Wow, just wow! Combing through Craigslist, I came up with this stunner!
From Ontario, California comes this 1957 Chrysler Windsor 2-door hardtop looking absolutely magnificent in deep red and white.
Ad description:
1957 Chrysler Windsor 2dr htp -Spectacular, low-mileage, original black plate Southern California car with 50K original miles, always garaged, straight rust-free body, two-tone deep ruby red metallic and cream paint with beautiful pink cloth and gold vinyl upholstery. Excellent chrome, pot metal, stainless and details inside and out. Optional factory tinted glass and scallop side trim. Powerful 354 “semi-hemi” V-8 with push-button 3-speed Torqueflite transmission, power steering and brakes, radio and heater. Interesting Route 66 backstory. Drives as nice as it looks. Quick and tight ride. Very rare find. First time ever advertised for sale. 42K obo
As you know, photos on Craigslist are so ephemeral–once the ad is dropped, you can’t access the pictures anymore. So I thought I’d preserve them here on CC. And I think these images are definitely worth preserving!
You wouldn’t think that pink would be a good upholstery color, but it definitely harmonizes beautifully!
I’ve always liked those chrome roof bows which appeared on many high-end cars during this period. However, to my mild disappointment, none of the cars I’ve owned (’58 Cadillac Series 62, ’60 Dodge Dart Phoenix, ’62 Imperial, ’62 Mercury Monterey) had the roof bows.
A beautiful dashboard that few people will recognize because these cars are so rare today.
Engine bay.
The last time I saw something like this was c. 1986. It was a 1958 Windsor coupe parked near the Short Hills NJ train station. But it was Spruce Green and white, and it wasn’t a Dartline with the added silver trim on the side.
Around the same time, there was also a 1959 Chrysler Windsor (or maybe Saratoga) regularly parked at the Maplewood train station in this exact color. (Call it “Car spotting from a train.”)
To quote Crazy Eddie, at $42,000, “These prices are insane!” Well, not really. It is simply a reflection of dollar inflation, and the fact that this car is so rare and just looks so good! At $42K or thereabouts, I actually think this is quite a value. It’s a car that not only looks the part, but can play the part too. You’ve got the powerful V-8, the Torsion-Aire ride which gives you a stable yet cushioned ride with handling that was probably better than any other full-size car made at the time–along with the excellent Torqueflite transmission and power steering and brakes. Compared to the 300C (which I’ve heard is a real brute to drive) this is, in my opinion, a nicer choice, and at a much lower price!
I like ’57 Chevys and all, but it’s too bad that not more of these Forward Look Mopars were preserved. I’ve heard all the stories about how rust-prone and unreliable they were, but then again, so was everything else at the time. It was simply a matter of degree. The truth is, few people wanted to preserve them. As I said, I’ve had a ’60 Dodge Dart and a ’62 Imperial (both virtually rust free), and neither car was any more or less troublesome or fragile than comparable Ford or GM products. It’s just that Tri-Five Chevys are “cool”, T-Birds are “cool”, Corvettes are “cool”, high-end Cadillacs and Continental Mark IIs were considered worth saving, and everything else is on the fringes.
But that’s OK–I delight in finding the extraordinary in the once-ordinary and overlooked, and this bottom-of-the-line Windsor (Yes, can you believe it?) is a prime example of that.
(Note: This post is exactly 600 words–the same number of words required in essays I had to write while serving detention in jr. high school.)
Further reading:
Vintage Reviews: Motor Trend’s New Car Issue – Chrysler Corporation
“Wow, just wow! “
Ditto.
It would be hard to name any other car, make, or model that would grab and hold everyone’s attention as this beauty, no matter where it went.
That dash is familiar; a 1957 Chrysler was the first car I legally drove on public roads. Too bad the five TorqueFlite buttons are not in the frame.
” … while serving detention in jr. high school… ” .
Ah, the sneaky ways we used to add words to make the minimum. Now, half of my writing efforts are dedicated to reducing word count.
Great shots, great writeup. 600 words gets the job done.
I don’t know if they will get the 42K they are asking for it, but it does seem worth it, to the right buyer.
I did not like the droopy looking front bumper on these. I’d have preferred one more like the green one photographed above, a cleaner look, less complicated.
