Plymouth`s of the Southern Hemisphere

Transcription

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Nelson and Lynne Lipinski’s 1937 P4 convertible
Founded 1957
on a garden drive in New Zealand
March - April 2009
Eighteen-time Old Cars Weekly Golden Quill Award winner
295
Volume 50 Number 3
MIGUEL TILLOUS PHOTO
F19472 Plymouth Bulletin 295 Stripped By Patty Desautel CMYK
NELSON LIPINSKI PHOTO
Founded 1957
Orlando Bongiardino’s 1938 P6 convertible
on a woodland drive in Argentina
5/24/09
11:49 PM
Plymouth ®
Owners Club
Box 416
Cavalier, ND 58220-0416
Phone: (701) 549-3746
Fax: (701) 549-3744
e-mail: [email protected]
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The Plymouth Bulletin
__________________________________________________________________________
No. 295
March-April, 2009
__________________________________________________________________________
LANNY D. KNUTSON, editor
(204) 889-8008
288 Strathmillan Road, Winnipeg, MB R3J 2V5 CANADA
[email protected] / [email protected]
plymouthbulletin.com
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_______________________
FOUNDER-DIRECTOR
Jay M. Fisher
Acken Drive 4-B
Clark, NJ 07066-2902
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(732) 388-6442
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Earl Buton, Jr.
2366 Glasco Turnpike
Woodstock, NY 12498-1013
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295-FULL ISSUE
(845) 679-6185
OFFICERS 2008-09
PRESIDENT
Robert S. Kerico
4640 Boardwalk
Smithton , IL 62285-3662
(618) 233-8582
VICE PRESIDENT
Bobbi Berkheimer
36640 Hawk Road
Hazard, NE 68844
(308) 452-3980
MEMBERSHIP
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Jim Benjaminson
Box 345
Walhalla, ND 58282-0345
(701) 549-3746
CORRESPONDING SEC.
Tom Nachand
5215 NW Cavalier Ave.
Lincoln City, OR 97367
BULLETIN EDITOR
Lanny D. Knutson
288 Strathmillan Road
Winnipeg MB R3J 2V5 CANADA
DIRECTOR 2004-09
Philip Volpe
40 East Edinburgh Drive
New Castle, DE 19720-2908
(302) 322-5705
DIRECTOR 2006-11
Carl D. Wegner
19,600 Cardinal Drive
Grand Rapids, MN 55744-6189
(218) 326-5965
DIRECTOR 2008-13
and of Judging
Joe Suminski
68226 Winchester Court
Washington, MI 48095-1244
(586) 752-3140
Plymouths
Roberto Marenzi’s
Marenzi’s 1936 P2 convertible
of the Southern Hemisphere
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PHOTO BY MIGUEL TILLOUS
(541) 764-2011
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From the Editor
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Around the world in 80 pages
The southern route
been incredibly shrunk by email. When
I first became editor in 1987 such an
issue might have been a year in the making, depending, as we would, upon international postal services. Now, it is a
click of a SEND button and a reply could
possibly arrive within a minute. In our
exchanges, communication can veer off
of automotive topics and the beginnings
of friendship can begin. I sense that to
be the case even though I’ll likely never
meet these people face-to-face.
PHOTO BY
THORSTEN LARSSON
Canada) a hood is a bonnet, a car’s roof
began with La Luneta, an
is a hood, the trunk is a boot, fenders are
Argentine automotive magazine
mudguards, windsheilds are windsent by member Orlando
screens, gasoline is petrol and tires are
Bongiardino, of Buenos Aires, who also
tyres. For the most part, I’ve let them
serves as the publication’s director. On
be.
the cover was a fetching photo of a 1936
P2 convertible headlining a full inside
THE ARRIVAL of that La Luneta magaarticle. I contacted Orly concerning perzine was actually precipitated by a
mission to reprint and, if so, the photos
request from Orly to use the picture of
and, most significantly, a
my grandson CharLee,
translation--the magawhich had appeared in the
zine, of course, being
BULLETIN, to be published
entirely in Spanish. Orly
in his magazine as part of
readily and enthusiastia “Take a Kid to a Car
cally complied, translatShow” emphasis. We
ing the article and prowere honored. I tried,
viding a CD of some 140
with an atlas, to show
photographs of Roberto
CharLee how far
Marenzi’s ‘36 convertArgentina is from Canada,
ible. Photographer
but he didn’t find it so
Miguel Tillous is a thoramazing. We were
oughgoing professional.
delighted when the magaCharLee is Lanny Knutson’s grandson. Lanny is the editor of Plymouth Bulletin, zine came with CharLee’s
That was followed,
USA. His grandfather made a mini toolbench for him and CharLee achieved the
shortly, by a discovery,
picture and a caption in
title of: “Wrench administrator.” An easy and worthwhile example to follow.
on the PLYMOUTH
Spanish (roughly a transla[A SOMEWHAT LITERAL TRANSLATION]
BULLETIN website discustion of the caption I had
sion board, of Nelson Lipinski’s
included in the BULLETIN). In time,
Language has not been the barrier it
account, complete with numerous photoCharLee will likely be excited about
might have been, thanks to people in
graphs, of a New Zealand countryside
being in a magazine from halfway
non-English-speaking parts of the world
drive in his ‘37 P4 convertible. Nelson
across the world, north-to-south, but on
having a better understanding of English
readily replied with higher resolution
that day he was more interested in the
than many of us English-speakers have
photos and a complete story on his car.
flying Ford Trimotor on the facing page.
of theirs. Orly and others in South
About the same time I had gotten
Now, I’m sure, you’re ready to ‘fly”
America asked me to correct their
word of Phil Gander’s perambulations
into
these 80 pages, if you haven’t
“Spanglish” just has Thorsten Larsson
around Australia with his ‘28 Q touring
already
done so.
has asked me to correct his
not only on roads but on rails and rivers
“Swenglish.” In both cases some corTHE NEXT BULLETIN will be a collection
(on floats). Next came the annual gift of
rection was necessary but surprisingly
of
articles and stories sent by members
the Chrysler Restorer’s Club of
little. I commend them for their knowlthat
have yet to be published. The sucAustralia’s calendar, sent by member
edge of a language that is not their
ceeding
issue will celebrate the 50th
Richard Tapp.
native tongue.
anniversary
of the 1959 Plymouth. The
The die was cast.
The writings of the Australians and
remaining
two
issues of 2009 will cover
I contacted members in other South
New Zealanders need no translation of
this year’s summer and fall national
American countries and in South Africa.
course… to a point. There are differmeets, respectively. -- Lanny Knutso n
The responses kept coming and coming
ences and, for the most part, I’ve chosen
and now you have before you 80 pages
to let those differences stand to maintain
The Plymouth Bulletin
containing stories and articles from our
the flavor of local references. Most
No. 295, Mar/Apr 2009
members and others across the southern
North Americans know that for many
LANNY D. KNUTSON, editor
world.
LEEANN LUCAS, asst. editor
British Commonwealth countries (except
The world, south and north, has
It
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Page 3
The
Plymouth Press
Plymouth Owners Club
CLUB NEWS
No. 295
Golden Quill No. 18 announced
Members Remembered
THE REV. WILLIAM H. ANDERMAN, Frederick, Maryland,
member of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Memorial services were
held November 12, 2008. (See page 19)
F
or the eighteenth time, the
Plymouth Bulletin is among the
winners of Old Cars Weekly Golden
Quill award winners, this time for
2008. The Bulletin is listed in the
National Luxury category and was
honored by having its JanuaryFebruary cover pictured.
Congratulations also go to Cari Catlow, editor of the
Cascade Pacific Plymouth Club, Inc., newsletter which was
named winner in the Regional category.
PB
RAY MARSHALL, Easton, Maryland, member of the MidAtlantic Region. Memorial services were held December 10,
2008. (See page 19)
Simon Ennis, Dallas, North Carolina. Member of the MidAtlantic Region, he died on February 11. (See page 19)
DONNA RINCKEY, Highland, Michigan, died March 7. She and
her husband Russ owned a 1941 P12 convertible.
LORNA FRAAS, West Dundee, Illinois, wife of Don.
Chrysler becomes Canada’s No. 1 automaker
RUSSELL BROWN, Greeley, Colorado, died March 12. A member since 1990, he was the owner of a ‘93 Voyager mini-van.
A
mid the doom and gloom leading to declaration of bankruptcy protection, came a bit of
good news, according to the following news
release:
STAN PEEL, Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away April 5. He and
his wife Jan were/are founder-members of the Hoosier Region
which, until recently, he served as president. (See page 18)
GORDON MCKEE, Loveland, Colorado, passed away on April
16 after a long illness. Member of the POC and the Rocky
Mountain Region since 1990, he owned a 1950 P19 station
wagon. He is survived by his wife Shirley.
For the first time in its 84-year history, Chrysler Canada
became that nation’s No. 1 automaker, with February sales
of 12,015 units versus February 2008 sales of 16,451 units.
“Our position as the No. 1 automaker this month clearly
demonstrates the continued confidence Canadians have in
Chrysler vehicles and in the company’s future,” Reid
Bigland, President and CEO-Chrysler Canada, said. “There
is no question that the current economic and automotive
environment is challenging for all companies. However, it
is times such as these where great value and great products
can truly dominate.”
KEN ROSE, Milwaukie, Oregon, died April 17. He was a member of the Cascade Pacific Region. (See page 14)
LEE BERGREN, Kansas City, Missouri, passed away on May 1.
Member of the Heart of America Region, he owned a 1950 P20
sedan. (See page 17)
FRIENDS OF THE PLYMOUTH OWNERS CLUB
VERN L. OLSON, 62, of Grafton, North Dakota,
passed away on February 18, following brief but
intense bout with cancer. Working for Morgan
Printing the past 28 years, Vern was instrumental in
setting up each issue of the PLYMOUTH BULLETIN and was generous in his praise of the magazine’s editorial content.
Despite posting a 27% decline in sales, Chrysler, at 12,015,
outsold Ford at 11,854, General Motors at 11,381 and Toyota at
9,421.
Although having just over ten percent of the population of
the United States, Canada consistently accounts for 20% of
Chrysler’s sales and its factories contribute 20% of Chrysler’s
production.
JOHN BLUTH, keynote speaker at the 2008 Grand National banquet, passed away on February 19 with a burst aortic aneurysm.
John was a long-time editor of the DAC News and author of
The Stinson Aircraft Co. and the Atlas of Historic Detroit Auto
Factories. He was also an active member of the National
Automotive Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library,
serving as a trustee. -- Joe Lewis, Detroit Region
PB
The Plymouth Bulletin (ISSN 0032-1737) is published bi-monthly.
Subscription through annual dues: $28 new; $26 renewal. Published by the
Plymouth Owners Club, PO Box 345, 603 Central Ave, Walhalla, ND 582820345. Periodical postage paid at Grafton, ND 58237. POSTMASTER: Send
address changes to The Plymouth Bulletin, PO Box 416, Cavalier, ND 582200416.
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Page 4
From the President
Time to get ready…
and bring that Valiant
candidate. If you are inclined and
qualified and want to run, then consult
the POC constitution at the Plymouth
website, www.plymouthbulletin.com
for further details or talk to any of the
principal officers or directors who can
field your questions. In the last election, over 700 of us voted for the slate
of officers. Thus, I know there should
be interest in the upcoming campaign.
Let us know your thoughts about what
you see in the future of the POC.
to miss, either. Won't you join up and
all who
A NOTHER TIMELY
TIMELY REMINDER about
make plans to "motor west" as the
expressed their concern during the
the
Nifty
Thrifty
Nineteen Sixty car
Route 66 song sings?
past few months while I was conshow in Cleveland, Ohio, in August: It
valescing and for the big help that
will showcase America’s Compact Era
I MAILED THE CHARTER
CHARTER to the
came from POC officers and directors,
which began in 1960 with the Comet,
newest Texas region recently and offer
especially Bobbi Berkheimer, in conFalcon, Corvair, and last, but not least,
up thanks to Van Messier and all his
ducting the club's business in my
Valiant. In talking with Bill Adams,
folks who have brought a viable club
absence. Things are much better now,
president of the Comet East car club, I
back to the Lone Star State.
and it is time to be ready for the
found that he is expecting nearly 300
upcoming season of shows,
of these makes. We both agree
meets and cruises in which our
that the Valiant needs to be niceregions get involved each year.
ly represented, and that is where
By now, as you get this
the POC can shine. If you are a
BULLETIN, the folks in Dairyland
Valiant owner, this one-time
Region are ready to host us in
show will showcase your pride
Wisconsin. It is not too late to
and joy and promises a lot of
register.
visibility. If you are interested,
This year also offers a fall
check out the ANNOUNCEMENT
meet in Westminster, Maryland,
ouths
section of this BULLETIN or go to
m
y
that will bring us together on the
www.cometcareastcarclub.org.
