Junkyard Find: 1957 Chrysler Windsor
It has been a while since I shared any photographs from the Brain Melting Colorado Yard, so let’s return to the amazing yard near Colorado Springs that gave us the Horizon Blue ’49 Kaiser and the ’41 Nash Airflyte. Here’s a ’57 Chrysler that’s destined to be shipped to Sweden in the near future.
The Swedes love big American cars with lots of fins and chrome, and so this car and many others near it will be dismantled and shipped to Scandinavia by a couple of Swedish restorers who make a yearly pilgrimage to the Brain Melting Yard.
The proprietor of the yard asked me to refrain from opening the hood on this car, because the hood hinges are rusty and it might be impossible to close the hood without bending the sheet metal. That means I can’t tell you for sure what engine is in this car, though I’m pretty sure it should be a 354 Poly.
Everyone thinks about Cadillacs when they picture dramatic tailfins of the late 1950s, but Chrysler made some of the wildest fins of the period. Check out the thickness of these things!
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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I've looked at one of these every day for 8 years, in my neighbors driveway. It can start but doesn't drive. Sometimes it is covered but most times not. He is some days convinced he will restore it, other days not willing to sell it because he is convinced it is worth a lot of money. Post contact information for the Swedes. His is in much better shape than the Brain Melting Yard example and if they could offer him enough money I am sure he would change his mind.
Does anyone know the name of this yard? Looks cool enough just to walk around.