Some time ago, Son Number One paid a visit to a cousin of mine who lives near Savannah, Georgia USA, and while on a hike, discovered this 1940 Plymouth gently dissolving back into the red Georgia clay…
One of 55,092 Roadking 2-Door Sedans manufactured for the 1940 model year, our subject car is based on the Plymouth P9 chassis with a 117″ wheelbase. Interestingly, a commercial Utility Sedan version was offered, which was a rare (589 units produced for 1940) version of our subject car with no rear seat or trunk partition, giving ample space for a businessman’s samples. Differences between the Roadking and Deluxe trim levels included the dashboard, fender stampings, chrome trim, front grill and headlight bezels.
1939 Plymouths offered a column shifter on the Deluxe models (made standard on all models in 1940) and a “Safety Signal” speedometer changed colors based on the car’s speed. Other instruments had red warning lights to indicate problems. Sealed-beam headlights were introduced in 1940. These features led to an Eastern Safety Conference Award for Plymouth in both 1939 and 1940. Additionally, a dealer-installed “All Weather Air Control System” was introduced for 1940 that combined the heating and ventilation system to provide much better ventilation and air “conditioning” (chilled air was not a feature, however!).
Here’s a photo of a less-delapidated (Deluxe model) dash taken from the inter webs – note the way the gauges are clustered for easy viewing by the driver, and the redesigned bodies offered more leg and hip room than previous models. Material quality, fit and finish were all excellent, lending credence to the positioning of the car as the luxury model in the low-priced field. Plymouth would see a 40% increase in sales in 1940 from the previous year, and nearly took over the number two sales spot from Ford…
Plymouth was the last of the Chrysler Divisions to receive the new body styles introduced in 1939 – ’39 Plymouths were actually a clever restyle of the former body design. While the ’39 styling motifs were carried forward for 1940, the only common detail was the Mayflower sailing ship hood ornament. The somewhat long-in-tooth 201 c.i.d. (3.3l) straight six got a modest 2HP bump up to 84HP for 1940 and featured rubber mounts to minimize transmitted engine vibrations, marketed as “Floating Power.” In a move that I’m certain made sense on the drawing board but didn’t work out well in practice when changing a flat on a dark night with no flashlight, the wheel studs on the left side of the car had left-handed threads (ostensibly to prevent them backing off due to wheel rotation).
Walter P. Chrysler died at age 65 on August 18, 1940, marking the end of an era for Chrysler Corporation. With rumbles of war echoing in the headlines, automakers would soon be starting to convert over to military production. The 1940-41 Plymouths would be the last full years of pre-war production, and despite substantial engine and chassis changes for the short 1942 model year, it would be the 1940-41 body style that would come back as the post-war offering.
At first I thought this was similar to one of the main cars from October Sky, but nope. I got to look at one of these lovely Plymouths near Candor, NY about 10-15 years ago and it still had the circa WW2 Fuel Rationing Sticker. Not sure if I saw a similar Plymouths for sale in The Bronx and Denver since I just remember that generic PT Cruiser-like shape many cars from that era have. My grandparents drove a 37 Dodge from Long Island to the Navajo Nation and back in the late 1950s, but not sure how similar that car is to this Plymouth. Sometimes I do ponder driving my 03 Caravan into the woods when it has reached the end, draining the fluids, and watching the decades take their toll.
1939 was the last new civillian cars we got war was declared in September 39 and that put an end to new cars being available to the public, in the previous models I doubt we got 2door versions, Ive certainly not seen one.
For some unknown reason, two-door sedans were much less common among all the Chrysler Corporation brands in the 1930’s and 1940’s than they were for the GM and Ford brands. I remember how amazed I was when I first discovered that in looking over old production figures. Iirc the difference was made up in 4-door sedans.
Good question. I know that Plymouths were a bit more expensive than the other 2 back then, so I wonder if 2 door sedan buyers were more price-concious shoppers who stuck to the cheaper Chevy or Ford. Pure speculation.
You are very right about those infernal Mopar wheel studs. They kept those until at least my 1970 Sport Fury. I sheared one off and realised they must all be rusted solid. I relented and called AAA, (with much embarrassment- I swore I’d only use them for ‘major’ mechanical failures, not just a flat or dead battery.) The tech came over, grabbed the lug wrench and promptly removed the remaining nuts- righty loosey, of course, with a smug smile, saying that all Chryslers were like this.
Now, Ford and GM tend to be infuriating due to penny pinching cost cutting, but it takes ma Mopar to put so much thought and effort into a solution for which there was not a problem.
I wouldn’t say there was not a problem…there was not a problem for those who torqued the nuts properly. I have run across lots that were not.
