KDX expo

This is a combination of many threads and posts on BBC around here:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/9529-kdx-expo-export-monaco/page__view__findpost__p__115340

We finally nailed down what was going on, and I attempt to summarize in a readable fashion here:

--------------------

The parts catalogs list several different parts as "k.d.x expo". It seems to be an export, but not to Canada, Mexico, or Europe. Maybe Japan?

The 74 parts catalog has no entries for "k.d.x", and I don't have a 75 catalog, so I'm not sure exactly when Dodge started exporting Monacos to K.D.X land.

Did you know that a 1977 Monaco has two types of cigarette lighters? K.D.X has its own woodgrain lighter, different than the USA lighter. Amazing. And K.D.X always had the "electronic clock" and not the standard analog clock. And it had a different instrument cluster bezel, and different bezel for the heated rear window switch.

---

TK826 writes back:

This site:

1935 Chrysler Airstream Series C-6 KDX Sedan (sold or no longer on the market) - PreWarCar
www.prewarcar.com/index.php?option=com_caradvert&view=ad&layout=history§ion_id=1&id=16137&Itemid=165

... talks about a 1935 Chrysler Airstream with a KDX designation, and mentions Italy and South America.

Someone else there mentions that export models (at least for that car) were classified as either CKD
(Completely Knocked Down) or KDX... but did not know what KDX stood for.


* By deductive reasoning, my guess is that it stands for "Knocked Down Export".

Edit:

Searching for "Knocked Down Export", I found this:

Quote
Complete knock down (CKD), is a complete kit needed to assemble a vehicle. It is a common practice among automakers, as well as bus and rail vehicle manufacturers, to sell knocked down kits to their foreign affiliates in order to avoid high import taxes and/or receive tax preferences for providing local employment.
An incomplete kit is known as SKD or Semi Knocked Down. Both types of KDs are collectively referred to within the auto industry as KDX or "Knocked-down export" , while cars assembled in the country of origin and exported whole to the destination market are known as BUX, or Built-Up Export.


I'm now thinking kdx parts are in fact the same, but in various stages of completeness.

----

I respond,
I think the kdx parts are different:

Here's the 1976 parts catalog on ammeters:


Notice the K.D.X export ammeter for Dodge:
w/Warning Signals - Inst. Gage, K.D.X. Exp. PN#3593499

Here's a picture of this ammeter

from here:
CTC Auto Ranch NOS Parts
www.ctcautoranch.com/NOS%20Parts/NOS%20Parts.htm

Anybody ever seen an ammeter gauge face like this?

and what a non-KDX expo 74-77 ammeter face looks like:



The 1977 Finnish ammeter is non-KDX expo (even though the speedo is different)



This page:
www.arizonaparts.com/partlist.txt
says that this part number corresponds to a 76-78 Chrysler. So there's strangeness afoot.

I see there's a different part number for a KDX fuel gauge, and here's a pic of one on e-bay:

It shows the same gauge face styling as the KDX expo ammeter.


Another info page:
Knock-down kit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock-down_kit

----

Then I noticed some Monacos for sale in Mexico looked different:

pic 1:



a) door opener lever?
b) door light on lower panel?
c) controls on door arm rest?
d) Monaco name on dash?

pic 2:



a) steering wheel
b) dash bezel

That dash bezel is the real clincher for me. Unlike the doors, this would be especially difficult / weird to customize something that looked so distinctly un-monaco-like.

and this one:


And TK826 posted this dash pic of a 76 Cordoba:



Now that I'm re-reading those old threads, I see that AZ Blues had earlier posted a pic of his Canadian '78 New Yorker Brougham 440 car in the speedo thread:



So then I started looking at different Mopar makes, and from here:
www.imperialclub.com/Yr/index.htm

found this pic of a 74 imperial:



and this pic of a 1976 New Yorker:



------

I got these pictures from the seller of a Monaco that I suspected was a "KDX expo" (car in Mexico)


Notice the 4th pic that shows it's "hecho en Mexico", so that fits the KDX exported "kit" concept.


A Monaco built in the USA for export has this sticker:



---------

TK found some more KDX expo Mexican Monacos:



------------

And then we noticed that some American monacos/furys had KDX expo steering wheels.

1977 Royal Monaco:



1977 Fury:



1978 Fury:



1977 Dodge Monaco brochure:



1977 Dodge Aspen brochure:



This 1977 Chrysler Newport has a KDX style dash, but with a non-KDX style wheel:



but this 1977 Newport has the KDX dash and KDX wheel:




and a pic of 1977 Aspen


from
waywardgarage.com/1242/dodge-aspen-converted-ble-wagon/

Notice how the Aspen has the same logo on the hornpad as the Mexican Monacos but different from the rocketship on the Fury hornpad.

----------------

TK826 then relayed the difference between:

Forward Look, Fratzog, and the emblem he believes was used on the Mexican KDX expo wheels:

> "Dodge" coat of arms
> Used from 1941-1960, and again from 1976 to 1982.
>
> Here is a page from the "The Dodge Family Association"
> (Which I believe is not affiliated with Dodge Motors)

www.dodgefamily.org/Coat_of_Arms.shtml

which has this pic:


--------------

Whew. Thanks TK for working through that mystery with me.