Customs Wagon hunt may be OVER!!! 1952 DeSoto wagon is HOME!

It'll be out of the car tomorrow! It looks like a good one, clean, clean, CLEAN. Obviously rebuilt carb, fuel pump, dizzy, painted the appropriate silver, etc. It's also obviously been out of the chassis, the firewall is painted the same awful color as the body behind the engine, and on the toe boards, the engine has no overspray. I'd like to keep it and use in a future project, but probably it should go to someone who will use it. Feel free to pm me if you're interested, you're not too far away to make it practical.

 

Gotcha! LOL

Ben

 

Brian, Good to hear you got another wagon and it looks good, Are you going to get rid of the of the poop brown? HRP

 

Oh yes, that is going away. It's a TERRIBLE paint job, looks like acrylic enamel. The bad part is the car (looks like) was completely disassembled to do it. The door jambs, firewall, everything, even behind the engine and the toe boards was done. The door panels were removed as well, there's overspray on the inside of the doors, the engine looks like it was taken out and (at the least) detailed and painted before it was reinstalled. It's really a shame. I'd have left it alone otherwise, now we have to search for all the die-cast trim, which was removed and painted silver to try to mask pitted chrome. I'd rather it be pitted chrome against weather paint, but, not now.

 

Little update, an engine and drivetrain (and all the related do-dads) are on the way, let's say this may "Challenger" my wiring skills...

 

Hope it's a "Hellcat" experience! LOL!

 

And yet, if I squint a little bit, I could see this done up in a "Root Beer" metallic.

Wouldn't be surprised if Chrysler had originally painted them silver when it was new. At least on the low-end Plymouths and Dodges.

 

Sadly, the engine is not the 392. The buy in is 4X the cost of the garden variety one I have coming. I know it can be done, last summer in the grocery store parking lot I saw, and talked to the owner of, a '55 Chrysler Imperial convertible. I told him I didn't know any drop-tops were made in '55, he said, "They didn't. I had it done." It was stunning, it was the metallic root beer color someone else just mentioned, and, under the hood, a "Helliphant" and 8 speed. The "drop-out" package I'm getting was a surprising deal, $3,500 complete. 19,000 miles.

 

Me too.

 

Thank goodness it is not a cookie cutter.

Ben

 

This not how any of this is supposed to work.

 

Now you've gone and done it, that can of worms has been opened! Hopefully you don't find too much that looks like that! That will be a fun driver with a 392 in it, and pulling a trailer will be no problem at all.

 

OH NO! Hope that is the only spot like that!

 

Several years ago, I found these photos on the Interwebs. I think this is one of the sharpest looking wagons I've ever seen.

I owned a '54 Chrysler NY wagon for several years - it was very similar to your car. Your DeSoto, with an updated drive train and suspension, should make a great tow vehicle. You won't see many of them around, that's for sure. Even less common than the Chrysler wagons of that era....

 

Tip of the iceberg & sorry to say I was hoping that you wouldn't find any. Let the fun begin. You should have one beautiful wagon when you get done. I really like the brown one in the photo above. Post that pic on the wall for inspiration.

 

Everyone knows whats under the icing isn't always cake! Joe

 

Yeah it fired right up after I cleaned the points!


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

That ain’t right.


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That's the color, right there. If only the chrome on ours was half that nice...

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10222165676353519

I can't load the video of it starting from my phone, let me try this...

obviously, that did not work.

 

I couldn't have been happier to discover there's no hole there! I feared the entire pan would be rotten under the plastic.

 

Unfortunately!

Ben

 

Did the previous owner just slap bondo over a dent? HRP

 

time to drag out a magnet.

 

You'll have to upload the video to Youtube first and then add a link to it in your post here. Ryan will host our pics for us but not videos, due to file sizes I imagine.

 

I went to my buddy's recycling yard with a shopping list, he said, "No problem, but you might want to be here when we start tackling the dash." Perfect. I then went to a U-pick yard, found 3 Explorer 3.73 Limited
slip rear axles, each with over 200K miles, roached brakes, rusted E-brake cables. $250. I can have my friend get me one from TX or the desert SW for about $100 more with no rust issues, less miles, by the time I get the engine. I'm going with that.

 

I'm pretty sure there's no metal in that...

 

I have an extra set of Coronet bumpers.... I wonder if they would clean up the look ....

 

... I know a guy that should be able to wire it for you