B-Watson

Don't know about Germans buying 5 DeSoto Airflow models and shipping them back to Germany - they could have bought them in Germany as Chrysler had an export operation and assembly plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Chrysler also had a plant in London, England, that assembled CKD units from Detroit, including Airflow models. It is known, though, that Ferdinand Porsche, the man who designed and engineered the VW, visited Detroit in 1934 and visited a number of auto manufacturers. He was a very forward thinking engineer and his work was ahead of the times. He would have thought the Airflow was a very advanced design, although only the design of the car would have influenced him. He was working on a RWD car with a unit body - no chassis frame but a platform foundation on which to base the car.

The missing two colours -

Hope this helps . .

The 1941 and 1942 LWB Crown Imperials used a curved windshield - although bent would be better description. The Crown Imperial Special of 1941 based on the New Yorker Town Sedan used the normal two piece windshield. Studebaker used a curved (bent) windshield on its 1941-1942 Commander and President club coupes. The Chrysler Custom Imperial Airflow CW used a true curved windshield with the curves at either end of the glass and not in the centre.

Dodge Brothers used a Budd-engineered all-steel body on the 1928 Victory Six, including the floors, but soon found out the drumming noise was too much. So, the steel floor was replaced by wood. Wood is a great sound insulator and absorber. Chrysler had the same experience with the Airflow as the 1934 parts book lists floor pans (steel) but the 1935 models had "board assemblies" (wood) for the floor. And, contrary to what Chrysler used to say, the Airflow was not a unibody design. In fact, the parts book listed a chassis frame assembly, and the body could be purchased assembled in prime or even fully trimmed - windows, seats and all. Briggs engineered the 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr. a unibody structure that had no separate chassis. The sharing of parts between the Airflow models - front cowl / windshield, doors, front fenders / grille, rear quarters and rear deck - did help keep production costs down, while the high prices brought in more per vehicle. The Airflow interiors were trimmed luxuriously inside, while the prices were higher than the other cars in their market segments. Which is how Chrysler made money during the Airflow era. Chrysler was NOT on verge of collapse after the Airflow was introduced. From the beginning in 1924 through to 1957, Chrysler lost money only once - in 1932. Chrysler management was not stupid. They knew the Airflow was going to be a shock, and they knew it would not attract customers in droves. Thus parts sharing and high prices. And no year end losses.

Yes, the 1953-54 Plymouth (P-24, P-25) and Dodge (D-43, D-49) 2 door shells are the same for the 2 door sedan, 2 door club coupe, 2 door business coupe and the 2 door Suburban. The 114" wheelbase US Dodge 2dr Suburbans also used the same door.

Nile Green Metallic (41049) was used in 1951 and non-metallic Nile Green (41044) in 1951 (late) and 1952. This is from lists I have of Ditzler paints codes by make and year. Neither colour was offered on US-built Plymouths after 1952 or on any Canadan-built Chryco cars. Twelve colours were offered on 1951 and 1952 Plymouths with seven of the 1951 colours being carried over to 1952. Poly (polychromatic) was used by Ditzler and Chrysler for metallic colours. Other paint companies used different names for their metallic paints with some such as DuPont using just "metallic" .

D21 14254C D21 - 1941 Dodge DeLuxe :(based on Plymouth P12) 14254 - 13,254th D21 engine built C - Made in Canada The 1941 Plymouth P11 was the basis for the export Dodge D20 (built in Detroit and Windsor) and the Canadian market Dodge Kingsway. The D20 and D21 engines were 25" block flathead sixes of 218.1 cid. The same engine was used in 1938-41 Canadian-built Dodge Custom/Luxury Liner models (D8, D11, D14 and D19) as well as 1940 to mid-1953 Plymouths and Plymouth-based Dodges.

Chrysler bought the American Briggs Body operation in late 1953. Briggs at that time were building bodies for Plymouth and Packard. Chrysler served notice on Packard who then leased an ex-Briggs plant to build their own bodies. Back in the 1930's Ford was the biggest customer for Briggs, and Packard was signed up after Ford cancelled their last contract with Briggs around 1940. Ford bought the British Briggs Body subsidiary who were still doing business with Ford UK.

