Ladies and gentlemen, keep your hats on while driving or riding in this 1946 Plymouth Special DeLuxe, the roof is more than high enough. This car predates Chrysler’s K.T. Keller’s famous edict that men should be able to wear a hat while driving, but it’s roomy nonetheless. It’s posted here on craigslist in Goldfield, Iowa and the seller is asking $4,000. Here is the original listing.
After WWII, Plymouth, along with most American automakers, resumed production by using what were basically pre-war cars. This car is a P-15, specifically a P-15C two-door sedan, and it’s the highest trim level, the Special DeLuxe. The seller says this car has been sitting here for over 30 years and it appears to be in incredibly nice condition, at least on the exterior. They do say that the title is missing, but that shouldn’t be a huge issue for the next owner.
As with most vehicles on craigslist, especially those in storage that haven’t moved in decades, the photos aren’t the best. There aren’t many overall images, probably because the car can’t just back out of this spot to be featured in a better location for better photos. Here’s a full view of the rear, in case you were wondering what it looked like. I don’t really see a flaw on the exterior of this car, it would be fun to see it cleaned up, I bet it would look fantastic.
The interior is rougher than the exterior with some possible rodent damage; although we don’t know for sure. The seats show wear, but you would probably want to strip everything out of here and make sure the floors are solid, add some Dynamat-like material, redo the flooring and the painted woodgrain, and put the reupholstered seats back in. Hopefully, everything on the dash works, who knows?
Kudos to the seller for providing an engine photo, even if it is hard to see anything in there. Are there spark plugs in this 217-cu.in. L-head inline-six, which had 95 horsepower and 172 lb-ft of torque? We don’t know, but this one apparently hasn’t run in at least three decades so there’ll be the usual checklist to get it running again. A three-speed manual sends power to the rear wheels and this would be a great car to tinker with. At $4,000, it probably wouldn’t break the bank to get it into running and driving condition. Have any of you owned a Plymouth of this era?
My very first car was a 41 Plymouth. I was 14 years and bought it for I think $25, it never went on the road when I had it. It was driven on farm access and logging roads on family property. These weren’t fast cars but you would be surprised how fast they feel whenever you’re fighting tractor ruts or doing donuts in the fields. Don’t know what ever happened to the car, but lots of wonderful memories.
Yup, had one almost like this car only
mine was a 4-door sedan that was in
worse shape than this one. Bought it
from a guy named Bernie Blakely for
$50 in the spring of ’74. Bernie fancied himself as the biggest old car
dealer in our area and he did have a
fair amount of old stuff for sale. In
fact, that’s where I got my ’52 Chevy
for $10 in ’71. In fact, my Chevy was
the only running car he had at that time as everything else he had lying
around didn’t run and needed lots of
work to get it going again. I seem to recall he had a Model A pickup truck
that was nothing more than a shell with 4 tires on it for $1K– an unheard
of amount for a roller back then. My
Plymouth was nearly complete and had very little rust when I took it to a friend’s house to work on it while waiting to go back on the road playing music. With some help from our Plymouth dealer, I found that my car was one of the first built after VJ Day
And was titled as a ’45 model. Since I
didn’t know when I’d be leaving, I was
Over at my friend’s house every day to
try and get it running and driving before I left for another tour. After trying all I knew to start it, I got frustrated and called Dad and talked
to Dad about it and it wasn’t long before he showed up with some some tools and we finally got it running. That’s when Dad showed me
how to hand choke a car and make it
run again. And when he did, all that
Marvel’s Mystery Oil that I sprayed down the cylinders ignited and the biggest smoke cloud you ever saw erupted from the car to the point my
friend’s neighbors called the fire department to tell them that my car was on fire! Once they got there, they
checked everything out to make sure
there was no fire to put the neighbors
minds at ease. Once we got the brakes done, we drove it around town nearly all summer long when I was
home. Wound up selling the car to that same friend as I had no time to
really work on it once the Fall Tour started that year. Both the car and my friend moved to Oklahoma and I
never saw them again, but that summer was one to remember.
