Early Chrysler history

[Aarons Air]

 

[Budnicks]

Need to watch "the Cars that Built America"
History Channel
Good film, tells a ton of the history behind the Automobile
a lot of it was centered around the Ford family
they dealt with Chrysler & the Dodge Bros. superior engineering
way ahead of their time...
Chrysler not really into styling much
especially in the pre 1955 stuff, more about comfort & engineering
but didn't sell very many, because of the 3-4 times the price
vs a Model T or Latter the model A's...

Covers the Dodge Brothers (they died young)
they were heavily involved, designed & built most the early Fords
supplied the parts, that they had bought Ford's org. Company too
one of the co.'s became Cadillac
Henry Ford went broke org., 10 years before the Model T (Dodge Bros.)
& it went into GM with Walter B Chrysler at the helm too,
just to beat Ford... for far less pay
Lots of the hatred for Henry Ford & the Union etc.

Covered a bit of the Muscle Car era stuff with,
GM's Pontiac's John DeLorean Pontiac,
how he struggle to get performance past the bean counters
vs Ford's Lee Iacocca, the Mustang & Pony Car, before he was fired
& Lee Iacocca came over to Chrysler & came up with the Mini-Van...
That & the bail out, saved Chrysler...
Lee's hatred for Henry Ford & Hank II...
Was a driving force...

not really that much about Chrysler, but a good film,
most of it was about Ford & his family before & after WWII
IIRC 3 parts 9 (?) hrs total

worth seeing

 

[Aarons Air]

I read something once about the Dodge brothers giving their employees beer, while they were working. Never knew if that was bogus or not.

 

[F4R/T]

The dodge brothers did provide beer for the employees, happy employees made better cars. The hung with the assembly line workers after hours and didn’t play well with the elite groups so they bought the country club. The brothers were the best to work for, took care of the employees and family was number one to them. When they died the pall bearers were drawn from the assembly line floor... no joke.. like the commercials said it was their dream to be better and they did. The also invented numerous other items like oillite bearings and pillow blocks.. very smart team that naturally worked. If they had lived Ford would not have had a chance at all as the Dodges propped up Ford ( he was nuts and tried to defraud the brothers that took a court to get him to pay up) yes the profits from ford motor built the competitions new plant- dodge main or hamtramack plant. The dodge boys had it all together , they were red headed and didn’t fit into society and Henry was scared of them... they were/ are true legends!

 

[Slap Stick]

The Dodge brothers had nothing to do with oilite bearings. Chrysler invented them in 1930. The brothers died in 1920.
They invented a style of ball bearings for bicycles.
And, while the mini van was the brainchild of Iacocca, he did it while at Ford and they rejected it along with what became the K car.

 

[F4R/T]

Sorry the oillite bearings was Chrysler In the 30s for water pumps etc. it was a nice profit center for Chrysler till the line was sold off and it continues today... correct me if I’m wrong please just got thing mixed up!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Dodge put out some great commercials just a few years back. They need more like these.....

 

[Slap Stick]

Sorry the oillite bearings was Chrysler In the 30s for water pumps etc. it was a nice profit center for Chrysler till the line was sold off and it continues today... correct me if I’m wrong please just got thing mixed up!

Now ya got it.
Iirc a company called Beemer owns the rights. Without the oil in the bushings they were used as fuel filters, which I'm sure anyone who has had a Rochester carb knows about.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Need to watch "the Cars that Built America"
History Channel
Good film, tells a ton of the history behind the Automobile
a lot of it was centered around the Ford family
they dealt with Chrysler & the Dodge Bros. superior engineering
way ahead of their time...
Chrysler not really into styling much
especially in the pre 1955 stuff, more about comfort & engineering
but didn't sell very many, because of the 3-4 times the price
vs a Model T or Latter the model A's...

Covers the Dodge Brothers (they died young)
they were heavily involved, designed & built most the early Fords
supplied the parts, that they had bought Ford's org. Company too
one of the co.'s became Cadillac
Henry Ford went broke org., 10 years before the Model T (Dodge Bros.)
& it went into GM with Walter B Chrysler at the helm too,
just to beat Ford... for far less pay
Lots of the hatred for Henry Ford & the Union etc.

Covered a bit of the Muscle Car era stuff with,
GM's Pontiac's John DeLorean Pontiac,
how he struggle to get performance past the bean counters
vs Ford's Lee Iacocca, the Mustang & Pony Car, before he was fired
& Lee Iacocca came over to Chrysler & came up with the Mini-Van...
That & the bail out, saved Chrysler...
Lee's hatred for Henry Ford & Hank II...
Was a driving force...

not really that much about Chrysler, but a good film,
most of it was about Ford & his family before & after WWII
IIRC 3 parts 9 (?) hrs total

worth seeing

Yup, we watched it...truly a great documentary!