Thanks! They are pretty fantastic. I did a bunch of cleaning on her interior today and making sure none of the moveable parts are stuck, and the ones that were I fixed, (door handles and little things like that.) Not huge progress, but progress nonetheless.
Cool! Good Luck to you! I really like these. I have a 56 Dodge 2 door ht and a 56 DeSoto 4 door. I want to build a Aussie style Ute out of the 4 door. Always keep it MoPar!!!
X10 on keeping it MOPAR, Lizzie! Sure the Hemi may be gone, but you have a ton of decent choices (ditto as for a custom grille). SO happy to see another '55 or '56 DeSoto rescued by someone who's OBVIOUSLY going to love it to death.
I did a GIMPed picture like that once, just for grins. Here's the original photo and my horrible abuse of that photo.
Hello from Arkansas!!! I have 7 or 8 ('57-'61) Forward Look car's. Have you visited "the forward look network" site. Its a great site for all your FL needs. Anyone can drive a ferd or chebby, it take a REAL gal to drive a Desoto!!!
Heh. I keep looking at lizzie's avatar photo and thinking that steering wheel is HUGE! Nifty-looking, too. What is it, about 17" across? Did that car have power steering? The 55's have the shifter in the dash, too, right? I wonder if you can make that work with a later transmission. A friend of a friend of a friend... once had a '55 body for sale; now I'm starting to wonder if it's still out in the guy's shed. Is there any MoPar motor that just bolts up to the DeSoto's existing motor mounts?
Thanks! The Mopar love was drilled into my head a long time ago, I wouldn't dare put anything else in there. That car is babied already haha, I'm pretty sure my Daily Driver is starting to get jealous, the last few days she's been running WAY better than she ever has before (it's like she's sayin "I'm still a good car, please don't replace me!!!!") I haven't been there, but I'll check it out! Desotos are just pretty, plus I get a kick out of telling people what she is and hearing "A What? Who the hell makes those?" Then I get to go into history lesson mode and it makes me happy. Chevys and Fords are cute cars, I've had a few of both in the past, but there's just something about a Desoto that makes me incredibly smitten. She was manual column shift...I'm switching to automatic though. Here's a picture of her dash setup after I scrubbed the hell out of it last night with a toothbrush. I'm going to have to do it again, but the last time this car was even tagged was 1977..I've got a LOT of cleaning to do on her.
73RR No the Sketches are in my head. I don't want to do it like the idea below your reply. I want to have the roof come out to the edge, kind of like the rancharos do. I will post a picture of a car done the way I like.
Heres a 55 Ford done the way I want to do it. I would also like to find the doors off a two door to make it more proportioned. Whats your thoughts?
A "3 on the tree" Desoto!!! That had to be 1 fast ride in its day. I know you want an auto. but a std ****** big car is way too COOOOOOOOOOOOL.
true, I'm still a little on the fence on it...I'll figure it out soon enough. I haven't seen too many..if any of these year with the 3 on the tree, but most of the ones I've seen were automatic from the get go. So it's kinda tearing me apart trying to decide which way I want to go. She's going to end up being my daily once I get her finished and reliable enough because as much as I love my p.o.s. '83 wagon this Desoto is way too gorgeous to keep at home all day. So I'm really trying to take my time with figuring out all the big stuff.
I agree, the proportions in the 'altered' pic are off...going in the right general direction but not quite pleasing to my eye. Everyone will have a different opinion of course. And yes, the larger door is a must have . Other than the Hemis, the A-LA engines are about as close as you will get. Years ago (decades?) we installed many EarlyHemi engines in 60'-70's B&E bodies as well as D-W and AW 100/150. Most of the time we used the oem parts and only needed to add some shims to accomodate the fore-aft location change due to the trans adapter. So, in reverse, the same process would follow and with a bit more effort the B&RB would be somewhat similar. ...and the color on the 'ute' is dynamite! Manual trans? What an awesome piece that would be....as long as you don't mind the 'leg' work. .
The vast majority of '55 Chryslers and DeSotos were Powerflites -- not sold as hi-perf cars, per se, just great, durable cars. Though I haunted junkyards in the late '60s and well into the '70s, I never saw ONE std. I did find a '56 Firedome with three-speed, but it was a nice runner and beyond my means. But Tim Flock said his '55 300 wouldn't dig in the way he wanted it to. AND, since the 3-speed WAS an option (rarely ordered, actually), he (or Karl) asked Bill, Sr., if they couldn't use the 3-speed in NASCAR as the '55 season wore on. Surprisingly, Big Bill said yes. And Tim's wins picked up, as he got the responsiveness that the Powerflite wasn't affording him. I had a '55 Dodge panel 230 flatty with the 3sp behind it. I put the 230 into my '38 and gave the 3sp to a friend. Unfortunately, I did not get any numbers off that ******. But I am convinced that this Dodge truck trans is the same unit offered as an option to Chry/DeS buyers who preferred a standard over an automatic that year. LONG way to go to make a point! Bottom line? Would be pretty hard to lay hands on. And, anyway, there are way better, later MOPAR trannies you could work with. Cheaper, easier to get, easier to install and service. Me? If you want a relaxing, reliable cruiser, go with a good-running 360 and Torqueflite.
First off, Wow! Thanks for the info, I love knowing the history behind these ol' gals, so thank you so much! My practical side says " go with the relaxing cruiser, no reason to make things over-complicated" However...I do have a bit of a speed demon in me that says "no no, go loud, fast and scare the **** out of everyone else on the road"...I suppose I wouldn't be a woman if I didn't want to take something simple and make it a huge pain in the *** to everyone involved. Thanks for the ideas! I'll add it to the list of ones to look for.
Lizzie, I really am sorry if I gave the impression that ladies don't like the same things about cars that guys do. I drive like a grandpa compared to my lead-foot wife! LOL But, I think a lot of guys here will tell you that the 360 will make as much noise as you like AND more HP than the original stock 291 Hemi, without having to spend as much dough. (BTW, the 291 Fireflite w. Carter 4B gave an honest 200 HP from the factory and would do the flying mile at 100. Pretty decent for a car over 4,000 pounds in '55.) And the Torqueflite is tough -- and more responsive -- than the original Powerflite. My point? You CAN build a car that is both a cool cruiser AND will make noise and lay a little rubber.
No worries dear, didn't even think twice about it. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for those then...I've found a few 440's with 727's on Craigslist, but if I can find a 360 I'll definitely snag it. That sounds about to be the right one for me. Thanks so much, the "pick your engine" game has been the biggest pain so far. I yanked the carpet out of her last night, I'm going to take the seats out this weekend, do some cleanup and lay down some por 15. At least I'm making progress on SOMETHING that way. Also the floor panels are in WAY better shape than I expected them to be in...no holes or weak spots...just some surface rust and a bunch of dirt. So hooray for progress.
That Desoto looks like a lot of fun. I'd think a 360 and matching trans would be a pretty reliable combination to drop in and they shouldn't take any real modification of the car to put them in. I've got a 56 Desoto Hemi with a stick setup with overdrive waiting to go in something but the engine is in pieces and from my calculations will cost an arm and two legs to put together right.
Sadly, very little has come down in price over the last decade so you might consider picking up the odd bits and pieces as you can. .
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