Aero Warriors - A Few Creative Thoughts

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A Few Creative Thoughts
By Ken R. Noffsinger

History

In 1969 Chrysler was producing hundreds of cars a day in its factories across North America. Mass production on this scale thrived on as little variation in the assembly process as possible. The more variation, the more cost, and more cost (without good reason) was not what the car buying public or the company stock holders were looking for.

Yet another shipment of Daytonas being readied to leave Creative Industries. Where was this photo taken? Read on!

Enter some well-reasoned variation, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, one of the final shots fired by Chrysler in the NASCAR Aero Wars. Although the Daytona's roots were firmly planted in the mass produced Charger line, the plethora of special parts and processes necessary to transform common Chargers into Daytonas was enough to throw Chrysler's Hamtramck assembly line into seizures. Hence the decision was made by Chrysler to divorce portions of the Daytona's assembly from the main line by transporting the cars to another facility owned by Creative Industries of Detroit.

Creative Industries began business in 1950, and for the next several decades it handled specialty work for a number of auto makers, amassing an impressive resume of projects that included the Dodge Charger Daytona conversion. Creative Industries also did conversion work on the Daytona's predecessor, the Charger 500, and would go on to produce many of the special parts used on the Plymouth SuperBird.

In 1986, 50% of Creative Industries was purchased by Masco Tech. Five years later, Masco Tech purchased the remaining 50% interest.

Photos

Fortunately, at some point during the Charger conversion work, a Creative Industries employee must have taken a number of photographs. These photos are the remarkable black and white ones showcased here. They are made available through the courtesy of Greg Kwiatkowski, who counts them among the many rare and unusual documents in his Chrysler memorabilia collection.

The Rest Of The Story

While conducting research to prepare the history portion of this page, the author located a Detroit area address (3080 East Outer Drive) for Creative Industries. When contacted about whether this could be the location seen in the black and white photos, Greg Kwiatkowski was adamant that it was not. Greg understood from a conversation several years ago with fellow Chrysler employee Igor Gronowicz that the conversions were accomplished somewhere around the 10 Mile Road area just outside of Detroit, but he had never investigated further. Soon after this discussion with the author, and armed with a full tank of gas, the black and white photos, a camera and lots of patience, Greg went looking for the exact location where the Daytonas began life. And he found it!

All photos on this page courtesy of Greg Kwiatkowski.
Click on a photo to view the full-size version.

It is not known how many different buildings were used by Creative Industries during the 30+ years they were in business, but two have been located and documented here. All color photos shown on this page were taken recently, and with the exception of the one at left, all were taken in the immediate vicinity of 17630 East 10 Mile Road.

LEFT: The facility seen in this photo is located at 3080 East Outer Drive in Detroit. This address for Creative Industries was found in a winged car club newsletter published in the 1970's. Club members were given this address and urged to contact Creative Industries about tooling up for another run of Daytona parts and pieces. Some may have assumed from this that the Charger conversions were done at this address - they were not. Habitat for Humanity - Detroit now calls this complex home.

RIGHT:The common Charger to Daytona conversion work was in fact conducted at 17630 East 10 Mile Road in Eastpointe, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). This is a view of the front of the building at that address. NU-AD Printing and Advertising now conducts business where finished Daytonas first saw the light of day.

LEFT: It's the Spring of 1969 near the corner of East 10 Mile Road and Tuscany Street in Eastpointe, Michigan. Newly minted Charger Daytonas are beginning their journey to various Chrysler dealerships throughout the U.S. and Canada.

RIGHT: A shot taken catty-cornered from where the car hauler was most likely parked in the photo at left.

LEFT: What is this Daytona missing? Cars couldn't be loaded on haulers wearing spoilers; they hung too low and would be damaged. The spoiler was stored in the trunk until it could be installed at the dealership. Also, notice the windows in the house seen in the lower left hand corner of the photo, and the right portion of the brick building just barely visible in the lower center of the photo.

RIGHT: This recent photo shows the same window arrangement on the house, and the bricks on the building to the right of the house appear the same as those in the black and white photo at left.

LEFT: People are probably still talking about the time they were driving down the highway and a truck load of Daytonas like this rolled by. A very radical site even for the very radical 1960's! Take note of the house and multi-armed electric/phone pole somewhat obscured behind the rear of the hauler.

RIGHT: Looking to the center of this photo, it is obvious that the unique lines of the house and the configuration of the pole match remarkably well with those in the black and white at left.


LEFT AND CENTER: This is Creative Industries' version of bumper to bumper (or is that no-bumper to bumper?) traffic in Detroit. Chargers chosen for conversion into Daytonas were originally slated to become Charger R/T's. Notice that the cars have numbers (such as 388) as well as other information on their windshields. And as can be seen here on one yet-to-be converted Charger, they arrived at Creative Industries without grilles. RIGHT: This is the view today of the lot where the pictures at left and center were likely taken. It seems reasonable to conclude that the Daytonas' photographer was standing on the roof of the building for these especially unusual black and white shots.