Hi guys. So I have a 63 dart wagon with an aftermarket key to the ignition/doors. I would like to know what the correct original ignition key blank is for this car.

I would have thought it was the early Pentastar-head key (the one with the key body which protrudes from the flat side of the pentastar), but I just got an original 63 Dart owners manual. In the manual, the keys they show for the ignition and trunk are the Forward Look emblems with the trapezoid-ish and round heads.

I'm not trying to answer my own question...I'm genuinely perplexed. My 64 dart sedan's original ignition key is a pentastar headed key with a forward look round headed trunk key.

Who knows definitively?

Thanks!

Evan

The Pentastar was adopted as Chrysler's new corporate logo in the middle of the 1963 model year. There is a 1963 TSB giving dealers the part numbers and installation instructions for the passenger-side Pentastar emblem on '63 vehicles that didn't come from the factory that way. Early '63 keys were the same as '62 keys: Aluminum with the Forward Look logo on them. Round head for trunk, trapezoid for ignition and doors. Later '63 and early '64 keys had the same shape, but were now made out of plated brass and had the pentastar and "CHRYSLER Corporation" stamped into the trapezoidal head:



The key you describe, with the shank coming out of one of the flat sides of the pentagon and the ringhole added onto one of the pentagon's points, was a mid-'64 introduction and lasted through '67. For '68, the pentagon was turned 180° to make the common Y152 blank (with the shank out of one of the pentagon's points and the ringhole added to one of the flats). That blank lasted through to the end of single-bit keys in '89 (trucks and vans maybe a little later).

Thanks Dan. That helps me a bunch.

So is there any way to tell which key my car came with? Or would I just be making an educated guess? My 63 Dart wagon has the small pentastar emblem on the right lower quarter fender.

That makes me ask another question. The tailgate key I have is an octagonal small-headed brass key. Any markings or platings on it have worn off (can't tell if it's original). What would it have been originally, do you know?

Thanks again.

You could make an educated guess by the car's production date, which you can get by sending your pre-1968 car's VIN and $45 to

DaimlerChrysler
Corporate Historical Collection
One Chrysler Drive
CIMS 488-00-00
Auburn Hills, MI 48326
Attn: Historical Information

You'll receive by return mail a photocopy of your car's build record, showing when and where it was built, with what equipment, etc.

The 8-sided key is a real oldie, that was used prior to the trapezoid-with-forward-look key. Originals had the

DP
CD

logo on the head (this logo is found on many, many Chrysler Corp parts, and stands for Dodge-Plymouth-Chrysler-DeSoto. It was used long after DeSoto ceased to exist.). That key, though, was used up through '61 in some applications, and its shank is interchangeable with later head designs, so it's entirely plausible for some previous owner to have received such a key at a hardware store or locksmith's upon asking for a duplicate of a key with another head shape.

I've had good results and fair prices for NOS key blanks of most of the types we've discussed here from

Douglas Vogel
PO Box 335 / 4779 Meadow Lark Ln
Dexter, MI 48130
734-424-9336

He also sells automotive literature.