Judging by the tags on the firewall it appears to be American-built which means it is a D8. The D10 was a Plymouth-based Dodge built only in Canada (DeLuxe Six - Plymouth P6 with a Dodge nose). The D9 was also a Plymouth-based Dodge, built in the U.S. for export and also in Canada as the Six (Plymouth P5 with a Dodge nose). The D8 was built in Canada and sold as the Custom Six.

You could get two factory shots - one at the assembly plant on Maxwell and one at the body plant on East Columbia.

The first photo in the Allpar article is the Briggs Body Plant. The road (North Evans Ave) that runs along the side of the plant leads up (north) into the assembly plant which is just off to the left (west) in the top of the photo. The last photo, taken in 1948, is the assembly plant. The administration building today has trees covering the front of the property.. In the 1948 photo you can see the train tracks on the right (south side) of the plant. If you follow the tracks toward the top of the photo (east) you will come across a road crossing the tracks. That is North Evans Avenue which was used to truck bodies from the body plant into the assembly plant.

The Evansville Plymouth assembly plant,- built by Graham Brothers Truck in 1921 and acquired by Chrysler as part of the Dodge Brothers purchase in July, 1928 - is at the corner of Maxwell and Stringtown Road north east of downtown. The administration building faces North Garvin Street. Graham Brothers trucks were built there through to the end of 1929 and then Dodge Trucks into 1932. Plymouth production began there for the 1936 model year and built 1937-38 Dodges as well The plant was built with a saw-tooth roof and sometime in the near past all the glass windows on the plant were bricked up and the roof painted white. The white would keep the building cooler in summer and the lack of windows would keep the building cooler in summer and warmer in winter. The large number of windows helped in ventilation and vision back in the days before AC became common.. The Evansville Plymouth body plant is located on East Columbia Avenue between North Evans on the west side and the railway line on the east. The original plant was much larger than the building is now, and stretched north - about twice the size it is now. Chrysler acquired the building when it purchased Briggs Body in 1953. Briggs purchased it from Graham-Paige in 1936-37. And G-P built the plant in 1928 Yes, the Graham in Graham Brothers Truck and Graham-Paige are the same brothers. Briggs/Chrysler would truck the bodies up Evans into the plant. There is a railway crossing on North Evans that leads into what was the loading dock area. Grahan-Piage used the plant to build bodies for their assembly plant on West Warren Avenue - the plant Chrysler bought in 1947 and used for DeSoto bodies and engines from 1950 to 1957 and Imperial production for the 1958 to 1961 model years. G-P built old-style wood-frame bodies at the plant and in 1936-37 for the Crusader series, In late 1936 G-P sold the tools and dies for the Crusader and a 224-cid flathead six engine to Nissan in Japan. Nissan used the equipment to build the Nissan 70 and also the engine for Nissan trucks.

D432164200 Could the last digit be a C? In which case it should read D43-2 16420 C Which makes it from a Canadian-built 1953 Dodge Regent (D43-2). Canadian-built flathead sixes were 25" block units starting in 1938 and had a a letter "C" in the number. The early 1953 Dodges used a 218.1-cid engine (3.375" bore and 4.062" stroke) but in April they switched to a 4.25" bore for 228.1" cid. The switch occurred at D43-1-3390C and D43-2-8270C. Dodge also introduced an upscale (more chrome, wheel covers, back up lights and two-tone interiors) D-43-3 Mayfair in sedan and hardtop models that used the D-43-2 engines. Hy-Drive was introduced (optional) which was probably the reason for upping the engine size. Dodge dropped the D43-2 Mayfair hardtop at this time as well. Plymouth did the same, introducing a P24-3 Belvedere in sedan and hardtop with the same engine and appointments as the Dodge. The engine change came at numbers P24-1 4053C and P24-2 8322C. The stars in US engine numbers were used to block off the engine number, preventing anyone from adding more numbers. As many states used the engine number as the car's serial number, adding digits would be altering the car's serial number. For engine number P25*272958*, it is the 271,958th P25 engine built. Engine numbers started at 1001. PLymouth in the U.S. did not denote the series the engine was installed nor the assembly plant that put the car together. D43-2 16420 C is the 15,420th D43-2 engine built.

