Revisiting the 57 Plymouth
- Thread starter Mike P
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Beautiful car with great subtle custom touches. That body style and the 59 Dodge were the best looking cars Chrysler built in that era IMO. I'm only a few years younger than you and as I recall hearing ages ago,Chrysler Corp. rushed they're 58 model's our For 57 .That was why the dummy set of second headlights. The feds supposedly would not allow 4 headlights until 58.
"........I am sure it was measure x 956 before the first cut was made........"
I really agonized over putting a scoop on it......but it was the only way to use the Tri-Power. These cars just don't lend themselves to a scoop. I spent a lot of time looking at various options/styles before I settled on the T Bird one.
You're right I spent a good deal of time staring at the perfect and only hood I had before I could actually start cutting. The hood and trunk lid were the only 2 parts on the car that didn't need body work! Now that I'm going to dual quads I could go back to a flat hood, but the scoop has kind of grown on me over the years and it does match pretty well with the rest of the car.
You're pretty much right Doug. The 4 headlight thing is correct. The basic body style of the 57 Chrysler line wasn't really supposed to go into production until 1959 for the 1960 production year. Actually part of the advertising campaign for Plymouth was the slogan that "suddenly it's 1960"
Because of the rushed production schedule Chrysler Corp started mass producing body panels with only 40% of the total numbers of molds and casting dies done. This resulted in really major fitment issues across the entire Chrysler line for about the first half of the production year. I had an early production 57 Dodge years ago and nothing lined up on it....fortunately the Plymouth is late production and pretty good.
The early release of the 57 Chrysler line sent shock waves thru GM who ended up rushing their 59/60 designs into production in 1958 ......hence the cars like the 58 Chevy being a 1 year only platform and having their own production issues.
Ironically the reason Chrysler rushed their design and production schedule forward is because they had heard rumors the GM was going to do an early release of their 59/60 designs.
I really agonized over putting a scoop on it......but it was the only way to use the Tri-Power. These cars just don't lend themselves to a scoop. I spent a lot of time looking at various options/styles before I settled on the T Bird one.
You're right I spent a good deal of time staring at the perfect and only hood I had before I could actually start cutting. The hood and trunk lid were the only 2 parts on the car that didn't need body work! Now that I'm going to dual quads I could go back to a flat hood, but the scoop has kind of grown on me over the years and it does match pretty well with the rest of the car.
You're pretty much right Doug. The 4 headlight thing is correct. The basic body style of the 57 Chrysler line wasn't really supposed to go into production until 1959 for the 1960 production year. Actually part of the advertising campaign for Plymouth was the slogan that "suddenly it's 1960"
Because of the rushed production schedule Chrysler Corp started mass producing body panels with only 40% of the total numbers of molds and casting dies done. This resulted in really major fitment issues across the entire Chrysler line for about the first half of the production year. I had an early production 57 Dodge years ago and nothing lined up on it....fortunately the Plymouth is late production and pretty good.
The early release of the 57 Chrysler line sent shock waves thru GM who ended up rushing their 59/60 designs into production in 1958 ......hence the cars like the 58 Chevy being a 1 year only platform and having their own production issues.
Ironically the reason Chrysler rushed their design and production schedule forward is because they had heard rumors the GM was going to do an early release of their 59/60 designs.
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Awesome car and build. I'm a big fan of the forward look cars. I love the 57's as well, and its on my list of someday cars.
The car that started the hobby for my family is my dad's 60 Savoy. My grandfather bought it new and my dad took it on as a project/his first car in the 70s.
The car that started the hobby for my family is my dad's 60 Savoy. My grandfather bought it new and my dad took it on as a project/his first car in the 70s.
Nice looking Plymouth. It brings back lots of memories. The town I grew up in had a Chevrolet and a Dodge dealership about a mile from my house. My father ordered a new 57 Dodge Coronet, two door hardtop with a V8, power steering and a push button automatic. It was a flashy two tone blue and white. One of his best friends bought a 57 Desoa with a hemi and the other one bought a 57 Chev Belair Convertible, black with red and silver interior. That car was gorgeous. Always wished my dad had gone to the Chevy dealership instead. The Dodge was a problem from day one so we ended up getting a 57 Ford Convertible, white with a black interior, 312, automatic and a town n country radio. That was a great car.
