From an era when a top of the line model consisted of features like a heater, this 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook is one good looking ride. It’s listed on eBay in Broomfield, Colorado with a buy it now price of $999 or you can make an offer. Come on, one of you should buy this car! Thanks to Ikey H. for sending in this find!
I would have to believe that if this car were a two-door it would already be decked out with an airbag suspension and other reality-tv-like goodies. This paint almost looks like that there Mike Angelo guy (Michelangelo) had his hand in it, it’s so perfect Or, perfectly-patina’d.
I dream about daily-driving a car like this ’53 Cranbrook. I would need a gravel driveway, though, since I’m assuming that once it is running it’ll leak at least gas and oil if not brake fluid and transmission fluid and possibly any other fluids that there may be.
Yes, sadly it isn’t currently running but the seller says that it “was running when parked here a few years ago.” I stopped running a couple of years ago myself but I’m guessing that this Plymouth wasn’t trying to save its knees. The body on this beauty sure looks great. They say that it has “nice original paint” and it almost couldn’t have weathered to a more currently-desirable finish if it were subjected to an art student project at Redstone College in Broomfield.
The seller, unfortunately, hasn’t included any engine photos but it should have Plymouth’s 100-hp 218 cubic-inch flathead-six. It would have looked something like this when new. Hagerty lists a #3 good condition 1953 Cranbrook 4-door sedan as only being worth $3,800 which seems low to me but that’s the way it is. A Club Coupe is almost double that and a convertible is a whopping $22,800 for a good example! Ok, now I see why most people don’t like cars with four doors, they want to turn a profit. Would any of you take on the task of getting this Cranbrook on the road again?
I’ve seen a kiser / Fraser on Jay Lenos garage that was customed from a 4 door to a 2 door and put on a 90’s Impala chassie. It also had a mild chopped top. You would not know that the car was once a 4 door, the point being is that it is possible to take a worthless 4 door and make it into something cool. This old Plymouth would be a great candidate for a similar mod. And it could be done in a way that keeps this car looking stalk, or go all out custom look. Now that would be a fun project.
I’ve seen some of Leno’s stuff, and some of it is pretty cool. That, however doesn’t sound cool to me.
The styling alone on this car probably will keep it from becoming a resto-mod ( be a heck of a sleeper, tho) Years ago, these cars were offered to you by your elderly aunt, or relegated to the “back row” of car lots, and usually $50 bucks would take it. ( adjusted for inflation, I see not much has changed) Nothing is said about the “Hy-Drive”, which was a pretty neat feature. In the early ’50’s, everybody knew automatics were the next big thing and it took a while. While you still had to manually shift the gears, it did have a fluid coupling,( probably where the leaks come in) and you could start out in 3rd gear from a stop, if you weren’t in a hurry, that is. I think you still had to use the clutch to shift, but not at a stop. You could leave it in 2nd with clutch out, and just hit the gas. I think this is a neat car, once so prevalent. Everybody knew someone with an old Plymouth. Btw, if you like patina paint like this, buy a car from out west. Not a lot of shiny old cars out here.
Shoot, I would take this car and make it reliable, then daily drive the heck out of it. And I’m a Ford guy!
Amen, brother! Except my ’73 MGB/GT would get jealous…
Same make, year, model, and condition was for sale for forever on the lawn of a house next to my wife’s aunt. The seller had $850 painted across the windshield and could not move it. Talk about your “buy-in” into the hobby – These are IMO “Exhibit A” examples! Can’t understand their lack-of appeal.
Nice little car, nice find!
Back in1963 my best friend bought good running Plymouth just like this for $40, he was the first guy in our group to have his own car. It was as they say now the Bomb, we went everywhere in it, lots of fun. He’s passed on or l would tell him about this and l’m sure he would buy it.
An excellent way to get into the old car hobby, if one ignores the ignorant attitude of some who would pass on a car like this simply because it’s ‘a worthless 4 door’.
Yes. For a less than a grand it’s a decent starting point.Nice to see some reasonable deals are still around.
Woah don’t crush it unless you’ve got something in the trunk to get rid of …..wise guy👁👌
I was thinking smash up derby !
