Rare 42 ?

[Frank Elder]

Is this plymouth a 42?

I see added lites and is that a stock bumper?

[Young Ed]

Yup sure is.

[Frank Elder]

More pictures.

[Frank Elder]

A hood ornament, and my favorite...brakes!

All pictures from the Hamb. Grandpa's present.

[Young Ed]

I've got a hood ornament(pretty bad shape) and a hood side stainless piece for one of these sitting around.

[Frank Elder]

I'm guessing there were blackouts of the plymouth variety also, Jon?

[Young Ed]

For sure. BTW thats the proper bumper.

[Frank Elder]

After market "beehives" added on, ugly!

Thanks Ed.

[greg g]

Funny the note say 41 but the styling says 42. Rare, only because production ceased early due to change over to defense production. The under bumper sheetmetal was distinct to that year.

And Nascar thinks they are up to date with their front end under bumper spliter. It rare to see one with that feature intact as they were oftern victim to high burbs and downtown angle parking.

[Grandadeo]

I just posted the link to here over on his H.A.M.B. thread hope he comes on over and shares the story.

Lee

[BobT-47P15]

Yes, it's a 42. That's a weird light on the part below the dash.....

probably a make-do courtesy light. Looks like turn signals with

added lights have been installed.

[busycoupe]

What is the hole in the bumper just above the license plate for? It looks like the hole in the bumper of a 1960 Hillman I once had. On that car the hole with a slot was so that you could insert a crank to start the car. Did the Plymouth come equipped with a crank?

[BobT-47P15]

I believe it was for a crank.

[RobertKB]

I sure hope it doesn't get rodded. Those '42's are pretty rare and I don't think grandpa would be happy.

[epix1718]

Hey everyone, I'm the new "owner" of this Plymouth. Heres the story on it:

"Well for the longest time I've wanted this car; 1941 Plymouth Coupe (1942 just found out..) . It's been owned by my grandpa since the 50s, and before him it was owned by his uncle, the original owner who was mayor of St. Claire, MI back in the 40s. Grandpa inherited the car from him.. Story is the local mechanic in town really wanted this car and on the day my grandpa got it he was heading out of town in it and the mechanic asked why he was driving the car, he responded it was now his.. Mechanic refused to let them fill up the gas tank there so they had to drive to another service station. Has just under 70K original miles. I know it's not super rare or exciting, but this was the vehicle that got me excited about cars.

In the past year my grandpa has battled with cancer, and as a result has had to have his leg amputated just below the knee. This was his second term with cancer. Even before the cancer he has been sick for nearly 10 years and thus the car has sat for quite a while. Just today while talking I he offered me the car!

Not really sure where to begin with it, it has been sitting in his garage for nearly 10 years so pretty sure the tires are shot at the minimum. Brakes are really weak, so not sure what I need to get those fixed. I plan on working on it this spring and getting it call cleaned up and giving him a ride in it once again.

I don't want to do a frame off, just keep it original but cleaned up, possibly repaint it in the future (original color was robin egg blue)"

[Grandadeo]

Hey, glad to see you got cleared to post. As you can see the guys have already been commenting on your car. Great bunch here and I'm sure they will be happy to answer questions, etc. so jump on in.

Lee

[greg g]

That is great you know the history of the car. Welcome and glad you made it over. These are simple and dependable cars. The front brakes are a bit unusual in that they use two wheel cylinders on each side. (I spoke to you on the other board regarding the lug bolts) The brake adjustment is tricky and even whe correctly installed and adjusted they are noticable less effective that disc brakes you are used to. As also noted, the cost to repair the old ones is likely about the same as upgrading to disc brakes. There are several sources, but Charlie Ackers of this forum (Old Daddy screen name) makes and sells an adapter kit that uses easily available fairly inexpensive off the shelf part, to complete the adaaptation. check his website at Rustyhope.com, he is having a sale including free shipping.

As far as teh engine goes, if its not siezed, a compresson test will tell you alot oabout its condition. If it been sitting a while is not uncommon for a couple of valves to be stuck open. Some itme they will loosen up after getting some heat in the engine. Sometimes you might need to remove the cylinder head to free them.

When you get ready to start it, its a good idea to get fresh plugs (AC 44's seem to be favored by quite a few guys here) A new set of points and a rotor and condenser are easy to get, and a cap cant hurt either. These are all still readily available, but you need to take the distributor part number when you go to the parts store.

Conventional wisdom is that the distributor is a lot easier to work on out of the car and on the bench. comes out easily but make a reference mark as to where the rotor is pointing when you pull it, and don't tur the engine over when its out.

Just get it mechanically sound and running and stopping, then you can worru about the cosmetic stuff.

Again welcome and good luck.

[epix1718]

Already been collecting parts for it just to give it a tune up and fix what needs fixed:

Ignition kit with distributor cap, rotor, contact points, and condensor

Lacquered-cotton spark plug wire set

New hydraulic brake lines front/rear

Tail light lenses

Still looking for the wheel cylinders

[epix1718]

Here's some more random shots of the vehicle I took last summer:

[epix1718]

Here was his other old truck; now belongs to my uncle:

And my summer and winter daily drivers:

[Brendan D25]

You have a nice 42 there and it is a club coupe which makes it a bit rarer that a sedan. You are now in the right place here to get lots of help and encouragement. I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. Does he have a computer? I'm sure he would enjoy this forum after keeping the 42 for so long. Good Luck, Brendan.

BTW, your Blazer looks sharp.

[Young Ed]

Interesting the 42s are still floor start. Wheel cylinders should be readily available. Does anyone know if the 42s do in fact use the dual front wheel cylinder setup like the p15s?

[Robin (UK)]

Welcome to the Forum.

Your 42 is great. And it's fantastic to have that family history to go with it.

Good luck with the car.

[greg g]

I beleive from previous postings here that 42 was the changeover year from the steped single cylinders that the 40/41 used. Could be wrong though.

Looks like the flasher is missing from your signal light circuit. Those wires hanging down with the three contact socket.

I didn't think there were many Typoons left. Friend of mine had one a few years back scary thing to drive fast.

[BobT-47P15]

It would appear from this picture that the car may originally have been

blue.....then repainted to the current grey color.