(first posted 4/23/2014) The first truly warm day after a harsh winter brought out a fair number of Bloomington’s classic cars a few weeks ago and the tall, narrow and round proportions of this P15 Plymouth made it impossible to ignore. At sixty-seven years old, it falls somewhat outside our purview at CC, but it’d be wrong not to share it with you. It’s an excellent example of very early post-war automotive design and benefits from its restorers’ great attention to detail.
It also photographs very nicely, as you can see here. A fairly basic, everyday car, the 1946-1948 Plymouths displayed a watered-down Streamline Moderne influence, with nothing to alienate traditional buyers who were offended by such cars as the Chrysler Airflow. And while it seems odd to compare this ’47 Plymouth to a car which shocked the public’s sensibilities thirteen years earlier, try and think of it as a 1942, since the war interrupted the majority of design and development for about four years (in fact, production began winding down well before December of 1941). If anything, the minor trim differences of the first post-war models showed an even more conservative sensibility compared to the earlier, more expressively styled grilles seen on the 1939-1941 models.
It worked, though, with Plymouth remaining among the top-three marques in terms of sales volume. The basic body dated back to 1940, and through its first and second seasons, the line-up seriously challenged Ford for second place in sales. That was no longer the case after the war, but the increased production had workers smiling nonetheless.
Behind those gleaming slats, a 217.8 CID six made all of 95 gross horsepower, using a depressingly low 6.6:1 compression ratio. But, unless one was truly used to a fast car, this must have been satisfying enough and the mandatory three-speed made the most of what was there. It wouldn’t be until 1955 that Plymouth would get a V8 engine.
Even with the flathead six, there were a number of other mechanical features which made these cars more advanced than some low-priced competition. An open driveshaft, a rigid frame and a suspension which placed the rear passengers ahead of the axle marked a few of these distinctions, and help explain Chrysler’s early reputation as an engineering-led company.
Don’t get the idea that these cars were conceived without a concern for flair or beauty. That dashboard is an especially gorgeous piece and uniquely angular, compared with Ford’s and Chevy’s very similar, rounded layouts. This photo is not of the featured car, but is necessary to properly show off the beautiful integration of the radio and the clock. I’m generally ambivalent about Art Deco, but this dashboard does a lot for me.
I don’t know how easily cars were totaled in those days, but a morbid curiosity leads me to wonder if anyone ever bloodied themselves on one of these chromed speaker grate in a low-speed collision, only to hear a tooth rattling somewhere inside the dashboard when they got their car back after the ensuring minor repair. That sort of issue would’ve been in no way unique to Plymouth, but it’s interesting to note that Chrysler later lead the way with padded interior surfaces.
Better to focus on a less macabre aspect of design, like this gorgeous third taillight integrated into the license plate trim, a nice preview of the increasingly complex plastic moldings that were quickly becoming popular across all industries. This is one of the more extravagant pieces on the exterior, quite different in spirit from the flamboyant cars which followed a decade later.
Whether we focus on that third taillight, the dash, the hood ornament or even these wheels, what decoration is present hints at the quality which made these cars famous. And that only added to the disappointment which characterized the release of the 1957 cars, which in their well-known attempt to atone for their maker’s dowdiness also did away with their reputation for toughness.
Luckily, the same flat-head six which exhales through this exhaust pipe carried through until 1959 with boosts in compression and other minor refinements to keep power output competitive. The slant-six which replaced it is known for its durability, but the engine in this car was even more so, lasting through the late ’60s in military applications. It’s a fitting power plant for a car known for its strength even more than its plainness, and in that sense, this Plymouth is reminiscent of a contemporary Volvo, even though those cars are widely known for aping Ford’s styling.
The yellow rims add a jaunty touch to the otherwise somber color scheme, but manage to avoid looking tacky. Considering the enormous sacrifice Chrysler made to the war effort, Plymouth should be commended for finishing this basic model so lovingly. Despite making more tanks than any competitors in both World War II and The Korean War, Highland Park was hamstrung by its obligations to the military, receiving smaller allocations of steel for car production than even Kaiser-Frazer.
