The big change for Plymouth in 1937 was the addition of safety features, things we take for granted today. These include recessed controls and a rounded edge on the bottom of the dashboard. This Plymouth listed here on eBay has been restored but it must have been in a barn find at some point. Bidding is over $15,000 with 2 days to go. It’s great to see cars like these that have been left original. This Plymouth is the base model with only one wiper and one tail light.
The interior is very basic. A radio would have been an option. Controls were recessed into the dash. This car has been beautifully restored.
Here’s the flathead six, likely the 65 horsepower base model. Everything looks original and fairly tidy.
This old Plymouth certainly looks picture perfect in every way except for those reflectors on the bumper. Some may be thinking the license plate should be yellow, but back then, even number years were yellow and odd number years were black. These old Plymouths are really nice cars to drive for those of us who love old cars. I drive the museum’s nearly identical 1936 Plymouth Coupe on occasion. People really love riding in it. Often it’s their first ride in an old car. There is no power steering, no AC, no radio, a manual transmission but it’s got just what you need to enjoy driving.
Nice car great find. I would love to have this car it looks to be in fantastic shape. It’s worth every penny.
Some confusion here. Not me.
Beautiful car. Glad to see it restored to orignal condition, cept for the additon og seat belts. When not driving keep them hidden, so as to not detract from originality
A very clean and tidy car.
“I LIKE IT”
I loathe the incorrect materials used to finish the interior.
Bill, The only incorrect materials used to finish the interior are the seat belts. Installing seat belts just shows good sense where now the hiways are super saturated with cars the large majority of the drivers thereon should never have been allowed to leave their yard once they have positioned themselves behind the wheel. Seems like a crazy thing to loathe. When the Plymouth hit the streets, a person could drive for a hundred or more miles, and maybe all day without coming across another car. Here is a picture of my the “stock interior” of my 36 Ford 5 Window coupe, showing the seat belts readily available. on the seats. No only has mentioned their lack of period correctness.
I installed the Automatic Adjusting seat belts in my 1950 Studebaker Champion and I have to say, They do help driving on the old style curved two lane highways where we take our cars often. I have been in two very severe accidents in the past two years, Both in a car with no seat belts or any safety equipment and believe me when you are thrown out of a car on a Bridge and land head and face first below under the horizon of the creek banks and end up D. O. A. Believe me after two such accidents in two years within just three days Those seat Belts will be installed when I go back with my rebuild.
Very nice. Doesn’t even need a radio today Just use your phone for some tunes
It appears lights were added to facilitate the addition of turn signals but there’s no evidence of them on the inside. That’s a bit of a mystery.
Nice car. Good to see one that hasn’t been upgraded once in awhile.
The interior of the museum’s ’36 has similar upholstery and it was restored to original. The material in every original restoration I found online looks similar to this one. We also have a completely original, unrestored, 1929 Plymouth in the museum and the upholstery is similar, but just plain and flat. Bill most likely knows more about this than I do, (really, not being sarcastic), so I’m curious about what I am missing.
The ’36 is a hoot to drive and folks really like riding in it. There’s no radio but both coupes have AC, sort of. There’s this little crank. The first picture above shows the AC. (The bottom of the windshield cranks out.)
Fine automobile. No negativity here.
Although I tend to favor the offerings from Ford I sure wouldn’t kick something like this off my driveway. And I wouldn’t hesitate to drive across the country in this; just don’t get in a big hurry.
this plymouth was about a far away from a ford as you could get! she had hydraulic brakes,open driveshaft, pressure cooling system and a lot more that ford never has to 1940, the open drive shaft didn’t happen 1950 gm stuck with that to 1958 in buicks then there is gm with their wood braced bodies! never happend at mopar!
Hi Jerry. I sure won’t argue that Plymouth was far ahead of Ford at that time. Henry was an extremely stubborn individual and what he said went. He didn’t want to change to hydraulic brakes because they either had to build their own brakes under license or else buy them from an established supplier. Henry hated six cylinder engines, probably because of the fiasco with the Model K, 30 years previous. So he brought out the V8-60, which cost as much to build as the V8-85. I might add that Henry grudgingly agreed to build a six after being told that the military was reluctant to OK the V8.
These were the best common person cars of there time. They terrified Ford with features, quality and price forcing them to up there game.
Beautiful, but I prefer the shape of the 36 better.
Nice in every way. I really love the color and overall just a wonderful “look”.
That being said, it could be just a “little” nicer with a cloth wiring harness, [which I’m assuming it had originally] The black plastic wiring covers do detract a little in my humble opinion. My garage buddy is restoring a 32 Caddy sedan and a correct replacement harness was available for that so I can’t imagine they’re not out there.
Beautiful car. I would drive it the way it is.
I would like know where you museum is, and I have a mint copy of the 1936 Plymouth product catalog. My grandfather is the man looking in the driver’s window on the cover. I would love to see you collection.
The styling is rakish. I can almost convince myself the top has been chopped.
All I can say is thanks David. Take care and have a great Easter, Mike.
I had a ’37 Plymouth sedan until recently, and when I got it, it had hte original mohair interior. It also should have a woodgrained dashboard, and a radio delete panel if no radio, flanked by an ash tray on one side and a cigarette lighter on the other.
