Car/Grill ID?

[Larry M]

Hey, I found this ol' car out in a dry lake bed just outside of Baker Calif. and was wondering if anyone knows what it is. Desoto, Hudson,,,,?? The body is shot up and not much left but the grill is in great shape so I did like any good car nut would do and pulled the grill out of it.

Appreciate any help. Is this grill worth keeping?

Larry M.

[shoprat]

Larry,
It's got to be a DeSoto. The Merc guys would kill for that.
Ron

[TooMany2count]

1951 Desoto

http://carnut.com/cgi-bin/mopar.pl?/...all/all254.jpg

[Daffy427]

Amazing that the grille looks that good with the rest of the car being that bad

[Flipper_1938]

Probably a $500 grill

[stovens]

Larry not only is the grill in great condition, but the photo of the car in the dry ground is great too! Good score!

[39Deluxe]

It's hard to believe that DeSoto grille wasn't harvested a long time ago from the looks of the rest of the car. Great find.

Tom

[Larry M]

Wow, you guys are great!! Thanks, I thought Hudson or Desoto but looked on the Inet and didn't find a grill that looked like this one.

I couldn't believe that the grill was still there as I drove up to the back of the car and didn't see it right off.


Still hooked to the car was the old cable they used to tow/drag so I used it to pull the car out of the sand and rolled it over onto its door so I could get to the rest of the bolts holding the top and bottom grill braces that held the chrome in place.

I brought it back and put it down in front of the motorhome and proudly told the wife I found I found a new grill for the coach,,,,,,,, well,,, that didn't go over to good.

$500.00, you got to be kidding~!!~ Man I gotta start scrounging out here more often!

We only get out here (Backer Ca.) once a year as we volunteer to provide support for the Baker to Vegas' (B2V) which refers to the Challenge Cup Relay; A 120-mile, 20-stage, foot, relay race, which starts in Baker, California (gateway to Death Valley), through the California desert, over the mountains, to Las Vegas, Nevada. The teams are restricted to Law Enforcement teams.

Thanks Again,
Larry M.

[moparjack44]

Oh Yeah, thats a DeSoto. As earlier posted. Merc guys to kill for. Same as a 54, but the 54 has round park lights. It's probably a 55.
Jackie

[TooMany2count]

Oh Yeah, thats a DeSoto. As earlier posted. Merc guys to kill for. Same as a 54, but the 54 has round park lights. It's probably a 55.
Jackie

Sorry to disagree w/you jackie but that grill is from a 1951 Desoto. If you look at the pic I posted you'll see where the chrome wraps around the bottom of the fender & the 54 & 55 are completely different then the one shown.

1954 Desoto



1955 Desoto


and that grill looks just like the one in the picture I linked to and this 51 Desoto



......................joe

[hotroddaddy]

That grill will fetch a lot more than 5 bills, when i had my merc i looked for a grill like that and the cheapest i ran across was $750 and it was no where near as good as that! you can fetch 1-2 hundred a tooth.

[Larry M]

Thanks again guys. There is no center supports going from one tooth to another like there is in the '54-'55 pics, each tooth is independent of the other.

If I were to sell these, where would be a good place, Ebay??

Thanks,
Larry M.

[T42]

Thanks again guys. There is no center supports going from one tooth to another like there is in the '54-'55 pics, each tooth is independent of the other.

If I were to sell these, where would be a good place, Ebay??

Thanks,
Larry M.

Maybe here with this other guy........

http://forum.olskoolrodz.com/showthread.php?t=47616

[Dave Severson]

All them teeth sure would look good in one of my Mercs, Larry!!!! and no, I'm not too proud to accept charity!!!!!!

[Hombre259]

You ought to really think about what this grill is worth, the grill linked to on the Old Skool Rods site is a good example. That one is I am sure worth the $500 asking price, but when compared to the pictures of yours it just not in the same class. Yours appears to be almost pit free and worth ever cent of $200 a tooth "AT LEAST".

Here's a couple of pictures of the early Desoto grill like yours being used in Customs. The one picture of the coupe its the car in the background.