East Coast, through the efforts of
You can go directly to Bill at
the Mid-Atlantic Region. So
[email protected] as
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you have your choice or you
emi
well. I do not own a Valiant, but
may even plan to make both
Australian postcard featuring their ‘62 Valiant R Series (‘61 I plan to be in Cleveland to welnational meets this year. I know
to North Americans). PROVIDED BY JOHN KELLY.
come and celebrate with those of
I won't miss them, and I hope to
you
who
do and who want to be part of
Congratulations on this excellent
see all of you there. If you have never
this
event.
start at organizing a region. With all
attended a national meet, you will find
They are counting on us, so we
the Regions, I extend a heartfelt welno better time than now to attend, since
won’t
keep these gas-sipping compacts
come to our POC members in Texas as
the price of gas is half what it was last
in
the
garage
all summer. Pardon the
you drive to the far horizons in your
year at this time.
pun,
but
I
know
the POC will put in a
Plymouths. Here’s to the growth and
There is word that the Cascade
Valiant
effort
(you
knew this was comprosperity of your club in the days
Pacific Region will host a national
ing!).
I
can
hear
the
groans, but let me
ahead. The national POC salutes you!
spring meet in 2010 in Oregon. More
know if want to go.
details will be forthcoming as they
I T IS TIME T O BEGIN THINKING
work and plan to host members on the
N OW SIT BACK AND ENJOY the rest
ahead to this year’s November election
West Coast. You will recall that the
of
this BULLETIN as our editor takes us
for new officers of the POC. The presregion in Oregon-Washington hosted
to
all
points south of the Equator where
ident is limited to two consecutive
the completion of Cross Country Tour
the
Plymouth
is known and revered as
terms of two years, so one of you will
several years back in 2003. Those who
much
as
it
is
in
the Northern
be the next president of the POC. I
made the journey west at that time
Hemisphere.
hope that there are several individuals
know the hospitality they received was
-- Bob Kerico
who feel that they would like to be a
first rate. This is a meet I do not plan
I
of
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Pl
WANT T O THANK
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Page 5
Letters
WOW!! Great job (with
BULLETIN 294). I was blown
away by not only my pedal car
story/photos but also the
Christine stuff. That was
great. I did notice some quoted facts in which Martin and I
contradict each other (never
noticed that before), but that is
minor stuff. I really want to
thank you. All of it was more
than I expected, and your
choice of photos for the stories
was great.
Mike Morelli
Glastonbury, Connecticut
I RECEIVED my JanuaryFebruary BULLETIN and am
thrilled to see my model in
Bill's "Plymouth Miniatures"
column. I scanned the article
and emailed it to my builder
friend. Thank you both very
much!
Lou Cortese
Boothwyn, Pennsylvania
THE JANUARY-FEBRUARY
BULLETIN is great as always.
The quality of people in this
club is second to none. I saw
the movie Christine last year
while recovering from surgery
-- hadn't seen it since it came
out. I saw it in a new perspective with my current involvement with old Plymouths.
I like your editorials. The
1960 Ford from your youth
brought back memories of my
Aunt Linda's car. Hers was a
V8 with three-on-the-tree. I've
always liked that body style.
Since she’s only eight years
older than I, we have plenty in
common and cruised that car a
lot in central Massachusetts.
It was all good until her
boyfriend wrapped it around a
pole. Fortunately he was okay,
but we never saw the car
again. Thanks for the memories and take care of your
health.
Pat Desrosiers
Denver, Colorado
I RECEIVED MY COPY of the
magazine (BULLETIN 292). I
am very pleased with the article (“Going Home”) and your
additions. Your magazine is
very interesting. Thank you
very much.
Laurie Blue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trophy-winning ‘49 surfaces in
Holland
I WANT TO SHARE
this with the club:
I received an
email that had
“picktures 1949
from holland” as
the subject, sent
by Robert Dekker
in Heerhugowaard,
Holland. He sent
I AM NOT RENEWING my membership as my 1955 sport
coupe now lives in Florida.
Thanks for the 18 years of
information and enjoyment.
The new owner has joined the
club.
Don Flint
Shannock, Rhode Island
PHIL VOLPE PHOTO
Thanks
Sam DiGregorio with his 1949 business
coupe at the 1989 National Fall Meet in
Mullica Hill, New Jersey, where he won second in Class 7 (then 1949-52).
he sent an email that had a
photo of an award. It turns out
that Robert’s car won a second place trophy at a 1989
Plymouth Owners club national meet! So I looked at the
back issues of the BULLETIN
and sure enough in Issue 181,
there was Robert’s car!
Paul Schettner
St. Paul, Minnesota
49plymouth.com webmaster
Correction
AFTER CONSIDERABLE discussion with POC member
Darrell Davis, I have discovered that my article on
Plymouth's ram-inducted
engine in the July-August
2003 edition of the PLYMOUTH
BULLETIN ("Hemi's Great
Grandfather") has two mistakes (perhaps 1 and 1/2?).
By examining individual build
records in the Chrysler
Corporation archives, Darrell
researched information on the
production of that engine for
not only Plymouth, but also
for Dodge and DeSoto in both
1960 and 1961. He has also
published this information in a
series of books on all models,
and I highly recommend them
to anyone who has a car with a
ram-inducted engine or who
would be interested in getting
one.
At any rate, I definitely
gave the impression (which I
thought was correct at the
time) that a ram-inducted 413
CID engine was available as a
production line option in the
1961 model year. However,
Darrell's research indicates
that no Plymouth or Dodge
came off the line with a 375 or
400 horsepower 413. My
error stems from the fact that
some photos of
his 1949 business
coupe showing
what it looked like
when he got the
car. In some follow-up emails he
sent more photos
of the work he has
done on it. Then
In Holland: As purchased by Rob Dekker.
Newly painted: Robert Dekker’s ‘49 on the way to restoration.
I am Rob Dekker, 40 years old and living in Heerhugowaard, a
small town of 54,000 people that is in northwest Holland, about
seven miles north of the big cheese town Alkmaar.
I GIVE PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MY INFORMATION AND PICTURES.
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11:49 PM
the corporation listed the 413
CID engine as a "dealer
installed" option so it could
be legal for NASCAR,
USAC, NHRA and AHRA
racing purposes. Thus, a
very few 413s were around,
but they did not come off any
of the corporation's production lines as such.
My second error was in
giving the impression that the
three-speed manual transmission was virtually unknown
on SonoRamic Commandoequipped cars, but Darrell's
sources indicate that in fact
there was a significant number of cars with a three-onthe-tree in 1960. That is the
problem of living out here in
the wilds of Colorado and
believing too much in some
dealer brochures. I hope this
clears up some misconceptions.
Joe Godec
Colorado Springs, Colorado
DEAR EARL: I'm sure you
didn't mean to imply that the
Carter C6D1 was the only
original-equipment carburetor available for 1935
Plymouths. Later 1935
Plymouths used the Carter
C6D2, noted for a cast-inplace diagonal webbing on
which the Carter factory
stamped the carburetor model
number. Thus, it was actually during the 1935 model
year – not in 1936, as you
mentioned – that Carter eliminated the brass number tag
on the carburetors it made for
Plymouth.
Two carburetors referred
to as "fleet economy models," the Carter B6E1 and
B6E2, were also available for
1935 Plymouths. In my 34
years of collecting
Plymouths, however, I've
never seen an example of one
of these rare economy carbs.
Curt McConnell
Denton, Nebraska
Page 6
the C6D2 had the web air
horn. From engine PJ1001 to
PJ146872 the C6D1 carb was
the shipped unit. From production figures it seems that a
total of 243,719 PJs was built.
I can not find production figures for the economy builds
which had a code PJE. I
would guess that it would be a
small number. What that number may be, and added to the
approximately 145,871, means
a goodly number of PJs had
the flat air horn. At least
80,000 or more PJs had the
web air horn carbs. I can see
that one could interpret that I
implied that all PJs had flat
air horns. I will go stand in
the corner and say that Curt
was correct in pointing out
that some PJs had other carbs.
-- Earl Buton
Golden Quill, Number 18
CONGRATULATIONS! Make it
18 Golden Quill awards for
you and the BULLETIN. The
April 9, 2009, edition of Old
Cars Weekly News again lists
the PLYMOUTH BULLETIN as a
winner in its National Luxury
classification. This is a great
accomplishment and well
deserved. There is even a
picture of the Jan/ Feb 2009
cover used as part of their
article. Good job and well
done.
Carl Wegner
Grand Rapids, Minnesota
CONGRATULATIONS on the
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN again
winning the yearly Golden
Quill Award. This year there
is even a picture of the PB in
Old Cars Weekly News &
Marketplace April 9 issue.
Your expertise and hard work
has paid off again for the
POC. Thank you
Dick Silhol
Mequon, Wisconsin
I WAS JUST GOING THROUGH
the digital files of the past
PLYMOUTH BULLETINs and
realized that, for over 22
years, you have been faithfully producing some of the best
magazines ever seen by any
car guy or gal. That is really
amazing and I just want you
to know that I really appreciate the work you have put in
all these years.
Congratulations on yet another Golden Quill.
Mark Olson
Proctor, Minnesota
A Plymouth in a sweet situation
YESTERDAY MORNING (March 28) was
very nice. In fact, it
was the warmest
morning we have
had so far this year;
the temperature got
to the middle 60s by
afternoon.
Since it was
nice, and my wife
had gone grocery
shopping, I called
my father to see if
he wanted to go for
a ride in the
Plymouth. He said
yes, so Dad and our
six-and-a-halfmonth-old miniature Schnauzer, Cooper, did just that. We drove
roughly ten miles to visit some friends who were getting
their evaporator fired up to boil sap. The photo that I
antiqued was taken in front of the sap house and
the one with Dad and Cooper was taken while I
was getting gas.
I have just over 110 miles on the old
Plymouth so far this month; not bad for living in
the Catskills of New York.
Bob Drown
Neversink, New York
THE C6D1, B6E1 AND B6E2
are flat air horn carbs. Yes,
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Page 7
The 2009 National POC Summer Meet
Dairyland Region To Host
P
ICTURE YOURSELF
parading in your pretty Plymouth through lush green forests and
fields and around peaceful pristine lakes in southeast Wisconsin. This could be you if
you elect to come to the Plymouth Owners Club National Summer Meet this coming
June. The Dairyland Region of the Plymouth Owners Club is hosting the 2009 National
Summer Meet of the Plymouth Owners Club Inc., June 16 through 20, 2009 in Oconomowoc,
Wisconsin. The meet is open to all current members of the Plymouth Owners Club and
includes all years and models of Plymouth autos. The featured vehicle at this meet will be
Plymouth Suburban/Station Wagons. 2009 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Plymouth
Westchester Suburban introduced in 1934.
T HIS HIGHLY
HIGHLY ANTICIPA
ANTICIPATED judging meet is to be held at the popular Olympia Resort and Spa located in the beautiful lake
country of southeastern Wisconsin near the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Olympia Resort has many amenities available to its guests including indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a golf course, health spa and various meeting, conference and banquet rooms.
A S HOSTS OF THIS MEET the Dairyland Region has several events planned for the enjoyment of the registered attendees
including tours through the beautiful rolling hills and lakes of the kettle moraine countryside around Oconomowoc. This area of
kettles, kames and eskers was created by the ice age. Lakes fill some of the kettles, and forests cover the kames and eskers.
Picturesque dairy farms fill the arable Moraine land. Free technical seminars will be offered on various subjects about restoration and maintenance of antique cars.
G UIDED T OURS include a visit to Wisconsin’s largest automotive museum. This museum features a wide variety of displays
including several types of machinery manufactured in Wisconsin, an operable 1913 Mainline steam engine and more than 100
autos of all eras. Included is the largest group of Kissel vehicles in the world (Kissels were manufactured from 1906 to 1931in
Hartford where the museum is located) and various displays relating to the automotive industry. A recent added feature is the
southeast Wisconsin racing hall of fame area displaying some racecars and related information about dirt track racing. Another
tour will go to a magnificent fire apparatus museum tucked away on a wooded site. It includes fire-fighting equipment from the
early hand and horse-powered gear up to the recent past. A tour to Old World Wisconsin is also on the schedule where a collection of relocated and restored pioneer buildings are grouped into a village setting where the crafts of the early settlers will be
demonstrated. All these tours include docents at the sites to enlighten the visitors.
A GUIDED T OUR to Jack’s Auto Ranch (junk yard) bring your own tools, as well as self-guided tours in the area are also available to the guests. Some of these tours are: The newly opened Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee just 30 miles to the east,
Potowatami Gambling Casino, also in Milwaukee, and a ladies shopping tour of some of the antique shops and boutiques in
Oconomowoc and Delafield.
