1956 LA Assembly Plant Build Card Questions

I have never seen a build card for a '56 De Soto. I would love to see someone upload a scan of a "nice" one if they could.

Jim

Upload attempt failed :/

Bill,

You have to outsmart this board's software. After you locate the attachment, select "submit" rather than add attachment or anything else that would appear to be the logical next step. Try submit and see if that will work.

Mark

Thanks, Mark. Trying it now. After further review, this may be a '57 IBM card. Working on a '56 now.

Trying to find more for comparison.

Bill

Barbara, the date shipped for your car is shown as October 17, 1955.
The color names on the IBM card don't seem to match '55 or '56 color names.

Jet Black, Powder Blue, Wedgewood Blue Metallic, Seaspray Green Light,
Pine Green Dark Metallic, Pearl Gray Light, Charcoal Gray Dark Metallic,
Cherry Red, Bronze, Turquoise Blue Light, Midnight Blue Dark Metallic,
Briar Rock??, Eggshell White, Canary Yellow, and Special belong to some
other year. Just checked '54 and they are different. '57 doesn't match.

I'm not sure how to determine if this card actually belongs to your car. I'll
look for clues.

The smoking gun points to these being Plymouth colors.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?year=1956&page=3&rows=50

Here is a scan of mine, I have a '56 in Shell Pink

Here is a scan of mine, I have a '56 in Shell Pink

Thanks, Malcolm. Yours is slightly more readable and will be a big help.

I have been helping with the decoding process through e-mail. Several years ago I picked up where Greg Walters left off de-coding these tags. Some of the older members may remember submitting the information from your firewall tags to him, which I now have. I am very knowledgeable on the Detroit-built cars, but there are a couple unanswered questions as to the LA-built cars. If anyone would be willing to share their LA-built firewall tags, VIN's, and build cards (from the Chrysler Historical Society, or anything that would show build date, original dealer, etc, it would greatly help me to solve these last few questions, which I am doing as a service to 1956 DeSoto owners. If you are not comfortable putting out all the information on your LA-built DeSoto for everyone to see, you can send me a personal message.

For anyone who doesn't know how to distinguish, here are a few of the major differences:
1) Black inner fenders (LA) instead of gray inner fenders (Detroit)
2)6XXXXXXX VIN instead of the Detroit-built 5XXXXXXX VIN
3)The fiewall tag will say "Chrysler Corporation" instead of the Detroit-built "DeSoto Division"
4)The underside of the trunklid is a dark gray instead of the main body color as Detroit made them.

There were significantly less LA-built cars than Detroit-built, so the more I can get, the better!

As I understand it, both Barb and Malcolm have 56 DeSotos manufactured in LA with the 411 paint code. Both indicate their cars are Shell Pink. Are the LA cars with the 411 paint codes a single color Shell Pink as opposed to the two tone Detroit built code 411 cars with Shell Pink lower and Iridescent Gray upper color scheme? Mac

Malcolm-Is your car two-toned or all pink? As far as the paint code being the same as what Detroit used, that is one issue I need to clarify myself. My dad has a yellow/white FF that was an LA built car and using the paint codes that are known to work on the Detroit-built cars, it should be a yellow/gray combo. This would be the same as Barb's car, where it should be gray according to the paint code, but is white and sworn to have been re-painted original colors (as the previous owner of my dad's car told my grandfather when he bought it). The other thing to consider is that the bottom of the trunklids were some form of dark gray, so seeing gray under white paint wouldn't completely make it a case of color change in my opinion. What I would like to do for this question is to look at home at what I have on file for examples of LA built cars and see if the paint codes seem to have been the same as what was used on the Detroit cars. I am currently at college, but should be back home by the end of the week, at which point I can check this and complete the decoding of Barb's tag. Off the top of my head, I completed a decoding of an L.A. Firedome Seville back in August (it was at the Reno meet) and the color of that car matched the paint codes that I know apply to Detroit cars.

As I collect this data, I am hoping that when complete, I can either publish articles in the newsletter or make up a small booklet that '56 DeSoto owners can use. It is hard to fully submerge myself in this while I am in college, so I may not complete the project until I graduate, but I am trying to learn a little more at a time.

I even recently learned that (I'm pretty certain) Detroit forgot to add the passenger mirror to my '56 FF Sportsman. My accessory group says there should be one, but the original paint shows no signs of a mirror ever having been mounted there! It's solving these mysteries and helping fellow enthusiasts that has kept me motivated.

Great info!! Thanks for posting the image!!!

The card is a bit difficult to read on the rights side of it. But, I suppose with a few others, all the "areas" could be identified as to what they say.

Jim

Yes my car is a LA built shell pink/iridescent gray Fireflite Sportsman 2 door hardtop. The colors on my card match hers with the colors that don't seem to match the cars. Perhaps they ordered too many Plymouth cards The build card sums up my car - PS, PB,power seat, AC, Powerflite, heater, radio, dual horns, glove box lock, rain guards, back up lights, and that little brake indicator light. The car was repainted and the interior redone close to factory original prior to my buying the car but its fairly unmolested. The trunk is all gray inside and the drive line is all original to the car. The only think I have not on the sheet is the electric clock which I added to the car.

I found another LA IBM card for a Chrysler and it has the same Plymouth colors.

I need a little help reading the fine print as follows:
Randy Generator?
[something] Dome Light Switch
Light Switch Right [something]
City Traffic [something]. Carb?
[something] [someting] trim panel
[someting] steering wheel (plastic?)
[three words, can't tell for sure]
[something] rear view mirror

Thanks if you can help.

I believe both Bill & Barb's IBM build cards from LA production are punched on cards with 1956 Plymouth code information printed on them. These are practically useless in determining how their DeSotos were built and equipped. I am attaching a code sheet for many of the codes for the 56 Plymouth which may help in determining what is printed on these cards where they are faded.

Mac