In two short years, these evolved from an early ’50s look, to ‘Suddenly it’s 1960!’
Nice find and photos. Unfortunately, the nose is not that attractive, and the off-white bodyside tail fin paint treatment, appears unnecessarily oversized. Tail fin trim and decor better handled on the ’57 Chev Bel Air, for example.
Yeah, the big ‘ole ‘cove’ sidesweep is very reminiscent of the infamous ‘billboard’ quarter panel stripe that would make its appearance on the 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda.
The big difference is the Windsor’s painted ‘stripe’ would have been a whole lot easier to apply (if not more time-consuming) than the ‘Cuda’s tape stripe.
I read somewhere that the Plymouth production guys had extreme difficulty putting that stripe on correctly and told the sylists, in no uncertain terms, to never come up with a tape stripe that large in the future.
It reflects the outlandish dis-proportioned scale, so often seen during that era. Simply, not tasteful.
I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I think it looks great. It’s distinctive and unapologetic. Even though its greenhouse looks a bit overwhelmed by the overall body length in the side view photo in which the camera angle is high and looking downward at the car.
Same. This thing makes the 57 Chevy look like a Checker cab
What a gorgeous car! The ‘droopy’ front CHROME bumper is what makes the car stand out, and you can have yer Chevs and Fords from this era, bc they are too common and BORING! Beautiful colour scheme too! At 42 Gs this is a BARGAIN, bc it looks MINT, inside and out! I’d be proud to drive this CLASSIC anywhere or anytime!
Lovely essay and car, Sir!
I went to a Catholic HS. Brother Francis automatically added a few points to each of we lads who remembered to write “JMJ” at the top of our papers.
Shorthand for “Jesus, Mary and Joseph”.
No foolin’ !
Totally agree with the wow, my dad had a sedan in the green you show with the cream sweep. I have a pic of it somewhere on a kodachrome slide with my mom posing next to it wearing an Easter hat she designed for a contest.. He always had used cars, after that one he got a used 60 Windsor sedan in sky blue.. he finally bought his first new car in 71, a nice skylark hardtop. Silver with black painted roof. He passed away in 72 at 59 years of age.. He had a lot of neat cars over the years, Mopar man for most of them
The house is 30 years older than the car, and both show the same obsessive attention to perfect maintenance.
My grandfather bought a four door, black & white..
Grandparents lived in a house built in 1900, plumbing was added, in Palisades Park New Jersey. The garage was called “the barn” and was a crossways in the back yard. “The barn” was large enough for one horse and one buggy but not an entire 1957 Chrysler Windsor. A small, maybe two foot, extension was added around the garage door.
Gramps had owned Hudson’s (Hudson’s fit in “the barn”) before the Chrysler.
Beautiful car. Caught my eye!
A short video of the car:
Did not anyone catch a major mistake in his description? Enough so that I could now question his statement of it being a California car. Let’s see if any other Californians can find the error. If not i’ll mention later as this one is, to me, a big deal.
Don’t keep us waiting too long or we’ll have moved on.
By the way, do you know that Rich and I have been trying to reach you about your submissions for months now? You never respond to our emails. None of your submissions can be posted until you get in touch with us.
Original black plates. CA plates were yellow until the early 60s, so the car is likely a transplant.
FWIW, Bonos Italian Restaurant and Market opened in 1936, and is still open. It’s a historic landmark. My point is, why would they buy an older used ’57 Chrysler from…where?
Are you suggesting that it’s impossible that the original plates were replaced with black one for one reason or another? Maybe he liked the looks of the black ones better. Or?
The odds of someone living in CA (who owned a successful business) buying a 6 year or older used car from the salt mines back east are not very good.
In any case, the car is almost totally original, so even if it came from Nevada or such, it certainly doesn’t look any worse for it.
My bet is the plates were updated for one reason or another.
I’m not suggesting anything other than answering the question (which I just assume Rich was getting at). Could be any numerous reasons it has them like you said, maybe it changed hands within the family in a neighboring state between 57 and 63 where it came back.
I will say it’s kind of an odd thing to advertise as a selling point, and with the assurance that it’s a one family owned car that spent its entire existence in southern California, shedding light to the why it has 63 plates isn’t a big ask. If the car is being advertised as having an “interesting route 66 backstory” then how about that part of the story?