F RIDAY
RIDAY EVENING will feature a typical Wisconsin fish fry buffet dinner. Saturday will commence with a swap meet and, of
course, the judging of the registered Plymouths. The day will conclude with the awards banquet with entertainment followed by
presentation of the awards to the owners of their beautiful Plymouths.
I F YOU OWN A P LYMOUTH , are not a member of the Plymouth
Owners Club and want to attend this meet, contact Jim
Benjaminson at Box 345, Walhalla, ND 58282-0345, Ph. (701)
549-3746 to join.
For more information on the upcoming meet contact
Dick Silhol, meet chairperson at [email protected]
or call 262-242-6139.
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Page 11
Featuring: Plymouth Suburbans / Station Wagons
E Mail Address: Http://clubs.hemmings.com/frameset.cfmclub=dairylandplymoudthclub
The host hotel selected for the 2009 National Summer Meet is the Olympia Resort located in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 24 miles west of Milwaukee. Olympia Resort’s amenities include a full service spa, golf
course, fitness center and indoor & outdoor swimming pools. Other interesting specialty & antique shops
and the Kettle Moraine State Forest with its numerous beautiful lakes with fishing and boating are
nearby.
PARTICIPATE: in the Meet and mingle with friends at the awards banquet
ENJOY: a traditional Wisconsin
Friday night fish fry
LUNCH: at a national steak
house/buffet restaurant
VISIT: Wisconsin’s
largest auto musuum.
MARVEL: at a magnificent fire apparatus collection.
BROWSE: thru
a Wisconsin
pioneer village.
SEE OTHER SIDE FOR
REGISTRATION FORM
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Page 12
Registration Form
Plymouth Owners Club
2009 National Summer Meet
Hosted by the Dairyland Region
In Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
June 16 - 20, 2009
Directions to Oconomowoc, WI
From Milwaukee take I-94 30 miles west to Exit 282.
Turn right on State Hwy 67, one-half mile to Olympia Resort
Current POC membership required for all registrants. My 2009 POC Membership No. is: ____________
Meet Registration
Meet Registration Fee if postmarked prior to May 15, 2009 :
Meet Registration Fee if postmarked after May 15, 2009 :
Member name: _____________________________________
Address:___________________________________________
Names of others with you_____________________________
Car Registration
All registered cars must have a fire extinguisher to be
allowed to park on car show grounds.
Year______ Model_______ Body Style_______
Year _____ Model ______ Body Style _______
Are your vehicles to be judged ___Yes ___No
Are you willing to help with judging? ___Yes ___No
If your car is to be judged it must be registered
prior to 9:00 pm Friday, June 19, 2009.
Number of vehicles to be judged _______
$35.00
$40.00
Spouse: ________________Ph: ____-____-______________
City ______________________State ____ Zip ___________
e-mail address______________________________________
Host Hotel
Olympia Village, 1350 Royale Mile Road, Oconomowoc, WI
53066. Ph. 262-369-4999 or 800-558-9573 or e-mail
www.olympiaresort.com Standard single/double room
$115.00 + tax. To receive this special rate advise the reservation
clerk you are attending the 2009 Plymouth Owners Club
National Summer Meet. Hotel amenities include indoor
and outdoor pools, spas, exercise rooms, golf course
and tennis courts.
Activity Registration
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Noon-8 pm Registration in Olympia Resort Lobby
8:00 am to 9:00 pm Registration in Olympia Resort Lobby
Noon-8 pm Hospitality Room Open
8:00 am to 6:00 pm Hospitality Room Open
Cruise on your own to: Harley Davidson Motorcycle Museum or
9:00 am to 2:30 pm Tour to Old World Wis. Historical site
Potawatomi Bingo & Casino, both in Milwaukee.
Tour Route will be guided
Guided Tour-Jack’s Auto Ranch: Junk Yard (bring your own tools)
36 mile round trip tour distance.
Lunch on your own at the site.
Tour requires Registration ____Yes I plan to attend $Free
$ _________
Tour Route will be guided.
$ Fee $13.00 x No. _____of people:
7:30 pm-9:00 pm. Car Restoration Technical Seminar
1:00 pm Ladies self-guided shopping tour of Oconomowoc and
Delafield, WI.
Seminar requires registration. ___Yes I plan to attend. $Free
Thursday, June 18, 2009
5:00-6:00 pm Happy Hour-Club Indigo Lounge, Olympia (cash bar)
8:00 am to 9:00 pm Registration & Hospitality room open.
6:00 pm Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry Buffet
9:00 am to 4:30 pm tours: 68 miles round trip distance.
Olympia Resort, Crown Room
Tour routes will be guided and Docents provided at tour sites.
$Fee-$24.00/ person x #____ of people:
$_________
Group A
8:00 pm General Membership Meeting-Crown Room
9:00 am-Wisconsin Automotive Museum, Hartford, WI
9:00 pm Judges Meeting-Crown Room
Fee-$8.00 x # _____of people:
$__________
Saturday, June 20, 2009
12:00 pm Lunch (pay at the door)
7:00 am Car Pictures
Ponderosa Steak House, Hartford, WI
8:00 am Car Judging
1:30 pm Venerable Fire Equipment Collection, Slinger, WI
12:00 pm-4:00 pm Swap Meet.
$__________
1:00 pm– Ladies self-guided shopping tour of Oconomowoc and
Fee-$7.00 x # _____of people:
6:00 pm-7:30 pm Happy Hour-Club Indigo Lounge area (cash bar)
Delafield, WI.
Group B
7:30 pm Buffet Dinner & Awards Banquet
$_________
9:00 am Venerable Fire Equipment Collection, Slinger, WI
$ 40.00 x # ____of people:
$ __________
Menu: Beef___, Chicken___, Fish ___
Fee-$7.00 x # ______of people:
12::00 pm Same as Group A
Cut off date for banquet is June 10, 2009.
1:30 pm Wisconsin Automotive Museum, Hartford, WI
No reservations accepted at meet.
$__________
2009 National POC Summer Meet T-Shirts $ 15.00 each,
Fee-$8.00 x #_____of people:
6:00-7:30 pm Happy Hour-Club Indigo Lounge, (cash bar)
regardless of size. S ___ M ___ L ___ XXL —–
7:30-9:00 pm Technical Seminar: What you need to know about
Total Payable: $ _________
today’s lubricants for vintage cars.
Requires Registration ____Yes I plan to attend. $Free
Make Check Payable to Dairyland Region, POC and mail to: Dick Silhol, 2404 W. Plum Tree Court, Mequon,
WI 53092. For additional Information: Call 262-242-6139 or e-mail [email protected]
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Page 10
WEDNESDAY AM - Harley Davidson Motorcycle
Factory Tour in York, PA - USA Today praised the tour as
one of the ten great places in US to see how things are made.
http://www.harleydavidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/Fact
ory_Tours/ york .jsp?locale =en_US Established as an
assembly facility in 1973, the York facility covers more than
230 acres and has over 1.5 million square feet under roof.
Their demand for tours is a couple of years in advance; we
are limited to one group of 50 at 10 AM Wednesday.
Lunch On Your Own
B
eginning on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009, there
will be organized caravan driving tours and optional
pre-mapped on-your-own driving tours throughout the scenic
rolling countryside in and around northern Maryland and
southern Pennsylvania from the host hotel: Best Western
Inn Westminster, Maryland. Reservations can be made by
phone (410) 857-1900 or email [email protected]
Special room rate of $99.00 expires Aug. 1, 2009.
WEDNESDAY PM – Antique Automobile, Tractor, Farm
Equipment, Appliance Collection -- We will caravan
northeast to Hampstead, MD, to the farm of Herbert Wessel.
Herb has restored and assembled what is probably the largest
collection anywhere of the rare Case automobiles. Also
pending is a visit to a belt-driven machine shop, antique cars
and memorabilia.
Welcome to the MidAtlantic Region Dinner –
Not far from the Wessel
farm and located in the
scenic Pretty Boy
Reservoir environs, the
Friendly Farm Restaurant
offers Family Style
Dinners. Included will be
all-you-can-eat chicken
and ham with selected vegetables and dessert.
The various tour options were on display at the Grand
National and illustrated in prior issues of the BULLETIN. The
organized tours include: Harley Davidson factory tour,
National Air and Space Museum (bus tour); driving tours to
an extensive antique automobile, tractor, farm equipment,
and household appliance collection, robotic dairy farm,
antique automobile restoration shop, covered bridges of
Frederick County, Camp David Museum and a winery.
The special events include the opening dinner at the allyou-can-eat family style Friendly Farms restaurant, Crab
Feast (plus other turf and surf items), Ladies Tea Saturday
along with the Car Show and the sit-down awards banquet.
The pre-mapped optional tours are offered as an
alternative or supplement to the organized tours to meet the
special interests of individuals. They are described briefly
below, and additional information will be mailed to each
region.
THURSDAY AM – Robots
Down on the Farm – Driving
tour to a Robotic Dairy Farm.
In the era when the first
Plymouths came off the assembly line, dairy farmers could
count on keeping their hands
warm on cold mornings, but
the downside was the mandatory milking morning and evening 365 days a year. Now,
computerized robots do it and keep detailed records to
boot. Bossy is in control and decides when she is ready to
be milked, sleeps on a water bed and has access to a motorized back scratch 24/7. And, the farmer can attend to other
chores or enjoy a little leisure. Buffet lunch is included
with Robotic Tour.
REGISTRATION: We urge early registration,
as some tours and events are limited. Select from
the tours and events listed and check as appropriate on the registration form.
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Page 11
THURSDAY PM
– The Way the
Pros Do It –
SATURDAY – Show Day at the Best Western
Lunch on your own - fast food, delicatessan, restaurant, a
short walk from the show field.
Visit to Al
Prueitt and Sons
Automobile
Restoration
Shop. Located
45 minutes from
Westminster in
Glen Rock, PA,
Al Prueitt’s shop
has turned out a
number of
awarding winning cars from
Auburns to
Model Ts. The
shop consists of
two floors of restoration operations, body, painting, mechanical, trim and upholstery.
Women’s Tea at Historic
Winchester Country Inn.
This is for the ladies
while the men check out
each others’ cars. We are
encouraging period dress
-- hats or an entire ensemble that corresponds to the
era your Plymouth was
plying the roads.
Transportation will be
provided from the Best
Western. Limited to 40
persons.
SATURDAY – Awards Banquet – This will be a sitdown dinner in the Best Western Banquet Hall. There are
three menu choices – priced accordingly – select one from
the list on the registration form.
Dinner -- Maryland Crab Feast (all you can eat) – plus
fried chicken, 12oz steak, lump meat crab cakes with soup,
salad, dessert, drinks –soda, tea, coffee. There are probably
different ways to eat crabs but there is only one Maryland
way.
FRIDAY AM –
-----------------------------------Camping facilities are available – If you need information
please email the coordinators.
T-shirts have meet logo on back and POC logo on front.
Gray with blue/red lettering.
CHOICE: Bus trip to National Air and
Space Museum OR Driving Tour of Covered Bridges of
Frederick County or Camp David area or winery.
Optional pre-mapped tours
to other points of interest
Bus trip to National Air and Space Museum – Travel by
bus to Dulles Airport to tour the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
Center in Chantilly, VA (near Dulles airport), with over 150
planes on display. Lunch on your own at the Center. The
tour will be limited to the capacity of the bus (55) – a wait
list will be developed if demand warrants it and will activate
if sufficient numbers are reached to add another bus.
These tours can be an option to the organized tours during
the meet or a pre/post activity. The first group is within a
25 mile radius of Westminster and will take from 20–45
minutes; The second group is 35-60 miles and will take
around 1-1/2 hours and Amish country around 2 hours.
Tours – Utz and Snyders Factories, Hanover, PA; Hanover
Shoe Horse Farm, Hanover PA; Union Bridge Railroad
museum; Gettysburg Battlefield and Eisenhower Farm;
Boyd’s Bears; Union Mills Homestead; Carroll County Farm
Museum; McDaniel College (Western Maryland); Wakefield
Valley Golf; Baltimore Harbour and environs; Annapolis
Harbour/Chesapeake Bay; Washington, DC; Ladew Gardens
in “Horse Country” in Baltimore County; C&O Canal Boat
Ride drawn by mules; Harper’s Ferry.
Driving Tour– Covered
Bridges of Frederick
County – No, Meryl Streep
probably won’t be there, but
a caravan of vintage
Plymouths will be--touring
the back roads through three
covered bridges of different
design a few miles southwest of Westminster.
Antiques – Westminster Antique Mall, New Market, MD;
New Oxford, PA
Museums – Clock and Watch Museum, Columbia PA;
Tucker Automobile Museum, Alexandria, VA; B&O
Railroad Museum Baltimore; Smithsonian Mall,
Washington, DC
Buffet lunch at Cozy Restaurant which has a Camp David
Museum containing artifacts dating from 1929.