Checked the 1938 Chrysler Corporation parts book and section 23-AF for Plymouth states, "The swing type windshield (Export) changed at the following effective points." For US-built P5 the change occurred at - 4dr sedan - body 3194 2dr sedan - body 6385 4dr touring sedan - body 1496 rumble seat coupe - body 1194 business coupe - body 5204 US-built P-6 : 4dr sedan - body 879 2dr sedan - body 528 4dr touring sedan - body 48560 2dr touring sedan - body 20160 rumble seat coupe - body 2139 business coupe - body 11629 4dr LWB sedan - 321 Canadian-built P-5 - all models except the 4dr touring sedan were built with the stationary windshield. The change for the touring sedan occurred at serial number 9381442. For the Canadian-built P6, the change for the 4dr touring sedan ooccured at serial number 9349880 and the rumble seat coupe at 9351679. All other models came with the statinoary windshield at body #1. The section does list parts for the regulator that opens and closes the windshield. The same was entered for Dodge (D8, D9, D10), DeSoto (S5) and Chrysler (C18, C19), but the swing windshield was apparently used on export models. From what I can see in photos, the 1938 Plymouth hood at the rear edge was a straight line. The vent was a rectangular shape. The 1939 models had a V-shaped hood vent along with the rear edge of the hood due to the two piece, V-shaped windshield.

Mixing paint varied from company to company as each had their own tints and the tints even varied between enamel and lacquer. Did some digging on the Chevron Blue and Chevron Blue #2. Have no info on PPG/Ditzler formulas, but for DuPont - Chevron Blue (246-34888 lacquer) 246-051 - Milori Blue - 16-3/8 oz 246-0097 - White - 10-3/16 oz 246-020 - Black - 5-3/16 oz 246-070 - Light Green - 5/16 oz Chevron Blue #2 (246-23150 lacquer) 246-051 - Milori Blue - 20½ oz 246-0097 - White - 6¼ oz 246-020 - Black - 4 oz 246-070 - Light Green - 1¼ oz For Acme - Chevron Blue (22-6117 - enamel) 929 - TMC - fill to 6 903 - Chinese Blue - fill to 48¼ 908 - Oxide Yellow - fill to 53 902 - White - fill to 56 Chevron Blue #2 (22-6267 - enamel) 929 - TMC - fill to 6 903 - Chinese Blue - fill to 45 908 - Oxide Yellow - fill to 49-3/4 902 - White - fill to 53½ 911 - Red Oxide - fill to 56 Acme formula for Chevron #2 in lacquer : (6267) 810 - Prussian Blue - fill to 31-3/4 716 - White - fill to 42 723 - Oxide Yellow - fill to 48½ 715 - Black - fill to 54 726 - Green Tint - fill to 56 716 - White - Tint Three different formulas to get Chevron #2.

The pre-war Chevron Blue, DAL-10018-DQE, was used up to serial number 15,157,624 on 1946 Plymouth DeLuxe models and 11,507,849 on 1946 Plymouth Special DeLuxe models. After those numbers the Chevron Blue #2 was used, DAL-10319-DQE. Neither were metallic. Do not know what the difference was between the two. Chevron #2 was used to the end of P15 production.

If the engine is a 217.8-cid it should bolt in no problem as it is a 23" block , same as the engine in the convertible. Being a 1947 Plymouth, the engine number should begin with "P15- " followed by up to seven numbers.

