Chevelle came in, No motor , no transmission. I thought that was odd .
Back when I was a senior in high school in 1975 I owned a 1958 pink cadillac that had an AM Radio with a SCAN option, it actually moved the needle back and forth thru the station dial until it found a station, you could watch it move thru the little window.. that was one of the parts on the caddy that I wished I had saved...
We've kind of gotten off the beaten path here; this is about the weird options that were offered. Prior to emissions requirements getting into full swing, you used to be able to special-order some pretty strange combinations if you paid attention to the order books. There's the documented one-of-one 67 Ford Country Squire 4-dr wagon that a guy got (with intercession from Lee Iacocca no less!) with a 428/four speed and bucket seats. I knew a guy that had a 65 BelAir wagon with a 327/four speed (saw the data plate on that one). And don't forget the 70 1/2 'Falcons' that could be ordered with a 429SCJ. Here's one nobody has probably ever heard of.... a 63 T-bird 'Landau Monaco' edition to honor Princess Grace, with special trim. Only 2000 were built. And there was the 'regional specials' (although these were more of a 70s thing) sold as promotions; some tied to sports teams, I know Ford sold "NW Edition" cars with unique colors/trim in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the early seventies. The 68 'California Special' Mustangs are the most famous ones, but they weren't the only ones.
freind of mine bought a 50 Pontiac Chieftian with the handicap hand throttle and brake controls that were from the dealer . he saved the stuff when the car was sent to the scrap yard.. and at the body shop when I worked there we had a 65 chevy II come thru for a repaint , it was evening orchid ( pinkish rose color )and it was a six cylinder SS , back then SS was a body package not a performance package . car is a original owner and he had the proof , and its twin ( in black ) was owned by a freind of his locally ( both bought at the same dealer)
The only thing the "Auto-Lube" didn't lube were the U-joints, but weren't a bad idea;(they dispensed a shot of lube approximately every 600 mi.; just keep the resevoir full & remember the U-joints!)
The Duster trans would have been the A-833 4 speed O.D. trans. The O.D. 833 was actually made by making 3rd gear the O.D. ratio and flipping the shifter arms so 4th became 3rd and 3rd became 4th. 3rd gear was direct drive (1 to 1) as it was really 4th gear in the actual design of the trans. It had the regular H shift pattern. If he installed the shifter arms correctly it would have shifted normally.
That Desoto is the ONLY running example left. They were recalled and converted back to dual carbs back in 1958 by Chrysler. They were available on all 4 lines, The Chrysler 300, the Desoto Adventurer, The Plymouth Fury, and across the Dodge line with the D-500 option.
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