1942 DeSoto trunk light

[Guest Hemiken]

Hi guys, i am after a 1942 DeSoto trunk light lens or trunk light assembly. please e-mail me directly if anyone has one for sale please. Thanks, Hemiken.crossramken@hotmail.com

Here is a link of what the trunk light looks like. Thank you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bsabarnowl/4015889680/in/photostream/#/photos/bsabarnowl/4015889680/in/photostream/lightbox/

Edited April 2, 2011 by Hemiken (see edit history)

[61polara]

That is a rare car. What body style?

Search E-Bay for the Brass and Gas store. He had an assembly and many other '42 DeSoto parts.

[Guest Hemiken]

I do not think they are different from one body style to the next, going by what pictures i have seen. Very hard to find even pictures.

Thanks for the e-bay contact, i have sent them a message.

[61polara]

On my '42 the housing with the brake light is body color not chrome. Only the strip below that says "Fluid Drive" is chrome. My car is an unrestored original. It is not a black out model and is a Custom conv. I've talked to the owner of the yellow car in the photo and he believes his was originally painted body color also. The sales info shows it plated. Do you have any other info to add?

[Guest Hemiken]

There is another 42 on youtube that shows a video of the car and i am sure that his trunk light is body color, i will double check the link and post it. What exactly are the trunk lights made out of ? are they pot metal or a cast steel of some kind...... The chrome unit looks real nice and i have seen another the same as you are discribing that is body color with the chrome strip underneath. Any chance you could send me a picture of your trunk light on your 42 please. Thanks, Kenny.

[Guest Hemiken]

Here is the link for the 42 on youtube. It is a body color unit as well.

Kenny.

[c49er]

Here is the link for the 42 on youtube. It is a body color unit as well.

Kenny.

That S10 DeSoto 3 cpe is originally from California then on up here to Seattle. I put a used engine in it about 15 years ago. And now its in Europe!

Here is another pic of a really super rare 5th Ave 1942 DeSoto Convert. The owner is a friend.

[Guest Hemiken]

Thanks for sharing the info and picture. Is there a list of how many body styles and numbers of each model and which body style would be the rarest for 1942.

[61polara]

Here are photo's of my car and the brake light assembly. The assembly is approx 19.5 x 4.5 inches. Your car is Austrialian. Can you post a photo no matter what condition it is in? I'm curious to see if it is the US DeSoto or an export model which may be based on a Dodge or Plymouth body. That may make the brake light a Dodge or Plymouth part. My car is unrestored original and in driving condition. Mine is one of four known to exist. For anyone else following, this is the North Carolina car that many thought did not exist. I purchased the car from the second owner who bought it in 1949. I've had it for about 10 years. It is not a Fifth Avenue, but has all the Fifth Avenue accesories except for the finder skirts and cigarette dispenser steering wheel. The car is licensed and driveable, but has no top on the frame.

[61polara]

Production figures for 1942 DeSoto's are:

S-10S DeLuxe

bus cpe 469

club cpe 1968

conv cpe 79

sdn 2dr

[61polara]

Sorry for the break in the post, the cat hit the Post Button

continued from the previous post:

sdn 2dr 1075

sdn 4 dr 6463

town sedan 1291

sdn 4dr, 7P 49

S-10C Custom

bus cpe 120

club cpe 2236

conv cpe 489

sdn 2dr 913

sdn 4dr 7974

town sdn 1084

sdn 4dr 7p 79

limo 7P 20

[Guest Hemiken]

Hi, Thanks heaps for the pictures......... way cool ride.

Thanks for sharing the production numbers also, that is awesome.

[keiser31]

I am afraid that you may find that the sedan center brake light assembly has a slightly different profile that the unit on the coupe and/or convertible. The shape of the trunk lid is different.

[61polara]

In an e-mail to me he mentioned that the car was or is in Austrailia. I've ask for photos because as an export, that part may be a Dodge or Plymouth.

[61polara]

The great thing about this thread is that in one place we have photo's of 3 of the 4 known surviving '42 DeSoto Custom convertibles!

[61polara]

Based on the '42 DeSoto part manual, all '42's used the same brake light housing. Part #990584. I'm looking at a US manual, so export cars may be different.

[StillOutThere]

'42 DeSoto convertible count: Are you including the one I sold about 3 years ago? Anyone know where it is now? Has it been restored?

Yes, it had an incorrect Chrysler trunk brake lamp when I found it.

[61polara]

Your's is number 4. The last I heard, this car seems to be in Washington state. This looks like the same car. Any more out there?