I noticed the reference to the black plate as an “error” when I posted the vid. When I moved here in 72 my great aunt and uncle’s plates were black because they retired here from Indiana in 67. I noticed older cars in their neighborhood in Ojai with the newer plates. Right away I learned that the black plates were so popular that folks had traded in the golden yellow plates for the newer, more fashionable black ones from 63-69. Of course there could have been other reasons for the change as Paul notes but my bet is they just wanted the newer plate. Folks did not like the newer plain blue with gold lettering that I was issued in 72. The black plates have been so popular over the decades that they were re-issued as an option in 2015 so you now see them everywhere again. I’m sure Charles knows all of this and just mis-spoke.
Yes. 58 cars have black on yellow. In 63 the yellow on black came out and all cars wearing the previous plates needed to change over when the plates started with AAA. That plate starts with a P which were used between 1964-1965 making this car a transplant. With the car being sold by a dealer one can never really trust all they say.
Oh, but I have both times with no return response. Last reply was Oct. 6th. Anyway three are now completed on one particular car while the 76 Celica story is almost done.
That doesn’t “make this car a transplant”. It’s theoretically possible, but very unlikely. They could well have waited a year or two to switch the plates, right?
Your emails are not being received. None of your submissions will ever be published until you establish communications with Rich.
Send him an email and make sure the address is correct: [email protected]
I have a side story on those CA license plates. In the early 60s, my mom parked next to a car with the black on yellow CA plates at a local grocery store (this was in the Pittsburgh suburbs).
I got out to examine the rear plate more closely when the kids waiting in the car said “Stop looking at our car!”
My mom told young me to basically tell the car occupants to buzz off, but I was too shy at the time to do anything like that!
Nice period piece; love the pink interior. Not having a real hemi is a bit of a letdown.
The front end of these is not quite spot on. Oddly, it looks like a second year car, where the front end was refreshed somewhat, spoiling the original one. So what would a better ’57 Chrysler front end have looked like? Oh right; the 300C! 🙂
Speaking of, I can’t imagine why the 300C would be a bear to drive. Automatic, power steering and brakes. Hmm.
I was basing that on what Consumer Reports wrote about the 1956 300B, assuming the 1957 300C was similar. They called it a “Tyrannosaurus” with a hot cam that sacrificed idle and low speed smoothness for raw power. Plus two 4 bbl. carburetors, and I believe harder suspension too. “Where, off a race track, anyone would fancy driving this . . . CU can’t imagine.”
That’s the 300B. The 300C was significantly more civilized. Here’s a snippet from our vintage review of the 300C:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-sports-car-illustrated-review-1957-chrysler-300c-the-duesenberg-sj-of-the-1950s/
“docile even for the naive driver”
_THIS_ is how all those other ‘Forward Look’ MoPars were supposed to look .
I find this beautiful and I know how they drove, very well indeed compared to Ford & GM offerings at the time .
-Nate
In my family, we had a `57 New Yorker hardtop coupe my Mom drove. Baby blue/midnight blue with all the options. We had that one until I entered school, and Dad traded it for Mom’s bright red `65 barracuda.
The `59 Windsor sedan shown looks alot like the `59 New Yorker 4dr. my Dad drove! I was brought home from the hospital 9/60 in that one.
Not tasteful? Wash your eyes out! This is gorgeous. Yet I doubt I could even drive it up my one-way Victorian street and definitely couldn’t turn it to come back. What a way to get stuck.
I’m kinda of surprised this ’57 Windsor model has quad headlights. I thought only the high-line New Yorkers could have them in ’57. By ’58, they were pretty much standard in the industry. I’ve seen some ’57 Windsor models with dual headlights and some DeSoto’s also.
A beautiful “Forward Look” MoPar in a very nice location! We lived just north of Ontario in Upland, also quite nice, at least in 1976.
This HUGE MoPar with its colorful interior certainly beats the hideous, drab, all blACK interiors of today. 🙂 Lateral support? Naah….not needed! OTOH, if you were taking your sweetie to a dance, movie etc those bench seats were terrific!!!!