Getting back into the game of automobile manufacture happened later than it did for other makers and, during the abbreviated 1945 model year, Plymouth ranked twelfth in sales volume. Sales quickly recovered because of the massive seller’s market that existed, but to Plymouth’s credit, the first postwar cars were durable and well-engineered. The brand quickly dropped to fifth place by the mid ’50s, since the no-holds-barred approach to practicality became stale, forming another part of the yo-yo trajectory that typifies the Mopar experience. That makes this P15 one of the final moments of sanity for the company.
Related reading: 1949 Dodge Special DeLuxe, 1950 Plymouth P18 Deluxe, 1941 Dodge Business Coupe
Neat !
I thought it looked familiar, but it turned out to be a 1949 Plymouth Coupe De Luxe.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_5972-Plymouth-Special-De-Luxe-P-18-1949.html
These were very good cars good handling cars and if you didn’t beat on them they can last for a long time they were known for having valves that would burn out but it was easy engine to repair the reason you don’t see many around now is they were all driven into the ground and recycled into Toyota’s LOL it definitely is a modern old car that kept that basic style and driveline well into the 80s Mopar or no car! Jerry@autorust.com
An absolutely gorgeous car Perry. So glad you decided to do a write up on the 47 Plymouth. Was my fathers first car in 1950, too bad he didn’t hang on to it. I’m still on the hunt for one such as this to go along with my 56 Dodge Regent.
A work buddy of mine 25 years ago had a ’46 Plymouth sedan, and we went to lunch in it one day. It remains the oldest car I’ve ridden in. Actually, a whole bunch of us went to lunch in the Plymouth that day. The back seat area was enormous — set waaaaaay back from the front seat. Your head was actually next to the “sixth” window, not the door window. That was the most rear-seat legroom I ever had — I could stick my legs out all the way and still not touch the front seat!
Acceleration was flaccid and handling was marshmallowy. That car wallowed like nothing I’ve ever ridden in since.
Want! Chevrolets were prettier and Fords were faster, but these Plymouths were the best cars in their class. A 1946-48 Mopar remains on my bucket list. Although the larger cars with the Fluid Drive have some attraction to me, there is a beautiful simplicity in this Plymouth that really appeals to me.
It is one of the enduring mysteries of life how in ten years, Chrysler could go from cars like this, that really had no weaknesses, to the awful 1957 models. I guess the answer is that in 1947, the spirit of Walter Chrysler had not yet completely seeped out of the building. Because he was sure as hell gone by 1957.
I believe that the light on the trunklid is the brake light. I don’t believe that the taillights doubled as brake lights on these cars. Perry, you have ruined my day with this, I don’t think I will be able to get a lick of serious work done today because I will have this car on my mind instead. 🙁
The secret behind how Chrysler trashed its reputation? They tried to follow what the buying public wanted.
The late 40’s cars were sensible, well-built, conservative, reliable . . . . . . everything that the average car buyer was more than happy to claim that’s what they wanted. Then, in the early 50’s, General Motors came out with a full line of cars that were flashier, faster. OK, so they weren’t quite a well built, but close enough. They buying public went for looks and style. Yeah, they’d SAY they wanted sensible, but in realiy they wanted flash – even though it wasn’t considered proper to admit it.
And Chrysler fell behind on features. In practical terms, Fluid-Drive was every bit as good as a full automatic in daily use, but it still had three pedals and it didn’t come off as the newest and the greatest (flashiest). And, OHV V-8’s certainly weren’t necessary for travel. The flathead sixes and straight-eights were quite sufficient for the job. But it wasn’t the newest and the flashiest.
And what you ended up with was a line of cars that could best be compared to the later reputation of a 1990’s Buick – only stodgier. Sales tumbled. Plymouth got hurt the worst because it was outrun by Chevrolet and Ford, out-handled by the Studebaker Champion, and didn’t even offer Fluid Drive. The the plain old three-on-the-tree was all that was available until late 1953 (effectively, the 1954 models). Keep in mind that the 1955 Plymouth was originally supposed to be just a minor refresh on the 53-54, but the sales disaster of those two years (and 53 wasn’t good) motivated them to letting Exner run with the designs.
The big mistake? Trying not only to catch up (which they did, quite nicely, with the ’55’s and ’56’s, still some of the more attractive ’50’s cars made) but jump ahead. So they rushed out the ’57’s a year too early.
