1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe Coupe Purchase / Updates

[dhrandy]

I've been perusing around the forum for a couple of weeks while doing research on the 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe Coupe before I purchased it.  My wants was a running and driving classic car that I could take to car shows, and I didn't want to spend a fortune on the purchase price.  I ran across the Plymouth on Craigslist, went for a test drive and fell in love.

 

Overall the car is in pretty good shape. The paint job and interior refresh is probably 10-15 years old, so there's some scratches and things in the paint and the interior has some places where the seams are coming apart.  I'm currently going through and greasing things that need to be greased, added a little brake fluid, replaced the generator wires because the insulation was gone. There's some rust on the drivers side rocker panel underneath. Someone previously fixed some of the floor pans, but did a shotty job, so will look at that in a few years. 

 

The engine looks mostly original. It's still running oil bath air cleaner and 6 volt system with the generator.  The engine belt has a slight tear, so I bought a replacement. The replacement looks to not be quite as wide, so I'll have to figure that one out. I bought the service manual off of Rock Auto, which helps tremendously.   I want to keep the car mostly original.  I love to tinker with things, so this should be fun.  I'm sure I'll have tons of questions.

 

Updates:

4-12-19

-new spark plugs

-Replaced generator wires

8-26-19

-6 new wheel cylinders

-all new brake shoes

-New rubber brake lines

-2 new steel brake lines off the master cylinder

-new master cylinder

-replaced windshield wipers

-replaced belt (had a tractor belt on the car)

-fixed driver door lock (just took apart and put back together and it worked)

-changed all fluids (seems to be self leveling with the leaks, lol)

-added oil filter (was empty)

-replaced rubber fuel line (started leaking in the garage)

-added third brake light (6 volt led)

-added rear turn signals

-new battery (old one wasn't holding a charge)

-cleaned up the trunk

-added USB mobile phone charger (yes, it worked on 6 volts)

-fixed driver door stop

Sometime in Early 2020

-New front emblem

5-7-21

-new tires (stayed with the Cooper 215/75R15)

-new stop light lenses (ordered and they are on the way)

 

Still needed:

-new trunk lock (another hard to find, the ones I do find are so expensive)

-wiring (may work on this this winter)

-seat belts

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by dhrandy
Updated

[casper50]

Looks to be in great shape.

[Mike36]

Looks good...has a 49 front bumper.

[MarcDeSoto]

I owned a 50 Plymouth business coupe back in the 80s.  You have a nice car!  Good luck with it.  P.S. Don't make the mistake of tearing the whole car apart and attempting a ground up restoration just to say it's had a Ground up restoration!  Keep it running! 

[dhrandy]

On 4/12/2019 at 2:46 PM, MarcDeSoto said:

I owned a 50 Plymouth business coupe back in the 80s.  You have a nice car!  Good luck with it.  P.S. Don't make the mistake of tearing the whole car apart and attempting a ground up restoration just to say it's had a Ground up restoration!  Keep it running! 

Thanks, I have no plans on tearing it apart. lol The plan is just to keep it running and to go to some local car shows.  I'll just fix the things that need to be done. 

[dhrandy]

On 4/12/2019 at 9:48 AM, Mike36 said:

Looks good...has a 49 front bumper.

Good catch. Now the search for 50 bumpers, but I'm not in a rush.

[Andydodge]

Welcome aboard...........nice looking car............regarding the bumpers, the 1949 bumpers have always been popular as a swap on customised cars due to the stylish flutes that they have and I'd think would be worth more than the 1950 ones, I'm a hotrodder and I'd be keeping the 1949 bumpers but thats just me............I'd strongly suggest getting a workshop manual as well as a parts book if possible as they are an invaluable resource..........anyway as I said..........welcome aboard from Oz..........Andy Douglas 

[DJ194950]

Keep the 49 bumpers! They have a way more stylish shape  and add value to your car. They appears to have a recent re chrome!  Any idea of the cost to do that now days? Not Cheap!!

Lookin' good!

Just my opinion, your car.  ?

 

DJ

[Plymouthy Adams]

NICE AND SHINY.....maybe Don C will send you a set of fuzzy dice.....

[dhrandy]

On 4/16/2019 at 8:17 AM, Andydodge said:

Welcome aboard...........nice looking car............regarding the bumpers, the 1949 bumpers have always been popular as a swap on customised cars due to the stylish flutes that they have and I'd think would be worth more than the 1950 ones, I'm a hotrodder and I'd be keeping the 1949 bumpers but thats just me............I'd strongly suggest getting a workshop manual as well as a parts book if possible as they are an invaluable resource..........anyway as I said..........welcome aboard from Oz..........Andy Douglas 

 

19 hours ago, DJ194950 said:

Keep the 49 bumpers! They have a way more stylish shape  and add value to your car. They appears to have a recent re chrome!  Any idea of the cost to do that now days? Not Cheap!!

Lookin' good!

Just my opinion, your car.  ?

