“Nice paint and nice interior,” suggests the owner of this 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook Club Coupe. Gee, ya think? It’s in spectacular condition, but it’s being promoted by a listing that is way too light on details (and exterior images). This may be the nicest example of an early-fifties Plymouth I’ve encountered, and its stellar presentation just begs more questions than the listing answers. Found cooling its heels in Raleigh, North Carolina, this often-overlooked make and model is listed here on craigslist for $16,500. A high five is due to Barney for this tip!
I referred to this Plymouth Cranbrook as “overlooked” because they just don’t surface often these days, even though Plymouth placed third in the 1951 great domestic auto production race, knocking out 611K total units. Plymouth’s ’51 lineup started with the Concord, moved up to the Cambridge, and saw the Cranbrook resting on top with four body styles: two-door coupes and convertibles, along with four-door sedans and hardtops, which were known as “Belvederes”. This Club Coupe is one of 124K assembled three-quarters of a century ago, but as suggested, they just don’t make the scene to the degree that a corresponding Chevrolet or Ford does. Due to the parsimony of the text, I was hoping the listing images would do the talking, but there’s not much picture-wise, other than the interior, which is shown repeatedly from differing perspectives. Long story short, I can’t find anything out of sorts with this Cranbrook’s exterior – it presents like new. Oh yeah, and the underside is just as clean!
The 97 gross HP, 217 CI flathead, in-line six-cylinder engine presents as well as the exterior. The seller does state that the “car runs and drives beautifully,” so there are a few words of encouragement. And this is one of those items I’d like to know about in greater detail. The mileage is listed as 102K miles, so my guess is that this powerplant has undergone a redo. A three-speed manual transmission (three-on-the-tree) is all that was available in ’51, and that’s what’s backing up the flathead.
The interior, and I mean every inch of it, shows beautifully! It had to have undergone a total restoration; it reveals no sign of wear, dirt, or the effects of age, weather, etc. I cannot attest to the accuracy of the seating upholstery material or pattern, but then again, does it really matter, especially in an environment that is so perfect?
And that excellence includes the dash and instrument panel. Note the original radio; certainly a nice inclusion. The seller claims, “lights and all gauges work…”
A couple of thoughts here. Cars from this era, and really reaching back twenty years prior, are just not that popular with enthusiasts anymore. We’ve covered this observation here many times before; as time marches on, the old ways and favorites fall by the wayside. Still, someone thought enough of this Plymouth Cranbrook to invest significant time, talent, and $$$ to get it to the level of perfection that you see here – it almost doesn’t seem fair! I’d say this Plymouth is quite the buy; how about you?
Very Nice
Whew. What a beauty. It’s lucky I don’t own it–much as I might enjoy it, I’d not do it justice. Guess I’m just a sucky human being.
I’m not much into the cars of the 50’s but that paint job is phenomenal. I’ve been in the auto business for over 40 years and I’ve seen many gorgeous paint jobs, this one, someone put a lot of time into it and it shows.
No you’re not, Burfleblat, you’re like every one of us that comes up here to the barn to see the latest and greatest finds they show here and drool and dream over cars like this one. And no, you’re not a bad person for wanting to take it for a spin any chance you get. Nothin wrong with that. If it were mine, I’d be
doing it too. Maybe take a turn around the town with a nice young lady– one that can drive a
3 on the tree with OD of course.
I was born legally blind and not ever able to drive, but I sure worked on a lot of cars like this when I was a kid. Every Saturday morning, you’d find me at our church repairing cars for the congregation. And there were one, or maybe two old Plymouths
there too. I did tune ups and oil
changes mostly with a few thermostat changes on the side
If it was something I couldn’t fix,
they’d have to take it to a real mechanic. Never made a lot of money doing it, but that wasn’t the whole point of it. Me, I was just using the god given skills I had to help folks out that needed it. The biggest thing that happened was when the church
members all chipped in and got me a brand new set of Craftsman
hand tools and two pairs of coveralls as a way of saying thanks for all my help. But all that changed when I started touring in 1970. I played music
over the road during the summer
months and came home in time for me to start school in the fall.
Went back to helping at the church during the fall and winter
months and I must’ve looked a sight with my toolbox 🧰 in one
hand, and my large print Bible in
the other. And there was the time
I got roped into laying Formica counter tops in the Fellowship hall, but that’s another story for another time. I like this car but would like it better if it had 4 doors installed of 2.
Learned to drive in a 51 Plymouth.
