1942 Business Coupe Victory model

[ClassicCarRepair]

Hello, I am new here but have spent the last hour searching for an answer with no luck.  I have what I believe to be a 42 Business Coupe Victory Blackout model.  I cannot read the riveted tag due to age, just the body tag screwed on below it.  Also, there is no door tag.  My question, "Is the blackout model a D23"?  I have a complete car less the driver's door and seat back, and I am trying to decide if it would be better to restore it to original, custom hot rod it, or sell it.  The D22 vs. D23 question is eating on me, however.  

[John32369]

I like it!

[Adrian41D-19]

What is the difference between d22 and d23?

 

nice buisness coupe 

i think it’s good idean to keep it original probably not many of them left on the earth haha 

[Reg Evans]

Here's my 42 D 22.  The engine number starts with D 22. Maybe the D 23 was used for the later blackout models.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

the mixture of both stainless and painted trim is confusing...being a D23 it has to have the letter C attached.....Canadian

[Flatie46]

As rare as those are i would definitely go back original. Really a cool car. Odds would be in your favor you wouldn't run into another one at a car show, cruise in....most anywhere really. That's something that makes it cool in itself.

[John Reddie]

57 minutes ago, Flatie46 said:

As rare as those are i would definitely go back original. Really a cool car. Odds would be in your favor you wouldn't run into another one at a car show, cruise in....most anywhere really. That's something that makes it cool in itself.

I couldn't agree more. It would be labor intensive for you but well worth it I think. These '42 models were limited production so to find a survivor is golden. Best of luck to you.

John R

[Adrian41D-19]

Someone know more about the painted trims like this? What should be painted or not? Cause on my 42 chrysler the tail light are painted but not the stop light. The chrome of this stop light is pitted, a lot.... and i wondering if i can paint it or not i saw both on the net. 

Thank you

 

and yes real nice find this 42 dodge!! I like it  

about the blackout models that mean the trims are painted like the frond grill of this dodge?

[knuckleharley]

11 hours ago, ClassicCarRepair said:

Hello, I am new here but have spent the last hour searching for an answer with no luck.  I have what I believe to be a 42 Business Coupe Victory Blackout model.  I cannot read the riveted tag due to age, just the body tag screwed on below it.  Also, there is no door tag.  My question, "Is the blackout model a D23"?  I have a complete car less the driver's door and seat back, and I am trying to decide if it would be better to restore it to original, custom hot rod it, or sell it.  The D22 vs. D23 question is eating on me, however.  

That is a business coupe. There never was a back seat.

[Adrian41D-19]

Another question when the trim are painted do you think they chrome it before the paint in the factory?

[casper50]

doubt it as that would make it more expensive and I believe chrome was needed for the war effort.

[knuckleharley]

2 minutes ago, Adrian41D-19 said:

Someone know more about the painted trims like this? What should be painted or not? Cause on my 42 chrysler the tail light are painted but not the stop light. The chrome of this stop light is pitted, a lot.... and i wondering if i can paint it or not i saw both on the net. 

Thank you

 

and yes real nice find this 42 dodge!! I like it  

about the blackout models that mean the trims are painted like the frond grill of this dodge?

Chances are if some of your trim is the painted "blackout model trim" it all was originally,and some previous owner decided to dress it up a little by adding chrome trim as he found it.

 

As for collector value,I have no idea if the 42 cars with chrome trim are worth more or worth less than the blackout models.

[Reg Evans]

 On my '42 there is a data tag or serial number on passenger side A pillar.

Also the front bumper on mine is not correct for the year. Yours is.

 

[Young Ed]

48 minutes ago, Adrian41D-19 said:

Another question when the trim are painted do you think they chrome it before the paint in the factory?

From what I've read it's a mix. They had chrome parts until they used them up and then from there painted steel. As they likely didn't have an exact equal # of each piece you might find a few painted over chrome pieces to use up supplies on hand and make a matching assembly for the car. 

[Flatie46]

I bought a 47  Plymouth 4dr parts car from a guy a few years ago. He had a 42 Plymouth 2dr sedan. He had robbed the front clip from the 4dr for the 42 as it was missing. He was putting a 318 in it and rodding it. I hated the fact it wasn't going to be put back original but all the special things about the car being a '42 were long gone so I understood. He had no idea how rare the car was and frankly didn't care. At least it was saved. 

  I think it was anyway.

 

 

[RNR1957NYer]

Like the car - my vote would be to restore it.  I think a by-product of the wartime cease in production is that there there is a surprising amount of NOS sheet metal out there for '42's (as in what didn't make it onto a car ended up in the parts warehouse ).  A friend who vends at a big local swap meet got sick of loading and unloading three NOS '42 Plymouth front fenders for years with no takers - he threatened to scrap them if I didn't take them .  I did (he even brought them over to my house!), even though I had no use for them and even though  I don't try to sell parts, because I figured somewhere, some day, somebody would need them, and something that lasted this long deserved not to become a tomato can.  Since then I don't think there has ever been a time when there wasn't at least one '42 front fender on ebay!

[Plymouthy Adams]

I read one article that the only things that were chromed/stainless on the end units were the bumpers, over riders and the windshield wiper arms.  There is some great readin on the AACA forum concerning these cars....but again. like here...more opinion over really documented facts..

