Irrelevant auto trivia
Just because I was thinking of it...

Around 1965, Dodge cars and trucks probably featured the widest range of 'mixed vintages' ever. They also featured the widest range of entirely different doorhandles.

The big Polaras were new in '65 and had the pullup doorhandles first used in '57.

The 'intermediate' Coronets were repurposed from the downsized fullsized '62 Dodge, and had pushbutton doorhandles.

The Dart had been new in '63, and also had pushbuttons, but not the same as the Coronet pushbuttons.

Pickups had been new in '61, and had pullout doorhandles which had only been used on '56 Dodge cars.

The Town Wagon 'SUV' was mainly '55 with a '58 front clip, and also had the pullout doorhandles.

The biggest trucks used the '55 cab on top of a huge chassis and front end new in '60, and also used pullout handles.

Power Wagons used a cab that was new in '39, with a military front end added in '42, and used the turn-down handles from '39.

That's eleven different vintages covering a range of 26 years, and doorhandles of all four common types.

Even more irrelevant sidenote: I've discussed the 55-58 truck before as a rare example of trucks getting "ahead" of cars in fashionable styling. The '55 adopted GM's wraparound windshield, which Chrysler never used on its cars. The cars went with a sort of half-wrap from '56 to '60.

While looking closely at pictures, I noticed another misplaced fashion trend on the '58 front. The headlights were inside the grille surround, and the body around the headlights was pulled back to create Exner's favorite "classic" free-standing headlight trick. The trick was later applied to Imperials in '59, after it started on the pickups. It was a completely impractical waste of money in both cases, but at least it wouldn't speed up depreciation on Imperials, with owners who could afford professional washing and waxing. Trucks go through a lot more mud and gravel than Imperials, and rarely get washed.

Labels: Entertainment

  ¶ 10:01 PM