1953 Dodge Coronet Convertible

[CaptainGTX]

Hi. Just joined this forum the other day. We 53-54 Mopar owners are so lonely. Everyone seems to have a dedicated website, except us.

I own a somewhat rare 53 Coronet convertible that I bought 3 years ago from the family of the original owners. It had been in garaged storage here in the Denver area for 45 years. It was parked in 1964 due to a problem with its Gyro-Torque transmission. It remained undriven until I bought it in 2009.

Since that time I have rebuilt/refurbished the brakes, fuel system and cooling system. All repairs so far have been mechanical using original type parts. The body is solid, except for a little rust in the LR quarter and thin spots in the front floorboards. The car still has ~90% of its original Shoreham Ivory paint, plus all its original interior and top.

This is the second 53 Coronet I've owned. My very first car bought in 1964 (the same year the convertible was retired) was a V8 four-door sedan. For those who don't know, 1953 was Dodge's first year for the Red Ram hemi, and my convertible has that engine also. In addition to the Gyro-Torque, it has every other option offered by Dodge except wire wheels and a continental kit.

I've had it running for the past 2+ years and have taken it to local car shows & cruises. This past summer it was awarded the Best Survivor award at the Rocky Mountain's largest Mopar car show near Denver.

I bought the car with the intention of restoring it. As I researched the car and found out how rare it is, I changed my mind and now plan to keep it as a survivor, at least in the short-term. In 3 years of searching I have found only 7 other cars out of 4,100 built. Mine is an early build (#49) built October 1, 1952 according to the build card I got from Chrysler Historical. So far its the oldest Dodge hemi convertible anyone knows of.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone out there who also has or knows of one.

Edited December 19, 2012 by CaptainGTX

[RobertKB]

Hi and welcome to the forum! Great looking and rare car you have there and well worth keeping it in survivor status form. Good survivors are worth more than an equivalent restored car. I agree about the '53-54 Mopars being orphans but you will certainly be welcomed on this forum. One of the Mopars I own is a survivor '53 Plymouth Belvedere 4-Door also with original paint. Apparently the 4-door Belvederes were a Canadian only thing. Lots of other '53-'54 owners here as well.

You will enjoy the forum as there are lots of knowledgeable guys on here who are willing to share what they know.

[White Spyder]

Welcome! Old MOPAR.....always welcome!

I like the line of the car and a drop top to boot. I say keep it as a survivor as much as you can.

[CaptainGTX]

Thanks Robert. Going to try to post some photos again so they'll show up larger.

[RobertKB]

Pictures are bigger and makes the car look even more gorgeous. That is one sweet car and the colour really suits it!! You must be a proud owner!

[DCurrent]

Sharp Car! Don't restore it, that would be a crime. It shows good as it is.

Darren

[Young Ed]

Thats awesome! My favorite hemi-I just love those stamped leaping ram valve covers.

[greg g]

You might want to contact the AACA, they have started judging and certifying original unrestored cars. If you have a chapter in your area you might want to look them up or check the national website for more information regarding the classification and process. If you have documentation regarding the provenance you mentioned its a good thing to have.

Nice car by the way. You obviously got the trans sorted. Why was it parked??

[BobT-47P15]

You may not have the wire wheels, but you do have the full wheel

covers with louvers in them. Excellent looking car.

[Kudzuking]

Nice,nice car, i didn't know the little hemi could be optioned in it.

[B-Watson]

Nice,nice car, i didn't know the little hemi could be optioned in it.

The hemi was standard equipment on the Coronet V8 models - D44 (119" wheelbase -club coupe and sedan) and D48 (114" wheelbase - hardtop, convertible and wagon). The 6 cylinder models came as Meadowbrook Special, Meadowbrook and Coronet - D46 (119" wheelbase - club coupe and sedan) and D47 (114" wheelbase - wagon).

The 114" wheelbase chassis frame of the D48 models was the same as the frame used on the Plymouth P24 and Canadian Dodge D43. The steering is unique to the V8 models.

[CaptainGTX]

Thought I might back it up a little and show some photos taken as it was found, which was not too different than it looks now. The main difference is 45 years of garage dust and bald recapped tires. The car also had a solid 1/2" of dried mud on the underside, covering the thickest layer of factory undercoating I've ever seen on a car. The Colorado Safety Inspection sticker still on the car read 37 fewer miles than it had when I bought it at 102,742, so I know that it was put away sometime close to May 1964, plus it was wearing 1964 license plates.