After lunch -- a choice -- Drive the back roads to Historic
Linganore Winery – OR – take a driving tour through the
Catoctin Mountain/Camp David area and conclude at a
Dairy Farm Outlet for Ice Cream.
Amish Country – Lancaster, PA
Train -- National Toy Train Museum, Amish Village
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6/4/09
9:22 AM
Page 1
PLYMOUTH OWNERS CLUB 2009 FALL MEET
MID-ATLANTIC REGION
September 23-26, 2009 Westminster, MD
Member’s Name ___________________________ Spouse/Passenger ____________________________
Address ________________________________________City ___________________Zip ___________
Phone (h) ________________ (c) ________________ Email ___________________________________
VEHICLE REGISTRATION
______ number of cars @ $ 45.00 by September 1, 2009 / $ 50.00 after September 1
$__________
Year ____ Model _________ Body Style _____________________ to be judged ____ be a judge _____
Year ____ Model _________ Body Style _____________________ to be judged ____ be a judge _____
--- Registration desk open beginning Tuesday , September 22, 5 :00 PM ---
ACTIVITY REGISTRATION (See descriptions of activities on accompanying pages)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
AM
PM
OR
Driving tour to Harley-Davidson Factory, York, PA -- Free -- Limit 54 Number Attending ________
Visit antique car, tractor, farm and household tools and appliances collection. Also, belt
driven machine shop, car and memorabilia collection (pending)
Number Attending ________
Optional Tour AM – PM Write in from list on page 11 ______________________________________
Dinner at Friendly Farms Restaurant – Family style ham and chicken
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009
AM
PM
OR
Dinner
Number ____ @ $22.00
$ ___________
Driving tour to Robotic Dairy Farm and Lunch
Number ____ @ $ 20.00
$ ___________
Visit Al Prueitt and Sons Antique Auto Restoration Facility -- Free
Number Attending________
Optional Tour AM -- PM Write in from list on page 11 ______________________________________
Crab Feast -- all you can eat -- plus Chicken, Steak, Crab Cakes
Number ____ @ $ 32.00
$ ___________
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (choice of organized tours)
All Day Bus Tour -- Air and Space Museum (Dulles) Limit 55 lunch on own Number ____ @ $ 25
$ ___________
All Day Driving Tour -- Covered Bridges, Buffet Lunch, Camp David area
Number ____ @ $ 18
$ ___________
OR
Optional Tour AM – PM Write in from list on page 11_______________________________________
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2009
Car Show, Pictures and Awards Banquet at Best Western
Noon - Ladies Tea at historic inn – Transportation provided - Limit 40
Number ____ @ $ 18.50
Awards Banquet (indicate number for each) _____ Chicken Marsala @ $ 27.00
_____ 12 oz NY Strip Steak @ $ 40.00 _____ Orange Roughy @ $ 35.00
Total banquet
T Shirt Order (# each)
_____S _____M _____L _____XL @ $ 15.00
_____XXL @ $ 17.00 _____XXXL @ $ 18.00
Mail Completed Registration to:
Clayton E. Miller
3345 Florence Rd
Woodbine, MD 21797
(410) 442 2305 [email protected]
Total T Shirts
Registration Total
Fall Meet Information
-12-
$ __________
$ __________
$___________
$___________
David B. Young/Dianne E. Taylor
(410) 876 0702
[email protected]
[email protected]
295-FULL ISSUE
5/24/09
11:49 PM
Page 13
Regional Report
NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT
(responsible for regions)
Bobbi Berkheimer
(308) 452-3980 [email protected]
Carolina Region
WE HAD A VERY GOOD TURNOUT for our
January meeting at the Ben Avenue Free
Will Baptist Church with18 members
and guests in attendance. Geoff
CAROLINA REGION
McBride, owner of
Dean Yates
Showtime
PO Box 69
Restorations along
Faith, NC 28041
(704) 223-1195
with his dad John
[email protected]
(founder) and his
mom from
CASCADE PACIFIC REGION
Cherryville, North
Gary Rusher
6125 Homesteader
Carolina, were
Wilsonville, OR 97070
there. Geoff and
John talked at
length about Mopar
COLONIAL REGION
restoration and
Betty Kibbe
456 Holyoke St.
availability of parts
Ludlow, MA 01056
for our old
Plymouths. The
McBrides have
DAIRYLAND REGION
Dick Silhol
been a part of the
2404 W. Plum Tree
Mopar hobby since
Mequon, WI 53092
the early ‘80s. We
(262) 242-6139
all had a very good
[email protected]
time and Nancy
DELAWARE VALLEY REGION
Mitchem served up
Bill Tropia
some good old
52 Breece Dr.
southern grub at
Yardley, PA 19067-1513
the close of the
[email protected]
meeting.
DETROIT REGION
at Punchy’s, you should try it as the
food is great and the atmosphere is outstanding and friendly. -- Dean Yates
IN MARCH, we met at Backing Up
Classics in Concord, NC, with nine
members in attenHEART OF AMERICA REGION
MISSOURI "Show Me” REGION
dance. A number
Mike Schaefer
Tommy G. Pike
of items we dis12221 NE 136th
1602 East Dale
cussed, including
Kearney, MO 64060
Springfield, MO 65803
(816) 781-7117
[email protected] (Loyd Groshong) a December
[email protected]
appreciation dinwww.plymouthclub.com
PA OIL VALLEY REGION
ner for club memJim Stoudt
HEART OF TEXAS REGION
bers who attended
1290
Bankson
Rd.
Van Massier
four meetings durOil City, PA 16301 (814) 676-6678
124 Canaan Church Road
ing the year and
[email protected]
Crawford, TX 76638
also worked our
PRAIRIE REGION
fall car show at
Pat Stanton
HOOSIER REGION
the North Carolina
1915
County
Rd.
45
Kevin Reeves, President
Transportation
Ft. Calhoun, NE 68023
1002 S McDonald St
(402)
571-9973
[email protected]
Museum. Dean
Attica IN 47918 / (765) 714-0255
http://clubs.hemmings.com/
Yates gave out
[email protected]
prairiepoc/index.htm
Jan Peel, Editor, [email protected]
AutoFair tickets to
ROCKY
MOUNTAIN
REGION
those who were to
HUDSON VALLEY REGION
Bill Sullivan
attend at Lowe’s
Richard Wahrendorff
1015 Redwood Drive
Motor Speedway.
1471 Rt. 213
Loveland, CO 80538
Ulster Park, NY 12487
Our own annual
car show is comTALL PINES REGION
ing up.
LINCOLN LAND REGION
Richard Tetzlaff
Our club elecTerry Lash
23383 Malanie Trail North
7078 North Rte. 159
tion results:
Scandia, MN 55073-9745
Moro, IL 62067
President, Dean
(612) 759 2103 [email protected]
(618) 656-3865
Winter: R.Ramberg [email protected] Yates; [email protected]
dent, Greg Errett;
TULSA REGION
LONG ISLAND REGION
Treasurer, Joe C.
Jerry Burch
Peter Marks
Brown; Secretary,
1111 South Florence Ave.
47 Flintlock Drive
Nancy Mitchem.
Tulsa,
OK
74104-4104
Shirley, NY 11967
[email protected]
The meeting
was
adjourned and
UNITED KINGDOM REGION
MID-ATLANTIC REGION
all who could
Barry
Reece
Carl VanBibber
went to Parkway
“The Meadows” Cookley
6650 Fox Meade Court
Halesworth,
Suffolk
IP19
0LU,
Family Restaurant
Frederick, Maryland 21702
(301) 698-9574 [email protected] ENGLAND. tel/fax: 01986-784305 for food and [email protected]
lowship.
Joseph B. Lewis, editor
YABBA, DABBA,
9145 Hazelton
DO, it’s March
Redford, MI 48239
already! Spring is
Russ Nardi, pres: (586) 566-5838
in the air. We had a
[email protected]
great meeting and a
FLORIDA SUNSHINE REGION
very good turnout
Michael Bonadonna
for our February
455 North Cherry Pop Drive
meeting at the
Inverness, FL 34453-7975
AutoBarn Classic
Cars in Concord,
GOLDEN STATE REGION
MID-IOWA REGION
NC, with17 mem-- Nancy Mitchem
WESTERN CANADA REGION
David Maxwell
Jim Dooley
Ben Ostrander
bers and guests in
4365 Carolyne Way
29341 US Hwy 69
“OH YEA, that was
Site 11, Box 52, RR 1
Santa Maria, CA 93455-6642
Huxley, IA 50124
attendance.
some
good
De
Winton,
AB
T0L
0X0
CANADA
(805)
937-6585
(515)
597-3244
[email protected]
The AutoBarn
(403) 938-5504
[email protected]
eatin’!”
We had
has many cars on
Email: Rob Elliott [email protected]
OHIO REGION
Richard Butler, editor:
traveled
to
consignment and in
[email protected]
Brian Underwood
Troutman, NC, for
storage/display -596 Wyandot Road
GRAND CANYON REGION
our April meeting
Bucyrus, OH 44820 (740) 482-2402
almost everything
Tony Tricoci
to meet at Julia’s
[email protected]
from a Smart car to
10206 South 43rd Court
Talley House
a Dodge Viper with Phoenix, AZ 85044 (480) 893-8687
Restaurant. After
[email protected]
a few old
a short meeting
Plymouths in for
ing our meeting. After the meeting most
we
all
were
in
for
some
good southern
good measure. We took the first 30 to 40
of us went to Punchy’s Diner which is just
eatin’. If you are on a diet; stay away!
minutes to look over the cars before startaround the corner. If you’ve never eaten
Being a family-style restaurant they bring
-13-
295-FULL ISSUE
5/24/09
11:49 PM
Page 14
ll the food out to your table and keep
bringing it until you get full and quit or
pop.
On April 4-5, we had a great turnout
and a very good time at the Charlotte
AutoFair located at Lowes Motor
Speedway in Concord, NC. We had a
very nice display of 20-plus cars ranging
from a 1956 Dodge to a 1973 Plymouth.
We have been attending the Charlotte
AutoFair both spring and fall for the past
13-14 years but I think this one was the
best with attendance up and great weather.
-- Dean Yates
Cascade Pacific Region
DON HUFSCHMID, member and licensed
Oregon dealer, the featured speaker at our
January meeting, discussed issues of
licensing and titling. He offered to assist
region members who need to attend to
vehicle paperwork with the Oregon DMV.
John Sweeney entertained us with a
description of the pedicure he received as
a gift for his 66th wedding anniversary.
Our region’s 2010 Anniversary
Committee proposed that we celebrate our
tenth anniversary by hosting a national
POC meet in Oregon. National corresponding secretary Tom Nachand explained
judging and other responsibilities to be
taken on by a host region. Bill Call
voiced his support of hosting a meet, saying it will put our Plymouth club on the
map. A show of hands passed a motion
that we bid for a 2010 meet.
Member Remembered -- Cascade Pacific Region
KEN ROSE: Almost one year after his diagnosis, Ken Rose lost his hard-fought battle
with brain cancer. Sixteen CPPC members attended his funeral on April 17. The following is fellow member Tony Gemma’s memories of Ken:
FIRST OFF, I will miss Ken. He was a good friend to me. Let
me take you back a bit.
One day he called and somehow talked me into helping
him paint his ‘35 Plymouth so it wouldn’t look too bad in
his driveway. I told him I can’t really do such things anymore, for various reasons, but after we talked about it for a couple of weeks, he decided it would just be nice if it could be primered.
When I first saw the car, I thought, “Wow, that thing’s a mess.” We talked a bit
about it and he told of the small fortune the shops wanted just to do a primer job. He
asked how much I would charge, but, after saying I was not in it for the money, I sent
him into shock, saying, “If you are willing to help, and I mean do the work needed, I
will supply the place, the tools and a hand to help you out.” I can still see the look on
his face; it was one of those are-you-for-real looks. Then with a smile and a handshake, he said, “Okay. Let’s do it.”
For the next few weeks, Ken showed up with sandpaper in hand and rarin’ to do
some work. It was hot and dusty but we worked and worked on that car, joking and
laughing, listening to golden oldies and just doing what car guys do best: having a really good time working on an old car. Fortunately, this oldie was a Plymouth.
During the short time I spent with Ken we found that in our younger days we hung
out in some of the same places and knew some of the same people but had never met
each other. This brought countless hours of conversation about our old school. Our
friendship grew from there.
All the old paint came off, clear down to the metal. Then we did a few mudded-in
spots, mixed a little primer and I shot the car for him.
When it was done, his response was: “Wow, that doesn’t even look like the same
car!” For just being primer I thought the same. It still needed a lot of work, but Ken
was very happy with the results and was glad
he got to be in on the work.
Those days of working on the Plymouth
with Ken will be with me forever. I can still
see that huge dust cloud and two eyeballs looking at me and I just have to smile.
