Like the title states, I found one in my price range and locally , trying to get ahold of the owner to go look at it. says it’s all original, some surface rust and mint interior. tje pics he’s posted show some paint peeling snd rust the interior does look mint Says the floors snd frame are in perfect shape been sitting for some years. How do they drive ? How hard are parts to get ? Any Interchange with Chrysler , dodge , desoto ? It’s got the flathead 6 which I think is a great engine , not a rocket but a good strong runner. how are the brakes , suspension , transmission etc ?
This is not the car , but it is a 4 door . I’m thinking suede paint and cragars, snd on the ground . Save as much of the trim snd chrome as I can
Good cars... great front suspension, decent brakes, decent steering. Well built. Decent mechanical parts availability, including hop-up stuff. Not as popular as Fords and Chevs, but overall, I think they are better than both. YMMV
That pic is a 40 Dodge. I have had three 40 Plymouths. Parts are pretty easy to come by. Hey drive and ride decent and are pretty reliable.Just beware that they are not very valuable so a guy can get upside down pretty quick.
Open driveline, with parallel leafs in the rear and coil springs/A arms up front, which is nice, the rear drums are they type you have to take off with a puller, which can be a real pain. Neat cars, but as said, not really valuable, especially a 4 door sedan. Could be worth it if the price is a bargain and you want to keep it to a very low budget. Floors and sills are the first thing to go on these cars, and also the seam where the rear fenders bolt to the body. If it's good there, it's good throughout.
Those were the days when Chrysler was famous for their engineering, not so much for their styling. Brakes, suspension, engine etc were state of the art for the times and still hold up pretty good. Mechanical parts like brakes, engine parts etc are usually available and cheap, body parts and trim not so much. They used the same basic flathead six from 1937 to 1959 in Plymouth and Dodge cars and Dodge pickup trucks as well as industrial and marine power plants, they made millions of them and thousands are still in service. That is why parts are still available. The same engine used in Dodge Power Wagon military vehicles, Vintage Power Wagons in Iowa has NOS parts by the dump truck load. Big brother Chrysler/ DeSoto six will fit with a little finageling. Bolts up to the trans, but is a couple inches longer so you need to move the motor mounts and rad. This bolt in motor gives you up to 265 cu in and 130HP stock. Don't let the low HP (97 in your car) fool you, those long stroke motors have a lot of punch at low to medium speed where you need it and perform better than the numbers suggest, while the high torque and broad power band make driving so easy. Typical engine life, 50,000 to 80,000 miles. Longer on modern oil and fuel if you take care of it. The engines are foolers, they are very well behaved and continue to run without bangs or knocks in an advanced state of wear, they just get hard to start, down on power and burn more gas and oil. The way to check on condition is to do a compression test (valve and piston health) and check the oil pressure (bearings). If you buy the car get the factory service manual, you will need it especially for working on the brakes. Unlike the loose leaf brakes used on cheaper cars, they need to be set up right and adjusted right then they work great. And, two things that cross up a lot of new comers: Positive ground, 6 volt electrics and LEFT HAND THREADS on the left side wheel bolts. Remember those 2 things and save yourself some grief. Good luck, if you have any more questions just ask.
I see you are in Canada, Canadian made Plymouth and Dodge used a smaller version of the big Chrysler/DeSoto engine so the bigger power plant bolts right in. You could take your engine out to 265 cu in by boring to 3 7/16 (stock Chrysler, 1/16 oversize for Plymouth) and installing the long stroke crankshaft and rods from the Chrysler engine. It used to be the case that Plymouth and Dodge cars were cheaper than Ford or Chevrolet, today not so much. Recently old car prices seem to have gone up a lot. You could spend quite a bit of money on a car like that and still come out ok by today's prices, especially since Plymouth parts are often pretty cheap. If you have to do a brake job or take off the rear hubs for any reason rent or borrow the biggest 3 jaw puller you can find, the hub will come off but it can put up a fight especially if it has been on there for 80 years and grown together. When you put them back on make sure they are installed dry and the nut tightened properly, the axle shaft has to wedge into the hub so it does not turn. There is a key but it only locates the hub, it is the wedge action that stops it from slipping. They drive real nice if the suspension etc is in good shape and you get an alignment. They were one of the first cars with modern style tubular shocks but they were installed in a funny way, with the top mount on the upper control arm and the lower mount on the lower control arm. A lot of guys add a shock mount to the frame, and put on new shocks in the conventional way. Go over the front end and replace worn parts, new shocks, get an alignment, and put on radial tires, not too wide, pumped up to 32PSI and you will be very pleased with the way it drives. Not a sports car but easy and pleasant driving.
Mr O'Toole pretty much said it all, but I will add those 6's were good reliable motors, I've had several
Get it! Although my car isn’t all mopar the six is. I’ve always been a Ford guy but that has changed with this little car. Speed parts are out there and it wakes these guys up.
Wheels are 4 1/2" X 5 bolt pattern same as RWD Ford and many other cars. But, they use bolts instead of nuts and studs. They have a locating pin to help install the wheel, if you use Ford or aftermarket, or Chrysler wheels newer than 1970 you need to drill a hole for the pin, 5/16 I think is the size. This only takes a few minutes and is a lot better than breaking off the pin or changing to studs.
So not much different then my 53 Chrysler ? I know about the rear brakes , I got a puller I did away with the wheel bolts by using threaded Jaguar wheel studs and welding them in place I was lucky back then and scored a duel carb / split exhaust off an old dodge dump truck and stuck in on the flathead , woke it up nicely. can the 40 survive on the highway ? glad to know parts are cheap snd easy, seems not much changed on them. This would be a cheap n fun rod just to have something to drive around. I we t to look at a 56 desoto that needed 30 grand worth of work to make a 15,000 grand driver out of it . The owner thinks he’s sitting in gold cause “ it’s got a hemi”. I told him, keep sitting …….. it might hatch and become something of value ! Anyways cool thanks guys
If you have a 53 Chrysler most everything on the 40 will be familiar ground. Simpler of course, but similar performance as it may be less powerful but also weighs a lot less. Should be capable of 70 MPH on occasion if the engine, trans, etc are in top shape. 60 or 100KPH should be a breeze. If the engine is less than perfect they are a simple engine to rebuild and parts are available cheap. Last time I looked, VPW had NOS pistons for $75 a set of 6. How good do you want it?
Contact Mid Canada Suspension in Winnipeg, Norm Dumontier is an encyclopedia of knowledge and has a warehouse of parts for your car. Sweet car... I just found a 47 plymouth sitting in a back yard - I just may have to get to know the owner... he's old...
I like 'em. Just installing a bigger displacement six in mine but ran the stock motor (unrebuilt) for a few years. The only thing done to it being cleaning the sludge out of the oil pan and new points, plugs, cap, wires and coil. First trip in it was in 2019 following a bunch of friends that had come up for the Deuce Days car show halfway back to SoCal.
Well this could be very helpful. I'm about to return to my '42 Fargo which needs some updating. Kind of restored it years ago and the stuff I did has lasted the test of time. Stuff I paid for not so much. I'll be following... Edit: great engine but whoever designed the starter mount should been "hurt very bad!".
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