Re: [FWDLK] 1/4 bbl or 2/4bbl and much more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ron is right, I have a close friend who used to own a GM and a Ford dealership and he told me about ordering special cars for people like Oldsmobiles with Buick interiors, whatever made the customer happy. My '58 Silver Special parts car is an oddball which was either a special order or factory mistake, it has original paint and is solid black, no silver roof. According to anything I've ever read, they ALL had silver roofs. Not that it's as major as a 2x4 intake but it's an example. A better example is my Fury's last owners wife's '58 Belvedere which was purchased off of the original owner in '71. It had a 318 2BBL with a torqueflite (nothing hot there) but it also had no Belvedere emblems on the 1/4's (and no holes or signs of any holes welded or filled for them), chrome garnish moldings and speedometer housing trim (like a Fury), and a 150 speedometer. Was it a special order? A late production car destine to be a Fury but was trimmed as a Belvedere somehow? Or a late production car coming down the assembly line getting all of the leftover Fury parts since Chrysler planned on building more cars than they sold do to the '58 recession? I don't need the "experts"on the list telling me stuff like that car can't happen, I knew the car well, drove the car, and looked for any signs of those damn emblem holes, they were not there.

In a message dated 12/7/2010 9:04:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, Archangel1390@xxxxxxx writes:

     Since I started into drag racing with my first 56 Plymouth Fury in late 56 I was very eager to learn as much as I could about High Performance Chrysler Products. My best friends father owned a large Dodge / Plymouth dealership. I would spend many many hours just looking through the part books and reading Service Bulletins and Service Update reports. You almost had to carry the serial number of your car with you. There were so many early part numbers and so many late part numbers for each year. Eventually they came out with a book that decoded the early and late part numbers together. There were so very many things that came out after the cars were already built and sold that were always offered as a dealer add on. ( called "Dealer Installed".)

     I am sure they did not make an exception to the add on list and not offer the 2/4 bbl carbs.

     I was surprised to find the 2/4 bbl carbs were not only offered for the 303 engine in the 56 Fury, but it was also listed as an option for the 277 inch Plymouth Belvedere late in the 1956.( Please note---when a Factory parts for the car were "Dealer Installed" you did not have to send the metal fender paint code, etc, etc plate back to the factory to be updated.

   The world was moving much slower back then. Dealers really worked with you to sell you a car. If they were experienced and knew who to contact at the production plant, they could get some strange combinations that were not in any of the books.That is hard to understand in this fast moving hi tech computer and robot age, but that is how it was back then. Back then you could call the company and talk live to a real person, not a computer. If they said they would call you right back---------they did.) (It was a different world back then.) There were never any left over parts on the Chrysler products assembly lines that were destroyed or disregarded just because the a new model year started being produced at the other end of the line.

              Ron Swartley

   ( still loose on the East Coast)

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