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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | I have a rare edition of a fairly rare car. 1956 Chrysler Windsor 2 dr hdtp. Spring Special edition.
In the 11 years I have owned it, I have never heard of any 56 Spring Special's. I did see an advertisement in a 1956 Life or Look magazine that showed some of the new colors that was on them. These colors would be available on all the 1957's
Have any of you had knowledge of these cars? I have found 1955's and 1957's but NO 1956. Thanks for any info. BTW I do have the build IBM card from Chrysler Historical. No mention of Spring Special except for the paint colors................................................MO |
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Location: The Mile High City | Hmm.  I love a good mystery, Cornpatch! When I first got into ForwardLooks, I had heard of the 1958 spring specials, and I figured it was because of that particular recession year. Au Contraire! Chrysler has a long history with spring specials. I will be interested to hear more about the 1956 editions...
somebody here will know all the details, I'm sure.
Edited by Lancer Mike 2015-05-08 5:15 PM
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Location: Fairfax, Minnesota | 56 Windsor Spring Special
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | "....Longer bodies"?
New Yorker derived bodies?
The ad mentions "Copperglow" interior and "Copperglow" exterior motifs.
Exteriors shown, above, include Crocus Yellow, Blue Jade, and Cloud White.
The Copperglow appears to be the only 'Spring Special' color, and it was applied to both
the exterior and to the interior.
"Copper" and Springtime don't seem to be synonymous; Fall-time, maybe, though.
Edited by d500neil 2015-05-08 9:06 PM
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | Ray and Neil. The ad that Ray posted is the one I saw in Life or Look magazine. Mine has the "Copper Glow" interior, but I don't think it is Spring Special specific. That bottom photo of the Crocus Yellow is (was ) my color with a charcoal two tone. Mine has additional SS trim on the side. Pictures later...................................MO |
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Location: ZH, Switzerland | Judging from the pictures the cloude white/blue jade model and the model on the top (of the advertisement) are showing a NY style (at least) front bumper. In 1956 the Windsor had the same body width, the same wheel base, the same front and rear thread as the NY. The lenght of the Windsor was about 1 to 2 inches shorter than the NY. I assume it was caused by the dimension of the different bumpers of the NY. It's a very interesting thread. At the beginning I was asked several time if my NY is a spring special. It's evident that there were some really handsome looking SS Windsor produced and advertised. But NYs? Airplane style engine for the Windsor SS as the advertisement addresses? Did the SS Windsor get the 331 Firepower or 354 Firepower engine? Originally the Windsor was equipped with a 331 Spitfire (SRS - single rocker shaft) engine. Happy Motoring! Dieter |
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Location: NY & VT | Pretty sure the Windsors of all ilks had the 331 Spitfire SRS (poly) engine in '56. |
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | Dieter and Firedome, the pics in the ad are Windsor. Most obvious Difference between the NYer and Windsor is the grills and headlight rings
That's right, the Windsor had poly engine with the option of a 250 HP "power pac" When I got it, it had a 330 Desoto engine A year or two later I installed the 1956 NY Chrysler 354 Hemi.. I have heard from more than one source, that very late in the production year 1956, the factory was phaseing out the 331 poly and when a customer ordered the "power pac' option , they reeived a 354 Hemi. Could mine have been one of those??
I will attempt to post pics of my Chrysler. I put on the New Yorker headlight rings and installed the engine...................................MO |
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | If you want to see pics of this car as I found it in Arizona, Go to my Albums page here and enter my user name --just like it appears on this post.
BTW , due to several reasons , we are considering selling our " Betty Lou" baby. Maybe later in the Summer..............................................MO
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Location: Sarpsborg, Norway | Well. They ended the production of the 354 Hemi for Chrysler in 56 also. So does that mean they put 331 Poly's in a New Yorker also?? |
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Location: ZH, Switzerland | mopar56 - 2015-05-09 9:05 AM Well. They ended the production of the 354 Hemi for Chrysler in 56 also. So does that mean they put 331 Poly's in a New Yorker also?? No -it's just the oppisite way. As far as I understand from the information from MO... the 331 Spitfire was phased out while Windsors with Power Pack got the 354 Firepower engine (the NY engine). IMO this makes sense because it seems that the 354 block lived longer and was used for the 1957 Spitfire engine (354 CID) for the 1957 Windsor and Saratoga. The 1957 Yorker got a new 392 Firepower engine. Very late models? In October 1956 Chrysler introduced the 1957 model year at Chelsea Proving ground to the dealers. Personally I don't know how long Chrysler stopped the production to convert the production lines to the new model. Launch day at the dealers for the new 1957 line up was October 30th. So it could be that a really late 1956 model was produced in August 1956 or early September at last. Happy Motoring! Dieter
Edited by di_ch_NY56 2015-05-10 3:47 AM
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | mopar56 - 2015-05-10 2:05 AM
Well. They ended the production of the 354 Hemi for Chrysler in 56 also. So does that mean they put 331 Poly's in a New Yorker also?? Pretty sure that No New Yorkers had poly engines. As you probably know , 354 Hemi was a one year only in passenger cars. I do think they were used in more than one year in the trucks........................................MO |
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | Dieter post is the way I understand it . It does make sense on the late 56 power pacs being 354 hemis, but I have never seen evidence of that---only what I have heard. I believe one of our moderators-Hank Dozier? --said that his father had one.. ................................MO |
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Location: ZH, Switzerland | Yes I saw some 1957 Dodge Trucks (D/W 100, 200) with a factory 354 Hemi installed at youtube. IMHO the truck version is not a passenger car version, but could be derived from it (e.g. different camshaft, compression ratio, intake manifold). MO: your Windsor looks wonderful. The rims catched my eyes... personally I've never seen a Windsor/New Yorker/Imperial with rims like yours. Happy Motoring! Dieter |
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Location: Arizona | In some ways the 56, especially the tail end, seems like the purest expression of the FL ideals of any year. For front ends I might pick the 57 Desoto. |
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Location: Sarpsborg, Norway | Since you have the IBM card MO, what does the engine number say on the card??