 

DJ

 

I think I'll keep the 49 bumpers then, I am missing the bumper guards on the back bumper.  They do look better in pics than in person, still not that bad.  Just a little banged up here and there and some rust. 

 

I did order the 46-54 Plymouth Shop Manual from Rock Auto along with the owners manual.  Both have been very useful and handy.

[soth122003]

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking car and with your to do list, it is not that much in the scheme of things. Try an S.O.S. pad on the bumpers to remove the rust. 

 

Joe Lee

[MackTheFinger]

Nice car!!! Drive it proudly!!

[JamesF]

 

Nice Find.  My first car was a 1949 Black 2 door P18 that looked just like yours.  A really nice car and fun to drive.  That was back in 1959.  I gave a hundred bucks for it.  Wish I had kept it. ?  I bought another one five years ago.  It is a nice driving car and equally fun to drive.  Right now it is in my shop getting a rebuilt flat head six engine, front disk brakes, an overdrive, HVI distributor, plug wires and plugs, conversion to drive shaft with modern U joints, new radiator, and heater coil.  Yours looks very nice.  Good luck with it.

I'll try to attach a picture of mine.  Hope it goes through.

James Fuller

[dhrandy]

17 hours ago, soth122003 said:

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking car and with your to do list, it is not that much in the scheme of things. Try an S.O.S. pad on the bumpers to remove the rust. 

 

Joe Lee

I'll have to give that a try, it also has a lot of deep scratches.  It could probably use a re-chrome down the road. I'm not too worried about it right now.

9 hours ago, JamesF said:

 

Nice Find.  My first car was a 1949 Black 2 door P18 that looked just like yours.  A really nice car and fun to drive.  That was back in 1959.  I gave a hundred bucks for it.  Wish I had kept it. ?  I bought another one five years ago.  It is a nice driving car and equally fun to drive.  Right now it is in my shop getting a rebuilt flat head six engine, front disk brakes, an overdrive, HVI distributor, plug wires and plugs, conversion to drive shaft with modern U joints, new radiator, and heater coil.  Yours looks very nice.  Good luck with it.

I'll try to attach a picture of mine.  Hope it goes through.

James Fuller

 

 

Thanks, very nice car!  I like the color.

[Rosco]

Welcome to the forum.  Looks you have a very nice car, very similar to my ‘50 Deluxe  four door.  I had a few of the same minor problems - fan belt, new plugs etc.  I had to put new brakes and tires on the car when I purchased it about five years ago, too.  I also replaced the thermostat and rebuilt the water pump and will soon be putting on new shocks and rebuilding the carb.  Other than that, my plans are the same as yours - just drive it and enjoy it!

[dhrandy]

10 hours ago, Rosco said:

Welcome to the forum.  Looks you have a very nice car, very similar to my ‘50 Deluxe  four door.  I had a few of the same minor problems - fan belt, new plugs etc.  I had to put new brakes and tires on the car when I purchased it about five years ago, too.  I also replaced the thermostat and rebuilt the water pump and will soon be putting on new shocks and rebuilding the carb.  Other than that, my plans are the same as yours - just drive it and enjoy it!

Yep, just maintenance stuff.  I had a fuel line leak 2 weeks in to owning.  Had to order replacement rubber fuel line piece. I was going to check the brakes this weekend, but even before doing that I noticed brake fluid running down the left rear tire while taking off the leaky fuel line. After removing the line and starting to jack up the rear I noticed fuel coming out the line where I removed the fuel line, so I had to rush the jack back around to there and wait on the fuel line to come in.  I figure I probably need a wheel cylinder rebuild kit or new wheel cylinder.  I'll have to wait until I can get the wheel off to find out.  While working on my turn signals (I live where there's a lot of traffic, so installing turn signals and 3rd brake light) I took a look at the rear rubber break line and it definitely needs to be replaced, so I'm sure the front ones do too.  I don't want to take any chances with a single reservoir master cylinder.  And while installing the turn signals I noticed the previous person ran a new hot wire to the brake light switch, so I'm installing a fuse for that.  It's just a bunch of small things.

[dhrandy]

Hadn't driven the Plymouth in a few months do to the master cylinder leaking.  Starting down the road one day and had no brakes (I always check when starting).  The 2 lines coming out of the master cylinder were seized, so I had to cut them.  I had bought a brake line kit off E-bay, which were supposed to be the correct lengths.  I even sent him a message confirming, of course they weren't.  The longs one wasn't long enough, so I had to go to the auto-parts store and buy new brake line and the tools to make my own.  Replaced the master cylinder without removing the floor pan, which was a pain.  I would have had to take my seat out to remove the carpet that was added. Took about 2 days and now everything works. I've enjoyed driving black Betty when it's not raining on the weekends.  

