Hello,
I'm new here and thought I'd share my newest project. I bought this 52 Saratoga Club Coupe from an older gentleman who bought this car back in 57 at a dealer, traded in from the original owner. He drag raced the car in the 60's and brought home a number of trophies, two of which he found and gave to me. It has been sitting since the early 80's in a field beside his house. The car has some rust issues but not too bad. I am keeping the car at my friend's house as I live in an apartment and they don't allow project cars. I plan to make it a driver. So far I have only cleaned the car up, sanded off alot of the surface rust and painted it with rustoleum to help protect it from getting worse until I can start the body in the spring. Here are a few pictures.
kelly

as found


after cleaning up

Cool car, the club coupes are rare!

I used to have a 52 New Yorker. It had amazing performance for a car that looked like a canal barge.

Your Saratoga should be even better as it is a lighter body.

Mechanical parts are generally available. If you put it back in commission be prepared to be impressed with the power if not with the steering!

You might want to look up the threads on Fluid Drive in the Chrysler and Dodge departments. These transmissions are very durable and simple but require a little different driving technique. Plus some special maintenance requirements. Nothing expensive or difficult, just different.

Fluid Drive does not refer to the transmission, but the fluid coupling between the engine and the clutch. When Fluid Drive was first introduced for 1939, a regular 3-speed manual transmission was behind the clutch. 1941 through 1948 Dodges could be had with Fluid Drive, but they all had a manual transmission.

The 4-speed semi-automatic was introduced on Chryslers and DeSotos in 1941 and Dodge in 1949. It actually had 2 gear ranges with 2 speeds in each range.

For 1951 Chrysler introduced on its V8 models a torque converter option, Fluid-Torque Drive, again located between the engine and the clutch. The 4-speed semi-automatic on Chryslers was called Fluid-Matic Drive (it was Prestomatic in 1949-50).

Models with F-T Drive and F-M Drive had a gearshift quadrant, although the gear change itself was the same as models with Fluid Drive - low range where 2nd gear would be and high range where 3rd should be. The usual 1st gear location was not there.

Your 1952 Saratoga, with the gear quadrant, has Fluid-Torque Drive and Fluid-Matic Drive.

A big change came in 1953 when the torque converters replaced the pump behind the converter with oil supplied by the engine oil pump. Thus 1953 F-T Drive converters will not interchange with 1951-52 units. Chrysler used the same technique for Plymouth's Hy-Drive, but with a 3-speed manual transmission instead of the semi-automatic.

Bill
Vancouver, BC

In your 52 the gearshift works like an automatic. Push it up or pull down to shift gears. But to get into reverse you also have to lift the lever towards you.

You need to depress the clutch to shift into gear, after that it drives like an automatic.

I appreciate the comments, I'm sure I'll have many questions before it hits the road. I've already bought the shop manual from ebay. Should be quite helpful as well.

Some years ago I saw an article on a 52 Saratoga like yours, written by the original owner.

He said when he bought the car its top speed was about 110. He took the car to a speed shop in the mid 50s and had them add a solid lifter cam, 2 carb manifold and dual exhausts.

On the way home the cops clocked him at 131 with their radar gun.

He drove this car over 250,000 miles, then tore it down and restored it.

The original engine and transmission were still going strong.

Kelly

Good find. Save the old hemi's.

Unless you are purist, you may want to do some things to improve the performance of the hemi V8. Check out the website hothemiheads.com. It is a hemi speed shop in Lowgap, NC. The tech forum at their website has lots of very knowledgable people participating. Join them with any question you may have about your Chrysler.

Bob Call

At this stage I would think twice before modifying the engine. It already has more performance than the stock suspension and brakes can comfortably handle.

One more thing. Don't let any know it alls tell you your hemi needs hi octane leaded gas. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your engine is already set up from the factory to burn 70 octane unleaded gas, much lower octane than the cheapest regular you get today.

Back when it was new Chrysler bragged that their engine did not need hi octane gas because it had "mechanical octane" meaning the hemi head design developed full power and performance on low octane gas thru superior design and construction.

It has hardened valve seats and valves from the factory.

