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I purchased and am restoring a 1948 Desoto long wheel base sedan s11c custom, It was a retired funeral coach , it sat in a barn for 35 years in home Pennsylvania witch almost became its final resting place, I understand from research that you can not decipher Desoto id # s I am unsure if it is a limo or simply a lwb sedan? maybe someone out there in Desoto land can help me clear this up? Also the car has turning lamps on the front fenders lust behind the front wheels they are a long oval glass lamp, I don't know if they were original or not ? I love this car and want to bring it back to its original glory . any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks Bill.
Hola Bill
You can learn more about knowing the car by looking at this link ... http://www.lov2xlr8.no/desoto.html .
The Parking Lot "Spotters Guide" shows ...
The Seven Passenger Sedan has a slick Roof --- like yours and all
Suburban's came with a Roof Rack.
Rodger & Gabby
Colo Spgs
FltSgt@outlook.com
Take you hand and feel around through the headliner. At the points where a Suburban had the roof rack. If it is a suburban and not a limo them then there will be steel reinforcement with the threaded nuts for the rack to bolt to. Also, in the floor pan, which you can see from under the car there are threaded nuts for the rear seat rails. Also, only the interior of the Suburban has the Bakelite panels. The limo was all mohair.
James.
Thanks for the Info James ,I now the car is not a suburban, It has jump seats and foot rail. and a clean roof no luggage rack. The thing is I have a Chrysler book that shows production , shipping weight, cost etc, and it says there were 3530 long wheel base sedans produced in a three year period and there were 120 limos produced in the same period 46 47 48. does the fact that my car has fold away jump seats foot rest etc mean that it is a limo? there must be some difference between the two my book tells me there were 7500 suburban's produced and 105 chassis only.
As I understand it...
The Limo's had the divider window the sedans did not. I may be wrong on that however.
What the data does not show in your book is the many thousands (>8000) of these the long wheel base cars that were made without complete interiors (they had the limo jump seats) to speak of and shipped to Jimmy Waters to be made into taxi cabs for New York and other places.
http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/w/waters/waters.htm
It was because of the taxi market that Desoto made money on the long wheel base cars. In 1952 when NY City changed the regs that 5 people has to fit into a taxi, they dropped the long wheelbase cars.
James.
Thanks James , I guess I will consider my car a long wheel base sedan until I find out otherwise. Thanks Bill
