1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer Coronet, rotisserie restoration frame off
| Make: | Dodge |
| Model: | Custom Royal Lancer |
| Type: | hardtop |
| Year: | 1956 |
| Mileage: | 54,995 |
| VIN: | 34974872 |
| Color: | Oriental Coral, Sapphire White, Irridecent Charcho |
| Engine: | 315 |
| Cylinders: | 8 |
| Transmission: | Automatic |
| Drive type: | RWD |
| Interior color: | Black/silver/white |
| Vehicle Title: | Clear |
| Item location: | Laramie, Wyoming, United States |
1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer Additional Info:
For sale, 1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer. Fresh frame off rotisserie restoration completed this year. Over 20K in parts and materials to restore this low mile tri-color beauty! This is a collector quality car that deserves to be in a Mopar collection. It is a Colorado, last licensed in 1983, I assume parked with a burnt exhaust valve. I believe it has been indoors since then, as it was too nice to have been out doors for 30 plus years.
I could certainly drone on about how great this car is (which it is), or I could let you the prospective buyer know what it would take (it is not a lot) to finish this car astop line original restoration. This is whatI believe it would need to take it to the level of an over-restored original:
Re-chroming: Much of the pot metal trim is original and has slight pitting, although the bumpers, bumper guards, hood ornament, fender upper chrome and the hood “vee” are already re-chromed and very nice. The “Dodge” scripts are NOS. These pitted parts could be removed and sent out to plating without too much effort, like over a winter or something.
The hood and deck lid “shield” plastic emblems are usable but not as nice as the rest of the car. These are available from at least two sources.
The door sill plates are rough. I placed a deposit on a re-pop set from the guy in N.J. that supplies them. They should be available soon.
The side glass is original, the passenger door has a crack in the lower corner and all of them have the normal scratches, etc. from 60 years of existence.
The generator case needs painted black. It is rebuilt but I did not get it painted and detailed as it was an extra I had just in case. I had to replace the first restored one when the voltage regulator stuck and damaged it.
The roof drip rail chrome is dinged up from removal (not by me). I am thinking the ones off of my 4 four door parts car might work if they are trimmed down. I have not investigated this further.
The trunk is unfinished. There is a re-pop rubber mat and it has been painted and undercoated as it left the factory. Originally there would have been cardboard panels to finish up the trim. I do not have them and have not found anyone reproducing them. Most cars I have seen restored have gone to carpet covered panels. The spare is there along with the original jack.
The radio has issues. It powers up and buzzes but the tuner knob doesn’t move the needle so I can’t see if it will get stations or not. I would plan on having it rebuilt if it matters to you.
There are two small pot metal pieces on the hood, where the fender chrome transitions into the stainless strips that go to the ornament. These are rather pitted. I planned on making some replacements out of brass and having them chromed.
The steering wheel has a number of cracks in the white portion. Although intact it could use rebuilt (recast). There are several places that could make it better than new.
That’s it… Unless I forgot something… Don’t get me wrong, most people would look at this car and not even see most of this. I am very picky and being honest to represent this car correctly. I you want a driver quality car; this car is above that level by a fair amount.
For those that need to know what was replaced, I have a detailed list of the parts and materials I tracked throughout the process. E-mail me if you are interested in it.
There are obviously a lot of parts I bought for this car. I restored it myself as this is what I teach for a career and love to do as a hobby. What is hard to describe is the amount of time I put into this Dodge. The time was substantial. 50’s cars are certainly a challenge, such as the weeks I had in just straightening and polishing the stainless trim. I used over two years of my “spare” time on this car. I had planned on enjoying it for a long time and showing it at AACA shows but my plans have changed. I have an AACA national award winning Chevelle that I completely restored in the garage so this speaks to the quality of my work.
If you are into 50’s cars, this is a great example of the “fin” era and very unique. This car cruises really well as I have around 400 miles on it last summer so the bugs are worked out already for you.
History: as I stated above, it came out of Colorado. The car was complete but the intake manifold was in the trunk and the engine was partially disassembled. I was able to get the car to run but found it had a burnt valve, so I dove in full bore with the frame off restoration. The body was very nice to start with as there was minimal rust through. I replaced the entire outer rockers into the quarter panel as well as the front half of the inner rockers and about six inches or so square of the floor next to the rockers on both sides. Dodge did no rust prevention in these areas so it now has new metal that is zinc coated on the inside. There was never any rust in the trunk, period. The front fenders had minor rust in the corners; this has all been replaced and repaired correctly. There is minimal filler in this car I pride myself in being able to work the metal properly.
As you can see it has power steering, brakes, radio and the electric clock as extra options. The Custom Royal package was the top of the line trim level and there wasn’t much more available that I know of. Power seat, windows, air conditioning and the four barrel or Hemi engine are some that were available. I have a collection of literature and pictures of this car I used for reference. This can go with the car as well as the tote of extra parts I have.
The powertrain is fully rebuilt and the engine has hardened seats so it is good to go with modern fuels. The engine is a 315 poly, two barrel. The dual exhaust is new. I had the motor mounts recast. The tires are Coker radials. I highly detailed all of these items as shown in the pictures.
Anythingbrake, fuel or cooling related is either new or rebuilt.
The underneath of the car you could eat off of. Yes it is a weird blue/gray but that is what originally was so I matched it and repainted it. The frame and under body were blasted and coated with black epoxy which is very durable.
The wiring is all completely new, I rebuilt the harness with the correct style woven covered wire. Every light bulb and connector is new as an example of my attention to detail.
The interior was completed with correct materials from SMS in Oregon, it is simply stunning and worth the year wait for the materials. It has red floor mats as everyone is out of black at the moment! All of the upholstery was replaced as well as the foam padding on the seats. The dash is still original, just cleaned and polished up. All gages work and the clock was rebuilt. The speedometer is correctly calibrated. The carpet is the closest match I could find, no one makes the exact black/white loop anymore.
I will work with your inspector or shipper as I have in the past. OR pick up in person of course. I have sold a handful of cars over eBay in the past and I have never had a disappointed buyer.
I am not interested in trades at this time and no, I do not need help selling this car.
If you are serious we should talk! Please contact me: hammerwerx@outlook.com with your questions or contact info.
I will help in any way I can if you are looking to purchase this particular car. I do not believe there is neither a nicer one out there, nor one as fresh as this one is! Thank you for looking.