It was a short but fun time for me and
my friend Ken Rose. A time that I will never
forget.
-- Tony Gemma
-14-
GUEST SPEAKER at our February meeting
was Dale Matthews, owner of Matthews
Memory Lane Motors, the prime collector
and special-interest car dealer in Oregon.
He talked about his favorite cars, life in
general and the ups and downs of being a
large special-interest dealer in today’s
economy.
The 10th Anniversary National Meet
dates were set for June 16-19, 2010, at the
Monarch Hotel and Clackamas, Oregon.
In closing, Gary Rusher read from an
advertisement offering five around-theworld cruises to winners of an essay contest on “Why I buy a Plymouth.” There is
no date on the ad.
BILL CALL INTRODUCED his guest and the
speaker for our March meeting, Frank
Kirkland. Frank described his business,
Frank’s House of Tops, which creates roof
inserts and wooden interior trim for
1920s-30s cars. He also does custom
woodworking as needed. He brought
some sample roof bows and window trim
for display. His website is: www.houseoftops.com.
For the first part of the evening’s program, Duane Luckow had provided a 1957
Plymouth commercial produced to be
shown in movie theatres.
President Gary Rusher announced that
the POC national president, Bob Kerico,
had called to congratulate our region for
being given the go-ahead to plan the 2010
national meet. (He also praised us for the
quality of our newsletter.) Gary said he
had received emails from every POC
director and board member in support of
the decision.
Tom Nachand reported that he has the
trip to the 2009 National Summer Meet in
Wisconsin planned. The round-trip to
Oconomowoc will take 18 days. Stops are
planned at Custer State Park, Mt.
Rushmore and the Buffalo Bill Museum,
among others.
OUR NEWEST MEMBERS ARE: Dan and
Severne Barthe, owners of a rust-free original ‘48 P15 Deluxe four-door sedan; Fred
Smith, Gladstone, Oregon, who owns a
‘52 sedan and is looking for a 1928-48
driver; and David Kelly, Vancouver,
Washington, owner of a ‘48 P15 business
coupe he acquired in Georgia and brought
home on an open-bed car hauler, which he
now does not recommend although the trip
was without incident.
-- Robin Will
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Page 15
Colonial Region
WE ARE OFF TO A GREAT START, celebrating our region’s 35th anniversary. We
started with 24 adults and two children for
our dinner at the Steaming Tender
Restaurant in Palmer, Massachusetts. We
were not disappointed at all when trains
started whizzing by on either side of the
building. The weather was bright and
sunny for our ride to and from the restaurant and we managed to get in a quick
meeting, too.
During the meeting, I asked members
for information upon joining the region:
What cars, new and antique, Plymouth and
otherwise, have you owned in your lifetime? How many T-shirts have you collected from the meets you have attended?
I also asked for favorite recipes and
thoughts of our members who have passed
away. I am planning to put together a
booklet of the memories we have made
over the past 35 years in time for our
August Sturbridge reunion.
FANTASTIC FUN, fabulous weather, fast and
fevered bidding, favorite food, fun activities and so much more made for an exciting time at our March meeting held at
Steve and Kathy Castor’s house in
Stafford Springs, Connecticut. Who knew
the our auction would turn out to be a big
success with our club earning a substantial
amount of money to be used for our
August banquet? We had so much fun and
cleaned up some of our belongings for a
good cause.
Jim Dunlea and Fred Kresse decided
it would be great day for a motorcycle ride
to the Castors but then they though: How
do we take all this stuff home on the
bikes? Alas, that meant that Sue Dunlea
would have to cart all their purchases in
her car. Would they fit the stuff in the
car? With much pushing and cramming,
-- Betty Kibbe
they did!
Dairyland Region
THE SUN WAS SHINING on February 7th
and the weather was a balmy 50 degrees
which helped persuade 20 members of the
region to make it to our meeting in
Milwaukee. Understandably, due to winter
weather conditions, no Plymouths made
the trip.
We gathered at the home of the
Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park, and caravaned to the first tour stop, the HarleyDavidson Museum. If you have yet to visit
the museum, you should put it on your list
of places to visit when in the Milwaukee
area, regardless whether you are motorcycle enthusiast or not. Within the walls of
the museum are motorcycles and artifacts
that tell the story of Harley-Davidson’s
rich history and heritage.
Lunch was served in the museum’s
“Motor” restaurant. The meal portions
were so large that members
took home doggie bags with enough food
for their families’ meals for the next two
days. After lunch, the monthly meeting
was held in the restaurant.
Following the meeting, we caravaned
to the Mitchell Park Horticultural
Conservatory, known locally as The
Domes. The Arid Dome exhibits exotic
plants from America’s southwest, Africa,
Madagascar, South America and Mexico
in desert and oasis setting. The Tropical
Dome exhibits over 450 species of plants
in a tropical rain forest setting. The third
dome is the Show Dome which is changed
on a quarterly basis. The current show
includes a G-scale model train show with
numerous running model trains winding
through azaleas and miniature plantings.
That is where I spent most of my time.
OUR MARCH MEETING was held at the
home of Rob and Kris Borman in
Elizabeth, Illinois, with 20 members and
two guests making the trip in spite of a
forecast of rain and snow. Those who
have not visited the northwestern part of
Illinois along the Mississippi River, will
find its geography entirely different from
the “pool table” corn and bean field geography of the rest of the state. The scenic
country roads through rolling hills and
valleys make this an excellent touring site.
Kris and Rob are to be complimented
on their homemade pizza as are the others
who brought delicious desserts and goodies.
We received information on new
members: John and Christy Modl,
Mondovi, Wisconsin, who own five
Plymouths, and Scot and Sue Wilson,
Franklin, Wisconsin, owners of a ‘38 P5
sedan.
Registrations for our national meet are
beginning to arrive. It is encouraging to
read in other region newsletters of their
members’ plans to attend the meet.
-- Dick Silhol
Delaware Valley Region
OUR JANUARY MEETING was called to
order by Bill Tropia at the American
Legion Hall in Magnolia, New Jersey,
with 17 members present. Among them
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was new member Fred Brown, owner of
an excellent ‘55 Belvedere.
After business, Bill Tropia conducted
an auction of auto parts and assorted
items. Past member Angelo Sannsardo
was downsizing and donated a box of
items to the club. Bill did a great job as
an auctioneer. We had some fun and generated a few extra dollars for our treasury,
OUR FEBRUARY MEETING was called to
order with 16 members present. In getting
down to business, we discussed our
planned visit to the Simeone Museum and
the upcoming annual spring banquet.
Tech Talk concluded our meeting with
Fran Mollo telling of solving a problem
with his modern car fuel pump by tapping
the pump and relay with a hammer. He
got it started again. Ed Field brought in
plastic lugs used on 1955-56 Plymouth
headlights.
OUR MARCH MEETING was called to order
with 16 members and one guest present.
Our upcoming club outing and spring banquet were again topics of discussion. The
latter will be held in lieu of our April
meeting.
For Tech Talk, Frank Mollo discussed
oil filters, saying he’s heard that Fram filters may not be as well made as others.
We conveyed our condolences to
Angelo Sannasardo whose wife recently
passed away and sent our wishes for a
speedy recovery to Joe Hernandez who
had knee replacement surgery on April 6.
-- Hank DeMayo
Detroit Region
RUSS NARDI called our February meeting
to order at Little Daddy’s with 12 members present.
Russ reported that five new members
signed up at our region’s table at the WPC
meet. New member Jim Ronconi was
introduced. He drives a ‘64 Sport Fury
hardtop.
Among other business, we discussed
plans for our February dinner at Papa
Vino’s and ideas for club get-togethers,
including the Mopar Meet at the Mopar
Parts Depot in April and the Heritage
Festival and Festival of Cars in May.
During Tech Time, Lynn Miller presented the findings of his search for a
good local glass source. He also reported
that a paint manufacturer in San Diego,
California, is now selling their brand of
automotive finishes which duplicate the
colors they produce for PPG.
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Page 16
VICE-PRESIDENT RON KLINE called our
March meeting to order at Ron Irvin’s
house with 12 members present. Vickie
Oleksiak led a discussion on possible club
activities for 2009. A schedule of nine
events from April to September was
approved.
The 2008 Points Award certificate
was presented to Ed Ungerman. “He has
shown the true spirit of a Plymouth Club
member,” writes Joe Lewis. “He participated in events throughout 2008, sometimes traveling to two activities in one
day.”
Tech Time involved reports by Lynn
Miller, Stan Paurazas and Don Wood,
respectively, on the Mopar Swap Meet in
Ohio, the Simpler County Swap Meet in
Lakeland, Florida, and the Zephyr Hills
meet. Stan also furnished contact information for antique radio repair: Paul’s
Radio Service, 18573 Allen Rd,
Melvindale, MI 48122; (313) 928-3322.
Paul Curtis has had three radios repaired
-- Paul Curtis
at this facility.
Golden State Region
OUR DAY BEGAN at Grandma’s Kitchen in
Banning, California, where our hosts, Del
and Merita Dysart, treated us all to a
hearty lunch. We held a short meeting at
Grandmas, talking about our coming
events.
After lunch we caravaned to Matt and
Rosita Hedberg’'s place to view their car
collection, which is overwhelming, to say
the least. Matt and Rosita favor Mopars,
but their collection runs the gamut. Some
of my favorites are: a 1940 Hudson coupe,
s 1950 Cadillac, a 1942 Chrysler coupe
(one of two registered in the US) and a
1937 Chrysler four-door convertible.
Matt's work shop is very well equipped,
and sports maybe 20 or so Hemi engines,
in various states of repair. Fifteen members and guests were in attendance.
-- Tony Cipponeri
TOUR TO R. C. BAKER MUSEUM:
Highway 25 is a beautiful but lonely highway and Coalinga Road, which we took
from Highway 25 over the 4,500-foot
Clear Creek Summit, is an even more
remote road. No towns, no gas stations
and no cell phone coverage for the 95
miles between Hollister and Coalinga.
But the country is beautiful and it was still
spring in the mountains with green hills,
water in the creeks and some wildflowers.
We had a number of breaks and rest stops
with the last one being just before the
summit where a roadside marker indicated
that this was where benitonite was discovered. Named after the county, San Benito,
benitonite, considered one of the rarest
gemstones in the world. is apparently
found only in this place.
Coming down on the Fresno county
side of the summit, the road widens
enough to regain center striping and, on it,
we followed Clear Creek down over many
bridges built in the late 1940s. Starting in
the greenery of a pine and oak forest we
descended into the chaparral and finally
into near desert. Near the lower end we
passed by a field with longhorn cattle and
just beyond it was an arena where cattlemen were practicing roping. Then we
entered the oil fields that made Coalinga a
boomtown during much of the last century.
The R. C. Baker Museum is very nice
and covers a wide variety of items covering the natural history of the area (gems,
minerals, fossils) and human history. I
was surprised to learn that the first industry in the area was coal mining (thus the
name Coalinga) but that panned out early
on and oil was soon discovered in the
area. The museum itself is named for a
local inventor who made his mark developing tools and equipment used in the oil
drilling and oil production business.
The museum also has a restored 1934
Richfield gas station which was opened to
allow our cars in. After the museum visit
we continued our conversation with the
Fresno folk at a local restaurant before
heading home. My odometer showed
about 310 miles for the day.
Thanks to Bob Semichy for organizing the tour which required a lot of scouting to find good roads for touring.
-- Tod Fitch
Grand Canyon Region
OUR FEBRUARY MEETING was held at
Dillion’s on Thunderbird in Glendale,
Arizona, with ten attendees. We had a
nice birthday celebration for Richard
Tetzlaff and then proceeded to hold our
business meeting, called to order by Tony
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Tricoci.
Following reports, we welcomed
Charlie Olson, who had missed meetings
for several months. Charlie was appointed
to be our activity chair with the responsibility of arranging our tours. We discussed our joint meeting with the Golden
State Region in March at Lake Havasu.
We set up a list of meetings and hosts for
the rest of the year.
Richard asked how many of us would
be going to the Nationals in Wisconsin in
June. Many of us are thinking that it is a
good time of year to leave the Phoenix
area.
OUR MARCH MEETING was held at the
Island Inn Hotel in Lake Havasu City,
Arizona, with eight members attending.
Following our meeting, we met with
ten Golden State Region members and discussed a variety of issues that affect both
our clubs. What a nice bunch of people.
Bob and Jan Bryant and Bob Davis drove
their cars from California to Arizona. The
Dysart and Davis cars are absolutely beautiful.
That evening, we went out to
Javelina Cantina for a wonderful Mexican
dinner. The next morning we regrouped
for breakfast and then met at the Dixie
Belle pier under the London Bridge for a
delightful one-hour cruise around Lake
Havasu. The scenery is beautiful with
mountains surrounding the turquoise-colored water of the lake.
