1957 Dual Ghia By Ed Blumenthal – Page 3
The entire body is crated and shipped to Detroit to receive all of its mechanical components. The wiring harness is “similar” to the 56 MoPar in design but slightly modified for the Dual-Ghia use and appears to have been made in Italy but does use the MoPar 5-post wiring block.
At Dual Motors the MoPar components are assembled; Bumpers & Overriders – Both front and rears are standard 1956 Dodge but the rear bumper is sectioned in the center to make it more narrow to fit the Dual-Ghia. Suspension – 1956 Dodge D-500 suspension (Chrysler 12″ Brakes), 6-leaf rear springs, Chrysler station wagon rear, etc. Wheels – 1956 MoPar 15×5.5 tubeless with wheel covers held in place by screwed on “knock-off” center cap, Steering – Power steering driven by a pump attached to the rear of the generator. Motor – 1956 Dodge Motor choices (2) Either the standard V8 or the D-500 hemi (with one 4-barrel). It is reported that about 1/2 of the 117 cars built received the standard V8 and the other 1/2 received the D-500 Hemi. There is no known “factory” built D501 motors installed (dual-4 barrel).
The original design had the front of the motor sitting above the front suspension, as per the original 56 Dodge. But that proved to become a handling problem for the shortened chassis and the motor was relocated farther back on the frame to achieve a better Front to Rear balance. This created a second problem in that all of the cars had Power Steering and the steering box was now in the way. The solution was to move the motor over to the right by 3-inches to clear the steering box.
Transmission—All cars utilized the PowerFlite two speed transmission controlled by a cable that is attached to the floor shift lever.
The motor and transmission on all cars are repainted; from the original 1956 Dodge colors, to a Coral color. Some motors have painted metal ignition wire covers and others are chrome plated. The air cleaner is the dry 1957 Dodge tank type air cleaner.
Under Hood Electrics – All solenoids, relays, etc., are MoPar mostly AutoLite brand. The horns are Spartan which were the OEM from MoPar in 1956. All electrics are Green tagged 12-volt. The heater blower motor and some of the duct work appears to be 1954 MoPar components. Distributor – Mallory dual point with a mechanical tachometer drive and Mallory #12000 “Bee Hive” coil. Exhaust – since there is no chassis depth to protect the exhaust pipes the dual exhaust pipes, that run under the floor of the car, are pressed into an oval shape to obtain a bit more ground clearance.
The windows of the early cars had manual “wind-up” using Italian winding mechanism and Italian curved glass. There was a 1956 review article (I think Popular Mechanics) that complained that there were 13-turns of the window crank to bring the window down. The owner of Dual Motors, Gene Casaroll, read the review and issued a recall of all delivered cars and a change that all future cars have power windows. The cars were equipped with MoPar power window motors and a 2-gang MoPar power window switches mounted below the dash. The rarest of Dual-Ghia cars are those WITH manual Windows that did not respond to the recall. There are less than 4 or 5-know to exist of the total of 40 or 50 remaining Dual-Ghia cars of the original 117 cars built between 1956 and 1958. The only change being made to #137 is the addition of a modern Air Conditioning system.
Some additional photos of the car in various stages of it restoration process:
For more information & photos of Ed’s Dual Ghia: