• 1955 Chrysler New Yorker St. Regis 2-Door Hardtop – in an unfinished and extensively dismantled state but believed to be almost complete in the parts department
• Acquired by me in early 2023. However, once it been delivered to me and checked over it turned out to be more of a challenge in prospect than I had persuaded myself it might be on a first appraisal
• This New Yorker is undeniably an interesting piece of automotive kit but to take it anywhere honorable would seem to be something that would be beyond my own capabilities and resources
Detail follows:
1955 Chrysler
• Model designation – C68
• Vehicle Number - N5530700 (no prefix => Detroit build)
• Body number, type and options – see photo of the relevant plate
• Number stamped directly onto the bodyshell (one of the door sills, as seen on a section saved by the previous custodian during body rust repair operations) - 1597418
• Engine Number - NE5532827
• Engine Type – Chrysler FirePower (331 cu. in.)
• Transmission type – Chrysler PowerFlite (shift lever on dash, traversing vertically)
• Electrical system – 6 volts
• Power assisted steering
• Power assisted door and quarter windows
• Power assisted front seat
• Weights and measures data (mostly as supplied by Chrysler Corporation in 1955)
o Length – 218. 8” (18’ 2. 8”)
o Width – 79” (6’ 7”)
o Height – ?
o Wheelbase – 126” (10’ 6”)
o Shipping weight (C68 Four Door Sedan) – 4, 160 lbs.
o Shipping weight (C300 Sport Coupe) – 4, 005 lbs.
o Approx. shipping weight conclusion for this C68 – just over 2 short tons (approx. 1860 kg)
• First Registered in the UK – October 1989
• UK Registration Mark – USU 456
• Odometer reading presently displayed - 05636
• Believed to have been resident in Utah, USA immediately prior to it having been imported to the UK (a Utah resident’s owner’s manual seems to have come over for the ride and was passed on to me, plus examples of both 1955 and 1954 Chrysler service manuals, which may well have followed the same itinerary)
• Must have seen some use as a going concern in the UK in the earlier phase of it being resident here but eventually seems to have been left outside and unused for a long interval, such that it thereby turned into a bit of a basket case via the attentions upon it of good old British weather patterns
Project Challenges Explanation
• Was taken on as a major project by the owner/ custodian before me and a great deal of dismantling and restoration work was subsequently completed (timescale unknown), plus a certain amount of reassembly, but much of that reassembly was of a temporary nature, to get the project back in rolling form and ready for the relevant offer for sale
• The bodywork is now in a mostly, but not entirely, rust repaired condition; the main bodyshell must have been off the chassis for a prolonged period whilst this work was being carried out and many parts of that shell and other removable panels were blast cleaned
• The chassis structure has been refurbished but much remains to be done everywhere else and that will include the inspection, overhaul, refurbishment, or replacement of just about every mechanical or electrical component
• All the external trim pieces, side windows, quarterlight assemblies, etc. will require refurbishing; few of the associated clips, if any, will be reusable
• The windshield and backlight seem to be OK and their weatherstrips are likely to be good enough to provide reliable patterns for replacements and a guide for reassembly
• A replacement exhaust system is included in the parts package (pipes and mufflers, not sure about the brackets and widgets)
• The interior is a conundrum – the seats, door panels and some of the other padded parts all present themselves quite well but the carpets are dead and the headlining probably only useful for pattern purposes, so the just described quite acceptable ‘soft’ interior condition seems to be at odds with the condition of all the other bits and pieces that were supplied to me, either installed or uninstalled
• I suspect that a few small items are now either missing or belong to a similar year Windsor, not a New Yorker, but I shall not be attempting to analyse fully the detail of the available parts inventory; the only part that I am fairly certain has not been acquired is the rear view mirror
• Soft interior assessment part 2 – my set of contemplated options
o All those parts are still pretty much in the same condition as they were when manufactured in 1955?
o All, or most of those parts were retrimmed in the USA at some stage prior to the export of the vehicle to the UK and then all survived quite well throughout all the subsequent stages of this vehicle’s travails?
o Approximately as above but done at some stage in the UK instead?
o Acquired from another 1955/ 56 2-door Chrysler and kept to one side until recently?
o Possibly a mixture of some of the above possibilities?
