The first few years after World War II were an interesting time in the U.S. auto industry, to say nothing about other countries involved in that war. Auto production stopped early in the war and most manufacturers revamped pre-war cars after 1945. This 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe Club Coupe is posted here on craigslist in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and they’re asking $6,800. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Zappenduster for the link!
Chrysler was a bit later than most car companies in returning to full-time auto production after the war because of commitments to finishing government contracts, and it wasn’t until the fall of 1945 that they would resume production. They dropped behind Hudson, who grabbed third place (behind Ford and GM) for a short while. Only 98 Special Deluxe cars were made by the end of 1945.
This car appears to be in nice condition and the seller says it’s a “barn find”, but there are no particulars given as to where it was parked or how long it was in the barn or anything like that. What they do say is that they bought it as a winter project but realized that at age 85, they aren’t going to get to it so that’s why it’s for sale. They say there is no rust on the body at all, which is amazing after almost 80 years!
There is quite a bit of surface rust showing in the interior photos so it’ll be a task to get all of that in shape again. Hopefully buffing and/or polishing it will do the trick and it doesn’t have to be replated. The floor looks iffy with lots of surface rust shown in the photo above, and I can’t tell if that’s a hole by the clutch pedal or not, but they show another view of the floor and it appears hole-free so that’s good. Although, the black part looks like some sort of sealer. The seats look good for their age, including the back seat that’s a part of the Club Coupe.
The engine looks much nicer than it should but it appears to have had a rattle can touch-up on the head. It should be a Plymouth 217.8-cu.in. L-head inline-six with 95 horsepower and 172 lb-ft of torque when new. Sending power through a three-speed manual to the rear wheels, the seller says since they bought it they “got it running half decent” and all the lights work. How would you bring this ’48 Plymouth Special Deluxe back to life? Original, or…
Seems like a great price on a very cool car, if there aren’t too many hidden surprises. Some BF reader needs to snatch this up.
I’m thinking one of you two, Josh or Jesse, since you just sold your Boxster.
And Scotty, you can’t deny this would look great in your driveway either…
Ok, I just want someone to buy it and update us so I can dream even more.
GLWTS!
Hmmm….another really nice car at a very questionably low price. You have to wonder if anything is real anymore.
Well, those Buckeyes sure seem to be for real!
Rex, it’s been 1,868 days since the last set of golden panties were given out. hahaha HAIL!! Great looking ol’ Plymouth.
That is a great car for the money. The right number of doors. Body in great shape. No dents and no rust showing. The flathead six is indestructible. It is not the fluid drive. Good buy for someone.
“It is not the fluid drive.”
Yes, decidedly a plus.
Last week we got a ’47 Plymouth Special Deluxe that is a near twin to this car. Here is higher mileage, lower price, and too much ambiguity IMO. There’s no overspray with the rattle can painted head so has the engine been out? The chrome on the dash is pretty badly pitted so figure in replating costs. Rust through? What does “running half decent” mean?
For the price I’ll go with the ’47. Just wish there were some interior pics to show the state of the upholstery, headliner, etc.
Was my very first car and I paid $55 for it in about 1964.
I bought a ‘46 Club Coupe a lot like this one back in the early 80s. Gave it a cosmetic restoration with new paint (Charlotte Ivory) and interior upholstery. The thing drove like a tank and was dependable to a fault. I found a guy at a local junk yard who could install an overdrive unit from a ‘52 so I could drive it on the freeway. I really do miss having her. My favorite memory is driving her to the Pomona swap meet from my place in San Pedro and finding a shiny new NOS set of original hubcaps! And also a working AM radio bc mine only had a dashboard plate for the radio.
This looks like a great project car if there are no hidden rust issues. Its not hard to get the engines to run right if there are no serious problems, so… since he could only get it to run “halfway decent” I would want to make sure it had good compression.
The price isn’t all that low for this sort of car: 1946-’48 Plymouths have never been BIG money vehicles — even in nice shape. That said, my parents had a 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe in exactly this colour, back in 1948, and I have many memories of that car, and of being behind the wheel of it. Theirs did not have that optional grille-guard (I like that feature on this one, though). The only thing I DON’T like is, it’s a COUPE! The one my parents had was a two-door — and even that was a pain to climb into and get back out of, the rear seat. My little brother still was young enough to sleep on the shelf under the rear window, so I understand why they did not choose a four-door (there were many horror-stories, back in the 1940s, about little children opening the rear door of a moving car, only to fall out and be killed as they hit the receding road or curb). How many of these tales were real, and how many, the apocryphal stories that parents tell children to terrorise them into obeying safety rules, I guess you’d have to scour the daily newspapers of that time to find out. In any case, even with the awkward passage into the rear seat, if this were a two-door, I’d be tempted — if for no other reason, than to drive it over to my sister’s house in New Hampshire and see the reaction on her astonished face! The one my parents had was mechanically bullet-proof — absolutely reliable (as Chrysler products in that era tended to be, noting their unusual longevity). The radio was not all that great — the dial was vertical, interestingly enough — it was okay if you were reasonably local to the station you were looking to listen to; but you couldn’t drive a hundred miles listening to the same station, it would fade out soon after you left its local area. The clock never did keep time worth a hoot — you couldn’t rely on it, unless you re-set it about every other day: if you forgot it for about a week, it would be thirteen minutes slow. Another problem was the speedometer cable: the speedometer would start to make a “juh-juh-juh-juh” sound and be erratic running way over the speed you actually were travelling. Having the cable replaced would cure that… for maybe nine months to a year… before it would act-up again, calling for a new replacement. The other thing was, the car couldn’t get out of its own way when climbing an extended hill (such as, Bear Mountain) — it needed HORSEPOWER it never had!
The seller has removed the listing, did one of you buy it?
I still show it as listed. I asked her last week for interior and undercarriage pics and was told, “I’ll try to put some up the middle of next week.” We’ve gone past that and nothing yet. But I show the ad still posted.