Description
1955 Chrysler New Yorker Restoration Project
Summary:
• 1955 Chrysler New Yorker St. Regis 2-Door Hardtop –in an unfinished and still extensively dismantled restoration project state but not much is believed to be missing in the parts department
• A V5C transfer will be included (whenever I may turn out to be able to finally prise my own iteration of such away from DVLA)
• Acquired by me in early 2023 (in the context of my having finally decided to go for it, in terms of seeking out a 1955/ 56 ‘Virgil’ that might already reside in the UK). However, once this example had been delivered to me and checked over properly it turned out to be ………
• ………a bit of a lemon, although please see the rider to that below
• Categorization via that slightly sour fruit allusion only applies to the nature of this vehicle in the context of my own now adjudged lack of ability to take the project forwards (appropriate skill set, determination, patience, months/ years that may still be left for me to exist, etc.)
• Many, or even most, other parties who might have made the same purchase instead of me would probably not see the subsequently unfolding situation in the same manner as I have done
• This New Yorker is undeniably a very interesting piece of automotive kit but to take it anywhere truly honorable would now seem to be something that would be way beyond my own capabilities (see above)
More 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 owner during their extensive, but not quite completed, 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
o Shipping weight (C300 Sport Coupe) – 4, 005
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
• 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 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
• Was taken on as a major project by the owner before me and a great deal of dismantling and restoration work was subsequently completed (timescale unknown), plus a certain amount of reassembly, but a lot of that reassembly was of an essentially temporary nature, to get the project rolling and ready for the relevant offer for sale, and not mostly remaining as a chassis and refitted bodyshell plus a huge pile of sub-assemblies and other smaller removed bits
• The body is now in a mostly, but not entirely, rust repaired condition
• The chassis has been refurbished and refinished but a great deal remains to be done everywhere else and that will include the inspection and likely extensive overhaul, refurbishment or replacement of just about every mechanical or electrical component, apart from possibly some aspects of the reassembled suspension
• All the external trim pieces, quarterlight assemblies, etc. will also require refurbishing, particularly when the components are not stainless steel; very few of the associated clips, if any, will be reusable
• The windshield and backlight seem to be OK and their weatherstrips are good enough to provide reliable patterns for replacement examples and a guide for reassembly
• A replacement exhaust system is included in the parts package (pipes and mufflers have been seen, not sure about any associated replacement brackets and widgets)
• The interior is a bit of a conundrum – the seats and door panels and some of the other padded parts all present very well but the carpets are completely dead and the headlining probably only useful for pattern purposes, so the just described quite acceptable ‘soft’ interior condition seems rather at odds with the condition of all the other bits and pieces that were supplied to me, either temporarily installed or left uninstalled• I suspect that a few small items are now either missing or belong to a Windsor, not a New Yorker, but I shall not be attempting to analyse fully the detail of the available parts inventory and then presenting my resulting theories here, as the only part that I am fairly certain has not been acquired is the rear view mirror and the likely Windsor parts seem to have turned up via a sort of swaps/ duplications process anyway
• Soft interior assessment part 2 – my own 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 pretty well throughout all the subsequent stages of this vehicle’s travails (e. g. did Chrysler Corporation use staple guns for soft trim material attachment to the relevant boards way back in 1955?)
o Approximately as above but done at some stage in the UK instead?
o Acquired from another 1955 2-door Chrysler and kept to one side until quite recently?
o Possibly even a rather complicated mixture of some of the above possibilities?
• The wiring loom is present, with many of the switches still attached to it, but the loom itself will only be useful for pattern purposes
• All the lamps and other electrical devices seem to have been supplied to me but some of those components are already visibly a bit unhappy, so a lot of rectification work will probably be required there
• The engine is in a rather peculiar state and the transmission may not be far behind, but the latter has not been subjected to any significant investigation. The engine is not seized but the plugs and tubes are all out and the exhaust manifolds have been removed; it has only been turned over far enough by me to have established some of said peculiar 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 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 may not be linked to the present installation arrangement, whereby the power assisted steering mechanism has been re-installed but without any connections having been made to the sub-system that’s supposed to be able to assist it
• 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. In other words, every sub assembly will need to be investigated and many of those will probably require some attention (over and above their cosmetic refurbishment) and all sorts of pipes and other fixtures and 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 a certain number of dpo, upo or any other kind of less than 100% positive po factors do apply. Most such factors that I may have noted thus far are trivial ones but just one of them is pretty much unforgivable; I shall say no more about that here (all sorted out for the time being after buying in specially those parts of the needed bit of tool kit that I did not possess already) but I shall of course pass on the detail of the likely implications of all and any of my own findings to anyone who may turn out to be brave enough to become the next custodian of this possibly to become rather fancy again one day (eventually) New Yorker
Special Note 1 – this vehicle will need to be physically inspected and thereby appraised (Sheerness, Kent) – it will not be available via any kind of remotely organized alternative viewing approach
Special Note 2 – I have attempted to describe the condition of this vehicle in an unexpurgated fashion. However, there are many areas that I have not fully explored and there may be others where I have stated something (anywhere above) 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)
