Projects 1940 Plymouth Coupe Build!

Great looking ride

 

I fell the 40 was a high for the plymouth along with the 47/48. I have a real soft spot for the 40 tho my late uncle had a 40 chopped no side window with filled seams
spots and a real nice ford v-8 flathead. the rear skirts sat just off the ground.

 

bad news. Looks like the old girl started to lose a wrist pin or something worse.... Tried to start her up today and first sign of trouble I shut her down... Looks like I am back at square one again. I am severely disappointed and am going to put her on the back burner for now because I am so upset. I'll post up some updates when I can of progress when I feel like working on it again.

 

Where is a good source for parts for a '40 Plymouth PT105, truck?

 

Nice work. I have a '40 2 door sedan with a lot of the same rust yours had. I have a LONG way to go! What are you using for a rear end?

 

I was watching your car when it was up on evilBay, it has to be one of the most outstanding chopped coupes I've ever seen. I was wondering who was the lucky dog that grabbed it up.

Bob

 

the rear end I have is a 74 Buick Apollo 10 bolt, pretty much it is a chevy drive train for now until I can afford to toss a MASSIVE hemi in it. And I mean massive.

I am going to start working on the Plymouth I think once I get some more stuff finalized on this pickup I'm also restoring. I am pretty much practicing all of my body work skills on something that I can actually buy patch panels for if all hell brakes loose. I think I've got the hang of it though. So I am getting back in the mood to finalize this plymouth and have 2 bitchin' rods to go to shows with.

 

Thanks for the inspiring words I appreciate it.. actually to tell you the truth I was following your restoration on your web page for months until you stopped posting everything. You were kind of my inspiration to get it running.

 

Picked up a fender for my Plymouth at the swap meet (NOS for $175). Talked with the Plymouth Doctor and will be ordering some panels soon so I can work on it again over the winter.

I can't wait to get rolling on this thing again!

 

I haven't posted much because I got sidetracked! Did a Cuda, Jensen Interceptor and a Charger.... then I moved. LOL I'll have to get back on my Coupe soon!

Did you sort out your plans for the drivetrain?

Good NOS 1940 parts are tough to find. I bought an NOS trunklid, took me years and years to find it!!! The fender looks great.

 

No on the drive train yet, but I have started to clean up the garage and unbury they Plymouth. It wasn't treating me well so I put it in a 2 year time out basically lol. I am going to start cranking on it sometime this winter or after I unbury it the rest of the way. I have a lot of skills from my truck build that I can bring to the Plymouth and everything will be a lot better in the long run.

I am pretty happy about the fender, now I have 3 spares . I can't wait to see progress on yours, that thing is pretty cool.

 

Uncovering the coupe from its two year slumber in my garage. Going to start on it pretty soon. No chop, I will pull it off the frame and get the body blasted inside and out (it is need of it). The outside was stripped down to bare metal and primered with rustoleum, with special care to ensure that all of the rust was out of certain areas before doing so. I picked up a 40 plymouth fender earlier, which will really help in getting me on my way with this one. I am probably going to try to get it running again before really getting into the body work. I am then going to start tackling the trunk lid again and rear end. There is a lot of work to be done on this one.....

 

Good to see your going to start on this one. I've enjoyed your Apache build thread, but I'm sure this one's going to be even better!

 

Well the truck was pissing me off so I went over and starting working on this to see if I can get it to fire up. I will be pulling the headers and removing the plugs to rotate it over by hand to see if I can locate the source of the noise. I will be putting a charge on it as well to see if it will fire. More to come on that soon

Here is the youtube video of when it was really worked on and what the engine sounded like




And finally here are some pictures of the engine compartment... boy my work is cut out for me lol. Much has been learned from the Apache build and now will be applied to this car to get it done the right way.

 

I guess I should start by posting some pictures of what it looked like when I started with it.

 

More Pictures:

 

and more

 

Here is a video of us driving it around the block

 

Thanks Eric, its not going to be as nice as yours, but i'll give it a shot

 

Good to see you've found new inspiration and started on the Plymouth again Scott! Looking forward to your progress.

 

Hey...41 Plymouth hood and one running board needed in Bay area of Cali... Thats where she is getting finished at while I am in Afghani-land... Any help appreciated...

Mike

 

oh yeah, need 40 headlights too... hate the 41's... again thanks...

 

there can never be enough Plymouth coupes here on the h.a.m.b......watching this one!

 

Good to see you dug it out. It's had a long enough rest. But it's gonna be tough going in to that garage and deciding which one to work on.

 

There is a '41 Plymouth coupe in my area that has a really warmed up Slant Six with a Clifford intake, Cam and modified head. It is coupled to a MOPAR 727 and it screams. Fun car. I like to see the look on the faces of those who get the first look after being dusted off by this car.
Normbc9

 

If at all possible, please get pictures and description of how the slant 6 fits. That's a common question/thought on an updated drivetrain.
Interested in how it fits in the frame and what needs to be done to the inner fender(s) and firewall.

 

Yeah I know it, but the truck is nearing completion for this round of "restoration." I would like to drive it around before tearing it down again for the final time. That way I can tweak everything to where it needs to be and can at least go to a show in it. Granted its not an award winner, but pretty good for not being driven for over 30 years

My Dad is coming in tomorrow from Maryland where he was teaching to come take the truck on its maiden voyage this weekend. I am really excited! Maybe we can get the Plymouth running again too!

 

59apache, subscribed to your thread. A couple questions for ya, what subframe are you using? Why a sbc?(just kidding)How did the manual brakes work for you on your test spin? How many steering joints are you using in your set up and why?
I'm hoping to get back to working on my 40 dodge this winter. one nice thing about owning a plymouth of that year is you can find alot of good sheet metal for them(at least here on the east coast), trying to find for dodge is big pain in the butt,lol. later shawn

 

When I bought it when I was 13 (with money from restoring a couple Harleys and going to swap meets) it already had a 79 camaro subframe on the front of it with a '74 chevy truck 350 with a 4 bolt main that was "rebuilt." The previous owner that paid the machine shop to rebuild it proceeded to leave the air cleaner off of it so one of the cylinders was pretty much stuck and full of water, so I had to tear it down again. Being a kid in high school and not having a lot of time or money I opted to rebuild the cheaper SBC because I already knew how to rebuild them, had the parts, and didn't have the mula for a big beautiful hemi, which this car deserves.
Since I was laid off from my job, I can't do the hemi like I had planned, so I am going to have to stick with the SBC.

To be honest the manual brakes were a little scary because this car wants to go go go... but overall it was driveable. Plus I was nervous because this car hadn't been registered since the late 60's and I didn't want to wreck it.

I am using 3 total steering joints; one at the column, one in the middle, and one at the gearbox. The reasoning is mainly because I needed to get around the header and also the angle was too steep so I had to reduce it by using 3.

I look forward to your dodge thread, those are pretty rare these days.

 

I decided to let the truck have a little break since it has been soooo good lately lol. I decided to pull the plugs, drop the exhaust off of it, inspect the valves, and put some marvel mystery oil in each cylinder to lubricate everything. Tomorrow I will roll it over by hand and hopefully find out what that noise is when it rotates.

Also, I found that even with a full battery the starter will not work. I know there is also another issue there as well. More on that tomorrow, for now enjoy the pictures of the rebuilt heads and filthy spark plugs lol