That was likewise my first car. Technically, my first car was a ’64 F-500 grain truck, but we never got it road-legal. I had it for several months, and it blew a head gasket. I ended up owning it for 364 days. My Plymouth had served me very reliably, and, other than burning a gallon of oil every trip, it ran beautifully. Wasn’t pretty or particularly valuable, but it still turned a lot of heads when driving it down the road.
This is a gorgeous car. I hope the market will support the asking price.
Steve R
This has to be the nicest early 50’s Plymouth we’ve seen here on Barnfinds. I thought the same exact thing as KHayes said above. A lot of hours went into that body and that gorgeous black paint job. It looks stunning. Wish it were mine.
I’m starting to accept that classic car enthusiasts obviously gravitate towards the cars that first piqued their interest as children, usually. I love the cars of the 1960s, because I was born in 1958, and didn’t get a driver’s license until 1974. The cars we drove were hand-me-down 60s cars from our parents and grandparents.
As a classic car guy pushing 70, this Plymouth, while very nice, is not a car that would interest me at this point. If I were 18 and looking for a cool first car back in 1976, I would have loved this car. I really wanted my neighbor’s 1958 Oldsmobile back in ’76.I was always interested in oddball cars, not the Mustangs or Camaros, even then.
But I resign myself to Howard’s admonitions that interest in 50s- era cars is waning, (as is the demographic), especially a stodgy Plymouth like this one. My son, 36, (who knew he was into classic cars??) wanted a vintage pickup truck, so 2 weeks ago he bought the pictured 1991 F150. Not a ’51,’61, or ’71…a ’91. Bless his heart, he’s more like the old man than he wants to admit!
So yes, it’s encouraging the upcoming generations may be interested in classic cars, but just not the same cars we think of as classic.
My very first car was a 52 Plymouth Cambridge. Bought it in 1988 for $700, Dad and I rebuilt the engine for a couple hundred bucks and drove it for my senior year of high school. Standing joke that year was that we could fit two kegs of beer on ice in the trunk and a dozen people inside! Sadly sold it the summer I graduated so I could afford a fuel efficient Corolla for college. Still miss that old girl, she taught me to appreciate the classic rock that the AM radio picked up.
I agree with what Jim said 100 percent at the end of his write up. I’m going off topic a bit here with a personal experience so please bear with me. The image is my Great Aunt and Uncles 1938 Zenith radio( please click on the image to see the whole thing. I had done some research, and found out that it was extremely rare. It was a 12 tube chassis from 1938 installed in a retrofitted 1939 cabinet from the Zenith factory.You can see the slightly mismatched wood from the factory. I had all the original paperwork. And it worked briefly until a capacitor blew. I had inherited it in about 1999 when she died. I had wanted it since the 70’s. I did some research online and I found out what it was, and how rare and special it was online. I found a gentleman that had restored one just like it, and he wanted another for himself. He very gladly paid us what a 1939 fully restored Zenith was worth plus shipping across the country for ours ( this is a once in a lifetime deal here) on a Greyhound bus nonetheless. I never knew you could ship stuff via Greyhound, it turns out they work out great because the the storage is low to the ground and they’re actually very careful and if you drop it, it doesnt drop far. Very sadly, in the middle of its restoration he passed away. Now you tell me, how many folks are out there today looking for restored radios from the 30’s? Not many. It was a painstaking decision to sell my Great Aunt Sallys radio. But I knew that one day, the value wouldn’t be there. We weren’t doing anything with it. It was a piece of beautiful furniture in our home. At the time in 2017 we were in dire straights financially, and I made the difficult decision to sell it because I needed the money for my family. Its the same basic principle with old cars, only, there’s more money involved. We like looking at these old cars and appreciate and respect them. But very sadly, the folks who are in the market for this generation of cars or old radios are at an advanced age now. I miss it from time to time. But I know now I made the right decision. The folks who knew how rare and special it was are quite up there in years now. If I tried to sell it today, I wouldn’t get a fraction of what I got for it nearly a decade ago, I am not trying to bore you folks, but just showing a real world example of what Jim said along with a number of other commentors as well. That being said, I’d still love to own this gorgeous Plymouth, even though I’m over a decade younger than when this beauty was built. But then again… I’m kind of different. 😆 🤣 😂
Showroom fresh. Wow!
Future low rider.
NO! Benito!!! You DON’T destroy a car like this! I would LOVE to have either this one, or the 1952 Ford seen to-day in the listings. SURVIVORS, even when restored, need to Survive and be enjoyed and driven on their own terms! — not be chopped-up and modified by some desecrating hot-rodder!