OMG, I want it, I want it, I WANT IT! ‘ Love all old flat-head Mopars. My first car was a ’37 Plymouth – two years older than I was. Cost a breath-taking $70. My first hobby car was another ’53 Plymouth. Would you believe a Belvedere two-door hardtop with continental kit and (count ’em) FIVE Kelsey Hayes chrome wire wheels. Oh yeah – with working O/D. ‘ Paid $500 and thought I made a heckuva deal when I sold it for $900 in the early ’80s. 20/20 hindsight coming at me now.
‘ Don’t get this prejudice against four-doors in the vintage car community. Yeah, I like coupes as much as anyone, but I always thought two-door sedans looked frumpy – for young families only. So glad I’m happy with four-doors. With my shallow pockets and low pay-grade, they give me access to a lot of neat cars I could never afford were they two-doors.
It’s good that there’s room to sleep in this one, cuz that’s where I’d be living were I to bring it home!
Parts are readily available and at a reasonable cost. This is the perfect car to get started in the old car hobby. Lots of support out there on several forums too.
When my Dad bought our new 1953 Plymouth Suburban 2 door wagon, as usual, he did quite a bit of research prior to the purchase. Since he worked for Shell, he had access to a lot of data about engines and drivetrains. He discovered that the 3 speed manual transmission with overdrive got DOUBLE
the gas mileage that was attainable with the ” automatic ” Fluid Drive. He finally sold the Plymouth in the mid 70’s, still running well – Mom wanted a car with an automatic trans.
Wow, it sold already! The price was certainly right. Steve McQueen drove a convertible like this in The Blob (1958).
I like it! True, by the time you get it running, paint it, and fix the interior your going to be upside down, but I was upside down on my wife the moment I said I DO but I still got her after 45 years and still love her. If you like this- go for it!
Well… Think about it. If you’re gonna daily-drive it, compare it to the cost of any daily driver. What car leaves you more upside-down than a new one? But the older a modern car gets, the more it’s depreciation curve diminishes. With this car, depreciation due to age and/or mileage has flat-lined. Sort out the mechanicals and it’s good for $2K right out the gate. Drive it for a year or three. A decent ’53 Plymouth in good running condition will probably still be worth close to $2K. Maybe I’m being way to conservative here. Maybe I should be talking more like $3K or even $4. What would you pay for a good-running DD that gets lotsa glances at every stoplight? Me? I’d sort it mechanically from one end to the other – and possibly add A/C to please The Navigator. Repaint or just clear-coat?
“Upside-down” is relative to the amount of use you get out of it. Monthly payments on a new or late-model used car will pay for a heckuva lotta repairs. How badly you get hurt depends on how you look at it.
It’s all taxi fare, when you get to the bottom of it. How much does it cost to get from point A to point B and back – five times per week, 50 weeks out of the year? And how do you want to allocate that money? Buy this car, spend whatever it costs to get it right. If it was a good car 65 years ago, it will be a good car now. You’ll be missing out on 65 years-worth of bells and whistles, but the looks and the satisfaction way more than make up for that.
A connecting rod that spent 65 million years in a hillside waiting to be mined doesn’t care how long it’s been in the engine. It might be bothered if it’s out of balance, or if its bearing is ovalized, but that can all be fixed. Now it’s good for another 65 years, right? Why not?
The one thing our old-car hobby teaches us is that with proper maintenance and repair, any well-designed car can theoretically last forever. After all, what is restoration except for postponed maintenance?
As I drive my 45 year-old car – daily – I keep thinking “Isn’t this fantastic! There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING, that can go wrong with this car that is not worth fixing!”.
I learned to drive on my brother’s 1947 Desoto with fluid drive. It was easy to drive. He also had a 53 Plymouth ran like scared rabbit. Wish I still had them now.
And I learned to drive on a ’54 with Hi Drive. You could use the clutch or, just let up on the gas, and shift through the gears, or start off in 3rd, a very slow start. I accomplished very smooth shifts on my first run out with the Driver’s Ed instructor, who later told me I cheated, since the transmission would not let me have a rough clutch engagement, which I soon found out trying to drive my aunt’s 51 Chevy, I really had had no clutch engagement training at all. This was an old lady’s car in 1953 and it still is. The ’53 Dodge, on the other hand, with a Hemi, was like WOW.