Plymouth, along with the rest of the Chrysler line, was redesigned for the 1955 model year. Plymouths and Dodges shared the same basic body that had sides with almost no metal sculpting. This acted as a kind of artist's canvas for stylists to place chrome trim and various painted areas.
Single-color paint schemes were available, but seem to have been ordered by far fewer buyers than the more elaborate trim options.
Images below are mostly factory-sourced or are of cars listed for sale on the Internet.
Plaza was Plymouth's entry-level line that began the model year with no side trim at all. Note the windshield and backlight framing in rubber rather than chrome-covered rubber. Very Spartan, though this factory image shows a two-tone paint scheme..
Plymouth's mid-range line was the Savoy. These had a half-length chrome strip on the front fender and most of the front passenger door.
Now for a set of side views of 4-door sedans. Besides the chrome strip, the alternate color is on the roof, but not the door frames.
Later in the model year this side two-tone scheme was offered on Savoys.
Belvederes were the top-of-the-line Plymouths. The chrome strip extends along most of the side.
This more elaborate design was offered as well, but not at first.
This scheme was standard on Belvedere hardtops and convertibles, later made available for sedans, as shown in the previous image.
1 comment:
At least a couple of the Plymouth trim schemes actually found the one sculpture line above the rear wheel. It is amazing how many mid-fifties cars just had made up chromey art all over the sides, and then filled them in with two-tone color. And of course they had to rearrange it every year. Unlike most of them Chrysler had a habit of coming up with new stuff or like in this case put trim from a higher line on lower ones halfway through the model year at least up to 1962. The retrims to try to make the downsized 62's (I'm a fan, unlike most people) look more normal halfway through deserves another post. Then there's every mid-fifties GM model to do. I was going to mention a couple and realized it's all of them.
Post a Comment