Add says it doesn’t run no mention if its locked up or not. I would love the opportunity to get it running, since I moved to a new state at the beginning of the lockdown I haven’t been in the car world much so I would have to do some digging to see how hard it would be to get a title for it here.
THIS one is familiar. My mother traded-in her 1942 Nash to buy a 1948 Plymouth, which was nearly identical to this one. Hers was the lower-end model, thus lacking both the horn ring and the fancy Plymouth ships impressed into the inside door-panels. Hers did have the vertically-arranged radio (not particularly good, as I recall), but I don’t remember hers having the clock. Having myself owned and driven a 1946 Ford for many years, I can report to you that the Plymouth had MUCH better HEAT. But the Ford had more power and a vastly better radio. The Ford was much smoother and quieter-running (to be fair, the Ford was a V-8 and the Plymouth was a six. The streamlined lines of the 1940-1948 Plymouth were cleaner and better-looking, than the Ford’s from 1941-1948. The body on this one looks GREAT! Too bad that the interior and mechanics don’t measure-up!
THIS one is familiar. My mother traded-in her 1942 Nash to buy a 1948 Plymouth, which was nearly identical to this one. Hers was the lower-end model, thus lacking both the horn ring and the fancy Plymouth ships impressed into the inside door-panels. Hers did have the vertically-arranged radio (not particularly good, as I recall), but I don’t remember hers having the clock. Having myself owned and driven a 1946 Ford for many years, I can report to you that the Plymouth had MUCH better HEAT. But the Ford had more power and a vastly better radio. The Ford was much smoother and quieter-running (to be fair, the Ford was a V-8 and the Plymouth was a six). The streamlined lines of the 1940-1948 Plymouth were cleaner and better-looking, than the Ford’s from 1941-1948. The body on this one looks GREAT! Too bad that the interior and mechanics don’t measure-up!
I had the twin to this car. It was also a 1946. Bought it March 6, 1967, from the original lady owner, for $85. It was midnight blue, and I had it painted Indian Turquois Blue, for $50. It looked like Sea Foam Green.,
Had to sell it one year later to go to Vietnam. This all happened while I was stationed at Suffolk County AFB in West Hampton, Long Island. If the engine is trash, any year flathead 6 thru 1959 will fit. I loved that car.
Nice car, love the color. I think the 4 doors actually looked better, though. Nice big trunks in these.
My first car was a ’37 – two years older than I was. ‘Bought it for $70 in 1956. Wonderful old car. ‘Drove it to school and work for about a year. Then I did a stupid thing: ‘tried to see how fast I could rev it in first. Must have blown a hole in a piston. Had oil spewing out the breather all over. Back in the ‘50s you could buy re-refined drain oil for 25¢ a quart. Even then, that was cheap. I bought a lot of it to keep the thing running for another three or four months before I traded it for a ’51 Chevy. ‘Wish I’d kept it. That piston would not have been hard to replace – but I didn’t know that. I still want another one.
Curt – I agree. None of the two-door sedans of the’30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s looked right to me. Exception: ’49-52 fast-back GMs. My ’51 Chevy was a four-door fastback (Fleetline?) and those didn’t look right with four-doors! All of the Big Three made “Club Coupes” which were just about as spacious as a two-door sedan but the coupes were oh so much better looking! Club coupes died with the advent of the “Two-door hardtop [convertible]” in ’49 for the upper GMs – not until ’51 for Plymouth.
My mother learned to drive on a car like this. Her and her brother went half on it just after the war. The family lived in Queens at the time and the next door neighbor taught her how to drive, he was NYC fireman and drove the back of the old hook and ladders. After marrying my father he mostly had small cars, Hillman Minx, Rambler American, and then a Volkswagen. I think the first car she picked out was ’67 Mercury Montclair. She could drive that around the parkade of our local dept. store at about 35 mph (seemed like it anyway) and not even slow down. The only dent that car ever had was the one I put in it.