I really believe that Chrysler would have done a bit better by one more year on the 55-56 bodies, then bring out the Forward Look for 1958 with enough development time to smooth out the rough edges. Look at everything GM and Ford offered for ’57 and ’58, and the ’57’s held back a year would have still caught them flat-footed. Just look at all the ’58’s together (since there’s the most minimal amount of change possible between the two Chrysler years).
Somebody decided to take a chance – and made one hell of a mistake.
Excellent comment – and difficult to argue that your conclusion is anything but correct.
I heard another story, then for the design, it was K.T Keller’s decisions also played a role; as he mentionned to the Detroit Free Press from what I read on Hemmings: “I have seen the error of my ways. Christ, we can’t afford another mistake.”
If Plymouth had a V8 earlier or having their old flathead 6 replaced by an OHV 6 earlier or chosen some alternate designs for 1949 like this one http://public.fotki.com/mrjynx/plymouth/plymouth-clay-prototypes/1949plymouthcreated.html things might had been different.
Cars back then were made before the word “Style”was introduced in 1957. As a small kid my eyes practically popped out of there sockets. The Plymouth Fury. The beautiful Desoto with its aerodynamic sweeping lines. The Chrysler and the 57 line up of Fords! And that beautiful Retractable hardtop that stole my heart. I wish the automakers could bring back style and beauty back into cars again. At least a choice of interrior colors except black or grey. Or a tu tone. Black and grey. Yuk.
I knew that car looked familiar! Here it is ca. 2008:
Now this is a car I would be proud to own! Love it, love it, love it!
The “third tail light” is a brake light, as the tail lights didn’t have twin filaments in the bulbs. A friend and I referred to them as “Butt Lights”.
My goodness, I still miss Plymouth…
I’ve always liked the 1946 – 1948 Plymouth for a couple of reasons. One, I was born in 1946. Two, their good looking cars. Three, we had a 47 when I was just a little squirt. Four, I have a 46 waiting its turn in the shop.
Maybe that’s my problem. Born in 43, I think a 46 hits smack dab in the middle of the CC purview. Some later classics are just used cars to me. This is a great find. Plymouths of that era ran well and lasted a long time as I recall. They filled a niche.
I ran a 46-48 Dodge business coupe that still was sitting in Iola Texas the last time I went through. JPC if that bucket list is burning bad I can check to see if it’s still there. Not familiar enough with the area to let Google Earth do the job.
I owned one of these cars briefly, a 1949 first series dark blue 4-door sedan that sat apparently abandoned next to the house kiddy-corner from us in Corvallis, Oregon in 1962. I ran the plate, wrote to the owner’s Colorado address, and he replied that he would be in town the next weekend. I ended up getting the car for $65. Someone had helped themselves to the battery, so I picked up a cheap one, gave the Plymouth a tow to get the clutch unstuck, and presto, I had a nice, driveable, cheap car. Its only problem was that the hood was slightly pushed in on the top so that rainwater would leak through the seam and collect on top of the engine.
So what did I do but wash it, clean up the interior, and put an ad in the paper for it for $125. A farmer from just north of town came and looked at it, talked me down to $100, and we concluded the deal. When he was ready to depart, the lights wouldn’t come on, a problem I hadn’t had. “Ah, don’t worry about it,” he said, and drove off.
That car, and the other old cars I fooled around with during my first year of graduate school in chemistry, helped me to realize that I wasn’t meant to spend my entire life in either the laboratory or the chemistry library, so I left graduate school and started a career as an analytical chemist.
To my knowledge, my dad was a Chrysler Corp owner only once in his life. When he came home from WWII he bought this 1940 DeSoto convertible. I think it demonstrates that Chrysler was still building some pretty sleek cars post-Airflow.
These Plymouths (and similar Chrysler products of the period) must have been pretty tough cars as many were still around when I was growing up in the 1950’s. They belonged to grandparents who had bought them new and workers and teens who bought them cheap used to commute to the factory during the week and go hunting and fishing on the week-end.
No disrespect intended for the cars or the people who love them but I have to be honest and say that as a kid they seemed so old-fashioned to me and my friends. We were ready for mid-century modern and were swooning over Exner’s new 55’s and thought these tall, sluggish old heaps should be retired like most of their owners. My cousin worked for a Chrysler dealership and was bringing home turquoise and black 55 Plymouths with Hollywood mufflers and three-tone Dodges with Ram Hemi engines – these cars were the future in the present.
