Custom One-Off DeSoto Sport Custom
The dreams of a homebuilder have been realized in this combination of DeSoto parts and expertise! The car is listed for sale as a 1957 DeSoto custom here on craigslist. It’s currently located in La Puente, California and the asking price right now is $22,500. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Pat L. for submitting this unique find!
As best as I can tell, the greenhouse area and doors are derived from an early 1950s DeSoto. I was unable to find a car or truck with the particular heater plenum the car is using; perhaps one of you can identify it? As a whole, the package works well together for me with the possible exception of the rear window and B/C pillar area. I wonder what it would have looked like if the builder would have chosen to work with a later 50’s DeSoto with a wrap-around windshield? That all being said, the craftsmanship level looks top-notch and the car certainly fits Geoff Hacker’s Sport Custom description. I just wish we knew more about the history of this truly unique car!
The split windshield also looks like one from a 1950-52 DeSoto, and the position of the interior door handles has me thinking that’s the original home of the doors. The contours have certainly been changed, and the blending of parts is terrific. While parts of the overall profile of the car remind me of a Woodhill Wildfire, there are too many dissimilar parts for me to think that’s where the fenders came from. Whoever chose and/or created the bumpers did a great job of integrating them into the overall shape.
Apart from having what I believe to be a 1957 Desoto instrument cluster, the rest of this interior, especially the cool center console, looks completely custom-made. While the modern stereo and cupholders may seem out of place in a Sport Custom, one must wonder what would have happened to the car over the years if the original visioneer were still the owner. Again, the quality of work appears to be very good.
The seller tells us that the car runs and drives, but would benefit from a larger carburetor. They also tell us that there’s some type of automatic transmission attached to the 1957 FireDome engine (originally delivering 345 horsepower from just over 340 cubic inches. I’m really glad that Barn Finds reader Local Sheriff sent in this cool find that started me on a detective search. Now if only we knew if the original artist was named Ferdinand!
Comments
Looks like a red banana. Good workmanship though.
Good title. It certainly is one “off” DeSoto.
Here’s a shot of Virgil Exner’s ’57 DeSoto. At the risk of sounding like I know what I’m talking about, why would anyone presume to improve on Virgil Exner’s design? Clearly, in the subject car’s case, it didn’t work.
They certainly didn’t improve on the 51 DeSoto look either.
Looks like Roger Rabbit’s car.
Mom always said, “if you can’t say anything nice… So, nice interior.
Looks like it sat out in the sun to long…or under a heat lamp…deformed aft of the Conti front end…
It took me awhile, then I got it…yes, the swoopy body lines are okay, after all, it’s a custom build. Try not to think of a perfect starting point, as the example Rex K. posted in the comments. This was probably started from a damaged example. Well, let’s hope.
Here is why the car comes across as a novelty – the red hub caps! They remind us, subconsciously, of… a clown nose!
Change the schnoz looking caps to chrome. Or, a different wheel altogether.
Then reassess…
I’d love to be there at the DeSoto meet when this thing pulls in. Better yet, all the DeSoto guys chip in twenty bucks and buy this car, so it can be the bonfire on the closing night.
Someone worked very hard on this car. Great execution. I salute you, builder.
Don’t be so harsh guys. The engineer behind this car won’t see your comments, but any of the thousands of kindergartners who have drawn it might.
They moved on to the Tesla Cyber Truck
🫣 Geoff Hacker, 50’s fiberglass, check. Body lines look like collapsed rusty frame, check? FireDome engine, perfect period choice👍. Overall integration, kind of… groovy; check? Modern steering column/seats/console…🙀 Only one option- Time Traveling Hot Tub! ?/10 would drive, and off to confession in the morning 😇
That was someones specile project.But not my taste. the B piller area looks like it sinking in the middle. odd look but workmanship looks good.nice work by someone, not my taste but good luck to the new owner
I am sorry but, when I first saw this… Clown car came to mind from the outside! 🤦the seats are nice and it packing a Hemi! But I don’t know about driving around town. People may think the Circus is in town. 🐻
Great find Local Sheriff!
Created by someone with impressive fabrication skills and no eye for design. I respect the skill and perseverance it takes to build something like this, but I would not be caught dead in it.
Is the firedome engine a 4 cylinder as the description states or as it appears, an 8 cylinder Hemi?
