1954 Chrysler New Yorker

C63-2; 4-door sedan

331 c.i. V-8 Hemi

Automatic

76513

Clear

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe 4-Door Sedan West Point Gray over Alpine Blue 76,513 original miles 331 cu.in. V-8 Hemi Power steering Power brakes Automatic transmission Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels (5 including spare) Purchased in April 1996 with 42,239 original miles New top-of-the-line Michelin tires @ 75,423 miles. Automatic transmission overhauled @ 73,070 miles. Well loved and maintained car. Always garaged. In the spring of 1996 my lovely wife astounded me by purchasing this car while I was out of town. She had always complained about my passion for what she called “used cars” – I called them classic Mustangs. But she had spotted this ’54 Chrysler in a Cadillac dealer’s lot in Beverly Hills driving our son to and from Little League practice. And one day she stopped at the dealer, gave it a test drive, and bought it on the spot. And that’s how a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe became “Mom’s daily driver.” My kid’s thought it was cool – I thought she had lost her mind, until I returned home and took it for a drive myself. She’d picked a winner. It’s a big, roomy, comfortable sedan that stands up and roars on the straightaway. There's nothing like a V-8 Hemi. Of course, it corners like your living room sofa – but having great radial tires makes it handle a lot better than old school poly cord tires. I decided against the wide-white sidewall radials because they don’t have the triple-A ratings of Michelin tire. My wife was always hauling our children around and I didn’t want to compromise safety for appearance’s sake. Besides, I didn’t want to spend every weekend scrubbing clean wide-white sidewalls. But soon after buying the car we learned what it was like to be left handed in a right handed world; so, we had converted from 6 volts to 12 volts. No more dimmed headlights while idling. I had a modern alternator installed by having a custom bracket fabricated to mount on the threaded bosses for the optional air conditioner compressor (this car didn’t come with A/C) and took advantage of the dual belt pulleys to divert one belt to the alternator while leaving one belt to power the now disconnected original generator – which powers the power steering pump. I also put in an Optima yellow top battery. I didn’t want to get any calls from my wife that the car wouldn’t start. Upgrading to a 12 volt system allowed me to put in halogen headlights and a modern Sony radio, which resides in the trunk and is controlled by a Sony Remote Commander. I also ran an auxiliary input so my wife could listen to Pandora on her iPhone. I removed the original speaker/amp assembly and installed a dual stereo speaker set up behind the dash speaker grill and added two speakers in the rear package shelf. I boxed up the original speaker and amp and they will come with the car. I’ve been careful that any modifications I did to the car could be easily undone without damage to its original condition. I installed a hood lock/ignition interrupt to stymie car thieves. When engaged it locks the hood and grounds out the coil, so you can’t hotwire the car from the inside and you can’t open the hood to hotwire it at the engine. We’ve had a lot of good times with this car over the last 18 years. We’d shine it up and spend fun afternoons at car shows – and even picked up a few trophies along the way. Everywhere we go we get “thumb’s up” and lots of compliments. Which brings us to the question of why we are selling it now? Well, the kids are all grown up and I’m retired now – and my wife works from home. Last year we put a grand total of 125 miles on the car; it’s hard to justify the cost of insuring and keeping current tags on a vehicle seeing so little use. And it’s time to reupholster the seats and both front door panels – as you can see from the photos. I’m lucky to have a pension – no complaints there – but I’ve got better (and wiser) things to do with my pension than to spend it on the upkeep of a ’54 Chrysler. So, it’s been fun, but it’s time to sell. I’ve set what I think is a fair and reasonable reserve on the car. I can supply all of the service records since we’ve bought it. We’ve had the best guys in L.A. servicing this Chrysler: Bagge and Son in Culver City for brakes, steering, and suspension; Automotive Classics in Canoga Park for engine service; Mike’s Transmissions in Reseda did an incredible job rebuilding the automatic transmission – it's flawless. My wife is anxious to find a good home for the car. So, if you’re looking for a car to chop and lower or part it out, don’t let us know about that – because we want to sell it to someone who will enjoy it as much as we have and take good care of it, too. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you live in the Los Angeles area you're welcome to inspect or test drive the car. I will ship the car anywhere you want, but you're paying for it.Also check out my other auctions. Over the years I've collected a lot of parts for this car and a few for the '55 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe my son drove in high school.