Plym Rookie

[Arkansawer]

Hey yall, ive been lurking for awhile now and finally got in the door. I just got a 52 plymouth cranbrook 2dr. It has plenty of surface rust but the body is completely solid. The floors are in pretty bad shape, but nothing major. Seats need to be redone, but again nothing major. It has the flathead 6 (gonna take a guess and say the 218?) with the 3 on the tree, and i believe with overdrive. At least from everything that ive been reading it has OD and is a 218. I dont know if the motor is any good or not, im hoping it is. Needs a radiator, front bumper and taillight lens and front parking light lens. Also needs headlights, and the door glass and both pieces of the windshield needs replaced. But all of that is pretty minor stuff.

Going to try and do everything myself, except for welding in new floors. Also going to try and keep it under 3k, or as close to it as possible. It will get painted a 70s muscle car color ........ plum crazy purple. Right now im thinking of white interior, but not for sold on that part yet. Its gonna get chrome steelies, with baby moons and white wall tires. Im also going to fill in all the holes where the trim and hood emblem was. It will have a ornament, but im going older to the sail boat ornament if i can find one cheap. Ill post pictures of the car later on tonight.

Now the important stuff is out of the way, a little about myself. Im from NorthEast Arkansas, im 27, married to a wonderful girl, and our first kid is on the way and will be here in December.

Torrey

[Dennis Hemingway]

Welcome to the FORUM. You will find a lot of help from the guys here.

Dennis:cool:

[oldmopar]

Welcome to the forum I have a 52 Plymouth also. Sounds like you have a lot to do but the overdrive is a plus. Needing that many parts you may want to look for another 51 or 52 to get parts from

Ed

[55 Fargo]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like you have a good game plan there. The floors are not that bad to deal with, if ou can weld a little, and shape tin, thats half the battle.

Good to see young folks like yourself takin an interest in old Mopars with Flathead 6s..............Fred

[dirty dan]

Wooooooooo-PIG-Soooooooieeee!

Welcome to the Forum. You're going to find a lot of help here.

[greg g]

Premade floor repair panels are available from R Car and the Plymouth Doctor.

Welcome and good luck with your project.

[krodaddy]

Welcome Rookie,

I'm fairly new here myself, and have been made to feel very welcome.

I have a 52 Cranbrook 2 Dr. also.

How about some pics of your pile-o-stuff ?

Barry

[JerseyHarold]

Welcome aboard. This is a great place to be if you've got a flathead-powered Plymouth. The knowledge base is huge and you'll find an answer to just about any question you may have.

I've got a '52 Cambridge and a '51 Business Coupe...1951 and 1952 Plymouths are my favorite cars.

Harold

[62rebelP23]

nice to hear of another '52 being brought back. i've had mine a little over a year and slowly making progress with it; luckily it wasn't really missing much except rocker panels and about 12 lbs of sheet metal that rusted away. if you're lucky like me that 218 won't need much elbow grease to get running!

good luck and welcome aboard.

[bob_amos]

Welcome Torrey, You are going to like it here. It's a great group of guys that is always willing to help. The great thing here is that no one will fault you for asking a question that they feel anyone should know. We all have to ask to learn and the guys here know that. They won't belittle you and will honestly try to help. (I know many sites make one feel like they are intruding if they don't know everything.) Any time you need help just ask. One of us will be there. Looking forward to your photos of that car of yours.

[Arkansawer]

Here are some pics.

Also, here is the Vehicle Number (number thats on the plate on the door post) and the Body number. If anyone can look these up for me and let me know exactly what it says, or send me to a site that i can see would be great.

Serial Number 206-14222

Body Number 106-E-21918

[Arkansawer]

Here is one shot of the motor before i cleaned it off.

[Normspeed]

Yup, a parts car would probably be a good investment. Looks like that baby sat for quite a while, glad you rescued it. Taking the first step, just cleaning up what you have inside and out, will give you a big improvement in looks. That makes it a work in progress instead of just something you dragged home:D

I have a pair of decent 15" rims off a 50 bizzcoupe, with roller tires that hold air. Free but quite a ways from Arkansas. They're in CA now and will be in NM soon.

Is there a tag under the hood on the firewall, drivers side, with another number?

[Normspeed]

I think your car was built in the Evansville plant. Vehicle numbers from that plant for the 1952 Cranbrook started at 20435001. Being a 52, your car is also called a P23. the E in the body number also indicates Evansville.

