I didn't see a tread on the history of our Antique Rods. I just discovered a piece of history on my '46 that put a smile on my face from ear to ear. I should first say that I've always been kind of supers***ious in regard to dates, and we have a lot of people born on holidays in my family (son is Sping, wife is Halloween, sister is Christopher Columbus day, Grandmother was Xmas, nephew is New Years, you get the idea...). I have a piece of property I'm building a home/shop to retire to and the deed was recorded in my and my wife's name on our daughter's 5th birthday, Sept. 18, 2000. I just found out tonight that the previous owner, was born on the same day...I've always felt my '46 will end up at the property, puttering down to get some hardware and lumber in town, puttering back...I think of it as a simpler life. My '46 was bought by a farmer in North Carolina when new, the first year after WWII ended. It lived there until August 1982 when Clarence Luther Little of Murphy, NC bought it from the original owner. Clarence is the one that did a lot of work on it and put the 235 in it, redid the master cyl and hard brake lines., stainless exhaust and new muffler, radials on 15" rims, et al.
^^ Cool Story^^^ A quick little history on my delivery. I had heard it was sold new in Covington Va. as an ambulance. I found that to be true when I blasted it down to it's original paint. It was white with green crosses, and lettering. It became a Hot Rod in the 60's. It was drag raced at Bristol Tn. and most of the east coast drag strips. Then as a kid, I fell in love with it, seeing it cruise around my home town. I said that I was going to buy it some day. So I kept track of it, and bought in in 1978. I could write a book of all the stories that little Rod could tell. A couple pictures of it day I got it, and now. Thanks Ron....
We bought our car in August 2020. The PO of my car is 90 years young and couldn't remember anything about the car. Other than he bought it in California. The P15-D24 Forum had members get a hold of the Chryslers Historical Services, requesting copies of the build cards for their cars. Thought that was some neat info to have sent mine in September of 2020. Finally got it February 2022 (Pandemic). The build card for my car from Chrysler Corp., that started this "wild goose chase". The build card states the car was ordered through Frisco Motor Sales in Clifton, AZ., scheduled to be built on Halloween 1947 in Los Angeles, and built the following Monday or Wednesday (Can't tell from the handwriting). It was a pretty plain car, almost no options just a filter crankcase breather, plastic fake whitewall trim rings, and rear bumper guards, Originally painted Airwing Grey it now maroon. It was delivered to T & M Garage in Miami, AZ. Been trying to find info about Frisco Motors Sales. I even contacted The Greenlee County Historical Society, they knew of a service station but no car dealership. No other records not even a picture of the gas station. All I ever could find was a Chrysler-DeSoto-Dodge-Plymouth Ad from 1950. They were a Ford retailer before World War II. So, if anyone from that area knows anything about Frisco Motor Sales, feel free to share.
That's way cool and you gotta be proud about bringing that one back, and a fine job indeed. What a transformation. I know a guy that has a '37 Chevy Ambulance he drives regularly, he's up in Berkeley, CA. His still has the inilne 6 in it. Yours looks like you may have lightened some of it up, but those ambulances are pretty cool. I've always been a fan of the 50s panels and yours is somewhere in between the 37s Ambulances and the '50s panels. Nicely done. That's cool, my wife's birthday is Halloween, she's not as old as your car though. That was the era many of the cars/trucks had 3.90:1 gearing, as your states. Just after the war also...Interesting they would go from Ford to Chrysler, since it seems Ford has the majority of sales, maybe I'm wrong. Could they even stay on over time? I guess they would need to glue them on, but vibration may loosen them, or do the trim rings clip to the wheel outer/inner to stabilize things? I hadn't been aware of them...kinda like falsies for your wheels. But your post is very interesting in regard to the serial number. Had Chrysler already manufactured 25,030,261 vehicles by 1947? My Grandmother loved Chryslers, she had a really cool 1960 Imperial and it had AC vents from the rear deck about the back seats...very interesting idea that sounds better than it worked, yet me and my cousins would fight over the back seats to get vent...they swiveled to allow change of direction. Unfortunately she sold it and got a New Yorker around '67-'68 (it was lavender with black vinyl rear pillars) and traded the Imperial in. That would have been the shizzle today, it had fins on the rear and mirrors on the front fenders...the dash had push ****ons, it looked very futuristic and as always Chrysler did put pretty big engines in the, I think he New Yorker had a big block V8 and she drove it for about 20 years. I've seen some lavender/rose ones from 1960, but not sure if that is why she got the New Yorker she did or not, just that she said she always wanted a lavender car...I digress...
Here they are on a DeSoto wheel. No, they didn't make 25,030,261 cars more like 30,261 in LA. The 25 stands for Los Angeles. The P15 models runs from 1946 - early 1949 and this is a ***ulative serial from the begining in 1946.
That is way cool! Do you have to use bias-ply tires? they still look cool, IMO. I have tubeless 15" rims on my '46 with 235/70R15 possibly, which is almost identical to the original bias-ply tires shipped on the pickup to begin with. Ok, this makes perfect sense. The reason I was wondering is that my family owned a liquor store in Southeast L.A., our liquor store was around the corner from the South Gate plant. I know they built Impalas there in the early 60s, many of them with the sought after 327, I consider those to be one of the greatest V8s ever built, along with it's little sister...the 283, but the 327 was the first fuel injected engine in production. Could have been some before but the 327 was definitely the first and it was probably in the Corvette, which started out with the high compression 235 in '53. I lived not too far from the Van Nuys plant, and not sure what they built there but know they built Cameros and Z/28s, I think they built both Chevy and Pontiac at the same plant. My first house was in Van Nuys, not far away from where I went to high school. Do you know which plant it was built at? There is not a lot of other GM plants in L.A., but there may have been one in Long Beach in the old days but it's wasn't there for my life, AFAIK. The South Gate plant bordered the train tracks that went to Long Beach, that's where the ships pickup/drop cargo. There was also a Firestone plant that bordered the train tracks also. Even before the plant was closed, PMC was the trucking company that would take the cars to Long Beach to ship out, and then later to just drive the vehicles to their destination without going by boat. I'm sure boat is still used for export. EDIT: I'm an idiot...you have Chrysler. Probably manufactured in Long Beach, there was several car manufacturers there post-war to have the docks close by. Since I typed this, I'm gonna leave it in this thread, but the GM plants don't pertain to tr's Chrysler...
I wish. It's a 40 coupe, 48 block, 39 trans, Almquist intake, chrome 97's, Kogel hi-comp heads, Red's headers, smittys, black, black r&p interior, jump seats and dual spot lights. Came out of New Hampshire. Anybody?? Paul in CT
Yeah, like I said I know there were others with fuel injection, but the 327 is still one of the very first fuel injected engines, and certainly in the SBC line which is so widely used in vintage conversions, along with it's sister 283. Mercedes also beat folks to the punch on building one of the first, if not the first automobiles with a gas engine in it, as I recall...but I could be wrong about that also, so don't quote me on that!
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