1955 Desoto Hemi Fireflite “Grandma’s New Car!!”

We picked up this all original desoto so our grandma can enjoy driving one of these classic cars once again.
#1955desoto #mopar #plymouth #chrysler #happydays #dodge #chrysler #oldskoolrides #barnfind #survivor #willitrun #hemi #shadetreevintageauto #vintage #classic #hotrod #jonnymopar #antique #fireflight #firedome

[@TheDejael]

The first Exner-designed DeSoto of the Forward Look! Very advanced styling for 1955. This is the top of the line Fireflite model, with the chrome fins on top of the chrome headlamp bezels. 1955 was the only year of the Powerflite automatic transmission gear selector on the dash. Same Corvette-style dash layout was also used for 1956, when the push-button gearbox was first used in Chrysler cars on the left side of the steering wheel. Also the 4-barrel carb was standard on the DeSoto Fireflite, but optional on the lower-priced Firedome model, with the same Hemi V8. The Powermaster flathead Six of 1954 was discontinued for 1955, and all DeSotos to the last one for 1961 were all V8s. 1955 was the last year of the 6-volt electrical system. For 1956, 12-volts were the thing, due to the addition of many power accessories offered on Detroit American cars. Beautiful styling and design by Virgil M. Exner Sr. who also designed exotic concept cars for Ghia in Italy.

[@scottmeeker9971]

Great car🎉

[@kenmacdonald7677]

That is a pretty cool ride. Love the color.

[@DymondzTrucking1962]

Do a complete service on it throw a seat cover on it and drive it

[@brianhayes7618]

Very good condition rare find these days well done

[@DH-sw6vg]

Love it. My first car I bought at 16 in 1975 was a '55 De Soto Firedome. What a great car that was. Miss it. Have fun with this!

[@rick0e295]

This OLD DOG 🐕 learned to drive on a black 55 Firedome. Parents friends had a two tone Fireflite. Great cars, to me best looking or 55 Chrysler Corp lineup. The dashboard is one of the most beautiful ever. Parents passed up chance to buy a 59 ADVENTURER and last 61 in our community. In summer of 62, they traded the 55 for a 62 Plymouth Belvedere🤮 Love DeSoto from 55 through last 3200 final 61s. 🎵 It's Delightful 🎶It's Delovely 🎵 It's DESOTO 🎶.And tell them Groucho sent you!

[@josephszot5545]

Damn! you scored big time,

[@curtcollett2893]

I fell in love at an early age. I was not more than three when my dad's relatives were visiting and had the same DeSoto with the same color. My grandfather had a 55 Dodge Coronet a similar color which was a close second.

[@wayneallen9387]

Very nice looking car. My father once owned a 1950 DeSoto

[@yuckabuster]

Sweet car

[@bensonsspeedshop1191]

I was brought home from the hospital in a '56 DeSoto Sportsman Fireflyte, 2dr hdtp,Red over White over Red!

[@bertgrau3934]

A nice looking ride. I remember I had an uncle that had one very similar to that. He bought it new and he kept it into the early 1980's. It was still running when he sold it. 😊

[@alanolson6913]

Grew up in Southern California and I do remember seeing a couple of these in town. To me, as a kid, they just seemed to say the owner had money. No one at our part of town could afford one : we just had the usual Fords, Chevrolets, Dodges, a Studebaker or two and one older couple drove Hudsons. Thanks for the great video and walk around.

[@rick0e295]

Would love to see you do a post on 83 TO 89 Chrysler RWD Fifth Avenues. Had 83 and 85 Silver Fifth Avenues with plush velvet tufted seats. For me these were the last of true Chrysler. Have had numerous upscale vehicles including Fleetwoods and Town Cars. Though slightly smaller, the Fifth Avenues held their own for classic style, luxury, and comfort! 🏆

[@johnmaki3046]

I'll bet grandma was LUCKY NOT to be in the trunk! These cars, though "conservative", were ASS-KICKERS! My Uncle, Richard Forse, had A GROUND BURNING '53 Dodge Coronet with the "Red Ram" (241 c.i. hemi) THESE WERE POWERFUL!

[@jamesbosworth4191]

Drive and enjoy it! NO computers, NO sensors, NO catalytic converter, NO smog checks! What's not to love?

[@davidadkison4702]

My 55 Dodge Custom Royal Super Red Ram Hemi 6volt system started in 6’ degree below zero when all of my Dad’s GM vehicles didn’t start. I offered to take him to work if his 55 Pontiac wasn’t behind me and he said “ Oh Shut Up !” I was being polite as well. lol 😂

[@willforbes6373]

Does it have Firedome headlight surrounds? Try get the overspray off the horn.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

The Firedome's headlight rings didn't have that spine.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

These Forward Look DeSotos weren't "Grandma cars". The 49 - 52 were, but the reputation stuck.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

Your ground battery cable is too small for a 6 volt system. 6 volt starters draw twice the amps as 12 volt starters, and more amps requires thicker gauge cables, or else it will crank slowly, especially after driving it some miles, making younger people think that you must convert to 12 volts.

[@TheDejael]

Exner designed all of the wonderful front grille "chrome teeth" of DeSotos built from 1951 to 1955, but he did not design the bodies of the cars built before 1955 model year. The old fashioned Chrysler-DeSoto-Dodge-Plymouth and Imperials built from 1939 to 1954 were designed and built by the Briggs Auto Body Company of Chicago, and the bodies were shipped by rail cars to Chrysler in Detroit, Michigan. This arrangement became too expensive for Chrysler in the early 1950s, because the odd-looking old-fashioned car body designs were not popular with buyers, in spite of some good Chrysler engineering underneath. Exner, the idea man, convinced Chrysler management to stop doing business with Briggs, and bought them out in 1953, with Chrysler building their own auto bodies in new factories built in Detroit in 1954, for the new Forward Look cars of 1955.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

Briggs did indeed make Chrysler bodies until about 1953, but they didn't design or style them. Chrysler body designers designed them, and, being engineers more than stylists, styled them as well.

[@TheDejael]

@@jamesbosworth4191 Chrysler's designers actually let Bill Robinson of Briggs Auto Body design a lot of the 1941-1954 models, and they picked and chose the ones they wanted to design in house themselves, with mostly poor results, making Chrysler Corp, in 3rd to 5th place in sales in the postwar era until Keller saw the red ink and in 1953 asked Exner to redesign them all for the 1955 Forward Look.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

@@TheDejael Never knew that. Always good to learn something.