If you're real lucky, you might find a factory build sheet tucked away in the rear seat springs.

[Arkansawer]

Its actually not as bad as it looks in the pictures. Im gonna put some air in the tires tomorrow to see if they will hold.

The number i gave for the body number is off the plaque on the firewall, drivers side. Only other plaque is the red plymouth plaque and i didnt see any numbers on it. The longer number is the Vehicle number thats off the plate on the drivers side door post.

let me see if i can post a good picture of the firewall plaque.

[Arkansawer]

Here is a pic of the firewall pic, cant see all the numbers that well but its all i have for now.

Looks to be 106-E or 108-E, but i believe its 106 E 21918

[Normspeed]

So it's an Evansville car. My P24 has an LA in that spot, built at the long gone Los Angeles plant. Well I sure hope you enjoy your ride and like everyone said, you'll find lots of helpful people on this forum.

I recommend getting the book in this photo. You can get it on ebay for under $30. I think I got it on sale from a seller called Faxon, for $20 or $25 with free shipping on a buy it now. This is a reprint of a Mopar publication and is loaded with great repair and maintenance info. You could literally take apart, repair and reassemble the entire car by this one book if you needed to.

[Arkansawer]

Alright i do have one question, by the numbers ive given, can you tell that is for sure a 52? Or is there a possibility that it could be a 51. Everything that ive looked up says 52, but id like to make positively for sure.

Thanks

Oh and that book looks great, will have to check in on it.

[Normspeed]

Yup, I used that book for the info. Sometimes the figures vary in different sources but the book says 1951-52 there was a P22, Concord, and a P23 Cambridge and Cranbrook. I think the P23 designation for the Cranberry means it's a 52 not a 51.

There's a great Mopar info site, allpar.com. Lots of historical info on various years and models.

[Arkansawer]

Yeah thats the site ive been reading on until i could finally post on here. Also the site that made me believe mines a 52. Strange thing is looking up pictures of both years, and the 51 pics ive seen have backup lights (gonna assume original), but i cant find any back up lights on a 52. I know mine dont have any backup lights just brake lights. The pictures i saw may have been aftermarket lights, or a cutsom job, didnt look custom though.

I will be keeping a picture journal as this progresses, hopefully it wont take forever. Im also keeping up with price parts, and going to try and keep this build under 3 grand. Thats my goal anyway. I forgot to mention, i pretty much stole this car. As it sits, with the body straight and nothing rusted out but the floors, i gave a great big 100 dollar bill for it.

[Normspeed]

Good deal. I think you can do it, at least up to the paint work, for that much.

But we gotta get one thing settled right away. If you are in Arkansas, doesn't that make you an Arkansasan, not an Arkansawer?

Inquiring minds want to know:D

[oldmopar]

Alright i do have one question, by the numbers ive given, can you tell that is for sure a 52? Or is there a possibility that it could be a 51. Everything that ive looked up says 52, but id like to make positively for sure.

Try this link

http://www.oldplymouths.com/generic66.html

[Arkansawer]

Good deal. I think you can do it, at least up to the paint work, for that much.

But we gotta get one thing settled right away. If you are in Arkansas, doesn't that make you an Arkansasan, not an Arkansawer?

Inquiring minds want to know:D

LOL

Before the civil war, during, and just a little after everyone from Arkansaw (the way it was actually spelled to begin with) were called Arkansawers. After the civil war, when the yankees took over and the red leggers from kansas (no offense to anyone here) came in then they changed the spelling to Arkansas. And pronounced it as ar(our) kansas, i dont really know when it started being pronounced back to arkansaw like today. Yet some still pronounce it as Ar-Kansas.

Well for awhile i did civil war reenactments (both federal and confederate of course) and thats when i learned about Arkansaw. So it stuck. Plus to me Arkansawer sounds so much better than Arkansan.

[Niel Hoback]

Hey Arkansawer, welcome to the forum from another retired re-enactor.

Pvt. Hoback, Co. H, 9th Ind. Vol. Inf.

[Don Coatney]

Several of my family members left Indiana around 1888 or so and removed to Arkansas eventually staying near Perla. They stayed in Arkansas until 1898 or so. My grandfather was a photographer at the time. He left Arkansas in somewhat of a hurry. Seems the local sheriff was after him for commiting the crime of taking pictures on a Sunday.

Interesting that you are/were a civil war re-incator. I am not a re-inactor but I am somewhat of a civil war buff.