OUR APRIL MEETING was held at the Old
Chicago Restaurant in Mesa, with ten
members and three guests present. The
meeting was called to order by Tony
Tricoci who welcomed our new members,
the Bickels, and thanked our members for
bringing and showing off their beautiful
cars.
Following reports and discussion of
upcoming and possible tours and events,
activities chair Charlie Olson, asked
Dwight Ervin if he would be our technical
guest speaker for our next meeting as he
was a Plymouth-Chrysler-Dodge mechanic
and his father had a Chrysler dealership
for many years. Dwight has a wealth of
knowledge going back to the early days of
Plymouth cars. He even told Tony to use
heavier transmission oil in his 1936
-- Barbara Tricoci
Plymouth.
Heart of America Region
EIGHTEEN MEMBERS and one guest were
at our January meeting. President Mike
Schaefer updated us on the surgery Bob
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Page 17
Member Remembered -- Heart of America Region
LEE BERGREN passed away on May 1 after a brief illness. Lee had been a member of
our region for many years, having once served as a club secretary.
Besides his interest in old cars--he had owned a 1950 P20 sedan--he was also an
accomplished electronics engineer, author, designer and advisor with special accomplishments in the field of antenna and radio amplifier design. He was an enthusiastic
amateur radio operator. He and Better had made many friends around the world and
their travels took them to far places.
Lee was always a gentleman with a kind and gentle manner, ready to be of help.
He will be greatly missed. Our condolences go to his wife, Betty. -- Winona Krenzer
Yates would be having and the sad news
of the death of Leroy and Virginia
Penrod’s daughter-in-law. Don Woods
reported on his recent health issues.
We discussed the swap meets coming
up in the next few months and debated
whether we should participate. We also
discussed the national meets to be held in
Wisconsin and Maryland. Plans were put
forth for our Christmas party and a committee was named.
The tip for the day was given by Bill
Krenzer on the good qualities and usefulness of a half-inch 12-volt impact wrench.
On an unexpectedly warm day,
January’s Café Cruise was held at
Bandana’s BBQ in Independence.
Eighteen members and two guests, Caleb
and Jesse Schaefer, enjoyed the delicious
lunch and the chance to catch up on everyone’s news. It was especially good to see
Bob Yates, recovered from his recent surgery. We thank Mike and Vicki Schaefer
for hosting.
OUR MEETING IN FEBRUARY was wellattended. We welcomed guest Dave Estes,
owner of a 1950 P19 business coupe.
Several money-making ideas were discussed, including participation in a local
swap meet.
Vicki Schaefer gave a report from the
Christmas party committee and we chose a
venue from several proposals that had
been put forth.
Ed Ernat told of his experience with a
broken reverse band in a late-fifties model
transmission. Marilyn Ernat followed
with readings of humorous adages called
“Farmer’s Advice.”
Jim and Jo Ellen Holloway hosted our
February Café Cruise at Cinzetti’s Italian
Buffet where twelve of us enjoyed delicious selections.
OUR MARCH POTLUCK meeting was held
at the Eden Heights Church in
Independence. We welcomed several
guests, including Larry Hancock, former
member and vice-president. After a wonderful assortment of side dishes with KFC
chicken as the main course and an outstanding array of yummy desserts, we held
our business meeting.
President Mike Schaefer gave us a
preview of our upcoming May trip to
Hamilton, Missouri. Glenn Means asked
those who wanted their cars’ pictures
changed on our website to send a new picture. An award was presented to Bill and
Winona Krenzer, winners of our 2008
points-competition.
Ken and Joyce Reed, who hosed the
meeting, also hosted March’s Café Cruise
to V’s Italian Restaurant in Independence.
Enjoying a tasty buffet and other items
were six member couples. Afterwards, we
swapped some “senior moment” and other
stories.
APRIL’S MEETING was well attended as we
welcomed new members Jim and Mary
Ellen Crocker of Kearney, Missouri, owners of a 1954 Savoy.
Mike Schaefer reported on the recent
swap meet at Worlds of Fun which netted
some money for our club. The Schaefers’
little granddaughter, Shelby Job, told us of
the homemade apple muffins she had
taken to sell, which were soon gone!
We held a silent auction of baked
goods, some tools and other miscellaneous
items contributed to add to our treasury.
Vicki Schaefer reported on what we can
expect on our May trip to Hamilton. Jo
Ellen Holloway gave an interesting talk on
composting, an idea on how we can go
-- Winona Krenzer
green.
Hoosier Region
OUR JANUARY MEETING at Muldoon’s in
Carmel, Indiana, was attended by a very
lively group of 26 members and guests.
After our lunch and things settled down a
little, President Kevin Reeves brought the
meeting to order. A discussion regarding
upcoming meetings produced a schedule
for the rest of the year with some months
open for suggestions. Following other
business, the meeting was then brought to
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a close.
OUR MARCH MEETING at the Fox &
Hound Pub & Grille in Carmel was
attended by another very lively group of
23 members. After our lunch Kevin
brought the meeting to order with a review
of our upcoming meeting/tour situation.
Only October remains open for suggestions. Following our 50/50 raffle, the
meeting was then brought to a close.
OUR SYMPATHY goes to Poncho Batman
and Dennis Johnson’s family. Dennis
Johnson passed away on January 28 of
heart failure. Poncho has written that
Dennis had been very excited about getting his car together and was looking forward to being an active member of the
Plymouth Club. His son, Rich, and his
wife Bridget, now have his father’s
Plymouth and have joined our region.
Our sympathy also goes to Chuck
Sadler and his family. Janet Sadler passed
away April 6th. A memorial contribution
has been sent. She will be missed.
Mouse in corner
After a membership vote Nicole
Ancil was allowed to again draw the winning ticket for the 50/50. Especially since
her father Marvin Snider wasn’t there to
win. He was on his way to bring Berniece
home from Arkansas. With Berniece’s
mother healing quite nicely from surgery,
Berniece was quite ready to come home.
It seems as though Jan Peel is a real
“Klutz” at times. If she wouldn’t talk with
her hands she might not spill other people’s soda. But then she manages to spill
her own water also. Hmmmm!!!
-- Jan Peel
Long Island Region
OUR FEBRUARY MEETING was called to
order with eight members present.
Following opening reports, our joint
meeting with Kiwanis Club to plan logistics for the June 7 Wheels and Wings For
Hope Car Show was announced. New
business began with a call for nominations
for the various club officer positions. A
motion was made and seconded that all
currently serving officers continue to serve
in their respective positions for the coming
year. The motion was unanimously
passed.
OUR REGION IS PLEASED to announce the
addition of another Plymouth to its roster
of Mopars. Tom Kinane is now the proud
owner of a 1954 Belvedere four- door
sedan. Its acquisition is an interesting
story.
Page 18
Tom was asked by his son Rich if he
would be interested in a ‘54 Plymouth he
had found on-line. When told the color of
the car, Tom replied, “I'm not interested in
a taxi cab.” Dinner at Rich’s house resulted in Tom seeing pictures of the car and
they decided to make further inquiries. A
number of telephone conversations and
correspondence ensued and a deal was
reached.
On February 6, Tom and Rich invited
Dave Wegenaar, who shared memories
and details of his dad’s '54 Plymouth, to
be present when the car was delivered
from Missouri. The car was off loaded
under its own power. The men who delivered the Plymouth were amazed at its condition.
The Belvedere, with 34,690 original
miles, was in remarkable condition. The
engine ran smoothly and quietly, and all
items--eight-tube radio, deluxe heater and
defroster, wipers, lights and directional
signals--work perfectly. The body is all
original and the San Diego Gold and San
Leandro Ivory paint only shows minor
imperfections--what would be expected on
a 56-year-old vehicle. ( The car was originally sold in October, 1953.) The bright
work, interior and tinted glass are also in
excellent condition. The only options not
found on this car that were available at the
time are a clock, wire wheels and a transmission upgrade (either overdrive or HyDrive).
Tom, Rich and Dave spent some time
examining the Plymouth and checking
over its features. Tom drove the car up
and down the block a few times to the
delight of Rich and Dave before putting it
in the garage pending a thorough going
over of its mechanicals. Another friend
who saw the car the next day told Tom,
“I'm calling the Missouri State Police. You
stole this car!”
A JOINT MEETING with the Kiwanis Club
of The Mastics was held in March at the
Manor House in Shirley. A number of
assignments for logistical preparation for
the show were made.
An email from relocated member
Member Remembered -- Hoosier Region
STAN PEEL passed away April 5th in our home with loved ones here with him. I would
like to thank everyone for all the prayers, cards, phone calls, e-mails, and visits. Stan
loved his Plymouths and considered the Plymouth Owners Club members as his
“extended” family. The friendship of so many people meant a lot to him. He enjoyed
the tours, meetings, and the national meets. May God bless all of you. -- Jan Peel
FROM THE RHYMING of their names to
their presence at Plymouth meets, Stan
and Jan were a matched pair. Late in
the 1980s they began attending national meets and by 1992, they had not
only founded the Hoosier Region but
were hosting the 1992 National
Summer Meet at the Indy 500 track.
Their imagination, organization, dedication, hospitality and plain hard work combined to make it a most memorable meet,
thanks, in no small part, to the permission Stan doggedly pursued and successfully
attained for each of the registered Plymouths to be driven two laps around the famed
track. National board members were
special recipients of their gracious hospitality.
A highlight of succeeding meets
was a reunion with Stan and Jan. Jan
would not let a greeting or a good-bye
go without a hug. The warmth of their
personalities shone through intervening
correspondence until the next meet.
Unfortunately, LeeAnn and I were
unable to attend the 2006 Indianapolis
National Spring Meet to once again
experience Stan and Jan’s hospitality,
but many did.
Many of us last saw Stan and Jan
together at the 2008 Grand National
Meet. Stan was walking with a cane,
but he was there, enjoying this meet as
he had enjoyed each one before.
The matched pair will no longer be
As I told my grandson, Stan is driving his ‘54
seen together at future meets, but Jan
Belvedere convertible with his dad, two sisters
will be sure to be there, and she may
and two grandsons down the streets of heaven
have a hug for you. -- Lanny Knutson
and having a blast.
SUMMER MEET
11:49 PM
1992
5/24/09
LANNY KNUTSON PHOTO AT THE
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JAN -- Judy and I want you to know that we were sorry to hear that Stan has passed
away. We both will keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers in the days
and months ahead. All of your Plymouth friends will do the same. Our memories of
Stan and all that he did for our club and yours will not go unremembered.
-- Bob and Judy Kerico
Matt Maringola told of a jaunt he took
with his wife and their ‘39 Road King
two-door sedan from San Diego to Long
Beach in California. Matt's overdriveequipped Plymouth had no problem cruising the highways at 60 MPH. It was good
to hear from Matt and to know things are
going well for him.
Our March meeting was called to
order with eight members in attendance.
Ed Lawler, owner of a 1970 GTX, mailed
in a membership application.
-18-
The members sent out our prayers for
Eddie Sachs’ wife and daughter who were
involved in a serious automobile accident
rendering them in critical condition and in
intensive care. Condolences were extended to the Marks family on the passing of
Nancy Marks' father and to the Russo
family on the passing of Joe Russo's mother-in-law.
Tom Kinane’s recently acquired ‘54
Belvedere is now on the road and, after
some mechanical TLC which involved
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11:49 PM
Page 19
eplacing some components which came
with the car from the factory, it is running
great . This is a 34,600-mile all-original
car in almost pristine condition.
OUR APRIL MEETING was called to order
with ten members in attendance. Old
business centered around discussion of the
June 7 Wheels And Wings For Hope Car
Show, and resulted in much discussion,
planning, and resulting decisions.
-- Dave Wegenaar
Lone Star Region
ONLY A FEW MONTHS AGO that a small
group of Texas POC members met on
November 8th in Crawford, Texas and
took the initial steps in organizing a
region. A second meeting was held in
February in Waco and now we are now
well on our way toward having a successful regional organization. Our membership roster contains in excess of 50 names!
Working with our members has been a
pleasure. Although I have been involved
with the start-up of several organizations,
none had gone as smoothly as this one.
Our members have exhibited an extraordinary amount of cooperation and willingness to accept committee assignments,
both ingredients that are very important
for the success and longevity of any
organization. Our members are enthusiastic and fervent about their assignments as
they are committed to their Plymouths.
Please note that our region name has
changed from Heart of Texas Region to
Lone Star Region. It was felt that the new
name would better reflect the totality of
our state than would the first name, which
had too much connotation of a particular
area within the state. Happy motoring!
-- Van Massirer
Mid-Atlantic Region
OUR DECEMBER MEETING was held at the
Cozy Inn, Thurmont, Maryland, with 57
members and guests present. Following
our annual Christmas buffet, the meeting
was called to order by President Carl
VanBibber. He thanked Jerry Seitz for
making arrangements for the dinner and
Karen Fowler for dinner favors.