I can’t stand low riders.
My idea exactly!
I think it’s a bargain at $16K! You could not build one for that!
That is one beautiful car, and that black paint looks perfect.
Lovely old car always thought these were a little bit too frumpy for me but look at what I drive now. Tastes change. Sad, as it has become, these cars just don’t have any appeal to today’s younger buyers. They just don’t know what they are missing. Three on the tree forever!
Nice 1940 Plymouth! I used to see a lot more 1941s, for some reason: they were EVERYWHERE!
We had a ’51 Cranbrook that was green with a grey mohair interior. It was fully optioned, with turn signals, back-up lights, radio, two speed wipers, a high output heater, and running boards. Good basic transportation. The only real problem with the flat head six, was that if a dog peed on the right rear tire, it wasn’t going to start! Dad traded it in on a ’62 Fairlane, and got $25 bucks for it!
My best friend had a 1953 Plymouth, we used to water ski down the canal behind it!
Owned one just like it in college. Vapor lock was a common problem but a very nice ride. Couple of clothes pins and you’re good to go. Had the front visor for those rainy nights at the drive in.
My ‘FIRST CAR’ was this ratty 1951 Plymouth Cranbrook 4 door sedan that I bought for $35.00 in 1964 from an across the street neighbor in Jersey City. NJ. I was 15 at the time and I had no drivers licences. I bought that car without my father’s knowledge or permission and when he found out about it, not only would he not allow me to park the car in our yard, but he became so angry, he threw me out of his house and I had to go live with one of my aunts. But in an act of ‘DIFFERENCE’, I took everything I owned, my clothes, shoes, coats, jackets, hats, baseball glove, 300 piece model car collection and my 1952 Vintage Lionel Electric Train set and I stuck it all in the interior and trunk of that 1951 Plymouth. I then rode my bike over to my aunt’s house and asked if I could me stay at her house. Days later needing a change of clothes, I rode my bike back over to where the Plymouth was sitting in a vacant lot that was own by the Archdiocese of Newark. The Archdiocese was planning on building a new catholic grammar school and Church on the property, so my Plymouth was parked there illegally. Well to this day, I do not know if someone from the Archdiocese called the cops in Jersey City or if it was the cops themselves who spotting the Plymouth sitting there with license plates, had it towed to the impound yard. Well by the time I got there someone had broken into the car by smashing a side window and they also preyed open the trunk, stealing everything that was inside. Weil l;ll never know for sure who did it, but I’ve alway believed it was the cops in Jersey City themselves who broke into the car. A ‘BITTERSWEET JOKE’ I’ve often made over these past six and half decades, is that I sincerely hope that whoever it was that stole my electric train set, ‘electrocuted’ himself the first time he plugged in the transformer.
Just for info: Plymouth offered overdrive for 1952 models in the second half of that model year. Those cars had the overdrive handle, cable and bracket on the right side of the steering column and a chromed “Overdrive” script on the right side of the trunk lid. This 1951 Cranbrook had it retro-fitted. The handle is barely visible in picture #12.
For the record,,,if you read Roberts post above, to most of us, these were the ultimate beater. Back row of car dealers, or that auntie that couldn’t bear to sell it, many times, gotten for a favor, $50 tops. Like Robert, many were their 1st cars, and needed something. Lifelong lessons were learned. This sure looks nice here, but for most of us, Roberts photo is much more like it. We were usually the “last stop”, and either demo derby or plain rough house usually was nothing left. Hard to believe those “beaters” looked like this,,,once. It’s a beautiful find.
I made two TYPOS in my post. I didn’t pay $35.00 for that 51 Plymouth back in 1964, I paid $25.00, and I used to the word ‘DIFFERENCE’ when describing how I reacted to my father’s anger when he found out I had purchased the car without his knowledge and consent and he subsequently threw me out of his house. I used the word DIFFERENCE, but what I meant to say was ‘DEFIANCE’. Anyway some 62 years later, during a trip to Havana, Cuba that my wife and I took in January, 2024, I spotted another ‘RATTY’ 1951 Plymouth (actually I saw several, but this is the only one I was able to take a photo of)
Hi, Robert! It’s a 1950, not a ’51.
As Howard says, these were the last stop before the wrecking yard. Our beaters that were finally trashed by us in our youth. My 47 Plymouth that I bought in 1971 for $18, from a friend. I drove the pee out of it before it finally gave up. Off to the wrecking yard it went.