My father's Dodge 1937

My father Evert's Dodge Senior de Luxe four door Touring Sedan 1937

My father arrived to Stockholm 1945 after 8 years at sea. First he had some motorcycles, one of them was a NV J.B from 1950. In December 1954 he bought his first car, a Dodge 1937 four door sedan, the car was 17 years old at that time. The former owner was a taxi driver, maybe the car had been used as a taxi cab. My father told me that when he bought the car the engine came disassembled in sugar boxes. The engine was a flat head six inline, about 85 horsepower. As his first car he was very enthusiastic and spend a lot of time on it. He had to do a lot of repair of the car. My sister has told me how he painted the car dark blue with a vacuum cleaner.

A photo from a car trip to Västergötland 1955, I got it from one of my cousins. My family and three of my cousins standing in front of the car. My mom told me how big the car was, when doing picnics they placed a big box with foods on the floor at the backseat.

I only have three photos of this car, this one above I got from my aunt. Look what design, free standing front lights, head lights, top mounted wind shield wipers, etc. I don't have any own memories of this car, I was born one year after he sold it.

My family did at least one longer trip with this car, down to Copenhagen in Denmark 1957. It's more than 1400 km back and forth. At one of the stop they did with the car they were interviewed by a reporter from a newspaper. The stop was at Steningebruk camping on the way home from Denmark to Stockholm. My father sold the car in November 1957, seven months before I was born. I had to grow up with a Volkswagen, why ?

Recently (2019) I found letter from my father's friend Gunnar or Skipper as we called him, he writes to my father: "Do you remember our long tour in your first car from Stockholm to Elleholm ? The cooler starting boiling and you put snow on the cooler. That was in Småland.".

I have always heard that Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge were assembled in Sweden but didn't know any details about this. After some research I found that there were two companies that sold Chrysler cars, ANA in Nyköping which sold the Plymouth and Desoto and Philipson Car who sold Chrysler, Imperial and Dodge, head office in Stockholm. In both cases I can read that they started to assembling the cars in Sweden 1938. It could be that they imported the 1937 Dodge in this case as a 1937 and then assemble it in 1938, just my theory. Philipson Car factory was built 1938 in Augustendal in Nacka Strand.

Maybe Philipson Car sold these big cars as Taxi cabs?

There are a lot to read about this in Swedish, but here I have found one written in English:

• https://www.allpar.com/ world/ sweden.html (Chrysler in Sweden, Allpar)

I have found two of these 1937 Dodges over the years, but no of them where my fathers. Now I have ordered from the traffic register information of all the Dodge 1937 that still exist today and if I'm lucky I will find my father's old Dodge. I have always thought that his Dodge must have been scrapped.

Here on the Wikipedia page you can read more about Dodge:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Dodge (Dodge, Wikipedia)

I really like this car, the stand alone head lights, the windshield wipers above the window and other thing as well. Maybe as you already have read that I also had an old Dodge, a 1959.

• ../my-cars/dodge-kingsway/ dodge-kingsway.html (Dodge Kingsway)

Earlier and later owner I had found at Stockholm City's archive:

* In earlier day the car's registration number change when the car was moved to a new city.

It looks a bit strange, was the car imported and registered in Sweden 1946?

In old papers I can read that the car had 6 x 16" wheels and a length of 4.95 meter and 1.85 meter wide.

I have now done some research about owners before and after my father. To find these people I have to act as Sherlock Holmes. All of them in the list above are not alive today but I found relatives to them that could give me some information.

The first owner in Sweden, Soldan. I got in contact with his daughter and she told me that her father lived in USA and worked there. He was used to take his American cars with him when travel back home to Sweden. That was interesting, this car has then not been built in Sweden which was common.

Second last owner, Jörgen. I came in contact with his sister Elsy. She told me that Jörgen was not a car smith but a "normal" smith. She cant remember this car but gave me some information to others that maybe can remember this car. Elsy told me that Jörgen had a friend, Bernt, I have been in contact with him. Sorry to say he couldn't remember this 1937 Dodge but he remember the Adler Jörgen had, a German made car.

The last owner who scrapped the car, Sven. I talked to his son, but he was born after this car had been scrapped and could not give any information. Sven did not live very far from where we live today.

My families memories of my father's Dodge 1937, Lars Karlsson

From a car meeting 2018:

On a car meeting 2018 I found this, a blue Dodge 1937, could it my father's old car? Even the color match.

I looked for the owner and after a while I found him. It's Björn who is the owner of this car, he is also the chairman of Sillen Cruisers motor club.

We talked about the car and checked the chassis number. Later when I compared the chassis numbers, it wasn't the same as my father's Dodge. But now I got eager to know, is my father's Dodge still out there somewhere?

It wasn't the correct chassis number but anyway it was really exiting to see the car. See the backwards opening doors, kidnaps doors. The side mirrors make it a cool soft Hot Rod.

The sign tells that the car is sold and maybe assembled by Philipsons in Sweden. It was common that cars was imported to Sweden as kits in boxes because of the customs fees these years.

The hood is divided in two parts and side flips. Without rear and front bumbers keep the clean soft lines.

The interior is restored much as it was when new. Modern radio hidden in the glovebox.

Björn has mounted a towbar on the car. With it, he can take the caravan with him when the family is going on summer trips.

The engine, a slant six. My father's engine came disassembled in sugar boxes. According to the paper on my father's Dodge it had 85 hp.

What a luck to find this car and meet the owner too.

From a car meeting 2006:

Long time ago when I was on my way to a classic car racing in Stockholm I found this car on a parking lot. In that time I didn't know very much about my father's Dodge, but it looked familiar.

The head lights had the same look.

The doors look to be the same.

Also this Dodge was sold by Philipsons and maybe assembled in Sweden.

Impressive design. I looked for the owner of the car but couldn't find him.

Later I understand it was the same model and year as my father's Dodge, but it had the wrong chassis number.