Junkyard Find: 1953 Chrysler New Yorker

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Nearly a year has passed since we took a tour of the Brain-Melting Colorado Yard, and since that time I’ve shared such diamond-in-the-rough gems as this ’57 Chrysler Windsor, this ’52 Kaiser, this ’48 Pontiac Hearse, this ’51 Nash Airflyte, and— of course— the ’41 Plymouth Special Deluxe sedan that is now in the process of getting a Lexus SC400 suspension. I need to go back to this yard (which is located in the high desert to the east of Pikes Peak) soon, because the DMV tells me I need a notarized bill of sale to get a title for the ’41, and at that point I’ll photograph some more of the thousands of 1940-70 cars awaiting new owners. For now, let’s admire this ’53 New Yorker I shot last fall.

The big “V” emblem on the hood means that this car came from the factory with a great big Firepower Hemi engine installed.

Unfortunately, the 331-cubic-inch, 180-horse Hemi in this car is long gone. Perhaps the engine went into a 1960s drag car.

The single-digit humidity in this prickly-pear-covered landscape keeps the rust down, but the the sun is rough on paint and interiors.

You can still detect a bit of the original luxury inside.

It wouldn’t be an impossible project to get a modern-ish drivetrain in this good-looking two-door, get the bodywork and interior done, and put it back on the road. Any volunteers?








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Andy D Andy D on May 18, 2013

    The 3 speed Torque Flite was a darn fine transmission. Olds had the first 2 speed automatic ~ 1940. GM led in automagic in the 50's but the base models were 2 speeds. My dream is to own a '47 Dodge business coupe with Fluid Drive, Probably one of the nicest 3 on the trees. Or a Hudson with a cork wet clutch

    • Ixim Ixim on May 18, 2013

      I believe those original Hydramatics were 4 speeds with a simple fluid coupling. NDLR. There was no "Park" position; you could lock up the drivetrain by puttin the lever in reverse position. My 1947 Caddy had one - the dipstick/filler was under the front passenger floorboard; capacity was about 13 quarts! Very rugged; they may have seen service in Sherman tanks.

  • Duaney Duaney on Apr 29, 2016

    This is one of many early Chryslers where they pulled the hemi and took the remains to the crusher where I rescued it.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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