A plaque was presented to Jack and
Mary Ann Veara for their 43 years of loyal
membership in the Plymouth Owners
Club. Long distance awards were presented to Marian Barry and Bob and Natalie
Gomez for traveling from Pennsylvania to
attend numerous club events during the
year. The Byard Award for club service
Members Remembered -- Mid-Atlantic Region
Memorial services were held for THE REV.
WILLIAM H. ANDERMAN on November 28,
2008, at Faith United Church in Frederick,
Maryland. He was 86 years of age. Bill and
his wife Catherine, members of the MidAtlantic Region for a number of years, were
proud owners of a 1941 P12 Special Deluxe
sedan. Their first car was a ‘41 P11 sedan.
Years later, Bill saw the P12 being driven to
church every Sunday by the former librarian at
Hood College. When they discovered that she wanted to sell the car, they approached
her and the car became theirs. Over the years, the car’s motor, brakes, upholstery and
paint were replaced. In addition to the ‘41, the Andermans have a 1937 Imperial sedan.
Becoming blind at age 32, Bill learned Braille in three months. He continued as a
full-time minister for 13 years and continued with supply and interim ministry.
As his health began to deteriorate, Bill’s outlook stayed very positive. He continued to believe that he would get better and was making plans for what he wanted to do,
-- Peggy VanBibber
such as putting another coat of polish on his cars.
Memorial services were held for WILLIAM
RAYMOND MARSHALL on December 10, 2008. He
would have been 61 sixteen days later.
The story of the life of Ray and Robyn, his wife
of 40 years, was told in BULLETIN 292, pages 3839, in an article on their 1968 Hemi Road Runner.
They also owned a 1957 Belvedere which is like
the one Ray drove when he and Robyn dated during high school. He described the ‘57 as a driver
and had put it in storage planning to give it a full restoration. Jerry Seitz reports that
just before Ray’s untimely death, he had taken it to a shop to begin restoration. Ray
and Robyn had also purchased a ‘79 Li’l Red Express truck.
In Ray’s final years, he enjoyed remodeling their house, preserving his classic cars,
hunting with friends and relatives and spending quality time with family. Ray is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son, their spouses and three grandchildren.
-- David Young
We were greatly saddened to learn of the death of
SIMON ENNIS on February 11. He and his wife
Gloria were introduced to Mid-Atlantic members
in 2004 by the late Bob Butler whose ‘49
Plymouth they had purchased. In addition to their
‘49, they owned a ‘66 Valiant, a ‘70 Chrysler
Maserati and a 1901 Oldsmobile.
Having relocated to Dallas, North Carolina,
Simon and Gloria continued to come back for
activities and treated those who traveled to the
2007 Fall Meet with gracious and generous hospitality at their home.
Born in 1935, Simon served for 30 years as an inspector for the Duchess County
(NY) Health Department. His love for life and for all creatures great and small was
evident in his love for people, his miniature horses and his little dog Heidi. He is sur-- Peggy VanBibber
vived by his wife, two sons and two stepchildren.
was presented to Carl and Peggy
VanBibber.
The meeting was adjourned and our
annual club auction began.
OUR JANUARY MEETING was held at the
Four Seasons Diner, Mount Airy,
Maryland with 19 members present. Carl
VanBibber opened the meeting by wel-
-19-
coming Fran Byard and Dan Blake, both
of whom had been seriously ill.
David Young gave an update on the
progress in plans for the national meet.
Several others reported on the status of
other plans for the meet.
OUR FEBRUARY MEETING was held at
Ledo’s, Severna Park, Maryland, with 29
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members attending. Carl opened the
meeting with a reminder of the help that is
needed for our national meet in
September. Extensive discussion followed
on various plans for the meet
Karen and Wayne Fowler and Carl
and Peggy VanBibber are planning a trip
to the June national meet in Wisconsin.
THE MARCH MEETING was at Baugher’s
Restaurant in Westminster, Maryland, with
30 members attending. Carl opened the
meeting with a welcome to new member
Jerry Caldwell, owner of a ‘51 Plymouth.
With no new business needing to be discussed, we moved to the “old business”
of planning for our national meet which,
again, was extensive. -- Karen Fowler
Mid-Iowa Region
FOR OUR JANUARY MEETING, Spencer and
Fran Siracusano hosted this eagerly awaited event at their Breadeaux Pizza store
and, yes! they served all kinds of good
pizza! Yum! Present were 14 members,
including new member Jerry McMillen
who was given a big welcome as he
shared pictures of his 1955 original
Plymouth--nice!
The pizza was good, and so was the
discussion. Some of the topics were: Old
Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, and DeSoto
dealerships in Des Moines, aluminum
blocks in the Slant Six engine and R & R
axle bearings.
NOT TO BE MISSED was our annual
Valentine’s Day dinner at Chips
Restaurant in Ankeny, Iowa. Carol
Livingston was kind enough to reserve the
party room for us--on Valentine’s Day, no
less! Eighteen member attended.
There was a lot of interesting conversation, including member projects: John
DeMoss is removing the engine from his
‘66 Plymouth and having the engine compartment and engine painted. Jim Dooley
just completed exchanging the V10 in his
2001 Dodge truck for a Cummins diesel.
Never tell Jim that something can’t be
done!
The big hit of the party was a very
special Valentine’s Day cake brought by
Bob and Edith Coburn. The cake featured
a computerized photo image of an ad for
the 1958 Plymouth Fury Junior. Bob is
lucky enough to own one of these. The
picture was so good that it was hard to cut
into the cake, but we forced ourselves.
MANY THANKS go to Cal Wiseman for presenting the Multimeter workshop at our
March meeting. Cal put together a 23page auto electrical testing manual for
members, plus he presented demonstrations and provided equipment to make the
workshop a real success! This is one of
several workshops Cal has presented over
the years. He and Bob Coburn were scheduled to present a workshop on Rear Axle
Bearing and Seals at our April meeting.
Cal and Bob and all members are to be
commended for sharing their knowledge.
Present at the March workshop were 13
members and guests.
THE SAYDEL COMMUNITY School District
publicly thanked us for our part in the
2008 holiday giving program sponsored
by the Saydel Student Assistance Team.
This year, 49 sponsors served a total of
112 families with a total of 280 children.
Our club has participated in this program
for several years now instead of doing a
gift exchange among ourselves.
-- Joannie Dooley
Prairie Region
OUR FEBRUARY MEETING was held at the
hospitality room of the Super 8 in York,
Nebraska, attended by 26 members and
guests.
Early Saturday morning twelve guys
and gals headed out to Frank Ahrens Body
Shop to check on the progress of Jeff
Berkheimer’s 1971 Dodge Charger. The
car is painted a bright Panther Pink and
was looking good. This is to be Steph’s
car and was she excited, taking lots of pictures!
That afternoon, Pat Stanton, our president, opened the meeting with various
reports. Jay Thomas of the Rocky
Mountain Region and Jim Sheaffer presented information on the joint May meeting to be held with the Prairie and Rocky
Mountain POC regions and the Denverarea WPC Club.
Merrill Berkheimer then demonstrated
the Floating Power rubber engine mounts
unit and presented the history of the
inventor, Fred Zeder. Chrysler Corp
devised a system whereby the engine rested on two rubber mounts, one located just
under the water pump at the front of the
engine and the other at the rear of the
transmission. The demonstrator unit was
on loan from Earl Buton. Much discussion followed.
Denny Cutshall has been given
BULLETINs from the late 1950s and1960s
to1970s by Harold Soukup. We all found
them fun to read. Lots of reminiscing went
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on as we looked them over.
The meeting closed followed by a pot
luck dinner and visiting into the wee hours
of the evening.
-- Bobbi Berkheimer
COLD! COLD! COLD! Braving the cold and
wind at Lincoln Swap meet on March 8th
were 18 members. Our March meeting
was held at Spaghetti Works in Lincoln.
The meeting was called to order by Vicepresident, Frank Shimek. Among other
business, further plans for our Missouri
Valley swap meet were made.
New member Cody Hasse from
Lincoln, Nebraska, enjoys restoring cars
and is willing to work with members who
have restoration projects. Merrill and
Bobbi had invited Cody of Lincoln to
attend our meeting and to speak to our
group. Cody, who has his own body shop,
talked about his work, projects etc. He is
currently restoring a 1971 Dodge for Scott
Dowse of Chicago. Discussion followed
his presentation and expression of his love
of Mopars. Cody attended Wyoming Tech
in 1996 and became interested in Mopars
when he was younger as his neighbor had
a 1936 Plymouth. Cody now owns a 1966
Plymouth and plans to join our region.
RICK AND RAMONA MOORE from
Papillion, Nebraska, are the proud new
owners of a 1936 Plymouth sedan,
restored and previously owned by Fred
-- Larry Stanton
and Alice Korb.
MOTHER NATURE thought she had created
a problem for our first driving tour of
2009 but she didn’t realize the determination this bunch of Plymouth lovers has!
As we drove down the brick street,
we spotted the Baers’ three-story Victorian
home and their huge yard. The Baer family, Bill and Donna, son Bill and wife
Susan and son Dr Tom and his wife Sue
(the Baers have three Susans in their family) and the youngest son Bob, there with
his daughter Katie, were out in the yard to
greet us. The Baer family has very strong
car genes. The entire family was a part of
the business when Bill and Donna had the
Ford dealership.
We ventured downtown, where we
split into two groups. One group went to
view Robert and Gloria Chalek’s beautiful
collection of vintage cars. The other
group went to view the late LeRoy and
Phyllis Viner's collection of antique pedal
cars, toys, signs and memorabilia, etc.,
and antique cars. These were all on display on the upper level of the older Ford
dealership which was accessed by an ele-
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vator which was large enough to take a car
to the upper level. Also on display on this
level is 1934 Plymouth coupe of Prairie
Region member John McCormick.
Returning to ground level, we were at
the back entrance of Phyllis Viner's beautiful two-bedroom log cabin which was
built into the Ford brick building. Going
out the front door we entered a courtyard.
We really enjoyed the fish pond, water
fall, rustic benches, garden decor, brick
outer walls and a unique locally made
gate.
At noon we ventured back to the
Baers’ residence where they had a very
tasty lunch of barbeque pork, chips, baked
beans and drink. Donna had prepared several wonderful looking and tasty desserts.
Merrill and Denny were both seated near
this table. Bill and Donna served us a sitdown lunch on their screened in wraparound porch.
The Baers’ home, built in 1895, was
bought by Bill’s widowed grandmother in
1902, His grandmother passed away in
1906. Two of his aunts then lived in the
home, one of whom married but did not
have any children. It was their wish that
Bill and his family move into the house,
which they did in 1967.
We all enjoyed and were very
impressed with the architecture--the gingerbread, the wood work, wood floors and
the stained glass and leaded windows of
the Baer home.
After lunch, the business meeting and
visiting we toured Bill's collection of cars
and pickups. A 1937 Plymouth coupe
belonged to Grandfather Baer, making the
car very special. It was used in his country
veterinary business in the Malvern, Iowa,
area. Bill's pickups include a cream and
turquoise 1965 D-100 Dodge and a 1970
D-200 Dodge crew cab with a camper.
Bill's vehicles are stored in a beautiful vintage six-stall building with an upper story.
This was another fun meeting with
lots of history. We thank the Baer family
for another great day with our Plymouth
family! We had 32 people attending.
-- Bobbi Berkheimer
Rocky Mountain Region
DOING A GREAT JOB of setting up our first
meeting of 2009 were Bill and Verena
Sullivan who arranged the gathering at
Johnson’s Corners. Everything is homemade at this place which is famous for its
gigantic cinnamon buns, one of which can
feed at least four people.
Twenty-one members were in atten-
dance at the business meeting that followed. Updates were given on the families our club helped at Christmas. The
families have been struggling and are
grateful for the help they received to make
their holiday a happy one.
Following other business, a white elephant exchange was held. Of course,
stealing another’s prize was acceptable.
As usual, good things as well as some
really “white elephant” items were up for
grabs. Lots of fun.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY for our tour to
the new LeMay Auto Collection.
Seventeen members and one guest met
with WPC members on a drive to he
museum. We were given a little history of
the collection before we began a tour on
our own. Among the beautiful vehicles
were some that are available for rent at a
cost, we believe, of $300 a day plus your
own insurance.
After lunch, Bill Sullivan (with a broken left wrist from a fall on ice) called a
short meeting to order. Thank you notes
were received from three of the families
we had helped at Christmas. Betty
Sullivan reported on a note received from
Lovina Pierson in Sinclair, Wyoming. She
had been having a hard time getting
around but is now able to walk inside
without a cane. She enjoys being kept
informed of what the club is doing and,
being named a Friend of the Club, she no
longer has to pay dues.
WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES Museum was
the destination for our March tour and
meeting. The museum is housed in one of
the old buildings of what was the Lowery
Air Force Base in Aurora, east of Denver.