Along with the car I got the original owner's shop manual, filled with notes of repairs the owner had made, along with receipts for parts and work done by others. The original owner was a nuclear physicist who worked for the USGS in Denver. He was apparently involved with the government's nuclear program in the 1950's (still trying to get confirmation from other family members). That could account for the high mileage early in the car's life - by the time it was 3 1/2 years old it had over 50,000 miles, a lot of miles for a car in its day.

The shop manual and receipts allowed me to put together a repair log of work done on the car, and it apparently took quite a bit of work to keep a car on the road in the 50's (I didn't start driving till the mid 60's). Repairs to the starter, recoring the radiator, and replacing the fuel pump (a strange looking square shaped Carter unit none of my veteran WPC friends have ever seen before) were all done in the first four years. At 5 1/2 years and 73,690 miles the top end of the engine was rebuilt, along with new camshaft & lifters. A question as to why the factory-marked hemi ignition wires looked so great was answered when I found they were replaced in 1960.

Along with the shop manual and receipts, came the owner's certificate indicating it was bought new on Jan 5, 1953 from Standard Motor Co in Denver. Included was a certificate for six free lube jobs good during the first year, so I know it had a lube every two months at the start. Also got a lengthy hand-written list of all the things wrong with the car, apparently when it was still fairly new. Things like leaks (remember - convertible), misadjustments, squeals, paint problems, etc., some of which were apparently never addressed and still exist today.

Oh and about that transmission problem that caused the car to be parked in 1964. Once I did the mechanical repairs to get the car running again, it was evident the Gyro-Torque didn't shift properly. I searched all over the Denver area for someone who had a first-hand knowledge about these M6 transmissions, finally finding two old-timers who could do the work. One was in his 80's and the other his 70's. I went with the younger one, who still operates his own shop. After teardown, we found it was a bad synchro (the only brass part in the whole tranny). After a nation-wide search we finally found the last? NOS part which fixed the problem. It now shifts with a "click" rather than a "clunk". Torque is actually multiplied with this unit, as opposed to the fluid drive units. I normally drive in 3rd & 4th only, needing 1st or 2nd only for starting uphill.

Bottom line is I know more about the history of this car than I do about my 69 Plymouth GTX. In fact, I have so much, I'm planning to submit some articles about the car to several magazines. I want to document as much as I can about the original owner and the car, so that when I'm gone (or submit to the urge to restore it) everything is fully documented.

[frankieflathead]

Thanks Robert. Going to try to post some photos again so they'll show up larger.

A SUPERB little droptop, Captain. Having recently acquired a low mileage, original unrestored '49 D24C Club Coupé, I envy you that Red Ram Hemi! You can always restore it later. They're only original once! Thanx for the pix.

P.S. I think it looks BETTER without the wire wheel 'caps. I personally don't like 'em. Of course that doesn't apply to the Motor Wheel actual wires!

Edited December 26, 2012 by frankieflathead

[rtlsnakedaddy]

Great looking car. I'm in the process of rebuilding a '54 Chrysler, and this site had been great.

[CaptainGTX]

Thought I might share some photos of the car with the top down. These were taken summer before last, when I had it down a couple times for cruising & shows. Tried again last summer, but it wouldn't cooperate. Haven't troubleshooted it yet, as was satisfied to drive around last year with it up. Suspect I'll need to clean & regrease the cylinders, since after 60 years they've probably dried out. It's a power top with twin cylinders driven by cables off a single electric motor.

Frankly, I was pretty surprised when it did go down. The top is original and I was a little concerned it would withstand being lowered. Don't remember if I said, but all of the interior & 90% of the Shoreham Ivory paint are original too. I indicated the car was pretty well loaded from the factory. In addition to the louvered wheelcovers someone commented on, it also has tinted glass all around, turn signals, radio, power antenna, clock, windshield washer, heater, backup light, wheel-well mouldings, WSW tires, plus original owner added side mirrors & spotlight. The optional Gyro-Torque transmission I mentioned before, along with the standard Red Ram hemi.

[BobT-47P15]

And, another thing I think I recall from the olden days is.......if you notice

the wheel with no cover......it's black, except it's red around the edge

where it shows. I believe that was a factory deal.

The parents of one of my best high school friends had a new two tone

green 54 Dodge with those louvered wheel covers and Red Ram engine.

[CaptainGTX]

Right. The wheels were painted gray, about the same shade as the interior of the trunk. Just the rim was painted red, with an overspray on the front side of the remainder of the wheel that made it look purple. I've read that the gray was a combination of paints left over from the previous day painting, but don't know whether to believe that.

All of my wheels still had their original paint. I took a couple photos of one before I stripped & powdercoated them. My intention at that time was to do a complete restoration of the car. The wheels are as far as I got before deciding to leave the car alone. Reproduced the effect as best I could.

