Search the Community

I was forwarded a question regarding a 1942 Plymouth convertible folding top operation. Apparently this gentleman has a 1942 Plymouth Convertible where the top is not hooked up. I'm assuming that means it does not work. He first wanted to verify that it was a vacuum system which I was able to confirm from my 42 Plymouth parts manual. Next he was looking for a diagram that might show the vacuum lines and how they are run.. My 42 Plymouth parts manual does not have any diagrams of that. I found a weak diagram in the plymouth service manual but it really did not show the vacuum lines. I'm guessing the same vacuum system was used on the P15 46-48 convertibles but I don't know that for a fact. Does anyone know? My 46-48 Dodge Parts manual has a wonderful schematic showing the convertible top mechanism and wiring but that is electric. I was wondering if the P15 Parts manual had an equally nice schematic of the Plymouth folding top and all the vacuum lines?

Some of you are connected to me on Facebook, and have seen the pictures, but the back story I want to share here might be of interest. Last week I followed a lead that took me to a house about 19 miles northwest of me where I found another P15c Plymouth patiently waiting for resurrection. The car, a nice example of loving care over its 70 years of existence, is now in my garage and has become the second in my permanent collection. In the past 6 months I've bought two other P15's but that I was tempted to keep, but they've since taken a boat trip to Holland where my business partner will find decent homes for them. The newest acquisition is a convertible. I've yet to have the documentation pulled from the archive, but the car is believed to have been sold in Massachusetts originally. I am very anxious to see which dealer and to be able to see if the building still exists. The original owner was from Lexington Massachusetts, as shown on one of the 30 or so registration cards that came in the glove box. He was a Doctor of Physics and worked at a small institution known as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Labs. Some may recognize the name of this establishment as being home of a small project code named "Manhattan". While unconfirmed as of yet, there is an endowment left in the owners name and I have written to enquire if this learned individual was indeed connected to Atomic research going on at the time. This gentlemen kept the car for many years, and I suspect the last year of ownership was 1964 which is documented in a Midas Muffler lifetime warrantee also delivered with the car. The glove box was filled with maps of the eastern seaboard and a list of antique shops in each state. Researching his name I found that this man and his wife amassed one of the countries largest collections of Shaker furniture, a portion of which was sold after his death and another portion donated to the Smithsonian in DC. Further research has shown me that the man died at the ripe age of 94, leaving a sizeable chunk of money to create an endowment that reports assets over $1mil today. The second owner of the car is another local gentlemen who owned the car from 1964/5 up until 2001. This gentleman is still alive and well and living in Concord Massachusetts. He started a small business in the 1960's that has now grown into one of New England's largest Asphalt paving contractors and does a lot of private and highway paving work in the region. This man was the last to drive the car up until this past weekend. The car was last on the road (legally) in 1980. In the trunk of the car were many treasures, one of which I was told should always stay in the car. Under a small blanket were a dozen small flat stones about 2" in diameter. The second owner stated he and his wife collected these stones on their first date in Wells Beach Maine. Coincidently my family has owned a home in Wells Beach since 1919, which makes the tie to this car and the story a little sweeter. Amazingly enough the car has never been titled as they were not required or needed during the use of the car with its first two owners. I will likely title the car due to its value and estate reasons, and will become the first titled owner. The fella I bought the car from almost backed out of the deal, having owned the car since 2001, he had ideas of restoring it, but I am glad he left it alone. Among other items in the car were three spare hubcaps, a set of spare leaf spring shackles new in their NOS boxes, an original cloth bag for the bumper jack equipment, a wooden hand screwdriver which I believe may have been Plymouth OE, five brand new pairs of windshield wipers, a dozen spare vacuum radio tubes, and a couple boxes of spare fuses. A few sentences about the condition of the car as found, what I've done in the past week, and what I plan to do; General condition; - The car has not run since 1980 after the keys were lost, but the motor turned by hand so I knew there had to be some life in it. - The motor has a reman tag on it, a sticker on the firewall and yellow grease pencil writing on the firewall indicating it was replaced at 99,257 miles. The car now has 27,175 miles, so relatively new considering. Inspection thru the #6 cylinder port has proven the motor is a 230. (big smiles on my face when I learned that). - The body has two small issues to correct, but I likely won't touch them for several years as the patina is very appealing to me. One area on the front edge of the passenger door, and another paint separation issue surrounding the rear stop light on the trunk. The rest of the car is undercoated (rather thickly too) as