The Ditzler IM chart for the 1942 Plymouth

All after market Plymouth colours from 1936 and on (except for LosAngeles before 1941 and Windsor before 1946) were available in lacquer or enamel. Plymouth was one of the earliest makes to switch to enamel paints (Detroit and Evansville in 1936) with some enamels available in 1935. The only exceptions were some 1941 colours Ditzler formulated to match aged paint which were lacquer only. Ditzler did list Chevron Blue as DAL-10018 (lacquer) and QDE-10018 (enamel). Chevron #2, introduced shortly after the beginning of the 1946 model year, was available in lacquer (DAL-10319) or enamel (QDE-10319). Dirtzler's five digit colour code was introduced in 1944, with the company assigning new numbers to the 1942 colours first and working back to 1939. New colour sheets were issued for 1939-40 models and 1941-42 models in 1944. The form number in the bottom right corner began with "44" for the 1939-40 sheets and "1-" for the 1941-1942 sheets. Almost all the 1941-42 sheets were reissued for 1946 as the 1942 colours were carried forward. These sheets have form numbers begining with "46" and have "1946" added to the sheet title.. Prior to 1944 Ditzler used "IM" (Ditx-Lac Inter-Mix) prefix for lacquer paints and QDE (Quick Dry Enamel) for enamel paints. For Chevron Blue, the lacquer version was IM-2568 and the enamel QDE-2134.

Whoever wrote the book probably did not believe, or understand, the warped numbering system of 1955. Years ago I read Chrysler was considering dropping a few series, such as the Windsor and the Savoy. I suspect the marketing people blew the whistle on that one as Chrysler Corp. would no longer be competitive against Ford and GM. The Savoy was put back in the line-up and assigned the -3 series as -1 and -2 were being used. When the 1955 models went on sale, the only model dropped was the LWB sedan, due to New York City changing their taxi regulations and approving the use of normal size cars. The initial listing of Mopar serial numbers in the fall of 1954 had a listing for the LWB DeSoto taxi as well as the Imperial Crown. Only the Crown made it to production with no LWB DeSoto or Chrysler models. . The Canadian Plymouth models, when introduced, were Plaza 6, Savoy 6 and Belvedere V8. The Canadian Savoy and Belvedere offered the same models but different engines. (The Belvedere V8 convertible was imported) Thus the Canadian Savoy used the US Belvedere model number, P26-2. Later in the year Chrysler of Canada introduced the Belvedere 6 and numbered it P26-4 as there was no US equivalent available. The Canadian Dodge was numbered - D54-1 (Crusader 6), D54-2 (Regent 6) and Mayfair V8 (D59) with the D54-4 (Mayfair 6) added later. The D55 and D56 model numbers were used on the 120" wheelbase models, but D57 or D58 were skipped. In the U.S. the D54-1 was the export Kingsway 6 and the D54-2 the export Kingsway Custom, the equivalent of the US Plaza and Belvedere - with no Kingsway Deluxe. The V8 models were similar - D59-1 for Kingsway and D59-2 for Kingsway Custom. I suspect the decision to offer a V8 Kingsway was done after the model numbers were assigned to the 120" wheelbase Dodges, and thus landed up being D59. And the Canadian Dodge was based on the Kingsway, and its model numbers. By the way, Chrysler of Canada did not build cars for export - thus no Canadian-built 1955 Dodge Kingsway or DeSoto Diplomat models. For 1956 all was back to normal, -1, -2, and -3 from low to high with all Kingsway / Canadian Dodges with model numbers lower than the Coronet / Royal / Custom Royal. And the Canadian Plymouth and Plymouth-based Dodge offered the six in the -1 and -2 series and the V8 in -1, -2, and -3 series, a situation that would hold through the 1959 models..

It's been awhile since the question was asked, but the production figures for 1955 Plymouth Suburban wagons - P26-1 : Plaza 6 (USA & Canada) - 2 door Suburban (USA & Canada) - 23,319 4 door Suburban (USA) - 10,594 P26-2 : Belvedere 6 (USA) / Savoy 6 (Canada) - 4dr Suburban (USA & Canada) - 6,197 P26-3 : Savoy 6 (USA) - No Suburban models P26-4 : Belvdere 6 (Canada) - 4dr Suburban - 21 P27-1 : Plaza V8 - 2dr Suburban (USA) - 8,469 4dr Suburban (USA) - 4,828 P27-2 : Belvedere V8 - 4dr Suburban (USA & Canada) - 12,291 P27-3 : Savoy V8 (USA) - No Suburban models