 

The past weekend I also installed a $7 USB cord charger to the car.  My first idea as to convert the cigarette light to not be negative ground, but it only has one wire.  The second thought was to add a voltage regulator and covert it to 12 volts.  While I was at Walmart I saw the cheap USB charger and thought I'd give that a shot and see if it would run on 6 volts.  Tested with the battery and sure enough, actually charges just fine. Installed under the dash and just used some existing wiring that was under there.  I can say whoever says working on old cars is easy has something else coming for them (maybe between the 60's and 90's.... The whole brake system has been a challenge, to say the least.

 

I was checking my tire brand and did a little Google search.  The car has Dayton's on it.  I couldn't find a thing about the tire, so I'm under the assumption that they're pretty old.  This will be my next update.  I've started poking around the interwebs and was really hoping to find some reasonable priced full white-walls.  Nope, wasn't going to happen.  The cheapest I found were the Coker's for $175, which just isn't in my budget at the moment (kid on the way).  I did find a brand that had 1 3/8 inch white-wall, which is currently wider than all the competition.  The are $99, which I can do.

 

I should finally be able to take the Plymouth to some local car shows now.  So excited!

 

I'll add the following updates to my first post.

 

Updates:

-6 new wheel cylinders

-all new brake shoes

-New rubber brake lines

-2 new steel brake lines off the master cylinder

-new master cylinder

-replaced windshield wipers

-replaced belt (had a tractor belt on the car)

-fixed driver door lock (just took apart and put back together and it worked)

-changed all fluids (seems to be self leveling with the leaks, lol)

-added oil filter (was empty)

-replaced rubber fuel line (started leaking in the garage)

-added third brake light (6 volt led)

-added rear turn signals

-new battery (old one wasn't holding a charge)

-cleaned up the trunk

-added USB mobile phone charger (yes, it worked on 6 volts)

 

Still needed:

-new tires (going to stay with the 215/75R15), would love to go full white-wall if the prices weren't so high. I have found some that have a little larger white-wall.

-add turn signal lamp and socket to factory location

-drivers door stop

-new stop light lenses (seems to be hard to find)

-new trunk lock (another hard to find, the ones I do find are so expensive)

-wiring (may work on this this winter)

 

[Los_Control]

30 minutes ago, dhrandy said:

added USB mobile phone charger (yes, it worked on 6 volts)

interesting ... not surprised, I think a computer power supply runs 5 volts to the usb ports.

I imagine the charger has some resistor to drop the expected 12 volts down to 5 volts. In your case it is only getting 6 volts.

 

What makes me wonder, is the positive ground system. I guess on a cigarette lighter, the power wire (negative) The charger does not care?

Very cool, thanks for sharing that. My truck  po added a cigarette lighter, I wanted to remove it. Now think will keep it and try the same.

[dhrandy]

8 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

interesting ... not surprised, I think a computer power supply runs 5 volts to the usb ports.

I imagine the charger has some resistor to drop the expected 12 volts down to 5 volts. In your case it is only getting 6 volts.

 

What makes me wonder, is the positive ground system. I guess on a cigarette lighter, the power wire (negative) The charger does not care?

Very cool, thanks for sharing that. My truck  po added a cigarette lighter, I wanted to remove it. Now think will keep it and try the same.

Correct, so the modern phone can charge at different levels.  My phone has fast charging which doesn't work with all USB ports (Samsung S8), but does work with the one installed. You are also correct that the cigarette lighter doesn't care the polarity when heating the element. All it cares about is grounding out the lighter to produce the heat.

[dhrandy]

Finally got new tires put on the ole girl due to a leaky valve stem, hadn't driven her since the end of last summer. I do start her up every once in a while. Found out the previous tires were made in 2000, which puts them at 21 years old. Went with similar white stripe Cooper Trendsetter and stuck with the 215/75R15.  I also finally found a set of tail light lenses that wasn't $100 each on Ebay, it was $100 for a set.  I snatched them up real quick.  I did end up installing a new front emblem last year.

 

We still don't have many car shows around the Concord, NC area.  Cars and Coffee is starting back up this month, but I'll be on a camping trip.  I'll start scheduling my trips around them.  Hopefully some of the others come back.

 

Added the updates to the first post.

 

[Booger]

good score! gotta try the usb charger trick.

Curious does it have a radio and does it work?

[dhrandy]

1 hour ago, michaelmarks697@yahoo.com said:

good score! gotta try the usb charger trick.

Curious does it have a radio and does it work?

I don't have a radio at all, I just mounted a JBL portable Bluetooth speaker holder underneath.

[Sniper]

I put a couple of 5x7's in the deck lid and am using a Polk Audio bluetooth amp to drive them.  Can't tell there's anything there, till the music starts playing.  But I think I like your setup better.

[dhrandy]

7 hours ago, Sniper said:

I put a couple of 5x7's in the deck lid and am using a Polk Audio bluetooth amp to drive them.  Can't tell there's anything there, till the music starts playing.  But I think I like your setup better.

Nice, the only advantage of mine is I can take the speaker out. You're probably running 12 volts too, I'm still on 6.