I do admit some affection for the Chrysler Corp business coupes with their long trunks (an elderly relative had one and as tykes we got to ride in that space behind the front seat) and the 42 DeSotos with the cool hidden headlights.
I really don’t feel like the Forward Look cars of the ’50s really expressed mid-century modernism like those of the early-to-mid ’60s. Cars like the ’61 Continental and ’61-’64 GM full-sizers were much more restrained than Mopar’s ’57s or any of the be-chromed toasters from Ford and GM during the mid ’50s. I can’t speak for the ’49-’54 Mopars, but the immediate post-war cars from all the big three had an Art Deco influence which was a lot more interesting to me than the flashy car which followed.
I’m not terribly educated when it comes to design-eras, but I see a lot more Googie influence in the Forward look and other mid-late ’50s designs than the restrained linearity popularly associated with mid-century modernism, and in that sense, I like the featured car’s late ’30s look a lot more.
If anyone knows a ton about design history, feel free to school me.
History rather than design is my thing, and I think you’re slicing the salami thinner than I was in attempting to express what Exner’s 55’s meant to the kid on the curb in the context of the time: at least the beginning of something mid-century “modern” if not Mid-Century Modern as is known today. A 58 Thunderbird would be a better fit under the carport of a William Krisel home (and indeed it is the car he drove at the time), but in the fall of 54 the 55 Plymouth was a revelation compared to the 46 or 49 or 54.
Exner was capturing the optimism and exuberance of the times with lower, sleeker styling and bold colors. For me, his later 50’s cars became victims of various forms of excess (as did cars from GM) that destroyed some of their “modern” feel. Sobered by Sputnik in 57, the recession of 58, and the U-2 incident and failed East-West Summit in 1960, the country was ready for the more restrained design language of the 61 Lincoln Continental and Cadillac and weary of Exner and leery of his last gasp, unrestrained Imperial. For the next six or seven years the cars coming out of Detroit were way more to my liking than those of the 50s.
Nice précis, CA Guy. Especially on the transition from optimism to sobriety. I wasn’t there, but this is how I’ve read it. Mid century modern is equally applicable to the way out curves of the Saarinen TWA Terminal as it is to the rigidly linear Wilder House by Eames.
I can easily agree with your points, CA Guy, these cars still existed in significant numbers through the mid-50’s at least, they were all around our West L.A. neighborhood, and including in our own garage. They were built like tanks, reliable to a fault, and seemingly lasted forever. One neighbor had a ’49 Plymouth, two others had ’48 Dodges, and my folks had a new series ’49 Dodge. My grandmother, who had driven her ’41 Chrysler religiously all through the war and postwar years, got a new series ’49 DeSoto. All of these were still extant through about 1955-57. But by the time my father upgraded our family into our ’55 Oldsmobile, these late 40’s cars were positively ancient in my young mind, and I was so embarrassed among my peers to be seen in that stodgy old very uncool Dodge. We were so ready for “mid-century modern design” (except nobody called it that back then, that is a moniker that has taken root only in more contemporary times), the Chrysler Forward Look and the ’57 Ford/Mercury/Lincoln look were widely accepted and eagerly acclaimed as the space age dawned. Even my 70-year old grandmother jumped on the bandwagon when she traded that ’49 DeSoto in for a ’56 two-tone DeSoto Firedome. When the neighbors with the ’48 Dodge suddenly swooped up our hill in a sleek new ’57 red and white two-tone Dodge Coronet, we all ran next door and oohed and awed over it. Well put, these new designs were literally the future brought into the present for us, and exciting times they were.
Don, my great aunt and uncle traded in a mint, black (with grey mohair interior) 49 DeSoto four-door sedan for a new, two-tone baby blue and white (with what I recall as white vinyl and blue woven cloth interior) 55 DeSoto Firedome two-door hardtop. I immediately thought of them as years younger and really with it. And they didn’t have the pushbuttons for the Powerflite, as did your grandmother! Same situation with my aunt going from a 53 Nash Statesman to a new 55 Oldsmobile four-door hardtop (two-tone black and yellow, no less!). I rode proudly with her everywhere in that car. 55 was a watershed year in so many ways.