well as under the hood. - Braking is terrible at the moment despite replacing the right front lower cylinder to make it yard drivable. Brake fluid is orange proving that what ever is in the tubes is long overdue for replacement. - The interior is trimmed rather smartly in - The top is original to the car and has a HUGE hole in it above the front seat. Mechanism goes up and down by hand easily. Vacuum cylinders are as of yet undiagnosed. - The car came with a factory supplied boot cover that is in decent shape. I will attempt to use this for the moment and in the future have a new one sewn up from its pattern. - The car also came with a rather unique and suspected non-oem option: Full Custom Tonneau Cockpit Cover. At first I said to myself what a shame, then I saw it on the car and fell in love with it. Getting her running; - Drained the 37 year old gas, boy does that stink... now to find a place to get rid of 10 gallons of it. - Replaced a very worn fan belt. - Swapped out the ignition switch for an OEM that I had in my stash. - Swapped out plugs, cables, coil. - Replaced both battery leads with heavy gauge OE style. - Added some MMO to each cylinder, placed the car in gear and rolled her back and forth a few times. - Installed a new 6V battery. - Disconnected the gas line to the carb and hand fed her some gasoline whereupon after several minutes of cranking she jumped to life. (and shot out an dust pan full of mouse crap, acorns and dirt from the muffler all over the garage floor.) She ran fine for an hour then died rather abruptly, whereupon several hours of playing whack-a-mole with intermittent doses of ATF has resulted in some less-sticky valves. Latest suggestion was to run some lead additive and to pull the gas tank and clean it. Plans to get her roadworthy; - Remove the gas tank, and thoroughly clean it. Looking for suggestions as to what might be best to use to clean the inside of the tank, noting that it has been wet with gas so residue is assumed to be fairly motile. - New brake cylinders, new brake lines, new MC, new brake switch, all four corners and in between. Curious as to whether or not I will need the miller brake tool (or reasonable facsimile) since I will be using the shoes/pads that are on the car as they are nearly in new condition. Any opinions here? - New top on order from Bill Hirsch to match the original factory colors; Black on tan, (my irish blood appreciates this a lot). Local trimmer has been selected and reports having done two 40's mopars in recent months. (they are on my hit list for names and addresses...) - Fluid changes - ALL of them, including oil, coolant, gear box, and rear end. During the winter months; - Interior betterments. Haven't decided if I want to rescue the interior or go new. I am partial to the patina, but if the cost would be too much to repair it may make sense to spend some dough on new correct color leather. The leather is in decent shape with no holes, but the cotton stitching has disintegrated on the front seat. - Passenger side vent wing window has a broken pivot point and the threaded post that attaches it to the doors A-pillar is sheared off. Both will need to be repaired. Glass will need to be removed from the frame before it can be corrected. Working on glass will be a first for me, and with such a rare part, I will have to work myself up to the challenge. - Overdrive swap. Later this year I will haul the sedan down to our house in North Carolina and park for a few years storage until we begin to full time in the winters down there. Before she goes down I will likely pull the OD and replace shelve it for installation in the convertible. And before I end this, a few notes of thanks for guidance in recent days; - Robin Weathersbee for his enthusiastic support and un-ending archives. - Greg G for giving me his phone number 7 or 8 years ago and allowing me to ask random questions in the middle of any given day or evening. - Young Ed is always there with his matter of fact - Bob Toft for sending me a dozen emails and a bunch of pictures of his car which convinced me to open the safe. I'll be a pest to all you for a while - bear with me. - lastly to my wife, to whom endured the "surprise look what I bought!" without sending a waffle iron flying in the air towards my head. And to her credit has instructed me to hurry up and get it done summer is here! AND said why would you consider selling Ruby?! AND doesn't understand why a 70 year old car is so special but allows me to spend every waking non-wage earning hour with it.

1952 movie She Couldn't Say No. Stars Robert Mitchum (Thunder Road) and Jean Simmons,( not that Gene Simmons) features a number of scenes of him driving a dark P15 convertible, and Simmons driving a light colored 52 Imperial convertible Several other 40's Mopar s are seen along with other makes as background in various scenes of the movie. Lots of old campers in late in the film also.

Hi, I have a Dodge convertible 1947 and I want to dismantle the side view mirrors, but I can't for my life understand how to remove them from the car. They are situated at the same way as the ones on the picture. Does anyone know how it's done? Cheers // Mats

I have a 1950 P20 Special Deluxe convertible. If you could do me a favor and post a picture of the clutch linkage that attaches to the engine or transmission I would greatly appreciate it. We can't figure out how it goes back on. We took pictures of the disassembly but must have missed this detail. If you look under the starter there should be a bracket that goes into the clutch arm. I have the bracket. Any pictures would be a great help.