I owned a 54 NY T & C wagon from 1990-99. 331 Hemi w/180 HP, Torqueflite AT, PS, PB. What a great, great road car. Slower than Christmas from takeoff, but man, on top end could get up to between 90 & 100.

These old hemi's are amazingly quiet & smooth, long-lasting. That Saratoga club coupe should be a really nice performer, as it would be noticeably lighter than a wagon. Rusty is right - unless you plan on upgrading the brakes & suspension, don't modify the engine, because you can't use the extra power safely. That is a rarely seen body style, and it looks to be well worth saving. Enjoy it.

Believe it or not the older Chryslers with the 4 speed Fluid Drive transmission were faster off the line and faster top speed than the newer ones with the same engine and 2 speed Powerflite.

In January of 1951 a brand new New Yorker sedan set a speed record of 100.13 MPH on Daytona Beach. This was with 400 break in miles and a can of Wynn's Friction Proofing in the crankcase. No other tuning tricks. At the time the car was so new on the market even tune up info was not available.

This was the fastest car on the beach that year and the first stock car to break 100 since the 1937 Cord supercharged V8.

The sand surface of the beach knocks about 10% off a car's top speed. So the true top speed of a stock hemi Chrysler of that year would be about 110. This is with a 2 barrel carb, 7.5:1 compression running on gas of less than 80 octane.

110 in any 1951 car is plenty fast.

The 3 speed Torqueflite didn't come along until the 1957 models (and some late 56 Imperials).

There are some tricks you can do with the Fluid Drive to get more performance, that you can't do with any other transmission.

Rusty, I could not pull up the name of that auto tranny when I was replying to the earlier post. You're right, it was Powerflite, not Torqueflite. Thanks for the info.

I plan on doing some upgrades to the car. Like I said, I plan to make it a driver, if not a daily driver. Definitely disk brakes, possibly a more modern rear end. The brake booster underneath the car kinda scares me!! I'm just taking it one step at a time. I have the car at a friend's house, roughly an hour away so I'm not able to work on it but maybe one day every week or two, sometimes a little more. I'm by no means a purist but I won't do anything that isn't easily reversible. I definitely don't see myself doing 110mph in this car anytime soon!! My friend has already pointed me towards Hot Hemi Heads as well as Gaston Performance in Belmont NC. Both should be helpful getting this beast back on the road.

Since you are not a purist that doesn't want a correct restoration, first thing is to get power disc brakes on this land yatch. Knowing that you can safely stop will make driving it much more enjoyable.

On the Hot Heads tech forum is a guy named Lionel who is doing a 55 wagon. You might want to look him up there and send him an email to see what he has done about brakes. He had a posting a couple of months back about an overheating problem.

Check with Mark at Scarebird Mechanical. I have a 52 Windsor and I think we have the same suspension. Mark made up some brackets for the disc brakes on mine. Excellent work--the part fits as if it was stock. Crown Vic rotors( 95-6) and mid 80`s GM calipers, bajo style brake hoses. Great braking with just manual master cylinder from 80`s 1/2 ton GM trucks---Mark has all the info you will need. If your brakes are bad and need total replacement, the parts are about the same except for the cost of the bracket. He should have the pics of the ones we put on mine, if not I could e-mail you them...Good Luck....52er

Getting warm again, about to start working on this beast again!! Couple of questions. I found a 51/52? Imperial in a yard today (pics below). Will the horn ring and button fit mine? Will the bumpers fit? Mine are ok but rusty. The Imperial's still have nice chrome. I was going to buy two of its wheels since I don't have a spare and one of mine isn't correct and does not hold air, but they were all way too rusty. What other year/make vehicles would be correct for this car? Also, I took the bezel off the rear taillamp to remove the broken lens and the housing the bezel screws into is broken where it screws into meaning I can't screw the bezel back on when I find replacement lenses. Anyone have a lead on one? The ones on the Imperial look different. I got happy for a minute when I saw the "Chrysler" script on the hood looked in tact as mine is broken, but when I touched it, I saw that it was broken as well. Oh well, maybe I can try to repair mine. Here are the pics of the Imperial.

The horn ring is the same I think, but the bumpers are different.

Isn't the housing stamped steel? If it is and the screw hole is worn out a drop of braze will fix it. If it is white metal try JB weld.