[RobertKB]

5 hours ago, Flatie46 said:

As rare as those are i would definitely go back original. Really a cool car. Odds would be in your favor you wouldn't run into another one at a car show, cruise in....most anywhere really. That's something that makes it cool in itself.

 

Ditto.

[knuckleharley]

51 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

I read one article that the only things that were chromed/stainless on the end units were the bumpers, over riders and the windshield wiper arms.  There is some great readin on the AACA forum concerning these cars....but again. like here...more opinion over really documented facts..

I have a 42 Dodge front clip that I bought from a guy in Kansas so I could get a nice grille. Bought the front fenders to get the grille,and was surprised when it showed up with both bumpers and the radiator in it. Not the dark green,but more a khaki color with white stars painted on the bumpers that had never been chromed. The grille had never been chomed,either

BIG time bonus because the bumpers,like every other chrome piece on my car is junk. The car (my icon here) was bought new the first week of Dec 1941 by a woman in Boston,who must have really loved the 42 styling because I have the sales papers and she traded in a 41 Dodge business coupe to get it. She kept it  in a heated garage until she died in 1993,and the car had less than 40k original miles on it when I bought it. The guy that bought it at her estate sale left it parked outside in his back yard in New Hampshire until I bought it a few years ago. Even the front crossmember is rusted out,and I am going to  have to find a good one so I can cut mine out and replace it. I ain't saying it was rusty,but the seller told me it was all surface rust I was seeing in the photos and no rust out,and the guy I hired to bring it to me actually called me on the phone and asked me if I still wanted it. Since I had already paid for it and was going to have to pay him anyhow,I told him to bring it on home.

 

The SOB that sold it to me let his son take the whole trunk full of spare trim parts,the carb,the distributor,and the hubcaps off the car after it was sold to me,too. I specifically asked him if all the parts in the car went with it,and he said yes. I called him and asked him where they were when the truck delivered it,and he said "My son pumped up the tires and helped me move it around front so your driver could pick it up,and he said something about he knew where he could sell all that stuff,so I guess he took it." Just like there was nothing wrong with doing that.

 

That was the 3rd car in a row I bought that had damage and/or missing parts when it got to my house. I no longer buy cars unless I go get them myself,and pay when I get there.

[ClassicCarRepair]

OK guys, thanks for the comments.  My research has shown me that a D23 is a car produced from late 1942 to1945 that was built on a war assembly line as a war time vehicle.  I have found a serial number for this Deluxe Business Coupe and it shows to be 1,317 from the last production car built by Dodge in 42.  It's not Canadian built, but made in USA D22.  It was 1 of 5,257 business coupes built that year, which is the second most rarest dodge business ever made.  It had some stainless steel trim that could have been painted to match the front and lowers, but I have read that many employee purchased cars were taken from the factory with whatever they had to put on them before closing production.  I am still missing a driver's door, so until I find one, I will have to sit on this project for a bit.  

[knuckleharley]

31 minutes ago, ClassicCarRepair said:

OK guys, thanks for the comments.  My research has shown me that a D23 is a car produced from late 1942 to1945 that was built on a war assembly line as a war time vehicle.  I have found a serial number for this Deluxe Business Coupe and it shows to be 1,317 from the last production car built by Dodge in 42.  It's not Canadian built, but made in USA D22.  It was 1 of 5,257 business coupes built that year, which is the second most rarest dodge business ever made.  It had some stainless steel trim that could have been painted to match the front and lowers, but I have read that many employee purchased cars were taken from the factory with whatever they had to put on them before closing production.  I am still missing a driver's door, so until I find one, I will have to sit on this project for a bit.  

Don't complain. A drivers door from a 42  business coupe is a lot easier to find and cheaper than a 42 Dodge business coupe as solid as the one you have. Frankly,I'm jealous.

Edited March 26, 2018 by knuckleharley

[Silverdome]

By just eyesight of the pictures you've posted I would say you could get many body parts from 41-48 Plymouths and 41-42 Dodges that will fit like the door that is missing.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I still thinking that the D23 would be the very model number assigned to a Dodge built on the Plymouth body as in Canadian model...your car is a butterfly hood and not an alligator like the Plymouth bodied car would be thus your model should be D22.  The tag you are unable to read will not have any identification numbers on it.  Look to your A-post (passenger/front right)for an attached body tag...the other tag under the one you can't read is the body number from the supplier to mopar, not a mopar assigned number.  What is the engine number in your vehicle?  Canadian cars should also have a firewall tag with other data including paint codes.  List your numbers for further clarification

[knuckleharley]

9 minutes ago, Silverdome said:

By just eyesight of the pictures you've posted I would say you could get many body parts from 41-48 Plymouths and 41-42 Dodges that will fit like the door that is missing.

Doors from 46-48 will fit,but the 46-48 front fenders "flow" back into the door. I am GUESSING you could remove the flare and use a flat panel to cover where the flare was,and nobody would be able to tell the difference,but that's just a guess.

[Plymouthy Adams]

27 minutes ago, Silverdome said:

By just eyesight of the pictures you've posted I would say you could get many body parts from 41-48 Plymouths and 41-42 Dodges that will fit like the door that is missing.

Plymouth body parts will not interchange....smaller body and chassis...