[jimm]

StillOutThere, I followed your convertible after you sold it. It went to a classic car dealer/restorer in New York, where it remains today. He offered it for sale at least twice, once on Craigslist and once in Hemmings. I contacted him several times, last was a couple weeks ago, and he intends to keep and restore it at this point. The red car pictured in this thread is in the state of Washington. I have a decent original Custom sedan and blackout sedan that was a parts car. I'd love to find a fifth convertible!

Edited May 5, 2011 by jimm (see edit history)

[Ron42Dodge]

Thank you for sharing all the pictures of the 1942 Desoto Convertibles. I really enjoyed seeing them. Although I don't own a 42 Desoto I think I just purchased my first pair of parts for one. I found a pair of Blackout fender skirts. Got to start somewhere.

Brake light housings on 42 Dodges were painted. They had the same style Chrome nameplate but instead of saying Fluid Drive they just said Dodge. They wrote Fluid Drive on the bumper instead.

There was only one style of the "stop lamp assembly" for all body styles for the 42 Dodges so I suspect the DeSoto's were the same... In fact I just remembered I have my Mopar Body and Sheet Metal book with me and it only shows one part number (990584) for the 42 Desoto. It also says the 46-48 were chrome (1149302) but no mention of chrome for the 42.

The movie Voodoo Man (1944) has a Blackout Desoto Convertible in it (just in the first 10 minutes). Kind of fun to see.

[jimm]

Any '42 DeSoto fender skirts are rare, but just think how rare a pair is from a blackout. Now you just need a car to put them on! Believe it or not, I also have a pair from a '42 DeSoto blackout, as well as a pair with chrome mouldings. I've just sorted out my collection of DeSoto parts and also came across two of the stop light assemblies, but this thread is so old that I imagine the member who started it has found his stop light and moved on by now. Of course you are right about all models of '42 DeSoto using the same stop light assembly. Most are painted body color with the "Fluid Drive" strip being in chrome. The Fifth Avenue option included the whole stop light assembly being chromed as well, which is why you see that on the red convertible (by the way that car has since gone to a new owner). As for my little collection, I've added a coupe and will soon be selling the Custom sedan as well as a few things from the blackout parts car.

[c49er]

The Seattle convert went to Texas about 3 months ago.

[olympic]

My experience with 42 Fifth Avenues is that the brake light assembly was painted not chromed. I had a Fifth Avenue sedan, all blue no chrome on the brake light assembly and my 42 Fifth Avenue coupe was also a painted assembly. The 42 parts book does not show a chromed brake light assembly and the Fifth Avenue Ensemble section in the large 42 colour catalog does not make mention of it.

[jimm]

Olympic, Thanks for clearing that up about the chrome brake light assembly not being in the sales catalog, parts book, or on your two Fifth Avenues. I'm sure you're right that they never were chromed on a Fifth Avenue or any other '42 DeSoto, at least not by the factory. My comment was based on the two Fifth Avenues I have seen in person, both of which had their assemblies chromed (saw a third Fifth Avenue as a kid, too many moons ago to remember the brake light!). First was the above pictured red convertible, which the prior owner showed me in Seattle in 1997 when I bought a 1947 S11 convertible he was selling, and the second was the black club coupe restored in San Diego, which then went to Michigan and I believe has moved on since (it was featured in a "Collectible Automobile" article some years ago). I saw it in San Diego and it too had the brake light housing chromed. It has been reported that that car started life as a Custom and was dressed as a Fifth Avenue later on. I also thought that I read somewhere that a chromed brake light assembly was part of the Fifth Avenue package. After thinking about it further I realized it was in the WPC Club website, and I just found it there in the "Member's Cars" section page two. It pictures the black club coupe and the write up states that the "Fifth Avenue was a package deal....this included (among the other options)....chrome plated stoplight housing.....". But as you point out, this is not in the catalog or parts book, or on your two cars. I figure it was probably something these two owners chose to do on their cars. They look great either way.

While we're on the subject of 1942 DeSoto features, maybe you or other members can shed some light on the hood ornaments. Several threads in different forums, possibly including this forum, have conjectured on what is correct for 1942 "flying goddesses" as they are sometimes called. Some believe that the lighted hood ornament was used only on Fifth Avenues (of course, it is listed in the sales catalog as part of the Fifth Avenue package.), and that other cars came with the chromed steel version. However, the parts book only lists the plastic lady. All three of my '42s have lighted plastic ladies, and two are very original cars. There is no mention of a chrome version in the parts books until the 1946 S11. I figured that if a "lighted hood ornament" was an option in '42, then all cars must have all had plastic ladies, but only some (including all Fifth Avenues) came with the option of the light bulb, bracket, socket etc to illuminate the lady.

