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My first car was a '58 DeSoto Firedome convertible. But that's not where the story started. Rewind to the fall of 1956. My folks and I would gather in the evenings close to our old 24" black & white TV for our (their) favorite TV shows. At age 10 I had already developed a passion for cars, but was limited to the toy variety, which I usually laid out on the floor. Most of the time they occupied the majority of my attention and it was only when something really interesting came on TV that I would divert my focus. In those days fall was Detroit's new car introduction time, associated with much secrecy and fanfare as the coming year's offerings were unveiled. One of the shows that topped the favorite list was "You Bet Your Life" with Grouch Marx, which at that time was sponsored by DeSoto. I usually ignored the show itself, but when the commercials came on, they almost always attracted my attention. I still distinctly remember the night that DeSoto unveiled their 1957 models. It was love at first sight! The soaring tailfins and those low, sleek lines of Chrysler's Forward Look were a magnitude ahead of anything ever before produced for the American car market |
| A year later when the refurbished '58 models were shown, a lifelong obsession was born. Although the changes in the '58 were minimal, in my eyes the refurbished grille and those dimples in the rear bumper that suggested twin exhaust on both sides, perfected an already outstanding design.Thankfully, Chrysler's stylists didn't fiddle with the car's basic styling. A year later when the '59s were introduced, I was sorely disappointed. I thought (and still do) think that the styling looked heavy and lumpy. |
I graduated from high school in June of 1964 and started working with my Dad, delivering and setting up television sets. Less than a week later, I was on a delivery and something caught my eye. Could it be? Sitting on the corner of a used car lot was the car of my dreams, a '58 DeSoto convertible. I pestered my dad sufficiently for him to turn around and backtrack so I could take a second look. The closer I got, the more I was convinced that this Firedome HAD to be mine! At the time it was showing around 54,000 miles on the odometer, and showed signs of a less than perfect repaint. But I didn't care! We did a quick test drive and that was all it took. $400 later I was behind the wheel and in ecstacy. When I look back on that $400, I can hardly believe current prices that the rather rare '57 and '58 DeSotos command. I spent the rest of the summer working to pay for insurance, new tires and a new top. At night it was time to cruise top down through the streets of uptown New Orleans and Lakeshore Drive on the south side of Lake Pontachartrain, all the time waiting for my theme song the come on the radio: "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. |
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The romance with my DeSoto lasted about 15 months, some of the best times I ever had. Then on the night of September 9, 1965 Hurricane Betsy came roaring ashore as a Category 4 storm, just west of New Orleans. My folks and I evacuated to a shelter early in the evening. My biggest concern was that new convertible top, so I carefully backed my prized possession into the garage. A large portion of the city was inundated with brackish flood waters, including the area where I lived. I'll never forget wading through waist deep water to get back to our home. Fortunately our living area was on the second floor, over my Dad's televisionb repair shop. But when I saw the flooded area of the first floor, my worst fears were realized. My DeSoto sat in flood waters, six inches above the dash. A couple of my car club buddies helped me do what we could to rehab my DeSoto, and after a couple of months we did get her drivable again. But the briny flood waters had done major damage, and before too many months passed, the transmission began to fail, so I parked her and spent $200 on a '57 Ford Custom two door sedan that saw me through the next couple of years. I kept my DeSoto until 1969, but by then the responsibilities of marriage, a new baby and home ownership, meant that funds just were not available to resurrect my prize. I finally parted with her for $90 and the last I heard, she was being towed to Florida. I've always hoped that someone finally restored her, but I never had any way of finding out if that actually happened. Throughout the 70s and 80s I kept an eye open on various old car classifieds across the country, but never found a '58 that would serve as a replacement for my lost ride. From the 90s forward, prices of collector cars have climbed through the ceiling, and the DeSoto is no exception. But all is not lost! Even though prices for a replacement of my '58 are way beyond my means, I can still own one, even if it is in 1/25th scale. I was still driving my 1:1 DeSoto when I located a fairly decent 1/25th scale promotional '58 Fireflite 4 door. I bought it, planning to not only add it to my collection, but to also use it to make a replica of my car. In those days latex mold making compound was just beginning to be used in the model car world, and resin casting was many years in the future. I made a mold from the Fireflite and then cast a body using fibreglas. The resulting model left a lot to be desired. But I held onto the Fireflite in the hopes that one day I'd be able to make a better replica of my car. It took decades for everything to come together that would allow me to finally build a decent model of my DeSoto. |
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