'59 Plymouth Forum

Hey, Matthew. Finally made it back to Ohio. The VIN on the Belvy is M256135251. Looking forward to whatever details you can find, thanks. Will -- more MCM house photos coming soon!

GaryBitner wrote: ↑Sun Jun 10, 2018 6:42 pm Hey, Matthew. Finally made it back to Ohio. The VIN on the Belvy is M256135251. Looking forward to whatever details you can find, thanks.

Gary, I don't know if Matthew responded to you privately - but if not, I'll take a stab at it.

M - Model Year 1959
2 - V8
5 - Belvedere
6 - Detroit, Michigan
(1)35251 - the 35,251th Plymouth built in that plant.

Matthew - isn't it the case that Detroit-built Plymouths had data plates on the cowl? Gary, do you have such a plate? It would yield additional information.

You beat me to it!

2 is Plymouth, V8!
They should have data plates. Try to get your build sheet from FCA too. If you get a good scan I can decode it

Matthew Keij wrote: ↑Tue Jun 12, 2018 12:56 pm Try to get your build sheet from FCA too. If you get a good scan I can decode it

Oh Noes! You used be be able to go here to get it. But now that redirects to here, with this message:

If you go to "Contact Us" at the bottom of that page, you see this message:

No mention of how to order! Does that mean you have to first mail/fax a request, wait for it to arrive, then mail/fax a form with a check?!?

Maybe I'll try to call and find out what to do...

Thanks, guys. Please excuse the stupid questions. Where is the cowl?

Gary, the cowl is under the hood, and runs fender to fender horizontally. It's the strip connected to the vertical firewall.

On my Maywood Plant (LA, California) built Plymouth, the data plate is on the passenger side of the cowl. There may be other places where it can be found - Matthew can advise.

Dan

My two 59's are both LA built and their data plates are on the passenger side of the cowl as well.

I faxed the number for historical records this afternoon, but received no fax reply; so I called the number for FCA. The attendant gave me an email address to mail, so I did:

From: Dan Morton
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 10:10 PM
To: danielle.szostak@fcagroup.com
Subject: Obtaining a Plymouth Build Card

Hello Danielle,

I was given your email address by an agent at FCA. I have a 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury. Can you tell me the procedure for ordering the build card?

Is there a form?
Do you need any documentation besides the VIN?
Is there a charge? If so, how do I pay – check, money order, etc.?

Thanks
Dan

Then just tonight, "Christopher Housecat Neopolitan" posted an inquiry about the very same thing on the Facebook Forward Look MoPar Network! Someone responded with this link, which - unlike the FCA webpage - lists Danielle's email address:

OK, I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat. I'm hoping this comes down to someone getting a form with clear instructions about information needed and payment, in which case I will post it here.

I hope we can get a clear answer on this procedure, I would really like to get copy's of my build cards if possible. I would really like to know more about my cars, I know my Sport Fury has been in SoCal all its life. The Savoy, I have no clue on other than I picked it up in Fresno and it had belonged to a retired Chrysler dealer mechanic from that area who passed away and his entire MoPar collection was sold at auction and I got it from the guy who got it at that auction. Interested to hear where they were they were sold.

Hopefully the process of getting build cards is fairly straight forward, does any one know who can decode them?? Matthew?

Matthew does, Fershur! There are some codes that are still lost in antiquity, I think...

Here’s an article that gives you the flavor, although it’s for ‘58 Imperials:

http://imperialclub.org/Yr/1958/58PunchCard/index.htm

Matthew has cataloged and typed up much of the ‘59 data, he and I will publish an article about it in an upcoming Plymouth Owners Club Bulletin (although he doesn’t know it yet ).

This was recently posted on Facebook, in the Forward Look MoPar Network:

The FCA Archives is happy to be able to provide you with a copy of the build card for your historic vehicle without charge. However, due to the volume of requests we receive and the modest staff that we have, we are unable to offer the decoding service and copied material that we have in the past. Please provide us with proof of ownership, i.e. a copy of the title or registration, and your mailing address and we will send you the build card.

We will, when possible, provide you with the original selling dealers name and city.

Thank you for contacting us and we hope that the build card information is helpful to you.

Danielle Szostak-Viers

So that's all there is to it - send a letter with a copy of your title to the address three posts up, and hope you get your build card before Carlisle 2019

I know Chrysler does the area code and dealer code but that’s it. They don’t decode the build sheets anymore.

I know about a service that does it. It’s right here

Hi, guys. Sorry to be MIA for a few weeks; work has been crazy busy. Was back in Ohio over the weekend, found the cowl and snagged the info off the data plate. Here goes:

BODY NO
252 09652
TRM
311
PNT
XD
SCHEDULE
0714
SERIAL #
M256 135251

Appreciate whatever decoding you can do, thanks!

Body: 252 - V8 Belvedere, 2dr hardtop
Trm - interior color: 311 - grey
Pnt - Paint: XD - top first (X) iceberg white, body (D) Caribbean blue (spring special color)
Schedule - scheduled build date: 0714 - build July 14th 1959

Your VIN:
M - model year 1959
2 - Plymouth, V8
5 - Belvedere
6 - build in Detroit
1 - sequential number
35251 - 35251th Belvedere build at this plant

Pics!