The Plymouth was always my favourite of the cars of the era since it represented such a good design. When Ford had overheating V-8’s and Chevy splash-oiling Stovebolts, the Plymouth had full pressure lubrication. Plymouth was also first with hydraulic brakes.
Syke, as usual, makes excellent points. The 50’s were a unique era where frugality went out the window, although nobody wanted to admit it. The car buying public was young and wanted flash. This continued right until the 1970’s, when the boomers got old enough to want a sensible ride again.
I have driven a few of these cars and they are not short of power. Keeping up with modern traffic, and stopping with it, is not a problem. The flathead makes excellent torque so once underway, there isn’t a lot of shifting. Were they safe? No way, they were not. No seat belts and not a single concession to safety. Death rates were way higher than today.
Fluid drive gets a bum-rap, too. It is, in my opinion, better than Powerglide and Fordomatic in their earlier iterations that had to be manually shifted. It works amazingly well. In town, just leave it in second gear. There is more than enough torque to get you smartly away from stop lights.
Thanks for featuring this car! I became aware of the wonderful world of cars in the late 50s as a little tyke, so “old” cars like these were the earliest ones still regularly plying the roads of Pittsburgh back then. WWII was a convenient break point for me. My uncle had a Dodge 4-door of this vintage, bought used.
When I was a little kid, I had a friend whose grandma had a ’47 Plymouth 4-door. She could no longer drive, so it was parked in a shed next to their barn. I was fascinated by the little details like the starter button and the rear suicide doors. The car seemed like such a dinosaur, but it was just over 20 years old at the time. He’d steal the keys and we’d listen to the vacuum-tube radio (his dad kept the battery charged). Thanks for bringing back a fun memory.
This is what I absolutely LOVE about this site. For 99% of the population this would be just another old car. The variety and depth of the comments it has so far generated here makes me feel at home.
Agreed.
This car is a little before even my time, but I remember seeing some around as I was growing up. Sad to say, Chrysler products before the mid-1950’s were seen as irredeemably frumpy and undesirable by all of us smart-ass kids at the time. They seemed to be driven only by somewhat doddery men with large hats, wide ties, and trousers hitched up around their armpits. We were wrong, and beg forgiveness!
Very handsome car. Having owned some CC’s, and having lived with some other cars indirectly for so many years, something like this strikes me as very interesting to have. Mostly gone from the road by the time I became aware of cars in the late ’60s, these have a newness to me.
Summer 1956… I’m at the beach for the day with my Aunt and friends with a picnic lunch. After five or more hours of surf, sand and sand castles we youngin’s are exhausted, but of course don’t know better. It’s time to leave and we are off to my Aunt’s battleship grey 49 Plymouth for the trip home. After a quick walk in the burning sand squealing “ouch-ouch” the entire way, we all pile into the back of the car. It starts right up with the familiar drone of the I6 flathead. The seats are warm but comfortable being wool. No vinyl burns in this era. Slowly we move on across the wooden Duxbury Beach bridge towards Sung Harbor, the tires thumping against the planks of the wood. With the combination of the I6 drone and the thumping planks all of us fall asleep and pass through Snug Harbor sound asleep.
Thanks for the memories when it wasn’t about going nowhere fast, but everywhere slow. I feel fortunate to have had that experience and era…. I can’t imagine being a kid today.
That’s what this site is for me in part… it’s the whole experience not just the car that makes them great.
Great memory–thanks for sharing!
Nice find! Personally, I like the ’40-’41 Plymouths the best. That would be my pick for a street rod or rat rod. Any bodystyle except a convertible would do me just fine!
@twalton: You need to keep writing – that was fantastic. Also, my Dad, who – at 76, continues to be a hunter-gatherer where cars are concerned – brought home a ’48 Plymouth 2 door sedan home in 1974, or so. We got it running, and he drove it around on weekends for a bit, before selling it on. I vividly recall the thing being very solidly built, and slow and steady as a driver. Presently, he sold it, and bought something else – but I still fondly recall that hulking old Plymouth.
Those yellow wheels combined with the red Plymouth ship on the caps are perfection!
