High quality Swiss made A - Bodies

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- Marvin -

- Marvin -

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Because I think, its not only a European thing (..not only for the European board in this forum), but interesting for some more A - Body enthusiasts:

Recently I could lay hands on two very rare brochures from the Swiss Mopar production plant in Schinznach, Switzerland.

As i told yet in some other threads here, there was a memorable production of very special A- Bodies in Switzerland in the 60s and 70s. Im very interested in this special Mopars, because I own one of them. Alas there exists no real literature about this production plant, only one or two magazine articles (in german).

The brochures are from 1971 and 1972 (the last year of real production there...)

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The text is in german.
Most remarkable statement is, that the cars were manufactured individually by hand in 143 hours (reserved for each car!) and not in only 6 hours on the chain gang.
Individualization for each car was offered.
A lot of special features were also available.
The Swiss built these A - Bodies like Swiss watches and in the end they were as expensive.

If You check my Demon photos in the garage You can also read some more historical data about the Schinznach production plant.

The backsides of the brochures, where you can see, which other cars were offered for import to Switzerland:

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Some of the 1970 cars I have seen so far that were exported to some countries with incomplete VINs. Bodies built at the Hamtramck plant & then shipped overseas incomplete for final trim out once they arrived.
 
Alaskan_TA said:
Some of the 1970 cars I have seen so far that were exported to some countries with incomplete VINs. Bodies built at the Hamtramck plant & then shipped overseas incomplete for final trim out once they arrived.
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In Schinznach the cars were fully assembled. Sheetmeal was delivered from a plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Engine and Transmission and other technical components were shipped from US. Parts of trim and interior. Front and rear glasses were Swiss products.
 
neat stuff - I see "fog lights"!! Holy smokes.. ok.. so was that just an overseas option?? I can't recall EVER seeing them here unless they were an aftermarket add on - - anyone?
 
ScampMike said:
neat stuff - I see "fog lights"!! Holy smokes.. ok.. so was that just an overseas option?? I can't recall EVER seeing them here unless they were an aftermarket add on - - anyone?
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The fog lamps were a french product by CIBIE, my Demon got them also - neatly installed.

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Just checked out your garage, amazing Demon!

Also noticed the, rear bumper mounted lights/reflectors, fender mounted turn indicators, 3 speed wiper motor, ceiling grab handle, and dual sport mirrors, love it.
 
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Isn't it gold?
MOPAR4Me said:
Just checked out your garage, amazing Demon!

Also noticed the, rear bumper mounted lights/reflectors, fender mounted turn indicators, 3 speed wiper motor, ceiling grab handle, and dual sport mirrors, not to mention it is butterscotch, love it.
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Other than the doo-dads added to make it "euro"...aren't they all American parts? If so, the same fit and finish, is likely.[other than the time to polish stuff]
 
MOPAR4Me said:
You are correct, need new eye glasses, beautiful nonetheless.
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Yes, it is gold.
There were no hi impact colors available in Schinznach.
But they used European acrylic paint.
The brochure says: 'Acryllack wird in 11 Schichten eingebrannnt' (Hope my translation is right: Acrylic paint in 11 coats with baked enamel finish)
 
Wow!!! Too cool. Michael, were the Schinznach made Chrysler cars made for export to other European countries or were they just for the Swiss market?
I just looked up where Schinznach is and it's just outside of Birrhard, where my cousin lives! Been to her place a number of times and if I would have known this town built Mopars, I woulda did a little research to see if anything still existed from the plant etc. Neat!
 
cliff guinand said:
Wow!!! Too cool. Michael, were the Schinznach made Chrysler cars made for export to other European countries or were they just for the Swiss market?
I just looked up where Schinznach is and it's just outside of Birrhard, where my cousin lives! Been to her place a number of times and if I would have known this town built Mopars, I woulda did a little research to see if anything still existed from the plant etc. Neat!
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No, in Schinznach were only cars for the Swiss market built. There was no/less toll/taxes on cars built in Switzerland than on imported cars. The company AMAG is still in existence, but only importing and selling cars nowadays. They have no plant anymore and as far as I know, the complete paperwork of the days, when they manufactured Mopars is lost.
 
Very interesting.
I always enjoy seeing other countries Mopar products.

I see the VIN starts out "normal", but there appears to be no "plant" character, it goes right to the year and then sequence.
 
Iirc, fog lights are basically mandatory for Euro cars?
 
YY1 said:
Very interesting.
I always enjoy seeing other countries Mopar products.

I see the VIN starts out "normal", but there appears to be no "plant" character, it goes right to the year and then sequence.
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'plant' was not necessary, because it was written above: Automontage Schinznach AG (there was no other plant....)

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jos51700 said:
Iirc, fog lights are basically mandatory for Euro cars?
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No, they were not mandatory then and they are not now.
They were part of the so-called VIP package and You could have ordered them separetely.

The cars were 'handcrafted' and because of this fact nearly any 'Sonderwunsch' (option) was possible.

You can read it on the last page of the 1970 brochure:

'Weil wir jedoch Ihren US-Chrysler handwerklich fertigen, können wir auf Ihre Sonderwünsche bis ins Detail eingehen'
 
Fascinating.

I know the Mexican cars have VINs that are not at all like the US cars.

Some parts of Europe, IIRC mandate amber directional signals.

I knew a lot of Air Force people that had amber fog lights mounted and wired on their back bumpers to comply.

Is that cloth seat fabric original?

Interesting that overseas folks appreciated that where the US mainland seemed to be content with hot (and sweaty) in the summer and cold (to the point of cracking) in the winter vinyl.

You see very few cloth interiors in US cars until the mid 1980's when there was an explosion of velour.

Those exit grips are interesting as well. Fully how just those and the cloth give it a Euro feel.
 
YY1 said:
Fascinating.


Is that cloth seat fabric original?

Interesting that overseas folks appreciated that where the US mainland seemed to be content with hot (and sweaty) in the summer and cold (to the point of cracking) in the winter vinyl.

You see very few cloth interiors in US cars until the mid 1980's when there was an explosion of velour.

Those exit grips are interesting as well. Fully how just those and the cloth give it a Euro feel.
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Yes, because the Swiss cars had different bucket seats by the now well known company RECARO.
These were sport buckets with headrests, completely different to the US stratobuckets.
 
Over here in Canada, our Mopars were tied in directly with US cars for the most part, unlike the Mexican, Aussie and now as I just found out, the Suisse – so everything was essentially American. But, we did get a few 'rare' gifts making for some unique muscle cars that we can call Canadian. A couple such cars were the '71 and '72 Swinger 340 Specials made for 3 Western Canadian dealerships, of which I have a couple (see pic). So yes, neat what Ma Mopar did around the world and seems new anomalies keep popping up. Cool. Here's a link the website I just built for these rare Swinger 340 Specials... www.swinger340specials.ca

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...oh, and these got plaid/houndstooth and vinyl seats - they were built on the LL base model so I guess this was the 'taxi cab' interior, getting vinyl floors and not much else. Ordered and built as factory hotrods.
 
Have you ever had a chance to compare build quality on any imported cars to the swiss built ones?

I love the interior differences especially the vintage recarro seats. Being of a generation that grew up with only the metric system in what is now a metric country I really like the gauges.

Too bad the 67' B-bodies where never a thing over there I'd love to find a metric speedometer.
 
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