Nice looking Plymouth. It brings back lots of memories. The town I grew up in had a Chevrolet and a Dodge dealership about a mile from my house. My father ordered a new 57 Dodge Coronet, two door hardtop with a V8, power steering and a push button automatic. It was a flashy two tone blue and white. One of his best friends bought a 57 Desota with a hemi and the other one bought a 57 Chev Belair Convertible, black with red and silver interior. That car was gorgeous. Always wished my dad had gone to the Chevy dealership instead. The Dodge was a problem from day one so we ended up getting a 57 Ford Convertible, white with a black interior, 312, automatic and a town n country radio. That was a great car.
Thanks rachet. The Dodge having problems was common across the entire Mopar line for cars built during the first half of the 57 production year. The lines on the 57 Dodges sure did lend themselves to 2 and tri-tone paint jobs I’ve seen 57-58 Dodges done in the blue and white and they are really pretty.
I actually did a 57 Dodge 2dr post car a bit over 20 years ago. It was early production and after spending over 40 hours trying to get the panels to line up I finally gave up ad decided it was about as good as I could do.
It was a pretty and fun car though. I went back with the original 2 tone gold and white.
57 Dodge by M Patterson, on Flickr
Being a typical hotrodder it was far from stock with; a 69 10:1 compression 440, 6 Pack Cam, Dual Quads on a factory manifold, 64 aluminum case pushbutton 727 Torqueflight (replacing the cast iron torqueflight ) and a 3.21 Posi rear end. I slapped a set of 413 “Golden Lion” decals on it and a bunch of people believed it was stock LOL.
440 by M Patterson, on Flickr
The car was FAST…..not necessarily really quick (but it generally held its own) . It also got 12 MPG, it didn’t matter if you were going uphill or down, into the wind or had a tail wind it got 12 MPG period LOL.
It’s funny I built that car to drive back to my 25 High School reunion and am now doing the Plymouth for my 50th ……. where the hell did all the years go!
I actually did a 57 Dodge 2dr post car a bit over 20 years ago. It was early production and after spending over 40 hours trying to get the panels to line up I finally gave up ad decided it was about as good as I could do.
It was a pretty and fun car though. I went back with the original 2 tone gold and white.
57 Dodge by M Patterson, on FlickrBeing a typical hotrodder it was far from stock with; a 69 10:1 compression 440, 6 Pack Cam, Dual Quads on a factory manifold, 64 aluminum case pushbutton 727 Torqueflight (replacing the cast iron torqueflight ) and a 3.21 Posi rear end. I slapped a set of 413 “Golden Lion” decals on it and a bunch of people believed it was stock LOL.
440 by M Patterson, on FlickrThe car was FAST…..not necessarily really quick (but it generally held its own) . It also got 12 MPG, it didn’t matter if you were going uphill or down, into the wind or had a tail wind it got 12 MPG period LOL.
It’s funny I built that car to drive back to my 25 High School reunion and am now doing the Plymouth for my 50th ……. where the hell did all the years go!
You obviously are a Mopar man. A lot of effort have gone into both the Dodge and the Plymouth. Back in 57 the minister of my parents church had a gold and white two door Royal Lancer. It had quite a bit more chrome, spinner hub caps and more appointments all over.
Dad had a 56 Ford Crown Victoria 2 Dr with the 312 Y block. He said it was one of the best cars he ever owned, wasn't sure why he sold it. I saw the pictures, a beautiful car, I told how much that car woul be worth. Dad was a Ford man from way back. He got a real lemon of a Ford truck, he went to GMC and Chevy trucks with much better luck after that. We also owned a couple of terrible Fox bodies, a Zepher and a Fairmont. We bought a 75 Olds Cutlass and a 81 Delta 88, both SBO and the two best cars we owned, have been an Olds fan since that time. Another beautiful car Mike, time sure does fly.
I had a Fairmont wagon (80’s). I use to take it to the drag strip on Saturday nights and bracket race it. It was slow (19’s) but consistent. Won some money with it.
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