'57 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer

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70DartMike

70DartMike

Too many projects
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Not an A body but I thought I'd share a cool project I picked up.

It's a '57 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer (top of the line for Dodge in '57) with a 313 Poly. It's a Canadian car, so it has the Plymouth 313 rather than a 325 Poly. However, I have a '56 Chrysler 354 Hemi that I'm planning on putting in this.
It was sitting a long time at a friend's place, but it's actually in pretty good shape. Obviously needs floors and trunk pan, but that's minor. I have another '57 Dodge Royal 2 door hardtop for parts, with really good sheet metal.
Being it's a Dodge with a 3 speed Torqueflite pushbutton trans (rather than the 2 speed Powerflite), it has the Neutral start feature, so you turn the key to the right and hold down Neutral to engage the starter. Chrysler also used this, Plymouth did not.
It's super complete, right down to the keys still hanging in the ignition.
I've since pressure washed it and pulled it into the shop, it's got some pretty cool patina.

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Here it is, washed and cleaned up a bit. The last shot is the pair of them in the shop, the other is a '58 Plymouth 2 door Suburban wagon, with a Dodge front clip.

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The 354 Chrysler is on the right, covered in dust. I ran the numbers, it's actually from a Chrysler 300B.
The one on the left is a '56 DeSoto 330.

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That is very cool. I've always wondered why the tri 5 Chevys were so popular when the Chrysler products of the same era outshined them so. I GUESS it was the price.
 
Wow awesome project. The chances of coming across one on that c shape is amazing the chances of coming across two of them is a miracle!

Love to see your build!
 
RustyRatRod said:
That is very cool. I've always wondered why the tri 5 Chevys were so popular when the Chrysler products of the same era outshined them so. I GUESS it was the price.
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I maintain that the most sleek, elegant, and down right most beautiful car in 58 was the Plymouth Fury. I could be biased, though.
 
408 swinger said:
I maintain that the most sleek, elegant, and down right most beautiful car in 58 was the Plymouth Fury. I could be biased, though.
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I don't think you're biased at all. I agree 100% and ALL of the Chrysler products through the mid to late 50s had them all beat. IMO the only other ones that came anywhere near them were the mid to late 50s, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. The Chrysler product were still all better looking.....even the "lowly" Desotos.
 
I`m jelly.
Theirs a guy out of leesburg Va that has one beautifully restored, that used to bring it to our local cruise in. Haven`t seen it in quite a few years though.
 
So cool.
And also, what timing, I just revived this with the same plan, just can't convince myself.
1958 Dodge
 
I am with RRR. The 57-59 Dodge Custom Royals were light years ahead in styling & innovation, compared to the plain jane 55-57 Chebbies. Recessed door handles in 1957.
I have owned a few CRs. The 57-59s sold here had the same dashboard & gauges as above. 58s here had the 350 & 59s had the 361. All were low compression, 2 bbl.
 
So many peeps relate to the tri fives because so many were sold, and because cheaper rides!! Yes those Mopars of that era were so far ahead but the $ kept a lot of average guys from owning them back then. Realize a $ was a $ back then now it takes $20 for a trip to stupid Starbucks or MickeyDs!!!
 
70DartMike said:
Not an A body but I thought I'd share a cool project I picked up.

It's a '57 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer (top of the line for Dodge in '57) with a 313 Poly. It's a Canadian car, so it has the Plymouth 313 rather than a 325 Poly. However, I have a '56 Chrysler 354 Hemi that I'm planning on putting in this.
It was sitting a long time at a friend's place, but it's actually in pretty good shape. Obviously needs floors and trunk pan, but that's minor. I have another '57 Dodge Royal 2 door hardtop for parts, with really good sheet metal.
Being it's a Dodge with a 3 speed Torqueflite pushbutton trans (rather than the 2 speed Powerflite), it has the Neutral start feature, so you turn the key to the right and hold down Neutral to engage the starter. Chrysler also used this, Plymouth did not.
It's super complete, right down to the keys still hanging in the ignition.
I've since pressure washed it and pulled it into the shop, it's got some pretty cool patina.

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awesome ,mike :popcorn:
big,beautiful ,beast
 
When I was 7 or 8 yrs old I was working for a farmer that had one, red and white, it was a Dodge. I will always remember the horizontal thermometer type speedometer, it wound in red the faster you went. Really liked that car, even back then. My pay? Two meals and fifty cents a day.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That is very cool. I've always wondered why the tri 5 Chevys were so popular when the Chrysler products of the same era outshined them so. I GUESS it was the price.
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree. Every angle I look at it, it's beautiful. Typically a vehicle has an angle that just doesn't look right, but not with this one.
SO many '55 - 57 Chevy's running around town... boring.
 
matthon said:
So cool.
And also, what timing, I just revived this with the same plan, just can't convince myself.
1958 Dodge
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I was reading your thread, you should grab it. It looks like it's in great shape, considering. At $1500, I think you're doing well. I won't say what I paid for this one, but it wasn't much. However, it was after years of helping someone out.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That is very cool. I've always wondered why the tri 5 Chevys were so popular when the Chrysler products of the same era outshined them so. I GUESS it was the price.
Click to expand...
My Grandpa, who started our family in the car business in 1934 always said "Chrysler sell technology and Chevrolet sells cars"
And he was all MOPAR all the time...
 
motorpirate said:
My Grandpa, who started our family in the car business in 1934 always said "Chrysler sell technology and Chevrolet sells cars"
And he was all MOPAR all the time...
Click to expand...
I think that was a pretty astute statement.
 
My friend has over 30 forward looking cars out back, it’s therapeutic to take a walk at his place
 
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