[fstfish66]

very nice find,,i like how the exterior trim and the interior door trim mirror each other,,,

i have a 53 red ram hemi in my 40 coupe

[Plymouthy Adams]

I would have to see documentation on the red rim theory...I do not ever recall seeing a rim painted like that from the factory and when the POC sheets mention other than basic black it was that the wheel would be the color of the lower body paint..outside of pinstiping the wheel there were no mentioning of two tone wheels..

I have spent a bit of time trying to find the answer but nothing but the above is on any blurb sheet I could find...I would conceed to a dealer sending a car next door to the body shop for a splash of flash..but that is about as far as I can go on that till I see proof otherwise...

I have never seen a car in the old days with a lost/missing hubcap with a paint scheme as shown above..but hey...if there is documentation for this I would love to see it printed here for those who may follow this thread and then know for sure it may be the right manner in which the wheel as painted

[Young Ed]

I was kinda thinking the same thing Tim. Why would the factory go through all that effort for something not seen unless a hubcap falls off. If anything you'd expect them to be solid red.

[BobT-47P15]

I somehow came by an old rim quite sometime back, may have been Dodge,

that was painted the same way. Not sure that I still have it now.

[Taylormade]

My dad worked as an executive for General Motors most of his life. He got a new Buick every year as his company car from 1954 to 1959, then he switched to Cadillacs with a promotion. Every car we got, Dad would have the dealer paint the rims red. They were happy to do it. It was quite popular to have it done at the time. I would bet that the owner had the dealership paint them. But again, this is Chrysler, not GM, and I might be wrong.

[CaptainGTX]

I have three factory brochures that together can answer this question.

The first brochure shows all models, both Coronets and Meadowbrooks. It is dated 9-52, therefore is pre-introduction. All steel wheels on all cars are body colored.

The other two brochures are dated 2-53 and 3-53. All the Coronet V8 wheels are shown red (except chromed wire wheels), while all the Coronet 6 and Meadowbrooks are body colored. That was consistent whether or not the car sported whitewalls (all Coronets V8's & 6's shown in the two brochures did, along with a Meadowbrook Surburban, the other Meadowbrooks did not). Attached is the cover of the 2-53 brochure, showing red rims and full wheel covers on a two-toned green Coronet V8 sedan.

My car was built October 1, before the Oct 22 introduction to the public. The logical conclusion is that Dodge had originally planned to have body-colored wheels, but sometime prior to the introduction date decided to have red painted rims on the Coronet V8's only. I suppose it's possible the decision was made later and mine were painted by the dealer, but given how consistent the paint application was on all five wheels, I believe it must have been done in the factory. I replicated the pattern by placing each wheel on a bicycle rim and spinning the wheel as I applied the paint from an aerosol can.

Painting just the rim portion of the wheel red in 53 would be consistent with what Plymouth did on my 69 GTX. On those and similar Mopar muscle cars with road wheels, they painted just the face of the brake drums red and left the flanges natural, as that was the only part of the drums that showed through the wheel's spokes. Even if they saved only 50 cents per car, that would add up after 10's of thousands of cars.

Aren't mysteries grand?

By the way, I'd still like to hear from anyone who has, did have, or knows of another 53 Coronet drop-top. It's so lonely.

Edited January 17, 2013 by CaptainGTX

[BobT-47P15]

Here's a black one for sale thru the AutaBuy website.

Sounds like he's gonna run it thru an auction.

Link to that site. http://www.autabuy.com/ViewPhoto/?I=/Photos/576406_273153409_Original.jpg&ShowAdSense=1&K=1953%20DODGE%20CORONET%20CONVERTIBLE

Here's a red one at some other dealer..................

A blue one with red rims...............

Did this person ever contact you - from the Antique Auto Club website??? "My dad has a 53 coronet convertible and is thinking about selling it "

Edited January 17, 2013 by BobT-47P15

[captden29]

Capt., look on my profile, captden29, and you will be surprised how much my car and yours look alike. mine is a 1954 Chrysler Windsor deluxe and also is in original unrestored condition. as usual it looks better in the picture than in real life. based on your pictures yours is in better condition than mine. my conv. top is hydraulic and I just had the motor rebuilt so it goes up and down well. if you disconnect the top cylinders you can put the top up and down by hand, a pain but not that difficult. then you can get the system fixed at your leisure. the top on my car is also the original and was fearful of lowering it for the first time, but it folds well and has no rips. my car is the 265 flathead with the powerflite automatic. I envy you the hemi, but I did want the 6 for its ease of working on.anyway, your car is beautiful and is probably the only one like it in your area or at any shows you attend. safe driving. capt den