1 of 350: 1958 DeSoto Adventurer
Introduced mid-year, the 1958 Adventurer was DeSoto’s top-of-the-line car. It was available only as a 2-door hardtop and convertible. Only 350 of the former were produced that year, including the seller’s edition, making for a rare car nowadays. Located in San Francisco, California, this two-owner auto needs some work but runs well and is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $27,000. No trades considered.
With all-new “Forward Look” styling in 1957, the 1958 models were little changed. The big news for 1958 was the availability of dual headlights in all 48 states (before Alaska and Hawaii). The U.S. economy was in a recession in ’58 and that severely impacted auto production, and especially DeSoto, which saw sales drop 72%. Chrysler built just 49,445 DeSoto’s that year, of which 350 were Adventurer hardtops and another 82 Adventurer convertibles. The handwriting on the wall was becoming apparent that DeSoto’s days were numbered. Chrysler pulled the plug shortly after the 1961 models were introduced.
As the story goes, this ’58 Adventurer was purchased new in San Francisco and has stayed there ever since. The seller bought the car from the original owner in 1994. It has the desirable 361 cubic-inch “Wedge” V8 that was new that year and produced 345 hp with twin 4-barrel carburetors, standard on the Adventurer as it was positioned as a performance car (along the lines of what Chrysler did with its “Letter-Series” cars). The motor and push-button automatic transmission are said to perform very well.
On the other hand, this DeSoto will need a lot of cosmetic attention. There is rust in the trunk floor, floorboards, and rocket panels, along with the hood, at a minimum. The seller has a spare Chrysler hood that will fit, but the holes for the DeSoto lettering won’t line up. The chrome is either dinged, dented, or rusty and the front bumper looks to be bent out of position. So, the car will need to spend a fair amount of time in the body shop getting a makeover.
The interior is also well-used, although the seats don’t match and look to have been borrowed from another later model car. Most of the accessories on the car work apart from the radio and heater (works, but not properly). The speedometer reads up to 150 mph, almost putting forth a challenge to the driver to test the car’s limits. The original Adventurer spinner wheel covers were lifted years ago, so a set of decent Chrysler ones from the same model year are present. The car wears a set of currently registered black California license plates.
In Fair condition, which might apply to this car, Hagerty says a ’58 Adventurer is worth $24,000 with the top-dollar being closer to $80,000 when restored. So even at the seller’s asking price, there is room to fund the restoration, but the tab will quickly add up. But when you got done, you’d have a car of which only a handful have survived after 63 years.
Comments
What a shame. The older Chrysler’s really only have 2 suppliers for interior trim and it’s very pricey. Add that to all cancer repair and I’m out.
Whenever I see a late 50s/early 60s Chrysler project in San Francisco, I think of a certain block that hosted at least a half-dozen of them. I assume they were all owned by the same person, who must have had a hell of a time rotating them into different spots for street cleaning. Car collections and city life are not easy!
Anyway, this car makes me think of that unknown collector, and I raise my glass to his obsession.
This being a 2-door, it wasn’t until I got to your comment that I was reminded of DeSoto Cab Co. and how their fleet remained mostly Mopar at least into the LH era (I can hear Adam Savage cursing that model’s infamous battery placement on an ex-DeSoto Cab Intrepid, still in livery, the Mythbusters bought to destroy, to this day).
Yes De Soto Cab did run all most all MoPar units. At one point they had at least one Omin/horizon. I also think they had a few long wheel base K cars has well. I know that they had some sort of relationship with Chrysler Corp. I recall doing the DMV paper work for an old taxi. Reg owner was De soto Cab, legal owner was Chrysler Corp Highland Park Mi. That and a bunch of Suites come out to watched the car get crushed and take photos.
this is indeed that person. Lives off of Turk St in the city. He has a fleet of cars and keeps putting them for sale but never seems to sell them
Well damn, thanks for the reply. I always wondered what was up with all the old Mopars when I was in that area of the city.
57-58 DeSoto is in the top 5 of my automotive bucket list. By far the most difficult to actually obtain. Good examples command big money and justifiably so. Being one of the most expensive cars to restore, once an original example gets to the point of this one I could never justify purchase. Which is a shame because this car really isn’t that bad. Hopefully there is a De Soto parts hoarder somewhere that has all of those hard to find $$ pieces and strikes a deal with the seller to bring her back to life…….
WORTH.IT’S.WEIGHT.IN.GOLD.!!!!!!
One of the rarest MoPars of the period! Once restored properly, these are $175K gems! I bet this baby is gone in less than a week! Wish I had the money; I’d be on my way to SF!!!!
Agree! One to have. If you had unlimited resources and wanted to make it right .this would be the one……..amazing that the seller has had it for 27 years and it has ended up like this. Though SF and the sea air and fog can do a lot of damage to sheet metal . Just a beautiful design.
I’ve seen a lot of interesting cars that were street parked and damaged in SF over the past 20 years — notably a ’56 Continental II that was in a towing yard, a Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 that looked like a boulder had fallen on it, and a yellow ’55 Lincoln coupe that a homeless guy parked next to an Office Depot and used as an apartment.
Oh yeah, and then there was the ’56 Chevy panel delivery, presumably once owned by the city, with “San Francisco Public Works” stenciled on the doors — that was ultra cool.
Like I said in my comment above, there was at least one guy in SF who collected 50-60s Mopars…this one block had at least a half dozen of them, all unrestored, and I assume he just moved them around as needed to avoid tickets.
Not all of San Francisco is subject to “sea air and fog”, that’s a common misconception. The same sentiment about the entire Bay Area has been perpetuated on this site over the years. It is patently untrue in most cases since ocean fog generally doesn’t often penetrate beyond the first elevated ground it reaches, often a mile or less.
Steve R
It looks like the original owner used it as his daily driver until he sold it in 1994 ! . Its going to need a ton of work for sure , and I bet the side trim is near impossible to find , but what a sharp car it would be restored
Don, your side trim comment got me thinking – the Adventurer-only triangle of patterned trim at the fin is certainly made of Unobtainium, but five of the six pieces of stainless look the same as those on my ’57 New Yorker – I’ll have to check my parts book to confirm.
This car has appeared in Barn Finds before.
it’s sold ! I can see why you simply don’t see these every day like a Challenger or Road Runner the just didn’t have the numbers built
would love to find one to build ( or win the lottery and buy one of them $290K cars at the auction 😁🤪
Had a black/gold convertible project years ago. Sold it to buy the Fireflite convertible I still have. The rather boring brown interior swayed me to go with the more snazzy Fireflite interior colors and fabrics. These are a car that requires a dedicated following, to know where to get parts and buy the unobtainium stuff before the need ever arises. There is a strong following, and one needs to know the network. But there is support out there. The fin era Mopars were notorious rusters, but once fixed right, the engineering is far superior to anything else offered at the time, and the styling can’t be beat. I love my DeSoto, and am blessed to have found one before they became so popular
If you are a car guy in San Francisco you KNOW of this guy! He has a load of these “finned” cars in an area where there’s no parking. I test drove a 52 Studebaker Commander with him and almost bought it! He has a bunch of neighbors that he rents their garages and driveways and the rest he has to move for street sweeping once a week! Time to let someone else enjoy them…