Another area of confusion for me is the face plates and knobs on rear quarter ashtrays in '42 convertibles, club coupes and two door sedans. Some have speculated that they all had chrome face plates with chrome knobs, some think they were woodgrain face plates with ivory knobs. Some have suggested convertibles had chrome, closed models woodgrain. My Custom club coupe has woodgrain face plates with ivory knobs, and that is what is pictured in the sales catalog. The '42 parts book shows two ashtray face plates, one for all aforementioned Custom models, and a different one for all DeLuxe models, but it does not describe them as chrome or woodgrain. It just shows different part numbers. According to the parts book, both Custom and DeLuxe used the same knob, up until late '42 cars, which I thought sometimes meant the part was chrome on earlier models but later painted for blackout cars. By the way, I've had several '46-'48 S11s, and my Custom convertibles and club coupes had chrome face plates and knobs, whereas the Deluxe two door sedan had woodgrain face plates with chrome knobs. But what about the '42's? What was the difference between the Custom and DeLuxe face plates, and what type of knobs did they use? Can anyone shed any light on this?

[olympic]

Jimm, my dad and I had a 42 DeLuxe sedan that was a delight to drive in every respect. It was a DeLuxe and had the lighted hood ornament. It also had the Fluid Drive, a radio, a heater, and turn indicators. I'm pretty sure they were all options on a DeLuxe. The blue Fifth Avenue had a really elaborate heater with ducts on the kick panels to direct heat to the back seat. That heater show up in the parts book. The large show room brochure shows Air Conditioning for the 42s. I wonder if any remaining 42s have that option? Dave

[Doc Hubler]

I have a 42 DeSoto Custom Club Coupe; here in Washington state. The car has always been an eastern WA car. Regarding the rear brake light housing, mine is painted body color, as all the rest of the this discussion suggests (I have seen a few that had been chromed looking through the web, but they are not correct, especially comparing to literature). One thing that seems to be missing from some of the painted ones that I see are the red stripe lines in the grooves. My car clearly shows this detail, not uncommon to find this on many cars of the era, even on the chrome plated pieces. As far as the hood ornament goes, my car had the lucite lady, so it seems that all were made that way for 42. That probably makes sense with the ability of manufacturers to chrome pieces already in the works before Jan 1, 1942, when the blackout models appeared. On the ashtrays in the rear seat quarter panels, mine were missing. The best I've found is that they probably were woodgrained and had ivory (plastic knobs). That's why so many are missing today. The plastic degraded, crumbled, and the irritated owner took out the ashtray to possibly fix up something, and they never got put back in the cars. I have found that and Plymouth, Dodge, or Chrysler ash tray of that era seems to fit properly the chrome metal housing for the ash tray. You just have to find two of them. My car is also missing the pieces that attached to the door and rear window garnish moldings. Apparently, these also were plastic and fairly easily cracked from sun and age, and were disposed of. Does anybody have any of the originals of these knobs and moldings that they could share? I think I can make reproductions of them. Would love to see photos of all the extant 42 Desotos out there. I have seen the 3W black coupe that is in Europe and a convertible or two on the web, but there's not really much in the way of pictures, or videos. If you want to see two different 42 Desotos, go watch the 1946 version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice," with Lana Turner. THere is one scene where the couple almost is hit by a 42 convertible. There are many scenes that have the 4 dr sedan in them (Custom I think).

[Doc Hubler]

I forgot to mention that my car (Custom) did come with the Sportsman Package upholstery which has leather bolsters on the seats and a special cloth insert. I think that is quite rare. THe leather colors were blue, red, green, and tan. My car is tan. The original color of the car is Royal Maroon. It also has the Simplimatic Drive with special carburetor with kickdown switch. And it has Fluid Drive. Almost everyone I have found does have fluid drive. I would like to equip my car original equipment directional switch/indicators. I've take apart the dash, and have found that they all come with the orange arrow indicators on the instrument panel, blacked out for most of them since few people ordered that equipment. I had a few other trim questions. On the panel where all the six buttons/cable pulls are located at bottom center of dash, was that just a chrome "box" or did they have the purple embossed panel on the front, same as what is one the glovebox? And how about the clock? I ahve a clock to put in my car which originally had the delete panel there. Did the clock have that purple embossed background, or just black? 1941 was tan/creme background with red hands on the clock.

[61polara]

Doc,

The panel under the dash should have the same finish as the glove box. The clock does not have that finish in the background.