Junkyard Find: 1959 DeSoto
I haven’t been to the Brain-Melting Colorado Junkyard (where I bought my 1941 Plymouth sedan) for a while, but I’ve still got quite a few photographs of the thousands of old American cars that live there. We’ve seen this ’62 Cadillac, this ’52 Kaiser, this ’49 Kaiser, this ’51 Nash, this ’51 Frazer, this mystery custom, this ’48 Pontiac hearse, and a few more, and today we’ll admire an example of DeSoto‘s final years.
The Swedes who come to the Brain-Melting Junkyard every year and fill shipping containers with old American cars and parts may have grabbed this car by now, since they love big finned American sedans in Scandinavia.
It’s pretty rusty, but most of the trim and glass look good.
Most of the cars were saved from The Crusher by the yard’s owner, who spent decades hanging around the gates of Denver’s scrappers, offering a few bucks more than the going rate for anything interesting. Better that this one get shipped to Europe than head back to the steel jaws.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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My parents had a 57 Chrysler Windsor that we drove from Dayton, OH to Houston, TX in August of 1958 when we moved to TX. We broke down some where in TX with alternator problems (yes Chrysler was one of the first to use alternators). I remember the deep blue metallic paint was fading even after less than a year. My parents traded it for a new 1959 Plymouth Sport Suburban 9 passenger wagon with air which my middle brother wrecked 3 years later. My mother love the push button drive and the big fins but these cars were crap. My father said he wished that he would have bought a 57 Chevy instead. The 57 Chevy was a sales flop in 1957 outsold by Ford but look at which car has become the classic. The 57 Chrysler was a sharp looking car with its dark blue and white two-tone color but is was a bad car. I remember seeing it later and someone had painted it all white which was a good choice since the blue paint was fading and wearing off.
It is hard to imagine the styling sensation that the 1957 Chrysler products were when they were first introduced . I recall at the time ,and I was possibly only three years old , practically drooling over the pink 1957 Plymouth that belonged to the parents of our unpleasant babysitter, Emma Jo . They lived nearby so I frequently gazed lustfully at this probably low level pink sedan . Knew nothing of the quality problems back then but I was only 3 years old . I thought that Mom's 1956 Pontiac two-door wagon looked so dated and frumpy in comparison .