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Expert
Posts: 2612
  
Location: Parts Unknown | Here is a bad cell phone pic out of the Mopar Collector's Guide . . .
 (DeSoto Camper.bmp)
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 DeSoto Camper.bmp (225KB - 100 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | So, a pair of fins were lost, not to a d@mn couch, but to a Grapes Of Wrath Joad experiment?????
Poor '56..... |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: The Bat Cave, Fairborn, OH | Not as bad as it might be. Wasn't there a picture of a 1957 Dodge with a camper body floating around here within the last few years? If I'm not mistaken, it was for sale too.
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Expert
Posts: 3588
Location: Plymouth Spaceport | Yikes!,Thats a darn shame! |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Here in town there is a 59 Imperial with this same "option" applied. I see it about once a week when I go through that part of town.
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Expert
Posts: 2612
Location: Parts Unknown | The car started it's life as a 1956 DeSoto FireFlite wagon - The story goes that sometime in the 1960's it was turned into what you see here. It was "parked" in the late 70's - Some one is getting it road worthy and that's pretty much all- for now. I am not a fan of this, but , I know I'm putting together a 61 Dodge the way I want it and some may look down on my "version" of what a "cool" 61 Dodge should look like. That being said, am I a hypocrite for being bothered by this "camper" ? Something in me says hacking the rear section of a wagon off and slapping a camper bed on it is not just some "tweaking" of the original so I just justified my disdain for this - WHEW , thanks for letting me vent . . . |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 988
Location: Kansas City, Kansas | I like it. This thing was converted when the car was a late-model. Chances are pretty good that the only reason it has lived to see 2009 is because of the conversion. Without it, it would have been a worn-out wagon by the late '60s and sent to the crusher.
I have seen many photos of '50s & early '60s cars converted into campers like this. If you wanted to travel long distances and do it in a comfortable car with all the creature comforts a nice car offered...you did this. Remember...pickups were still rough riders with few luxury items installed. This was a fancy conversion for the family with a good income.
Don't be dissin'. |
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Location: Parts Unknown | For those old enough to remember, these camper cars were not an uncommon sight back in the 60's for the reasons stated above. Some were even commercially made. Kind of goofy, but a period twist on something cool. Kinda cool in its own right. But that's just me .... I am more into the "period" than I am into just the cars.
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Expert
Posts: 2612
Location: Parts Unknown | Again, I get the "customizing" and such, I also understand the fact that most people (MYSELF INCLUDED) don't/didn't have and endless supply of money. However, didn't they make campers around this period ? They musta got that top from somewhere - I'd hate to hear what you guys would say if I hacked the back of my Dodge off and glued a camper top on and said I did it "period correct" - In one of my posts, I said how the beauty of this hobby/lifestyle was/is some will like and some won't what we choose to do with our cars. I just think If I lived next door to the guy that did this back in the 60's I don't THINK I would have been a fan. Look, I hate the idea of some one painting a 666 on the door of a 1960 Imperial and running in a demo derby, but if the owner wants to , that's not my call.  |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Yeah, .... I hear you.
I would not advocate doing it to a decent survivor today. But a rear-ended mess ? Maybe ! 
I would submit that if I were in the market for an RV camper thing .... that Imperial here in town might be a really cool way to go ! Certainly cooler that any breadbox RV being made today !
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7809
Location: Williams California | Doctor DeSoto - 2009-06-09 12:00 AM
For those old enough to remember, these camper cars were not an uncommon sight back in the 60's for the reasons stated above. Some were even commercially made. Kind of goofy, but a period twist on something cool. Kinda cool in its own right. But that's just me .... I am more into the "period" than I am into just the cars.
There was a large conversion company in the Seattle area called Dale's House Cars from the late fifties up to the mid sixties that built literally thousands of these campers, usually based on a prestige make such as Imperial, Chrysler, Cadillac or Mercury. I am not aware of them using entry lever makes at all. ---John |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7207
Location: Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island, Canada | A co-worker of mine, back in the mid seventies built a camper to fit on the back of his 1965 Chebby Biscayne sedan, all he had to do was remove the deck lid, and the front of the camper rested on his roof racks. After the weekend was over off came the camper and on came the deck lid. He didn't upgrade the suspension at all that I know of, so being a chebby with coil springs it must have really wallowed in the corners . Having said that, I've seen a few Imperial conversions to campers over the years, mostly 57-59 models. |
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Expert
Posts: 3588
Location: Plymouth Spaceport | I agree with BG61,I think whoever did this makes Gomer Pyle look like Einstien.
If you want to make a darn camper,why not use a truck as a base or a van...better yet,buy a trailer and PULL it behind your DeSoto!
Thank God that now these cars are expensive enough to keep them out of the hands of goobers who think they've got a better idea than Exners.
Another thing I hate is this stupid fad where people buy a classic car and then put these idiotic 80" chrome conestoga wagon wheels on them...
Please leave the old cars alone!,theres an 84 Caprice with your name on it out there...go destroy that!
Edited by 1960DesotoAdventurer 2009-06-10 12:44 PM
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Location: Parts Unknown | So, .....
How do you really feel about this ?
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 663
Location: Oakley, Ill | If this was done in the 60's, you have to remember that this was just a cheap car, much cheaper than a truck. After they took off the rear of the body, they might have removed enough weight to equal or exceed this caoper body |
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DeSoto Camper
