Pentastar emblem

[jay t.]

Was this emblem installed mid year. My 63 wagon doesn't have one. The car has been repainted at some point,so maybe someone took it off and filled the holes or it's an early production car. Thanks......Jay

 

[mopargeek]

Jt, Not sure when emblem was used . My 64 ply has one on right fender but curious not on left? I have seen this before on a couple other cars but not sure why? Looked through manual could not fit any info!

 

[Photon440]

You won't find them on the left unless someone accidentally put it there by mistake. Ma Mopar only put them on the passenger side.

 

[khryslerkid]

They did start installing them on the lower right fender in 1963. I don't know if it was mid year or not.

 

[patrick66]

The reason Mopar installed only ONE Pentastar on cars and trucks, a practice that began with the 1963 model year, was so that a pedestrian on a sidewalk would be able to see that Pentastar and recognize that that car or truck was a Chrysler Corporation product. My understanding is that the practice started with the very first 1963 cars and trucks off the line. Chrysler adopted the Pentastar as the official corporate insignia/emblem in mid-1962, at about the time the first 1963 cars and trucks rolled off the line. They used the new insignia immediately as a way to gain recognition of the new identity. Your car may have had a replacement fender attached at some time in the past, or a bodyman have have repaired the existing fender and simply removed the emblem and filled the two attachment holes.

 

[Blackheart]

I was lucky enough to find a NOS metal pentastar to go back on my 63 Fury RF fender after paint..easy to find the cheap plastic ones..

 

[Black HP2]

I was lucky enough to find a NOS metal pentastar to go back on my 63 Fury RF fender after paint..easy to find the cheap plastic ones..

They just put them on what I call the town side

 

[jay t.]

The Pentastar started showing up in ads with the 1963 model year; after initial production started, it was placed behind the right front wheel on 1963 model-year cars. Charlie Pfefferkorn, whose family owned Spaulding’s Garage (a DeSoto-Plymouth dealer and then a Chrysler-Plymouth shop) said that dealers were sent a Pentastar medallion kit for each 1963 car they had received before the factory started installing them. Spaudling’s Garage, and probably many other dealers, didn’t install them on cars they had already sold — Charlie said it would have been absurd to call customers and tell them they needed to bring their cars in for a bit of trim Chrysler had forgotten. The original Pentastars, incidentally, came with not one but two grips — the second, smaller pin was not just for location but also for extra grip (as shown in the photos.)

- - - Updated - - -

The Pentastar started showing up in ads with the 1963 model year; after initial production started, it was placed behind the right front wheel on 1963 model-year cars. Charlie Pfefferkorn, whose family owned Spaulding’s Garage (a DeSoto-Plymouth dealer and then a Chrysler-Plymouth shop) said that dealers were sent a Pentastar medallion kit for each 1963 car they had received before the factory started installing them. Spaudling’s Garage, and probably many other dealers, didn’t install them on cars they had already sold — Charlie said it would have been absurd to call customers and tell them they needed to bring their cars in for a bit of trim Chrysler had forgotten. The original Pentastars, incidentally, came with not one but two grips — the second, smaller pin was not just for location but also for extra grip (as shown in the photos.)

Did some googling and found this info. Thanks for all your replies

 

[Shorthorse]

They just put them on what I call the town side

That's a good one. Many, many years ago we had a local drive-in called Jerry's Drive-in. Everybody backed into the outer perimeter spots so you could see the cars going by. The traffic always went counter-clockwise. So the passenger side was always referred to as the the Jerry's side.

 

[Anselmi]

According to the Service Bulletin No. 63-92, the Pentastar was introduced "approximately" on February 5, 1963.

 

[Bull1tt]

Seems to have started to replace the DPCD branding, since Desoto was done.

One of the most prominent things Lynn Townsend did was to change the appearance of Chrysler, starting with its logo. In 1962 he decided the company needed a new symbol to represent all of the Corporation’s brands, one that would have strong, classic look that would be instantly recognizable.
Mr. Townsend was reportedly bothered by the fact that there was no corporate identity program that made the Chrysler dealerships stand out; he instigated the search for a new logo, and the Pentastar was chosen as the new Chrysler logo. In 1963, the Pentastar logo began appearing on the right front fender of Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth vehicles (or on the left front fender in right-hand drive markets such as Britain and Australia). The curb side.

 

[GetX'd]

I always used to wonder why my GTX only had one penstar - on the right side. Now I have the real scoop. Glad I never put one on the left side.

Thx for the good bit of historical info.

 

[early2drsedan]

I had a 1963 dodge 330 max car . that was built in nov . 62 had no pentastar it had never been painted and no sheet metal replaced

 

[patrick66]

See Post #10 above.^^^

 

[BBishere2]

The story I read somewhere said that the Pentastar was put on the right side of the car so when you passed someone on the road, they knew it was a Chrysler product passing them.