Beautiful car built before my time but growing up I saw plenty of pre and immediate post war cars being used, 30s models were still common in the 70s in NZ such was the shortage of supply of new cars old cars were kept in running order well past their scrap by date a bit like Cuba but without an embargo.
I have a 1939 plymouth p8 4dr for sale
I have a Plymouth my title says it a 1938 but it has a 1939 front end did they make late 38 with a 39 front end on them
I became pretty familiar with these cars as a young child because there were many in my family. My immediate family had a cream color 1941 Dodge that I don’t recall much about as I was under 4 years old when we had it. It was traded for a new 49 Kaiser in 1949 but my grandfather had a very pretty 1947 deep baby blue Dodge 4 dr sedan that I admired greatly – particularly the spiffy dashboard. Actually, his 47 Dodge was traded for a 1949 Mercury that even at 4 years old I realized was some car. My 17 year old uncle put glass packs on it and was I ever impressed! Another uncle who was a Chrysler mechanic his entire career owned a 48 white Desoto 2 dr sedan and I can still hear the pleasant whine of the fluid drive taking off and the bouncing clutch pedal that went “ba,ba,ba, ba”. My mom’s next younger sister bought a used 48 Desoto 4 dr as her first car about 1953 and it was a beauty, white exterior with contrasting navy blue interior that looked much richer than a Plymouth interior, a bit richer than Dodge but not quite up to Chrysler. Somehow they made those cars match the price points. I drove that Desoto down the driveway nearly taking out my dad’s new garage at 8 years old when I started the car for her but didn’t know to push in the clutch. The car was in gear and took right off! There was Aunt Hazel hopping along on one foot with her right leg in the car trying to hit the brake. Fortunately she did hit the brake pedal. Up the street my best friend’s family had a grey 1948 Plymouth 4 dr sedan and I was invited along for many a Sunday afternoon ride in that vehicle. I remember it as being comfortable but not particularly exciting. In 1954 they traded the Plymouth for a used 1950 Chrysler Windsor in baby blue. All the neighborhood kids thought that was a fine car except for the Ford fans in the neighborhood. I certainly agree that Chysler really built some fine cars in the forties and some not so fine but quite exciting cars in the fifties. Over the years I have owned a few Chryslers but remember most fondly my 1970 New Yorker and my 1977 New Yorker, both 4 dr hardtops.
I stumbled across this site while researching Tri5 chevies, and over time have been researching the cars of my ancestors …
I notice that many here often refer to their parents and/or others in the generation(s) before them. I’m a late stage boomer–back then I could tell the year make and model; since the termed malaise era, they all start looking alike, and I can’t tell a model year from another on many until the get a refresh. The cars of ‘the greatest generation’ still seem the best to me.
My dad was a Navy pilot during the 1960s. When we lived in Rhode Island, at the time mom was driving a ’63 Ford Ranch wagon (which rusted to death by 1969). Dad went out and got himself a beater vehicle to go to the base–he brought home a ’48 Plymouth 4dr. dark (faded) blue. The back seat was cavernous. Being all of 6 years old, it was a cool car because I didn’t see many like it. (Pop later got a 1959 MGA convertible (“with the 1962 tailights” he would add) that spent most of its time on the battery charger or in the motor pool shop). I did not think of it as uncool in 1965. I remember tying a flag on the antennae that eventually wore down to a ribbon. (Antenna was on the right front fender–not seen on this car). Mom could drive it, too. Dad bought it from one officer and when we moved again in 1966, he sold it to another incoming officer on base. Seems this was commonplace. That Plymouth was easily the oldest car we had in the family. I don’t recall seeing any rust, and the seats were in good shape.
I didn’t see it, but dad’s car had this popup intake vent atop the firewall in front of the front window between the wipers. Most cars I see a grate there. Was there a cutout for this on this cool coupe?
The shot of the dashboard through the passenger-side window shows a distinctly contemporary look, with space for three future touchscreens.