Project Challenges Explanation continued
• The wiring loom is present, with many of the switches still attached to it, but the loom itself will probably only be useful for pattern purposes
• All the lamps and other electrical devices seem to have been supplied to me but some of them don’t look very happy, so rectification work will be required there (Chrysler were still utilising a 6-volt system for the New Yorker in 1955)
• The engine is in a rather strange state and the transmission may follow that pattern, but the latter has not been subjected to any significant investigation. The engine does not seem to be seized but the plugs and tubes are out and the exhaust manifolds have been removed; it has, however, only been turned over far enough by me to have established some of said strange state via the grinding noise that emanates from it when doing so. Complete overhaul of both units may well need to be budgeted for
• The steering system is also in a rather peculiar state – as now assembled, the left and right hand front wheels do not agree with each other upon their desired direction of travel and there are several furlongs of play at the rim of the steering wheel – some aspects of this may or be linked to the present essentially stop-gap refitted arrangement of a power assisted steering mechanism
• All the aspects of parts condition that I have not described above in any detail will be likely to follow the same pattern as those aspects that I have mentioned. Every sub assembly will need to be investigated and many of those will probably require some attention (over and above their cosmetic refurbishment); all sorts of pipes, clips and other fixtures/ fittings will have to be re-created in a bespoke fashion or bought in from a suitable supplier
• Parts summary - this seems to be a genuine vehicle, not a bitsa, but many of its bits are now in a bit of a state
• The totality of the underlying situation here behoves me to also mention that it has become my considered opinion that a certain number of less than 100% positive previous owner/ keeper factors do apply here, and I may not have been able to deduce thus far what some of those may turn out to be. Most such factors that I may have noted already, however, are trivial ones but just one of them was a bit of a surprise and ought to be explained in some detail
• Said surprise relates to the state of all the axle hubs, as discovered shortly after their arrival, particularly via the set of studs/ bolts found in use with said hubs when the vehicle was rolled in a rather wobbly fashion out of the transporting vehicle. The relevant collection of M12 x 1. 25 wheel studs/ bolts (20. 32 tpi) has been retained for evidence (seven out of ten on the RH side but none on the left, presumably because a LHT variation of those fasteners is not available)
• Those metric fasteners are no longer installed and the original set of ½ x 20 UNF fasteners (12. 7 mm, 20 tpi) has been reinstated after having sorted out both male/ female and LH/ RH UNF thread damage to the best of my ability
• The likely implication of the above is that those hub/ drum assemblies are now not safe to use, and one has already had its drum retaining rivets ground away to release the drum from the hub anyway (who knows why?)
• I shall pass on any other findings to anyone who may turn out to be brave enough to become the next custodian of this New Yorker
Special Note 1 – this vehicle really ought to be physically inspected (Sheerness, Kent) and thereby appraised by any potential next custodian
Special Note 2 – I have attempted to describe the condition of this vehicle in an unexpurgated fashion. However, there are some areas that I have not fully explored and there may be others where I have stated something that does not quite match up to the reality, wherever I may have come to an incorrect judgement about some of the either presently applicable or historically pertinent factors
Special Note 3 – Regardless of the notes of caution already presented in Special Note 2, above, the principle of caveat emptor applies here anyway, just as it always will do in any non-business marketplace within this jurisdiction (always assuming that said principle is still generally accepted to be an ongoing component of the common law of the UK in a situation such as this)
Collecting and taking away practicalities – Many of the loose parts could be stashed relatively simply inside the vehicle somewhere for transport purposes or could be returned temporarily to their original locations, as many have been already. However, if the complete set of parts were to be loaded possibilities of damage in transit might arise, which is particularly applicable to the windshield and backlight glass, so a collection operation where some of the loose parts could be transported in the towing vehicle, or in an accompanying vehicle, would simplify the processes likely to be involved
