1949 Plymouth For Sale in NC - Forum member?

[kbuhagiar]

Hello folks,

I stumbled upon this 1949 Plymouth for sale:

http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/inventory/1949-Plymouth-Special-Deluxe/132424

The engine is especially nice.

It looks familiar - was it previously owned by someone on this forum?

Just curious. Thanks.

[Don Coatney]

I believe that is the car built by Howard Tarnoff who has been on this forum. The car looks great. But it has not made it over 50 miles without something failing per Howard.

Follow this link for more details.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=27814&highlight=tarnoff

[BobT-47P15]

Yep, that's Howard's car.

He went to a lot of trouble and expense on that one, too bad it didn't

end up working better.

[greg g]

I think this car should stand as a lesson (no offense Howard) in support of the theory that if and when you buy an older car, the first priorty, regardless of the the way it appears, it to get it mechanically reliable before you spend a lot of time and money to make it pretty. There is no doubt that it is a verp nicely presented piece, but the fact that there have been so many mechainical problems, that prevent it from being an automobile is a sad story.

Perhaps the problems in and of themselves are trivial and could be worked out by some one with some knowledge, experience and tinker time, but the owner became frustrated when it did not operate up to his expectations.

I can't remember what all the problems were but I believe the car was at two different body shops with stuff being done udone and then redone, and the same with the mechanical systems also. Don;t know if this was a result of shoddy workmanship, or people promising what in reality they could not deliver.

It's a shame that the concept did not develop into a fully functional car and now sits waiting for some one to pay a price that is probably only about a third of what was spent to get it to where it sits.

So I would ecourage folks to get them to start, run drive steer and stop, before you begine to build your dream.

I believe Howard started working on this project before this forum changed to its present format. His first post on this board was in 2007, and the story wasn't going well then.

Edited October 16, 2011 by greg g

[Don Coatney]

Greg;

I agree with everything you said! Makes me wonder how many of the Burris cars as well as all the other big customizer builders actually built cars that are drivable. I recall visiting a museum in Auburn, Indiana a few years back that had some big name show cars on display. These cars were not drivable. Some had big wads of wiring hanging under the dash not connected to anything. But they all had been trophie cars at some of the big shows. I think it boils down to what a person wants. A trophie queen or a driver. I am on the driver side of the fence.