MARY LOU B.C. (Bob Clark) WE MET THE MAN THAT BUILT MARY LOU

 Both John McClain and Ed Brose pointed us toward Bob Clark in Mitchellville as someone to talk to about the car.  We knew he used to own the car and had a Slant 6 engine but that's it.  I wrote Bob a letter telling him we'd love to hear more about the car and we could bring it out for him to see.  He gave me a call and said he'd love to meet and looked forward to seeing the car again.  We went out on Sunday July 2 and met with Bob and his wife Lonnie.  The nicest couple.  We learned that Bob had the car for 20+ years and built her as you see her with the exception of the Hemi, transmission and likely the exhaust.  Oh, and it turns out they used to be neighbors of Bill and Maggie!

Bob went to a car show in Bondurant with a For Sale sign and met Gordy there.  He said they struck a deal.  Marie Johnson remembered that happening because they were at the show.

When you look at the photos, it looks like light reflections or splotches...I was taking pictures of pictures outside on a bubble glass table.  I have a separate post under Who Did What with more details.

Bob and Lonnie Clark

Bob won Best Work In Progress at The Goodguys

Note the steering wheel is different.

His grandson wanted the car in his graduation photos.

The collage below was a gift from John McClain.

Mary Lou was featured in the October 2009 Goodguys Gazette.

His grandson custom painted this 1:64 diecast to match the car.

Current project is a 1950 Studebaker.  

"MARY LOU IS A WHAT?"

I've joined a few different Facebook groups for 1955/1956 Dodges.  I learned about the possibility of getting a "build card".  A build card provides the specs on the car as it came down the assembly line...what engine it had and what accessories, etc.  There was no cost to order but I had to provide a copy of the title to the car and the Serial Number (no VIN numbers back then).

OUR BUILD CARD

The Serial Number alone would not have told us what we have (see below).

The Serial Number can be found on our car when you open the driver’s side door (ours is 34922295). From this number, we can determine our car was built in Detroit and the 31,047^th car built that year. 

We learned we do NOT have a Dodge ROYAL Lancer but rather a CORONET Lancer.  The number 216 circled on the build card indicates a Coronet Lancer with a V-8 engine (see charts below). 

Royal below with number 226

Here are model numbers for all 1955 Dodges

Lancer was the designation for hardtop or convertible (although I've seen it used describing 4-door cars as well).  The bodies were the same for Coronet, Royal and Custom Royal.  Some of the differences were the trim and the Custom Royal got bolted on chrome fins.  There were 26,727 Coronet Lancers built that year (about 24% of total Coronet production and about 8.5% of total Dodge production that year).  A new 1955 Dodge Coronet Lancer would have cost $2260.  The average car that year cost $1900.

SO...we will need to change our car show sign and our license plates but who would have known with all of the badging and some of the chrome removed?  We are glad to know more about her.

FUN FACT!  Mary Lou was "born" (assembled) on May 20, 1955.  May 20 is our wedding anniversary 😊💕

Below is the email I received with the build card.  We can see that the car was delivered to a now-defunct dealer in Burlington, IA.

Hello Alan,

Thank you for your patience while we work through our orders. Attached please find the copy of the build card for your vehicle. The selling dealer was Sheagren-Hunt Company, located in Burlington, IA.

Please note, we cannot reprint build cards any differently.  The build cards were put on microfilm many years before they arrived to the archives.  Everything possible has been done to provide you with the best copy from our files.  We cannot make the build cards any larger or clearer, than what has been provided to you. 

We are also unable to provide the decoding of the build records due to a high volume of requests and limited staffing.  I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

We hope you find this information useful.

Danielle Szostak-Viers

Stellantis Historical Services

12501 Chrysler Freeway

CIMS 410-11-21

Detroit, MI 48288

 

2ND ANNUAL GRAND CAR SHOW ~ THE SHORES RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

We attended the 2nd Annual GRAND Car Show for the residents of Copper Shores Village Retirement Community in Pleasant Hill on Sunday.  Beautiful weather and a great turnout.  Sunny never really came out and breezy.

We weren't expecting much...didn't think it was getting the publicity.  We learned they had 6 cars last year...WAY more than that this year! 😃

Had a nice time visiting with the residents...these cars brought back so many memories for them.

Jesse was there singing

This Packard Super 8 limo literally stole the show and 1st place.  From what I can tell it's a 1940.

Skyliner

1961 Mercury Monterey...not much changed on the vehicle

Nice '51 Woody

Gary Pullen's Merc and I believe his son's '66 Galaxie

This 1952 Chevy ragtop was just incredible

Interior of the '52

Walt broke the '62 Bel Air out of the barn ("she's real fine my 409...")