1956 Body Tag Decoding

Tim,

The order information I have does not include the trim and paint information for the Adventurer as these came out later in the model year. As you know, these can be a puzzle. For instance, since your car came with the Powerflite transmission as standard equipment, there is no code under the TR; whereas, another model would have a 3 under this to indicate the Powerflite.

Some of the information on your tag is difficult to read, but I will try. Someone correct me if I am wrong on any of these:

HR 5 - All weather heater
EC 1 - Electric clock
EW 2 - Electric windows
PB 5 - Power brakes
DM 7 - Dual antennae rear fender manual
PS 1 - Power steering
HB 8 - Hand brake safety signal
PAD 1 -Instrument panel safety cushion

Some of the options on your car would have been ordered as part of an accessory group and would not have been on the body tag. Let me know if you would like for me to post these accessory groups.

Mac

Does the production date show here? What's 160 mean under SCHED mean?

Knowing the accessory groups would be cool too, Mac. Thanks for your help!

Tim,

I don't believe there is any way to determine the build date from the information on your car's body tag. The 160 under SCHED. indicates that the car was the 160th car to be built on the day it was built. You may have to request information on your car from Chrysler Historical to find the build date.

I have attached information on the accessory groups. I find it interesting that if an accessory group which included an outside rear view mirror was ordered for a model which had an outside mirror as standard, the additional mirror would be mounted on the right side.

Will be out of pocket for a few days as I will have my other knee replaced tomorrow.

Mac

Thanks, Mac. Good luck tomorrow!

How do you know, the 160 meant that was 160th car built that day. My car which has the Sch. number of 163. I am more inclined to 'think' that it was the 160th day of the year. I am not disputing your post ... it just makes me wonder now "Who" is right.

I had asked Greg Walters to decode my tag way back when... and I got this info from Greg Walters about my 56 Adv.:

MODEL P = 1956 DeSoto
BODY 40 = Adventurer 2-Door Hardtop
PAINT 372 = Black with white top/sweep
TRIM 569 = Gold Adventurer/Pacecar interior
HR5 = Hot water heater
EC1 = Electric dash clock
SFONO 40 = same as BODY 40 above
SCHED 163 = Means it was built on the 163rd day of production of 1956 Desoto's. My best guess is April 18, 1956 with latitude of up to a week either way.
BODY NO 1853 = Means this was the 853rd Adventurer built. The first on was No. 1001.
SG1 = Solex tinted glass
PB5 = Power brakes
DM7 = I think it might indicate a rear radio speaker in the package shelf. (WHICH my car DOES have)
HB8 = Hand brake warning light under the dash panel
M4 = Prismatic (day/night) rear view mirror
PAD1 = Padded dash

More info from Gregs email to me:

As to other cars built about the same time as yours, the nearest one before yours is David Barclay's Adventurer built on Day 159. There is one probably built a couple days after yours owned by Bill Pacific. Unfortunately we don't have the body plate info, just the VIN number which is 50386904. After that comes Larry Currier's Adventurer which was built on Day 167 and is the 922nd Adventurer. After that is Doug Dressler's Gold Adventurer #939, which is the newest one recorded.

Jim, do both carbs on your car have chokes?

There's an article on the web about the Adventurer, ( http://chrysler300country.com/de_soto_adventurer_2.htm ) that says the Model was introduced on February 18th, and within 6 weeks of the introduction, all 996 vehicles built had been sold.

On my calendar, 6 weeks from February 18th is April 1st.

Isn't all this information fun? Did you ever get your IBM card from Chrysler Historical, Jim?

Jim, do both carbs on your car have chokes?

There's an article on the web about the Adventurer, ( http://chrysler300country.com/de_soto_adventurer_2.htm ) that says the Model was introduced on February 18th, and within 6 weeks of the introduction, all 996 vehicles built had been sold.

On my calendar, 6 weeks from February 18th is April 1st.

Isn't all this information fun? Did you ever get your IBM card from Chrysler Historical, Jim?

That is a pretty good link, Thanks!

Yes, both of my carbs DO have the choke. I had checked the numbers and they are the correct ones too. Yes, I find that learning the info, and chasing down parts is the fun.

No, I never did get the build sheet/card for it. Eh... maybe someday! Isearched high and low in my car for one, but never did find it. I did find $15 of silver certificates (which by the way aren't really worth any more than face value) tucked away up over the glove box! and also a silver half dollar under the carpet too.

Jim

Here is the carbs info:

The rear carb (2445S):

The front carb (2476S):

Well, since we're talking about dates, here's one I found today on the backside of the passenger door's interior panel.

A little difficult to see, but there's a 6 after that 2

I am assuming that is when the panel was made... and not when the car was built. However, this would make it fairly close to that April date of Manufacture.

My drivers door has March 21, 1956 and the passenger door has Apr. 1X 1956 on it. The X is clearly seen on the panel. I didn't add it for this text.

The panel for the rear has April X3 1956. Again, the X is clearly seen.

The Manufacturers are the same. (you would figure that anyway)

By the way... I took almost 700 pictures of my restoration!

Jim

I agree with your assessment that the date on the door panel doesn't solve the manufacture date for the car, Jim, and that it does at least suggest a "range" for the car.

700 pictures? You barely got started! We're at nearly 500, and the car is still together.

However, we are taking minutely detailed pictures of the hardware, because when it goes to the cad plater, they're going to throw it all in a barrel together, and it's going to come back in one big pile, so we need to know what the individual pieces came from so that we can sort the stuff when it comes back. Maybe those pictures shouldn't count

Cad plating washers and nuts? Whew! I just cleaned mine on a wire wheel and then painted them. Well... whenever I do anything, be it antique car, truck or motorcycle... I restore my vehicles as a driver. (I am doing these resto's for myself and I do not do body work for a living anymore, thank goodness!) For example, I DROVE my 56 from where I live and out to the Gettysburg convention and out of all the other Adventurers... I think I was the only one that DID drive mine other than around the show. In fact... I drove my car, not only too and from the convention but we also did the battlefield driving tour with it, to the restaurants and also... packed a tent and stayed at a campground! HAHA Oh... in case you're wondering... I didn't see any other De Soto's at the campground either! HAHA

Jim

that's exactly the same as we've been doing, until I found out that cad plating is so dang cheap. At shop rate, hand cleaning and then painting all the hardware probably takes longer in time and consequently costs more than getting the cad plating done.

You're probably enjoying your car with plenty of well earned pride in acheivement more than the trailer queens, too.

Tim,

Upon further review, Jim MeGee's explanation the number listed on the body tag under SCHED is the correct one. Your 160 means the car was built on the 160th day of actual production of the 1956 models. Unless one knows the date of the first day of production and the production schedule, the actual build date can not be determined accurately from this number.

Using known 1955 model build dates with the schedule numbers confirms this. Mark Kubancik's SCHED # is 107 and his car was built on 3-4-55. Jessica Sandstrom's SCHED is 122 and her build date was 3-28-55. My car's SCHED is 163 and it was built on 6-1-55. Another car which was sold here had the same 163 number and was built on the same date as mine with there being 20 numbers difference in the SN and 2 numbers in the body number.

Sorry for the misinformation.

Mac