1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer 4 Door Hardtop 1955 Plymouth Belvedere Fury 55 56

Description

This listing is for a partial 1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer 4 door hardtop that has a very straight and nearly rust free body. The body includes the 4 doors with windows, trunk lid with hinges and latch, the front seat frame with the back rest cushion, both rear seat cushions, both hood hinges, the heater assembly, the windshield wiper assembly and many lesser parts.
I believe this body is basically the same as the body used on the 1955 and 1956 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door hardtops so it could be used to replace a rusty or badly wrecked sedan or hardtop body on one of those cars. Of course the back of the rear fenders where the tail lamps fit may be a bit different but that would not be difficult to rework so that they would accept the Plymouth tail lamps.
Even though Chrysler only built 1956 Plymouth Fury cars with the 2 door hardtop body style, one could build this body as a Fury 4 door hardtop and have most likely the only one in the world. This Dodge has a 120 inch wheelbase where all 1956 Plymouths had a 5 inch shorter wheelbase at 115 inches. I believe any 1956 Plymouth could be used as a donor car for the chassis and front sheet metal to make this Dodge body into a Plymouth Belvedere or even a Fury 4 door hardtop.
The vehicle frame is included along with the complete front suspension but no front brake drums. Both rear springs and the rear axle assembly are included as are two rear wheels. I found and installed the pair of rear wheels to make it possible to move this car without damaging it. I just can't stand to watch the average fool damage a car by moving it with a fork lift.
This was a very nice complete and un-restored original car that a friend in Billings Montana found a few years ago and sold to a collector in Europe. An idiot car hauler showed up to haul it to the west coast and loaded it on the top level of a large multiple car hauler. He did something wrong so this car wound up falling front first off of the front of the upper deck of the trailer. My friend stripped the parts off of this car that his customer wanted and I saved what is left from being crushed.
So why did I bother to save this car you might ask? The answer is not simple. I have a fascination with and an interest in saving any car that I find to be interesting for any reason. This car is the top of the line Dodge for 1956 and is a relatively rare and beautiful body style to boot. Combine that with an exceptionally straight and nearly rust free body and one has a winner for sure. Most collectors will prefer a 2 door hard top over a 4 door hard top. That is fine until they get to be 80 years old and want to take some of their friends on an old car tour, for a Sunday ride or out to diner some evening. Who will want to crawl into and out of the back seat of a 2 door hard top or a convertible when they have mobility problems in their upper years? That is the same reason that I prefer 4 door convertible sedans over convertible coupes in my collection of 1930's cars.
I suspect the front section of the frame may be bent upward a bit due to the damage that may have occurred when this car fell on it's nose but I can not tell for sure. If the front of the frame is bent upward a bit, it is not bent very much and should not be too difficult to straighten. Both rear doors fit fine but both front doors sag a bit and do not close like they once did. There may have been a bit of backward movement of the top of the cowl at the front of the body. Again, I have no way of knowing for sure it this happened or not but I suspect it may have.
The body on this car is very straight and solid. The right front door outer skin is dented in and the sheet metal in the back of the right rear fender has some minor damage around the opening for the right tail lamp. The roof is in excellent condition except for a very slight lengthwise crease about 6 inches long above the back of the driver's door. I am very thankful that no idiot kid jumped on the roof of this car because that can be at least a ,000 problem to fix properly.
There are absolutely no rusted out or even thin spots in the trunk floor, rocker panels, rear quarter panels, rear wheel openings or in the bottoms of the four doors. The only rusted out spots that I have been able to find are at both front outer corners of the front floor and I have shown these two spots in the photos. I suspect that a windshield rubber gasket dried out and let water accumulate in those two places many years ago. The only other rusty spot that I can find is some minor rust in some sort of a sheet metal cover that is located behind the back of the passenger's side front seat adjusting track. I have also shown this minor problem in one of the photos. If you understand what this piece does or why it is there, please let me know.
I will be adding more information soon. Thanks a lot, Bob Woodburn in Bozeman Montana