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Mopars Of The Month -
April 2010 |
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1957 Dual Ghia By
Ed Blumenthal |
Additional Facts for
Dual-Ghia #137
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Performance was excellent, due to many of the cars, including #137,
being powered by the High Performance, Dodge Hemi D-500, a 315 V-8.
Out of the cars produced, only 32 still existed as of July 2006.
Over 1,500 man-hours were said to have been lavished on each car
before it left the factory. This car is number 137. The vehicle
identification numbering series started with 101.
This car was originally a demonstrator for Chrysler Dealer, Sanders
Motors of Long Island, NY. The Pomerantz family of Great Neck, Long
Island NY, purchased it. Traded in 1962 when #137 was slightly used
with only 42,000 miles. It was driven for a short period of time and
basically was put into storage for the next 32 years, mostly in a
barn in Greenwich, CT.
Ed & Carole Blumenthal acquired it, with 44,557 miles on the
odometer, then and began a complete restoration project that has
taken 12 years to complete.
According to automotive researcher, "these cars recently are
certainly obtaining a following with well-known collectors and have
been referred to by some as the Duesenburg of the 50s". |
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MoPar Related Components
Information:
This car was truly a “Barn Find”. The car was put into a barn in
Greenwich, CT. in the 60’s and remained there for more than
3-decades. During that time it became a place for families of
raccoons to use as their “facility”. It was a disposable White suit
and mask “rescue”---but as you see, very well worth the effort. The car looked totally intact when we
saw it in the barn----BUT the dark green paint was hiding the rust
that was attacking from within. The Ghia factory did not consider
rust proofing when they were hand building these cars.
Consequently
the floors and rockers were attacked and needed replacing. A serious
concern since this is a “Monocoque or Unibody” type of construction
and the rockers are actually the main support of the body. The
construction begins when a 1956 Dodge chassis is shipped to Ghia in
Italy. The front sub-frame and rear sub-frame are retained and the
center section, of the chassis, is discarded and replace with
hundreds of welded together sections of sheet metal. The fenders and
doors and other body panes are hand hammered over a wooden “buck”
and then all welded together, and leaded. We must have removed 100
pounds of lead from the extra wide gaps left on the hand made body.
The completed body then receives all interior trim, top, windows,
dash, paint, windshield (56 Dodge Convertible) and Italian Carello
lights, in Italy.
The engine compartment on most cars
are painted a Robins Egg Blue/Green. The dash instruments are all
1956 Dodge with the addition of a mechanical tachometer that has the
face designed to match the Dodge speedometer. The dash switches are
various 1956 MoPar for the ignition, lighting and heater. The radio
is the MoPar Town & Country with standard antenna mounted on the
right front fender. The heater water control valve is a cable
operated late 40’s or early 50’s Dodge Pickup truck valve. All of
the dash knobs are 1956 Plymouth including the floor shift lever
that uses a 1956 Plymouth standard column shift chrome knob. The
Cowl Vent mechanism is 1954 Chrysler and a 1955-56 Dodge Cowl vent
cover with a slightly larger outer skin.
The entire body is crated and
shipped to Detroit to receive all of its mechanical components. The
wiring harness is “similar” to the 56 MoPar in design but slightly
modified for the Dual-Ghia use and appears to have been made in
Italy but does use the MoPar 5-post wiring block.
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For More Information
and photos of Ed's 1957 Dual Ghia:
1234 |
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