The previous owner of mine had painted over the dashboard and window frames with grain-paint, which my 18-year-old self (a LONG time ago) stripped off and replaced with really-poorly-done woodgraining (visible in the picture) – but you can see the radio delete panel and flanking ash tray and cigarette lighter panels, which seem to be missing from the above car. My interior was also re-done (by my father) in a Bedford cord, which was also not correct, but looked nice. We never did put in seat belts or turn signals.
I’d say “maybe those things were optional,” but the catalogue brochure I had, and all the advertizing I could find (there was a bunch), all showed the same dash/interior as mine.
I miss that car. The one above is still stunning, correct interior or not.
Oh yes. That’s one nice car.
Now all it needs is some late model Hemi motivation …. ;)
So did this car not come with wing glasses my 37 has Wing glasses but it’s a Dodge
The vent windows? They were optional…
Fred McMurray drove an identical car in the film noir classic, “Double Indemnity”
Also Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep…
I also note this one has sealed-beam headlamps and marker lamps. Not correct, but a useful upgrade!
The hood ornament is my favorite. Is that where the “Voyager ” originated?
Plymouth: Pilgrims: Boat: Mayflower. A stylized iteration of the “Mayflower;” it was Plymouth’s badge.
Bad seatbelts. Back tires way too wide. Silver spray bomb on engine looks cheesy.
Something smells fishy here.
Wonderfull car
Chryslers were also using juice brakes before most everybody else, when cable actuated brakes were the norm.
I believe the rear tires are correct. It looks like you are seeing part of the driver’s front tire in the picture. Bad angle for the shot. Nice car, while I’m a Ford Model A guy, this car would be welcome in my garage (if my wife wouldn’t kill me for buying yet another car).
I BOUGHT A 1941 PLYMOUTH BUSINESS COUPE IN 1959, SAME COLOR AS THIS 1. IT WAS IN A LITTLE OLD LADIES GARAGE THAT I KNEW MOST OF MY LIFE TILL THEN, I NEVER SAW HER DRIVE, HER MAN DIED WW2, I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS IN THERE IT WAS PERFECT, SHE HAD NEVER SAT IN IT, HE HAD BROUGHT IT HOME, GOT DRAFTED, NEVER SAT IN IT AGAIN. (ALLIE) NEW I WAS TURNING 16, SHE OFFERED IT 2 ME 4 FREE I SAID OK BUT I KNEW SHE WAS POOR SHE WAS GETTING $65 A MO.4 KILLED IN ACTION I’M GOING 2 PAY U I SAID I HAVE A PAPER ROUTE & I HAVE $65 SAVED IT’S YORS. 9th GRADE, O MY GOSH, I WASHED IT EVRYDAY, YOU COD’NT HURT IT, I DROVE THE PIS OUT OF IT. GAS WAS 19.9 A DOLR WAS ENOF 2 BUY A QUART OF BEER & GAS 4 THE NIGHT, I DROVE IT SO HRD 1 NT. AT ASCOT THE EXHAUST MANAFOLD WAS BRIGHT RED, MICKEY THOMPSON TOLD ME DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, NO BROKEN HOSES, & I KNOW YOUR FULL OF WATER BECAUSE, I CHECKED IT HE SAID, LOOKED ME WITH THAT LOOK HE COULD GIVE U JUST CHECKING. I MISS HIM O MY GOSH THE TIME,S ON THE TRACK EVERYBODY THOUGHT HE & PARNELLI HATED EACH NOT TRUE JUST TRUE COMPETITION THE STORIES I COULD TELL, IHAVE A SPECIAL 351 CLEVELAND HE GAVE ME FROM HIS PANTARA IT WAS GOING TO GO IN A MIGET, AND A LOT’S MORE ALL 4 SALE
@David – There was some potentially marvelous history in what you said. If I may, here are a few suggestions:
1) Turn off your ‘CAPS LOCK’ – literally nobody wants to read a letter that was written by someone shouting at them.
2) Try organizing those wonderful thoughts a little better – I was recently admonished by someone on this board to write my stuff into a program like ‘Word’ or even ‘Text Editor’, then save it, edit it, until I had what I wanted, then copy and paste into the ‘Comments’ field. Even though I already knew enough to do it, I seldom did – only to my own detriment (especially, when my comment gets accidentally erased, either by a network or computer/software glitch).
3) Expand on the thoughts more. I know we all wanted to know more about the Mickey Thompson connection. Make logical paragraphs, not a giant block of text.
Thanks for the great comment, though. We really appreciated a little more color for ‘The Mick’.
Cut ‘im some slack. He’s just channeling his inner Jack Kerouac.
Painted dash board and no vent wings – probably the P3 “Business” series rather than the P4 Deluxe. Bogart also drove a ’37/’38 (it keeps switching back and forth from one year to the next) in “High Sierra” and also in “Dark Victory” with Bette Davis.
Sold for $18,100.
Lovely car. It inspires me to keep working on my 36 D2 slantback sedan. I want to experience the bias ply tire, windshield cranked open summer driving that my grandfather did.
Ever since I watched Humphrey Bogart driving one just like this in the movie “The big sleep”, I have thought it would be cool to have one. Everyone goes the “Stovebolt” route (Chevrolet), but this is unusual. When I think of driving an old Plymouth like this, I think of Bogie with Loren Bacall sitting next to him. Great movie – good times.