Cruise-O-Matic: Part Ten

[jakins]

My Newest Ride

1936 Dodge D2 4 door. I got it in September. Had it shipped from New York. The interior was redone but not quite to original. But it was such a good deal, and it is very well done I Can live with it.

 

[ea56]

John, your ‘36 Dodge is a beauty! I’ll bet it’s lots of fun to take out on rides and see how people look it over. It’s certainly been excellently restored. Is the Blue paint the original color? I’m green with envy!

Eddie

 

[circlew]

That is beautiful! When I was a kid, my friend Fred's dad had a late 30's car. I think it was either a Dodge or Plymouth, and a deep navy blue color. It had doors that opened like yours. I rode in it s couple times. Mr. Jones didn't like newer cars, so when he needed a different one by the mid 60's, he bought a Buick that was reddish brown, which I think was a 1954 model.

 

[Ultramatic]

Gorgeous!

 

 

That blue is stunning!

 

[jakins]

Paint color

the color is called Hyundai Onyx Blue. It is very close to a color they had in 36 Called Dodge Blue.
My Mother in-law was here for Thanksgiving and loved riding in it she is 91 and Her father had one in the 30's.
I had to add turn signals for safety, also added fog lights. I believe it was the third year for dodge to use the Ram.

 

[ea56]

John,

There is someone in my town that had a ‘35 Plymouth 4 dr sedan for sale for quit a while that was parked on the corner across the street from us. The roof had a square opening in the center that would have been filled in with a piece of wood and covered some type of imitation leather. I believe your ‘36 Dodge would have been the first year for Dodge to have an all steel roof.

Eddie

 

[jakins]

Roof

Yes, Eddie it is but they still didn't have the presses yet for the entire roof the middle has a panel that it welded where the leather top would have been..

 

[pulltostart]

John,

The Dodge is dy-no-mite!  What fun it must be to tool around in it and show it off.

 

lawrence

 

[foraloysius]

1953 Chevrolet

Here’s my mother on the hood of a 1953 Chevrolet. We haven’t been able to determine if this is a Bel Air or a 210 (two ten). Anyone?

 

[ea56]

Louis,
Without a side view of this ‘53 Chevrolet it’s difficult to definitively say whether or not it’s a BelAir. But from what I can tell from this photo it appears that the roof is the same color as the body, either a dark metallic blue or green. In my experience ‘53 BelAir’s usually had a different color roof than the body, so my guess is that your Mom’s ‘53 Chevrolet is a 210.

Eddie

 

[foraloysius]

Thank you Eddie! That makes sense. It wasn’t my mother’s car, but a shared car of my father and his brothers. They had several as we understand. They worked together in the family company. So far we have identified a few Pontiacs, a few Chevies and a Vauxhall for the years 1947 - 1960. Later they all got their own car but there were still a few company cars for several uses, mainly six cylinder Opels.

 

[circlew]

Eddie, you are correct that the only way to identify it for sure is to see the side. The 210, and even the 150, could be ordered as a two-tone. To the best of my knowledge, the 150 lacked side molding, the 210 had a basic chrome side molding, and the Bel Air the deluxe side molding with the painted insert on the rear quarter, which matched the roof color (if two-tone, as most were).

 

[ea56]

Thanks Tom! I remember these Chevy’s very well. When my brother and I were very small we had a babysitter every week day while Mom went to work. Her name was Mrs. Hoskins and we called her Nannie and her husband we called PapPaw.

Nannie got a new ‘53 Chevrolet 210 2 dr sedan that was dark metallic green. Since she babysat not only Joe and I, but at least 3 to 4 other kids everyday she had PapPaw take out the backseat so that when all of us kids rode in the car with her we could play around on the floor of the back of the car. Now a days that of course would be verboten! Free range kids in the back of a car without seatbelts would be child neglect. But it didn’t seem to hurt us any, I guess we were just lucky.

Eddie

 

[foraloysius]

I googled the Bel Air again. It looks like most came as two-tone, although some of the pictures with the one tone cars I saw might not be original. I guess we will never be 100% sure. This picture will have to be saved as either/or. Thanks guys,

 

[foraloysius]

What a great memory Eddie!

 

[foraloysius]

I had to search for a bit, but here’s my mother again now with the 1952 Vauxhall Wyvern.

 

[circlew]

My Aunt Doris bought a Bel Air brand new, either a '53 or '54. It was a two-tone, with the lower color "Surf Green", and the upper "India Ivory". She kept it until 1964.

Back then, many people ordered their cars from the factory, and the choices were nearly limitless. Evidently the customer specified a color code for upper, lower, and insert. One '53 Chevrolet ad showed a car with an all red body, with the trim insert in ivory. Another code specified the interior color.

 

[foraloysius]

Tom

Is this Surf Green?

 

[circlew]

Louis, that is "Surf Green". Looks almost like the one my aunt had, except hers had a chrome grille assembly, instead of painted as in the picture.

 

[foraloysius]

Yes Tom, I noticed that too. Must have happened in some kind of restoration. Perhaps they weren’t able to purchase the right part and just painted damaged parts.

Here’s another one in blue. I wondered if those red wheels were original.