The casting date of 9-2-48 would make it a 1948 engine. Have no flathead casting numbers but the numbers you found would make it from the late 1940's. If the engine was originally from a Plymouth it would be 217.8 cid while a Dodge engine would be 230.2 cid. Either engine would fit into your car. Bill Toronto, ON

Chrysler was on a learning project in the early 1950s. Their 1949 models were too big for their markets and thus priced higher than the competition. They tried to force wage constraints in 1950 and went through a 100 day strike, only to lose sales (Ford Motor Company took #2 spot, first time since 1935) and signed an agreement with the UAW that was little different from the proposal when the strike began. After that Chrysler attempted to cheapen the content - less chrome and stainless steel trim, removing items such as the dust cover between the rear seat and the trunk, but that only brought about complaints from buyers and auto magazine writers. To deal with the big bodies, the 1953 Plymouth was shrunk (118½ down to 114) while the Dodge moved from the DeSoto-Chrysler body to the Plymouth, reducing the Dodge wheelbase from 123½ down to 119. For whatever reason the convertibles, hardtops and wagons remained on the 114 inch wheelbase. I suspect they were trying to save the cost of extending the body, although the front ends were needlessly different between the two wheelbase sizes and they also used a different windshield on the Dodge sedans and club coupes. Again money expended where it was not needed and the costs involved in coming up with two front clips probably erased any savings resulting from not extending the convertible-hardtop body.. K T Keller probably thought the Plymouth front clip was too short on the 119 inch Dodge and / or the Dodge clip too long on the 114 inch models. But Chrysler learned from their experiences and for the 1955 models Dodge had all their models on a 120 inch wheelbase. And the front clip used on the Coronet, Royal and Custom Royal was used on the Plymouth body to create the Canadian small Dodge models as well as the export Kingsway. Further sharing of parts occurred for the 1957 models where Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler shared the same basic body. The Plymouth was on a 118 wheelbase and Dodge on a 122 inch wheelbase. Roof and windows were shared between the two. The DeSoto-Chrysler models used the same floor as the Dodge but with different roof and door designs. To get the 126 wheelbase models they added a 4 inch longer front clip. Imperial used its own body and Chrysler covered the costs by using that body through to 1966, with a major restyle for 1964. The elimination of the division engines with corporate engines was another cost saving move. Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler all used hemi V8 engines, but very few knew back then (and even now) they were completely different engines that shared no parts between the three. Even the Plymouth poly A block V8 became a corporate engine in 1959 with the 326-cid Coronet V8. And Chrysler centralized all body production, engine production and even assembly plants. By 1959 the Chrysler Corporation divisions, Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler-Imperial, were basically sales and marketing organizations.

I suspect the difference is in the front overhang. The 1953-54 114 inch wheelbase Plymouths and Dodges share the same front bumpers, but the 119 inch wheelbase Dodges use a different bumper. Also, the trim on the front fender sides is different for the two wheelbase lengths. Also, the front hood on the 114 wheelbase Dodges appears to have been cut back as it does not flow smoothly down to the grille. Hoods for 1953 and 1954 Dodges interchange by engine (6 or V8) and by wheelbase. And judging by the photos it is due to the front edge on the hoods. Which adds to belief the front fenders are longer ahead of the wheel opening on the 119 wheelbase models. Also, it is not surprising the 1954 4 door wagons are listed under the same model number as the 2 door wagon. All wagon bodies built by Chrysler for Plymouth and Dodge were 2 door models. Chrysler shipped 2 door wagon bodies along with 4 door sedan front doors and other parts to Mitchell-Bentley in Ionia, Michigan. M-B took the 2 door wagon bodies, extended them 5 inches, moved the B pillar to fit the front door and then modified the body to permit a rear door. Attached a photo of a 1954 Dodge Royal sedan in which you can see where the extra 5 inches was added - between the rear doors and rear axle. Also a photo of a 1954 Kingsway (114 wheelbase) for the lip on the front edge of the hood. Comparing the two might be enough to see if any difference in length between the two ahead of the front wheel openings.