Honda possibly had a look at this when designing the dash of their new ‘E’. 🙂
Vintage.es has a new series of pics from Chicago in early ’50s. Several unusual cars, including a postwar Plymouth business coupe about halfway down the page. Probably ’46 because of the larger tires. It’s not hugely different from the club coupe, but Chrysler enjoyed tooling up expensive differences that weren’t noticeable to the customer.
https://www.vintage-everyday.com/2020/03/chicago50s-mead.html
I missed this one the first time around. There is a really good chance that this Plymouth was assembled in Indiana; Chrysler assembled Plymouths here in Evansville through the late fifties. I have always had a soft spot for Chrysler vehicles from this era, they were simple, reliable and, if something did break, they were easy to repair. As long as you are not in a hurry this Plymouth (and its corporate cousins) are a good way to travel.
I don’t see this as being outside the purview of CC at all. A very nice car, which happens to be in excellent, restored, shape. Even if it was covered in patina I would love to see it all the same, Plymouth, Ford, or Chevy. A beautiful article, thanks for reposting.
This is very close to my Dad’s first car, he had a 1950 Plymouth coupe, in what looks to be white or off white, in the only photo of it that exists. I gazed at the photo of the dash above and imagined him driving along looking at something similar in his car.
It may sound like sacriledge but 57 Mopars here lasted quite well, they were locally assembled by Todd motors for the most part from Canadian CKD kits and didnt aquire a rep for falling apart rust problems sure but everything rusted back then, Chrysler products wetre no worse than anything else and better than some British cars like Vauxhalls.
Back in 1968 I had a 1948 Plymouth 2 door Sedan. Paid $400 for it and it drove like a dream! Loved that automobile. Had to give it to my sister when I went into the Navy. She didn’t take care of it and it quit running and she traded it to some people for a sewing machine! Can ya believe that? Made me sick.
I keep thinking I’m gonna get another one some day. If I do, it’s gonna be a 4 door Sedan. I really like those suicide doors.
It funny someone brought up duxbury that were i purcased this 1939 ply deluxe p8 4 dr and is for sale a lot of work done
How much slower than a V8 Ford coupe of the same year was this car?
A quick search reveals that the Plymouth would do 0-60 in 20.9 seconds while a Ford V8 of the same vintage would be more like 17.0 seconds for a 0-60. The Ford was also available with an inline six and its performance was not far from the V8s, 18.3 for the 0-60. Top speed of these cars was somewhere in 80-85 MPH range, unless they had overdrive which would allow them to achieve a higher speed. In contrast the first Oldsmobile V8s would accelerate 0-60 in roughly 13.5 seconds with a top speed just short of 100 MPH. The real advantage for the Ford was that the flathead V8 had been in production since the early thirties and there was a lot of equipment available to make it develop more power.
My Dad and I restored a 1946 Plymouth Deluxe in 2002, from the bottom up , I removed the frame from the body and after sandblasting under coated the whole thing, The car was brought to Fl in the late 40s , from Indiana, where our neighbors parked it under a pole barn and used it when they came down for the Winter, We got it from their son 15 years after they died. The motor was frozen but the body and interior were in great shape with only 2 minor rust spots and a few rips in the interior. Even though I got the motor unstuck and running we did a rebuild as it sounded wrong. Good thing we did as even though it was running 2 of the Pistons had resolved and there were only Rods in there place anyways just before my Father passed in 2006 he sold it to someone up North who I hope is still enjoying it to today.
The center mounted stoplight was a hazard if the bulb burned out. Should have had brake lights in the outer taillights too.
Can’t agree with Canucknucklehead about the fluid drive. Sure, it was indestructible and suitable for most people but there was one huge safety problem. If you kicked it down to pass, you had to release the gas pedal for a LONG time to drop back into 4th (high) gear. Really scary if the engine is wound out and you still haven’t completed your pass. I speak from experience; almost got killed when my friend who was driving got us caught in the passing lane of a two lane highway with oncoming traffic and we needed to get back into 4th to finish the maneuver. (Yes, I know Plymouth didn’t offer it, but the 1953 Dodge I was in did). Can you believe that little 241 Hemi wound out to nearly 80 mph in 3rd because said friend couldn’t afford the time to get the shift done?
I love Chryslers from this era. Here’s a Dodge I caught in my neighborhood while riding my bicycle. Can anyone supply the likely year(s)?
It is most definitely a 1940
I’m a Chevrolet fan but would love to have a ’46-48 Plymouth……..park it right next to my all original, unrestored 1948 Fleetmaster