The white, gray, pink color scheme was fairly popular back then. DFO
I spoke to a Gentleman at a car show who has a perfect 1957 DeSoto Adventurer convertible. I asked about the quad lights and he said in mid 1957 Chrysler introduced quad headlights as a “57 and a half” model. They are same size each quads, not the smaller light and a normal sized seal beam headlight.
I’m looking at the headlights on this car and can’t quite determine if they’re the same size. Are the inside (hi beam) bulbs slightly smaller than the low beams? Can’t tell.
They are the same size — Chrysler used quad lamps on some 1957s where they were permitted by state regulations. By 1958, all states had approved their use.
There was a post on this by Daniel Stern (IIRC) listing all of the makes and models with available quad headlights in 1957.
Bet this was a “rare model” even in the late “1950’s.”
Growing up in Maplewood I definitely remember the car at the train station, though vaguely. There were a good number of fifties and sixties cars in regular use in town until relatively recently. Most notable was one of the postmen, who drove a black over red valiant iirc. I think that green car wound up in a garage off maplewood ave covered with tarps.
Amazing that you actually remember the ’59 Chrysler at the Maplewood station! I got to talk to the owner once when he was walking to his car. That was 36 years ago.
Also spotted from the train circa 1986-87 was a black ’60 DeSoto in someone’s driveway (nice condition), and a really ruined ’57 Dodge convertible in a backyard. I once got off the train in either Maplewood or South Orange’s Mountain Station and walked the streets to check these two out!
Put me down as a fan, and one of the best designs for ’57 along with the ’57 T-Bird and ’57 Corvette. Just look at that nasty grinning front end with the small guard teeth and think of that coming up behind your 4 door, six, powerglide ’57 Chevy 210…..”get out of the way junior and let a real car through!”
What’s the competition-would you take a ’57 Buick with it’s overdone old fashioned front end? The ’57 Olds is better,but nothing to rave about. ’57 Mercury? Too bad Chrysler shot themselves in the foot with the quality issues and lost the period but cleaner styling of the ’57 when they were restyled for ’58 and especially ’59.
Absolutely beautiful car. If I had the money, I’d be all over it. Love the old hemis and that is a fantastic body style. Who needs a bow tie or blue oval when they can roll in a Mopar?
I will go against the current (gee, does that ever happen?) and say that I much prefer these cars as either single-color or single-color with a contrasting roof. The big contrasting cove on the quarter panel never looked right to me on these cars, and I much prefer them without.
That said, this is 50’s flamboyance at its best. That pink and gold interior cannot be beat!
Just logged in to say the same thing re the white side scallop. Their position and shape doesn’t really suit the rest of the design; it reminds me of those insurance company ads where they tried to disguise the car pictured.
This car is gorgeous, when Exner was good, he was very very good…
I think I would prefer it without the painted cove though.
It is interesting to see the Windsor trim level, I am used to watching You Tube videos of immaculate 300s so the interior is similar but much more basic, and that is fine with me, the chrome roof bows really add to the appeal.
Has to be one of the best looking cars of the fifties.
IMO, the 1957-58 Chryslers and DeSotos were overall the best styled of all the Forward Look era cars. This particular example is stunning, but I agree with JPC that the car would look even better without the contrasting cove on the quarter panel.
I must say…I vehemently disagree with you. $42k for an entry level, survivor Chrysler is ludicrous! If it were an Imperial, Lincoln or a Packard hardtop…maybe, but not a Chrysler Windsor. You’re speaking of a car in a league with a 1957 Dodge, DeSoto or Plymouth…not even a Plymouth Fury. This a resale dealer looking to reel in a sucker on a mid $20k car…at best.
Well this car car sold for that price, as it should have. Go find another. The cost to restore one to this condition would well exceed $42K. I know as I own a restorations shop. And… you’ll be the only one at any car show you visit.
The seats are not original on this one. It has the 055 trim which would mean dark brown cloth and tan/gold vinyl on the seats. Also the door panels are weathered from original 055 colors as they all did over the years.
Originally the whole interior was “color-coded” with dashboard.
Having just come from a post of a ‘single-colour’ 57 Chrysler, I’d say this is one 1950’s car where the lines are so good that two-tone colour schemes arguably detract from the overall design.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/1957-chrysler-300-c-hardtop-americas-greatest-performing-car-in-ultra-rare-champagne-gold/#comment-2187114