where were cvts made?

Much Ado About Nothing
1

Back in August, Dick went to look at a SF cvt in Pompano Beach. Over-priced at 50K, he headed home, stopping in at a museum of sorts where another cvt resides. Now if I have this straight, that cvt had a data plate (M292*****), indicating it was built at Plant 2, which is the Dodge Plant.
I looked into this: the Dodge plant, or Dodge Main was in Hamtramck, MI.
This is proof that cvts were made in at least three separate plants..Newark, Delaware- Evansville, Indiana- and Hamtramck, Michigan.
There is a great article about Dodge Main at www.allpar.com/corporate/dodge-main.html

There’s a guy in Vancouver, CN by the name of “Bill”, who has access to huge volumes of information on prodcution numbers and such. He contributes to the ForwardLook site on occasion. Anybody know who I mean, or how to contact him?

2

I know the 2 cvt’s that popped up on ebay a while ago both has a VIN starting with M293 so they are both build at the Evansville plant.

Tom Gerrard: M293
Dick Koch: M255.
Tom Fox: M253
John Q: M253
Tim Bakers: M293
Bernie Brouillet: M293
Thomas White: M293
Ebay: M293
Ebay: M293
White for sale in the Netherlands: M293
Secret: M293

Evansville build M293: 8
Evansville build M253: 2

Newark build M255: 1

3

It is silly of me to ask,becasue I should know, but where was YOUR cvt built, Matthew?

4

Just checked the old VIN, M253 so it’s an Evansville build car.
Sport Fury is M294 so it’s now an LA build car

5

A few more facts on the Evansville assembly plant.
Their quota was one Plymouth each minute off the line.
The plant closed at the end of the 1959 run, due to the change-over to uni-body cars. (Chrysler built a new unibody plant in St Louis, MO.) So the person owning the highest number '59 Plymouth would be the last one ever out of that plant.
But according to JQ’s explanation of VINs, there would be no way to determine which was the last '59 cvt. built in the U.S.

6

Mine is M293-Evansville. Will check out my dataplate next time i check on the old girl.

7

Thanks Steve!!

So far Dick Koch is the only one with a weird convertible :laughing:

8

and remember he SAW another cvt with a firewall tag…maybe Florida has many wierd things?

9

I’m not sure if I have their current email addresses, Matthew - but if you email me a list of names, I’d be happy to privately email you back what I have.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll ask Jim Benjaminson (Plymouth Owner’s Club) to review this thread and ask him if he can comment.

Dan

10

Roger is this “Chryco Man” on the FL? He always seem to know a lot more the a lot of people on Chrysler Mfg in Canada and US.

John Q.

11

Could be. I will cross-reference. The guy I am looking for is named Bill Watson.

12

Here he is

13

Many thanks, Matthew. Coincidentally, he just replied to the question I put on the Forwardlook site, and from that I got his email address.
in his reply, he questions the Dodge Assembly Plant (#2 seen as fourrth number on VIN) was Dodge Main in Hamtramck, so I just sent him an email asking him to PLEASE contribute any information he can on where “Dodge Assembly Plant” was, and which plants assembled the convertibles. :slight_smile:

14

Dodge Main is the old Hamtramck assembly plant in Hamramck Michigan, originally built by Horace and John Dodge and then when Walter P bought them out became a Chrylser Plant. My Cuda Convert was built there. My uncle worked there in 1968 bullding Chargers at the time.
The plant was torn down in the 90’s for GM’s new Poletown plant that is half in Hamtramck and Half in Detroit. It was very old and not very efficient due to its many floors of assembly compared to modern plants of today,

John Q.

15

Roger, do you still have a pic of that M292 VIN?
I’ve never seen it on pics so i can’t confirm this.

You said it was a vert in Florida. Is it the one that Dick Koch checked out with the tan top?

16

I never had a picture of that car’s VIN, I only have Dick’s report on it.

17

I don’t have any pictures of that. I don’t think Dick ever posted any pics of the VIN or data plate..
:frowning:

18

I found the topic and pictures.

There was a data plate with code 292. Not sure if that is the VIN or the BT.
I PM’ed Dick about it and he can’t remember. Like John Q would say, old men :laughing:

If they put on a data plate during the restoration it is probably from a Sport Fury hardtop as the order code for that is (BT - Body Type) 292.
We need pics of the data plate and VIN of that vert to confirm this

19

I was editing my first post (second in the thread) so i am not putting VIN’s everywhere.

My next project is collecting all the VIN, hardtops, verts, SF, savoy.
Just want to make a database with ALL 59’s in there.

20

Good idea not to post the complete Vin #.
Don’t forget to put your own car on the List!