In the 1930s and 1940s, a “business coupe” was a two-door sedan without a back seat. Its target market was traveling sales types (or vendors) who needed to carry their products in tow. I would have thought that a station wagon would have been more practical, but (apparently) there was enough of a market for manufacturers like Plymouth to build and sell them. We’re told this 1947 Plymouth De Luxe (as opposed to Special De Luxe) is a business coupe whose door-to-door travels likely ended several years ago.
Along with other U.S. automakers, Plymouth’s post-war cars (after 1946) were rehashed pre-war cars (before 1942). So, the 1947 Plymouth was a little different from its counterpart a few years earlier. A 218 cubic inch straight-six was the engine of choice with a “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission. 95 hp was about all you’d get out of that set-up when stock.
The seller provides little information on this business coupe. It has 50,000 miles and would be a “hot rod project.” That’s it. It’s sitting in a garage surrounded by a lot of stuff, but the amount of dust suggests it might not have been there all that long. Was it Grandpa’s old car, and they just now decided to sell it, or is there a more interesting story? We don’t know, but it’s in Peckville, Pennsylvania, and is available here on craigslist for $5,000. And it’s another tip from Barn Finder Gunter Kramer!
Owned a “46 sedan as a young man and loved it. And after decoding the
VIN, I found out my car was built not
long after VJ Day in September of ’45.
My memories of that old sedan were
good ones indeed. Reliable and simple to fix, these cars were damn
near bulletproof and a really good way for a teenager to learn auto mechanics. Gonna say that this one
will be easy to revive and enjoy. First
thing you wanna do is to spray some
Marvel’s Mystery Oil into the cylinders
to loosen the rings and get it ready to
turn over. You might wanna spray some down the carb too to loosen the
small parts inside it. And parts? No
worries here! Just a trip down to your
local NAPA and you should find all you need to get this old gal running
and driving once more. From what I
see if this car, rust won’t be a deal breaker. I just wish that the seller would’ve given us more photos to
look at and a bit more of a written
description of the car so that we can
make up our minds and not buy a pig
in a poke when it comes to buying this car. 50K miles might be correct
but I think it’s more like 150K to me as they run forever with the right care
maintenance. If money and space were no problem, I’d be all over this one!
Great memories Kenneth Carney, thank you.
Certainly agree with your comment about how these were great auto mechanics “teachers”. When I was 14 in 1958 I bought a 1946 Special Deluxe coupe for $80. I drove it, worked on it, learned from it…..wanted to “customize” it but lacked money and skills. It was beat up pretty badly but got me around for 2 years on rural California back roads. When I turned 16 and got my license and could really drive around without having to be sneaky I decided to upgrade and bought a “51 Kaiser. I guess that was an upgrade…
Back then a 12 y.o. car with 100k miles was just a throw away car….used up. Nowadays 12 y.o. cars are still mainstream transportation with long lives ahead of them if properly maintained, for those of us who don’t need a new car every 2 – 3 years to keep up with the neighbors. Interesting how times have changed.
Would love to have this old Plymouth.
You are exactly right Mike F. about age of vehicles in the US. Right now the average age of light vehicles (cars and trucks) is 12.6 years. Twenty years ago it was 10 years, so people are keeping them longer. Analysts attribute this to both the high cost of new cars and the continued improvement in quality.
I had the 46 Super Deluxe , talk about a Tank, after a full off frame restoration , the car was in factory condition ( Motor , Tranny and rear end rebuilt ) I was sad that due to circumstance I had to let the car go.
The Craigslist ad says it’s a 6 cyl. so it might have the original running gear. Too bad the seller couldn’t spend a few minutes writing the description.
There is a 1950 Plymouth in Shelley Idaho on HiBid.com current bid is around $800 its clean and closer and cheaper than this I’m still trying to decide to bid or not either way both would make fun cars to get back on the road
I agree that it is tempting. I once made a bet with my family about a 1949 Plymouth that was in storage for decades after Granpa stopped driving. I said gas, oil, inflate the tires, and a new battery was all it needed. They thought I was crazy. I won the bet.
Glad I could do it Al! Today’s kids will
never know that unbelievable high you get when you take an old car or truck and breathe life back into it with
your own two hands. If kids today are
looking for the next big high, ladies and gentlemen there it is! Gotta tell ya’ I’m totally lost when I open the hood of a modern car. Oh sure, the
function and feeling of what the engine is telling you is the same as it’s always been. It’s just the way you
service a modern car today that’s
changed. . You need a masters degree in technology just to change a set of plugs. Add to that, both tools
and parts are QR coded so that you
can’t do your own repairs. I recall a couple years ago when my SIL had a flat on her Hyundai Accent. I couldn’t
even change the tire with the standard tire iron we had in the car with us. The car had to be towed into
a dealership where a technician used
a computerized lug wrench to change
the offending tire. In all, we spent $250 just to change a tire! If you get a flat on a car like this, you open the
trunk, pull out your 2-ton hydraulic jack, lift the car, get your 4-way, and
change the tire. That’s why I like older
cars. You have the pleasure of doing
things yourself.
I had a 58 Dodge D100 pickup for 43 years, with the fabled flat head Six. If it stopped running, you could usually step outside, or gosh, maybe open the hood, and 99% of the time instantly figure out a wire was loose, or some part fell on the ground, and was still laying there.
By now I’m sure most BF readers know that I am a big Mopar business coupe fan. If the engine, interior and underside check out ok; than this is a good deal IMO. Realistically for me nowadays however I don’t have the room or motivation to take on this project. Hope someone else does and gets it back on the road
Mike my 1st car was a ’54 Studebaker
Champion 2-door sedan for $25 with
no engine. After poking around the
local scrapyard, I found a mangled ’63
Stingray with a 375 HP 327 still in it.
So I bought the engine and tranny and
stuffed ’em in the Stude but I still had
to fabricate some headers and a
custom made drive shaft. Got it all done in early ’70 and a buddy and I took it out for a test drive. 140 in a
35– at least that’s what the ticket read. Being a police officer, my Dad
was pissed. The cop that pulled us
over was a really good friend of Dad’s
and when Dad found out about it, he
Made me sell the car as part of the
deal to get the ticket erased. From
building the Stude, I learned enough
about cars to help Dad sell used cars
that we bought through the local newspaper. We got good enough to
well cars to the kids in my highschool. Kids would stop me on
Athe way to class and ask me if I had
any cars to sell. And yes, we sold a
few of these old Plymouths when we
could find ’em. They were our bread
and butter cars as my friend’s parents
would only allow them to buy cars from us as the cars we sold were
absolutely the safest cars they could
easily afford. Did that all through school until I started playing music.
Still liked poking around the garage
better than I did dating girls. At least
a car won’t break your heart the way
a girl can.
A business coupe is exactly what it says. It’s not a 2 door sedan with no back seat. It’s a coupe with no back seat.