MOPAR wasn’t the only company to have “sided” lug nuts on the ‘forward-rotation-will-tighten-them’ theory. My 71 Alfa Romeo has them…
Up to the oil shock of 73, the general impression was that Chrysler products were solidly engineered vehicles, if not as advanced as GM cars of their day (Yes, seriously). I think though that they had never really recovered their reputation from the rust and quality debacle of the late 50’s/early 60’s.
“Sided” lug nuts actually go back to wagon wheels – it wasn’t a new idea in 1940, and is still used today in some applications. I suspect it was done on Chrysler products more for the marketing angle than any actual safety benefit.
It was done until the early 70s when the engineer in charge of lug nuts actually retired. Then they were all the same and wheels did not fall off the cars. A former Chrysler employee told me the name of this individual years ago, but I no longer remember it.
This happens often in organizations, owing mainly to the level of influence of that particular individual.
I hope your son was able to retrieve that great looking trunk badge. The rear window has been lucky to survive all those years intact. The interior and dash really is well thought out and attractive. Even the steering wheel seems to have some consideration for safety with that large, flat and smooth center hub. Always liked the painted like wood interior treatment. Nice find.
Safety was definitely a consideration in the dashboard design. Notice how flat the panel is, with no protruding knobs, except where “protected” by the steering wheel.
I was amazed in checking out the ’39 Plymouth brochure on the oldcarbrochures site that so much space was devoted to describing in detail the build quality of the interior, engine, and chassis. Not at all like today’s brochures that are dominated by lots of flashy photographs and minimal technical descriptions.
Great shots. It reminds me of Aaron65’s article on the beauty of older industrial design, whether purely functional as in the glass chamber, or decorative as in that grille and those dashboard components. Seeing something like this evokes interesting emotions; part of me wishes to see this back on the road, another part wants to just let it be. It is majesterial in its fading glory like a long-lost city discovered within a jungle.
+1
The grilles of these prewar models are so much more elegant than the heavy-handed ones grafted onto the postwar models. I became aware of cars as a little tyke in the late 50s, and postwar models were the oldest cars on the road in the Pittsburgh area, where of course lots of road salt was used in the winter.
The Plymouth 4-door 6-window sedan became my prototypical “old car” when drawing cars in middle school. A boxy car with wavy side trim represented the mid-50s, and a ’63 or ’64 Chevy Impala was my stand-in for the modern car.
This brings back some ancient family memories. When my parents were married in 1946, they were driving my mother’s 1941 Plymouth coupe, which had soldiered through the war years, and kept on until 1949, when, having saved their pennies religiously, they finally traded it in on a second series 1949 Dodge Coronet. My mother often fondly recalled how that ’41 Plymouth had served them long and well, but like other young postwar families, having made do with the old prewar beater for so long, they were anxious to upgrade to the next higher rung of the automotive ladder. And this was in addition to having two little babies and a new modern tract house in west L.A. How they managed it on my father’s salary alone I can’t imagine, although they were so intent on having the top of the line Coronet, they even ordered it without a heater to make their tight budget. We live in a different world today.
You could apparently get by without a heater in southern California; my skinflint uncle in Solvang bought a new light gray 51 Chevrolet 4-door sedan with no options at all. He must have been seriously tired of his maroon 1937 LaSalle coupe.
Living in Los Angeles, there’s maybe a window of maybe eight weeks out of the year where you need to use the heater in the car. If you’re newly arrived from colder climates, you probably wouldn’t even use it that much until you’d been here long enough for your temperature tolerance to shift — hardcore Snow Belt denizens scoff at nighttime temperatures in the upper 30s (F).
The bigger problem without a heater would be keeping the windows clear. I think California actually mandated rear defoggers well before they became standard on new cars.
Fabulous find. The Chrysler Corporation under Walter Chrysler was a wondrous thing. Just think, only 12 years earlier, Plymouth was introduced by a moderately sized independent producer and in a dozen years, it was knocking on Ford’s door as a number 2 seller.
I love the interior styling of these late prewar Mopars. There is a delicate stylishness that stands apart from GM and Ford designs of the era. It’s too bad that the exteriors were not as memorable.
Nice photos!
With the advent of the new body for 1940 Plymouth dropped the rumble seat in the coupe and convertible body styles. The rumble seat had been around since the first cars back in 1928 but it was a “make due” accommodation for extra passengers, always cold and drafty and with no protection from the elements during foul weather.
To offset the loss of this passenger configuration, Plymouth engineers added a set of small, fold out-of-the way auxiliary seats to the rear of the coupe and called it the Club Coupe.