Cool but kinda crazy looking. That small a body with that engine would make this one a real sleeper that would probably blow a few minds.
The upswept front fenders and rear make it look like it’s bent in the middle.
Yes. Fender is too short from the top of the wheel well.
Perhaps fender skirts would help visually.
my thought too (well, not ‘bent’) too high at ends or low at middle.
Is this 1 for a porthole (t-bird style) or may B a 1/4 window (sail shaped)?
Rear bumper from a checker marathon? Use a cortina or fiat?
Wire wheels instead?
I can sure lob invectives – I couldnt create my own tho 8^ 0
Looks like an old swayed back horse, a nag, it would have been called. Or as a previous comment noted, a broken frame. But, it is clearly designed that way, alas.
Clown World Autos,
designed by Homer Simpson.
Looks like it’s sagging in the middle . . .
It’s a DeSoto Swayback.
This car had been floating around on one of the known collector car sites a few years back, the seller had created some story that it was built by a Desoto factory employee back in the day, but everyone kicked in doubting it was a true “old school” kustom and figured it was built recently. It was a semi-good idea, but it kind of missed the target in my opinion!
I think Chucko the Clown wore a pair on his feet.
Here’s an example of someone’s creativity lots of labor and for its time very innovative. Thank you Jamie
To me, it looks like the vast majority of convertibles and roadsters with tops erected; they simply don’t look as good as they do with the top folded. Chop that “business coupe” roof and you just might have a stunning looking car!?
Oh, but I do wonder, with that Hemi in front, if it really needs a “larger carburetor (unless the body is primarily lead)? ;)
The main body assembly, including roof, doors and cowl, is from a 1949 Dodge or Plymouth 3 window coupe. The larger DeSoto didn’t offer a 3 window coupe, they were all 5 window examples after the war. The same 3 window coupe body continued thru 1952, but with a slightly changed rear window with more squared off bottom corners of the rear window opening.
The front half of the front fenders look like they are from a 1953 Buick, and I think the headlight assemblies are ’53 Buick, but I can’t be certain because the photos don’t show the front end well. The tail lights are familiar to me, but I can’t place them except to say they are too narrow for 1940s-50s Mopar vehicles.
Looks like the taillights are off a late ’40s or early ’50s Plymouth.
The body is what it is. Not my taste but…
What I want is the drive train! The little hemi looks real sweet under the hood. Swap in a 5 speed and go have some fun.
Don’t know if that’s worth 22 g’s …
Oh, and ditch the red body.
I have to believe it was built many years ago and then updated in the last 10-20, everything seems period correct for a 50’s/60’s custom until you get to that center console with cup holders! i agree the craftsmanship is excellent, the design must have been going for the British or European look of a Jag or Benz of that era with the cut down cockpit and the arching fenders. unfortunately, the fronts did not curve back down and gives it an awkward look. Again, just my opinion and just like b-holes we all have one.
This is what happens when you take arguably the nicest 1950s design and totally screw it up.
Remember the old Johnny Cash song, One Piece at a Time? If someone you loved, built and loved this when alive, why try to cash in when he is gone? Seems disrespectful to me. If you just couldn’t stand it, try to find someone who will love and care for it, not the highest bidder.
Is the air filter from Homedepot? Looks like a louvered vent.
I strongly doubt that that engine made 345 HP with a 2-barrel carb.
jwaltb,
That’s not a 345 HP engine. It’s probably a 150 or 180 HP motor. I suspect that engine is either a 1951 to 1953 Dodge/Desoto motor, or the 1951 to 1964 Chrysler industrial motor. Yes, Chrysler offered the hemi as an industrial powerplant thru 1964, possibly later [some websites say 1966]. If I knew the engine number I could ID it, or if I had make of the carb and ID number from the base flange of the carb, I could probably determine what the motor was. Chrysler industrial engine division even used the hemi as the power for the world’s loudest air raid siren [source Wiki].
It would help greatly to also know what transmission was in the car, if it’s a Fluid Drive, then it’s likely to be the early Dodge/Desoto car engine, if it’s a 3-speed stick, it’s likely a Dodge truck engine, and if it’s an industrial variant, it could be almost anything, including Powerflite or Torqueflite.
Bill,
Nice analysis of the probable engine. I like the idea of it being an early dodge or desoto.
I’d dump the body and start over with another body, upgrading the chassis as needed. Which would include warming up that hemi some at the least.