No title is a complication, potential buyer is going to need a plan for that, and how get rid of mouse stank interior on the way to hot rod city.
To V12MECH: I would hate to see this one hot-rodded. Though it would cost more than the end-result would be worth, I’d much rather see the buyer of this one restore the body and mechanics to near-showroom state, then find a “hopeless” one (say, a northeastern rust-bucket) with a decent surviving interior, and transfer that into this one, making any cosmetic or other repairs, and end up with a restored 1946 as original as possible in nice driving condition, then enjoy motoring with it just as Chrysler built it 78 or 79 years ago. To bachldrs: keep looking: you’ll eventually find that 1937!
Harrison, thanks for your encouragemment. You’re speaking of fears of going upside-down. The surest way to spend a lot of money on a car and go upside-down? In less than an hour? Buy a new car!
As prices on ‘30s-60s cars drop, that makes them more affordable for those of us who simply love them. I never think about recovery on my bad car “investments”. I love working on these cars much as I enjoy driving them. Money spent on restoration or upgrades is like money spent on theatre/concert/athletic-event tickets. No return on those either. The only issue becomes the cost of an hour’s entertainment.
To bachldrs: thank you for your warm response! At my age, were I to buy any 1940s car, it would need to be an excellent survivor that requires little-to-nothing, to be able to drive it. I’m too old to restore one. By the way, if you are ambitious beyond belief, there is a 1937 Chrysler 4-door convertible newly on this site. At one time, likely in the 1950s, it was driven by a kid, since it has blue dots and a necking-knob. But it’s pretty far gone at this point, rust everywhere. It resides in Michigan, and looks it. But you could peer at it and feel some nostalgia, perhaps — also great sadness, since it likely cannot be saved as an original 1937 “driver” (though one can WISH). It hurts, since I remember when such Chryslers were quite new and seen regularly: whatever happened to the last 85 years?
Harrison: thank you for sending me in the right direction. My Dad had ’36 and ’37 DeSotos – neither of them Airflows. The ’36 was pretty tired when we got it – probably about 1945. ‘Got the ’37 in ’46 and drove it for several years. Good car; lots of fond memories! I’ve already seen the Chrysler you mentioned. Pretty rough. It would take some pockets deeper than mine to save it. Did you say something about 85 years? That number just became very familiar to me. Like you, I’m no longer up for another major project, but I must have something to work on, just to stay alive. ‘Hope you find just exactly what you’re looking for. Or maybe you already have it?
I’m enjoying this banter. Take care of yourself. We still need folks old enough to love these cars.
Hello again, bachldrs! How nice of you to greet me. I should have known that you would have already seen the sad ’37 Chrysler. What hurts keenly about that one is, unlike a woods or field abandoned find, enough remains this time, to still carry the dignity of what this bygone car once was; and yet, it is far enough decayed to discourage and virtually preclude getting it back on the road. If it were merely a rusted skeleton, then we could “walk away” with limited feelings. But like a dying animal looking into our eyes hopefully for help, something in this car calls to us and begs us to hope for it even though we cannot possibly help it — even as we realise that its situation is hopeless. For those of us who witnessed these fine automobiles when they were new, and have not encountered one still “alive” in too many years to admit, the desire to see this one somehow re-habilitated, is heart-breaking. It is the loss of our own past that we mourn, perhaps. But if I play my Bluebird 78 of Rudy Vallee’s “Vieni Vieni”… or Tommy Dorsey’s Victor 78 of “Once In A While”… or Raymond Scott’s Master 78 of “The Toy Trumpet”… at least for those short minutes of pleasing warm sound, it is 1937 once more. Incidentally, one of my favourite records is from 1936, and I urge you to look on line where maybe someone has placed it for you to listen to: “Look For The Silver Lining”, by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. If you locate the right recording, it is on a black label Victor 78 with lovely gold lettering and scroll-work all around the outer-border of the label. Please enjoy hearing it!