46 Coupe Photo Essay

[46CoupeSD]

Today, I went through my parent's photo albums to see if I could scrounge up any old photos of my 1946 Plymouth Business Coupe, and it was a resounding success! Below is a brief write-up of the history behind each picture.

 

 

Photo 1: My Mom on high school graduation day in June of 1970. She received the car as a graduation gift from her father (my grandfather). It became her daily driver for many years. The colors are off in this photo for some reason, I'm thinking I can probably get a photo restoration person to clean it up. Additionally, there is an accessory attached to the bumpers not seen in any of the other pictures. Anyone know what those might be?

 

 

Photo 2: My Mom posing with the Plymouth shortly after joining the U.S. Air Force, circa 1974. What's interesting to note is the lack of white-wall tires, as well as the odd sense of fashion my Mom had in the mid-70s.

 

 

Photo 3: My Mom and Grandpa working under the hood in 1978. If you look closely, you can see the after-market horns my Grandpa had installed. There is a set of 4 horns (manufactured by Artes de Arcos), powered by the vacuum that each play a separate note. There is currently a leak somewhere in the mechanism, so only two of the four notes sound correct. I look forward to fixing that! Additionally, you'll note that the bumper accessory is no longer shown.

 

 

Photo 4: My (far right) first taste of the Plymouth, 1991. For my first few years on this planet, the car was garaged by my grandparents in San Diego while we constantly moved across the country due to my parent's Air Force careers. I always loved the car, probably more than anyone else outside of my Grandpa. Of interest to note is the blanket we have over the bench seat; we've always put blankets on the seats while driving so as to not cover the upholstery with sweat. So far, it's worked! While the bench seat does have a few stains, it's in otherwise miraculous condition for its age!

 

 

Photos 5 through 7: My grandparents drove the car from San Diego to Virginia in 1993. Grandma never knew how to drive, so Grandpa did 100% of the driving, with a hernia! I still have their trip log, showing when they broke down, how often they got gas, and who they visited. How's that for a reliability tour!

 

 

Photo 8: My parents with the Plymouth in its new (old) home in Virginia after my grandparents drove it cross-country in 1993. If you look above the license plate, you'll notice there is a "Registered Nurse" badge. This badge has always been on the car, as the first owner (as well as my Mom) were RNs. This is a piece of history that really makes this car special to me.

 

 

Photo 9: Grandpa (foreground) taking the car for a spin with one of our old neighbors in '93. Without his dedication to maintaining the Plymouth and passion for antique cars, this beautiful piece of American made machinery surely would have been lost to history. I am so thankful that I have been lucky enough to inherit such a wonderful family heirloom!

 

 

Photo 10: Last fall, after years of admiration, Big Blue passed into my possession when my parents moved from their longtime home to a condominium, no longer having the ability to store her. Here I am, filling her up with my first tank of gas. Hopefully, I will be able to pump many more. 

Edited April 20, 2015 by 46CoupeSD

[Niel Hoback]

Great car, great people, great story. Who is luckier, you or the car?

[Robin (UK)]

That's such a great timeline.
Thanks for sharing.

[mrwrstory]

That whole scene is just precious,....and rare!  Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

[46Ply]

Love it!

[Bad Apache]

Fantastic story! I hope you get to enjoy the car for a long long time as well. Awesome family heirloom!

 

Lon

[greg g]

Great heritage story. I got my 45 P15 in 1970 from its original owner in PA. Hope you get to enjoy it as much as we do ours.

Edited April 20, 2015 by greg g

[40plyrod]

That's Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to share with us, I really enjoyed the pics and stories.

[soth122003]

Give it back to your mom, She takes better pics. Just kidding. Looking at that brought back memories of my family when we went to Alaska in an old mopar in 1964. I hope you have as much fun with it as your family had, and when you get old and grey hopefully you'll pass it on to your son or daughter. It's like they said, "Plymouth builds great cars."

 

Joe

[JD luxury liner]

That is sooo cool. I love it. Bring tears to the eyes!!

[rumble48]

very cool car, great work putting together the pic's

[46CoupeSD]

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone! One of my favorite things about driving the old '46 are the stories I get from people on the road and at cruise-ins. So many fond memories associated with these cars.

[61farnham]

Great to have all that family history in the car. 

Thanks for posting.

[BobT-47P15]

great story....good pics...........thanks for posting.      Now, enjoy it.

[frankieflathead]

Looks like a great car with a great history. VERY cool that it has stayed in your family all these years. I have a pretty extensive history on my 1st Series 1949 Dodge that I keep in a three ring binder using archival quality clear sleeves. I thoroughly enjoy showing it to people at car shows and discussing the car with them, and they seem to enjoy it, too.

 

Regarding the "accessory attached to the bumpers" I think you're referring to the grille guard or, as it is sometimes known, the bumper overrider. It's primary purpose was to protect the grille from damage from careless people in parallel parking situations and also to prevent something never seen anymore known as "locking bumpers".

 

In the days of nonstandard bumper heights, this was mostly an urban phenomenon that occurred in heavy, stop and go traffic when an inattentive driver might collide with the vehicle ahead of him at a very low speed. This might not cause any actual damage to either car, but sometimes one bumper would be deflected above or below the other and they would become hooked together. This could be a major nuisance to untangle that usually involved much bouncing of the car on it's suspension by jumping up and down on the bumper and/or jacking one car or the other. This device prevented it from happening .

 

The downside was that they got in the way somewhat when you wanted to wash and polish the car. I personally think they're a cool period accessory although some prefer the cleaner look that you get without them. You can still find them out there out there although, as you can see, they're not exactly cheap.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1930s-1940s-1950s-Vintage-CELLO-Front-Bumber-GRILLE-GUARD-w-hardware-/291437929088?hash=item43db0de280&vxp=mtr

 

Best of luck with the car.

Edited April 21, 2015 by frankieflathead

[46CoupeSD]

In the days of nonstandard bumper heights, this was mostly an urban phenomenon that occurred in heavy, stop and go traffic when an inattentive driver might collide with the vehicle ahead of him at a very low speed. This might not cause any actual damage to either car, but sometimes one bumper would be deflected above or below the other and they would become hooked together. This could be a major nuisance to untangle that usually involved much bouncing of the car on it's suspension by jumping up and down on the bumper and/or jacking one car or the other. This device prevented it from happening .

 

The downside was that they got in the way somewhat when you wanted to wash and polish the car. I personally think they're a cool period accessory although some prefer the cleaner look that you get without them. You can still find them out there out there although, as you can see, they're not exactly cheap.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-1930s-1940s-1950s-Vintage-CELLO-Front-Bumber-GRILLE-GUARD-w-hardware-/291437929088?hash=item43db0de280&vxp=mtr

 

Best of luck with the car.

 

Wow, I never would have thought that was a problem - makes perfect sense though. Thanks for the background history!

[LODI3QTR]

Thanks for the trip threw time.....