I have a very hard time understanding how a Windsor could leave the factory with a different engine than it supposed to have and be sold public. But at the dealers it's a totally different story. They switched things around and repainted cars and added trim and all sort of crazy stuff. But everybody have to understand at the assembly line changes where very difficult. The Power pack Windsor that is claimed to be a factory Hemi would be more likely that it had engine trouble under warranty and for goodwill the dealer swapped in a new Hemi instead.
It seems there is a small group of people that can not quite live with the fact that they have ordinary model, just as everybody else. So they have to make up a story or two, either a mysterious engine combo, or a celebrity have owned it, or it could been a movie car or whatever. There is a classic car dealer in Sweden that always stumble across those cars. Every car he have in stock has a story like this. I have also a couple of cars that have something strange with them. One is a 56 Windsor with a standard transmission, the other is my 56 New Yorker wagon with a AC that seems to be factory mounted, but I can never prove it since the IBM-card can not verify it. I suspect the guys at the assembly line is long gone now, and if not they would not remember the Desert Rose Wagon that rolled by. Did it really have an AC?? |
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Location: Ponder, TX | I don't find it at all unusual for oddball cars to roll off the production line. Special orders were very common and if the parts and pieces were available on the line, they were installed there. If not, when they rolled out the custom changes were accomplished in another area. Some differences were simply mistakes that were allowed to pass if the quality of the vehicle wasn't affected. Those were mostly things like trim.
When I worked at a C-P dealership in '64, we were told by the regional rep to never lose a sale if some equipment wasn't offered on the model they wanted. If it wasn't in the order book, we would turn the customer over to the rep and he would work out the special equipment changes. Some modifications took place at the dealership, but most occurred at the factory. The one that I recall because the "experts" say it didn't happen, was a 426 Hemi in a '64 Sport Fury that was special ordered by our parts manager. It was one of two we received that year when it was "impossible". |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | EH; never-say-never...but, there's always the factory IBM Build Cards, and Broadcast Sheets, to back up and/or to confirm
any factory-issued options and accessories.
Unfortunately, in some cases (like Special-ordered colors and interiors), the factory records will only confirm
a unique interior color (via catch-all code 888) or an exterior color (via ditto: 999).
Without remaining physical evidence, it can be impossible to confirm what various Special Ordered features
may have appeared on these 'special' cars.
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | di_ch_NY56 - 2015-05-10 3:41 AM
Yes I saw some 1957 Dodge Trucks (D/W 100, 200) with a factory 354 Hemi installed at youtube. IMHO the truck version is not a passenger car version, but could be derived from it (e.g. different camshaft, compression ratio, intake manifold). MO: your Windsor looks wonderful. The rims catched my eyes... personally I've never seen a Windsor/New Yorker/Imperial with rims like yours. Happy Motoring! Dieter |
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| Chrysler made up a press kit for the new Copperglow interior. The large, part color folder heavily promoted the fact that the Copperglow interior was a Spring Special. Even though the press sheets and dealer advertising sheet were not dated, the press kit would have been sent out to dealers sometime around January or February 1956 in advance of the spring selling season. Copy on the inside cover of the folder reads: "Sparkling metallic copper vinyl bolsters. . . rich black Jacquard upholstery alight with embroidered black and white shield." The Copperglow interior could be paired with four exterior combinations, including 1) cloud white body trimmed with Copperglow contour panel and roof or 2) blue jade contour panel and roof; 3) crocus yellow body with cloud white contour panel and roof, and 4) all white with chrome contour moudling. The available body styles included the Windsor two-door Newport and the Windsor four-door sedan. |
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | 300XMAN - 2015-05-11 8:38 AM
Chrysler made up a press kit for the new Copperglow interior. The large, part color folder heavily promoted the fact that the Copperglow interior was a Spring Special. Even though the press sheets and dealer advertising sheet were not dated, the press kit would have been sent out to dealers sometime around January or February 1956 in advance of the spring selling season. Copy on the inside cover of the folder reads: "Sparkling metallic copper vinyl bolsters. . . rich black Jacquard upholstery alight with embroidered black and white shield." The Copperglow interior could be paired with four exterior combinations, including 1) cloud white body trimmed with Copperglow contour panel and roof or 2) blue jade contour panel and roof; 3) crocus yellow body with cloud white contour panel and roof, and 4) all white with chrome contour moudling. The available body styles included the Windsor two-door Newport and the Windsor four-door sedan. Thanks for this info, it is more than I have ever been able to find. It still leaves the question of why mine had that lower stainless trim piece behind the front door, and the charcoal insert? I don't know what color the top was, as it had been stripped of paint and tan primered.................................MO |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | The 354 Dodge truck engines have small(er) valves, and retarded timing, and other features which would be
appropriate to low RPM/mucho-torque operations.
They came OEM with a 2-bbl carburetor/intake.
Dual-Stromberg deuces was an option.
You would not want to try to drop one of these guys into a hi-performance application.
Edited by d500neil 2015-05-12 9:07 PM
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | Bump for a friend.................................MO |
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New User
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| Hi. I'm now the owner of this car  it's in good hands and I'll be spending alot of time and money on keeping her in good shape. I'll give you an email would be good to know all about it's intresting history. Hayden |
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1956 Chrysler Spring Special