We enjoyed a self-guided tour of a huge
display of military and other aircraft. Our
hosts, Ron and Shirley Duez, had arranged
the use of one of the classrooms for our
meeting. Surrounded by photos and all
sorts of information, we kind of felt like
we were being briefed for our next flying
mission. Twelve members and two guests
attended.
Under new business, Bill Sullivan
reported that fellow member Lowell
Stahlman’s cancer has returned and he is
not doing well. We sent a car wishing the
very best to Lowell and Mickey. Bill’s
wrist was still in a cast but he was hoping
to have it working by his and Verena’s
50th wedding anniversary celebration in
April.
OUR APRIL MEETING was at Doc’s Food
and Spirit in Loveland. Due to heavy
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snow in Denver on April 18, it was
rescheduled for the 25th. The food was so
plentiful and wonderful that no one had
room for dessert and some were thinking
they should have had dessert first.
Sixteen members and one guest were
in attendance. Absent were Bill and
Verena Sullivan who were in Aruba celebrating their 50th anniversary. Jay
Thomas presided at the meeting.
Stan Hicks was congratulated for running 5k that morning. It was reported that
Lowell Stahlman, in fighting his returned
cancer, says he cannot continue with our
club. We voted to name the Stahlmans
Friends of the Club. They will continue to
receive our newsletters.
We also received the sad news that
long-time member Gordon McKee passed
away on April 16 after a long illness.
Condolences and a donation to the
American Heart Association were sent to
Shirley McKee. We will miss Gordon
immensely.
-- Betty Putnam
Tall Pines Region
MARCH’S MEETING was held at the home
of Scott Hank’s girlfriend, Patti Blow, in
Faribault, Minnesota. Jean and I were
unable to attend, due to continuing family
obligations surrounding the marriage of
our son, Paul, the day before. Jeff Juneau
was a good sport and filed the following
report:
ROG, you were “scorned” by one and all
for placing a mere wedding above a Ply
Club gathering, but we did muddle
though. Present were ten of us, including
Curly Schreckenberg, who drove his ‘32
Thrift. All others drove late models. We
met as planned and then drove to look at
Scott’s old cars and snowmobiles. All-inall an interesting collection, consisting of:
a ‘67 Lincoln, a ‘67 Dodge GTO, a ‘60
Buick two-door and many others, restored
and unrestored. There are some snowmobiles, some trucks from the early ‘50s and
a Power Wagon getting a facelift. Then it
was back for a short meeting, followed by
potluck. The snow stayed south of us as
we headed home.
-- Jeff Juneau
APRIL’S MEETING was held at the home of
Don and Marlys Rohweder in New
Brighton, Minnesota. A cool, drizzly day
held down the number of old Plymouths
that came out. A few intrepid members
came out with theirs, though, and they
were: Wayne Peterson,1948; Ed Juneau
and Carmon,1948; Howard and Cookie
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Cassidy, 1939; Jack and Virginia
Schultz,1952; Jeff and Vivian Juneau,
1964 Fury.. Twelve more came in their
modern vehicles.
Recently back from Arizona, our president, Rich Tetzlaff, called our business
meeting to order. Among the 13 items of
business we discussed were a group trip to
the national meet in Oconomowoc, our
Fall Foliage Tour, attractions in the area of
the National Fall Meet in Maryland and a
three-day touring and junking trip to the
Bismarck, North Dakota, area.
Rich noted that former Tall Pines
members Bob and Donna Bickel are now
members of the Arizona Grand Canyon
Region. Best wishes go to our members
with health-related problems: Cookie
Cassidy, foot operation in May; Roger
Ramberg, back operation in April; Howard
Cassidy, continuing bouts with pancreatitis
and Barb Anderson, recovering from a
broken cervical vertebrae.
Happy Plymouthing
Rog & Jean Ramberg
Western Canada Region
OUR MAY 6 MEETING was held at Wendy’s
McLeod Trail in Calgary with 23 members
present. Elected board members are Jim
Hand, president; Eric Skagen, vice-president; Inga Pollhaus, secretary; Marlene
Brown, treasurer; and Doug Brown, membership.
Letters
Plymouths on track
GREAT JOB on the 1958 issue and its
memorabilia coverage. I owned a ‘58
Savoy when I was 19 in 1964. It had a
V8, automatic, four-barrel, dual exhaust
and solid lifters but no radio, power steering or power brakes--a strange combination! But, it was a very fast car!
My first car, acquired when I was 16
and in high school, was a ‘48 P15 club
coupe.
The model railroad billboards are
neat! I couldn’t find one for the1946-48
Plymouths so I recreated one from a
showroom catalog for my display and
installed it in a green Lionel billboard.
Keep up the good work.
Norm Pennie
Vancouver, British Columbia
AFTER READING the information about the
toy models in the last BULLETIN, I have
been looking for information on the model
cars I purchased as a kid during 19491954. They include 1949 and 1950
Plymouth wind-up four-door sedans, a
1951 (larger scaled) station wagon, a 1954
friction motor model. I also have Fords
from 1949 to 1954; Pontiacs, 1951 to 53;
Studebakers,1950 to ‘54; Chevrolet 1952
to ‘53 dealer showroom models; Henry J,
the original Buick Skylark convertible;
Thunderbird; and Corvette. All are in
excellent condition. Models from 1949 to
1952 have wind-up motors. The others
have friction motors. All are plastic.
Any information on the above toys
would be appreciated.
John Bonard
BILL BRISBANE’S article in BULLETIN 293
on the ‘50s billboards sent me looking in
our family’s Lionel train set. One of
many we’ve had over several years, it was
purchased in 1948. We gradually bought
accessories such as the billboards.
Enclosed are some ads I have. There was
also one with a Plymouth. The WOW!
Ford ad is one I remember seeing on
either the Lincoln Highway or on State
Route 30 near Lima, Ohio. I believe other
Chrysler ads were used also.
I enjoy reading the Plymouth Bulletin
and have been again working on my P1
coupe. It’s been sitting idle for 19 years
and needs quite a bit of restoration. I’ve
been retired for two years and am just finishing up a Corvair restoration (not a
show car; just a driver).
Phil Cramer
Ottawa, Ohio
In discussing upcoming meetings, we
noted that our coffee nights have been
successful in the past and we decided to
continue them on the third Wednesday of
the month.
Ben Ostrander moved that we pay our
dues to continue membership in the
Specialty Vehicle Association of Alberta.
It was seconded and carried.
New business consisted of setting up
a tour schedule. Ten events are on our
calendar from May to October plus our
annual Christmas party in December.
-- Inga Pollhaus
Regarding the
Walter P. Chrysler Museum
A
s a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) independent public charity, the
Walter P. Chrysler Museum will continue our long-standing mission of
preserving Chrysler heritage and educating the community about that history, as well as the automobile’s
impact on American culture.
As we mark the Museum’s 10th
anniversary this year, we look forward to moving ahead in the next
decade, maximizing the opportunities
our nonprofit status affords and
strengthening our institution as a selfsustaining entity. Even more, we
look forward to preserving Chrysler
heritage for many more years to
come.
I thank you for your continued
interest in – and support of – the
Walter P. Chrysler Museum.
Jim Worton
Executive Director and
Chief Operating Officer
Walter P. Chrysler Museum Foundation
4802 N. Mangrove Way
Beverly Hills, FL 34465
(352) 527-4389
[email protected]
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Plymouths
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South Africa
Brazil
Argentina
Peru
Chile
New Zealand
of the
Southern Hemisphere
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Australia
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Rivers, Roads and Rails
Page 24
This Plymouth travels them all
Australia
by Phil Gander
Brunswick Heads, NSW
attling Salvation,
Salvation, as
my1928 Plymouth has
become known, came off the
assembly line in the third
week of July, 1928, with the
chassis No. 4037. The car has
done so many things in its
lifetime that I eventually wrote
a book on its exploits. We
have raced an aeroplane and a
motorcycle around Australia in
nineteen-and-a-half days, covering 14,000 km., and beat them
both. To do so, we traversed rail lines with special wheels,
and floated down our major rivers with the Plymouth paddling itself with a paddle wheel powered by its rear wheels.
When first restored in 1968, we heard from all the boys who
had Chevs or A models that ours was rubbish; but over the
years we have proved beyond doubt that the Plymouth is a
far superior vehicle. We have covered in excess of 800,000
PB
miles.
R
From the website:
www.1928plymouth.com/biography.htm
Phil Gander has travelled Australia widely in Rattling
Salvation, his 1928 Plymouth Tourer. These adventures are
chronicled in his first book, Just Poking Along.
These adventures are not your average stories from the
owners of vintage cars. Some of these adventures include
floating the Plymouth on polystyrene
foam, attaching paddle wheels to the
Plymouth and driving (or cruising) the
car down the Darling-Murray river
system, the largest in Australia.
Phil's vintage 1928 Plymouth has
helped to raise over $750,000 for charities, including the Kidney Foundation,
Endeavour Foundation and the Makea-Wish Foundation. Just Poking
Along contains day-by-day humourous
and sometimes unbelievable-but-true
stories of the trips of Rattling
Salvation.
On the rails: special flanged wheels were installed on Phil Gander’s Model Q, enabling it to
traverse railroad tracks through parts of Australia where roads are non-existent.
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Navigate to his website’s Picture
Galley to look at some of the unbelievable things Phil and the Plymouth
have got up to. Check out the Story of
the Month, or read about the author of
Just Poking Along and his adventures
in his 1928 Plymouth.
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Page 25
Plane, bike and automobile: staged for a race around Australia. The Plymouth won!
Birdsville. There, the trailer would be hooked to the
Plymouth for the return journey. The trailer was loaded to
the gunnels: ex-army jerry cans filled with water and petrol
and inflatable rubber bags to be blown up off exhaust gases
and capable of supporting 200 kg. each. We had eight of
these on board, capable of keeping the Plymouth floating if
they were needed: one each to the road wheels, another
under the rear luggage carrier, and one more under front
bumper bar.
When the day finally came for us to leave--from an
Ampol Service Station at Enfield, a western suburb of
Sydney--a lot of members of the Chrysler Restorers Club
turned out to wish us bon voyage. When the club was
formed, I was the first president, and they boasted around
600 members Australia-wide.
John Rollings, an upholsterer and club member, made a
special cover for the radiator and bonnet, and also a padded
bag for my compass, a very important possession in the outback.
Birdsville Track 1977
Monthly Feature Story
T
his trip came about came after a conversation with the
public relations officer Harvey Grennan of Chrysler
Australia, Limited, whose territory was all New South Wales
and Queensland. His thoughts were of a comparison
between two Chrysler-built products spanning 50 years.
After he talked to a well-known motoring journalist, Pedr
Davis, the fine details were sorted out. Ampol would supply
fuel and oils and Chrysler, the comparison motor vehicle.
Accommodation was to be in hotels, motels and caravan
parks, courtesy of Chrysler. Finelec supplied a liquid solution for preventing punctures in tyres and tubes. The Sydney
media grabbed the concept, and, previous to our leaving, a
number of articles appeared in the press.
Also previous to our leaving, we received an
invitation to go to Ampol’s head office and
meet the top brass. Ted Harris was the managing director. We were presented with an
Ampol Touring Atlas of Australia--a hardcovered metric edition which, over the
years, has been the atlas with which all of
my trips have been planned. Although, at
the time, this is only trip number two, I’m
sure many more will follow.
The Valiant car was from the press test
fleet, and they usually “cop a bit of a canning.” The engine was a Hemi 245 cubic
inch--or 4 litre-capacity--six cylinder fitted
with automatic transmission. The only extras
were a light skid plate under engine and
transmission and a tow bar to hitch up the
6x4 box trailer that would be towed to
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Australia
by John Goldsmith
Howrah, Tasmania, Australia
Tasmanian ‘40
L
ong-term members of
the club may remember seeing this car in
BULLETIN No. 182 (May-June
1990). The good news is that
after ten years of spasmodic
work the ‘40 is was “looking
a million dollars” and is “ready for the road.”
I had purchased the car in 1985 and stored it while work
progressed on my ‘52 DeSoto Diplomat sedan (BULLETIN No.
165). After completion of the Diplomat, the ‘40 was enthusiastically stripped down, and it appeared as though work
would progress quickly. However, like many of these projects, things slowed down during the cool winters, and pressures of work and family meant that work on the car came to
almost a complete stop.
By 1999 the car was a mess of cobwebs with bits all over
the place, rust showing through primer and generally a bit of
a disaster. “That heap of junk should be put on the rubbish
dump” was the comment given by most visitors!
Finally in 1999 my son asked if we could finish the car in
time for his 2000 end-of-year school dinner. “An impossible
task” was my reply, but we would give it a shot.
After more than a year of hard work the ‘40 was looking
quite good by the date of the dinner but, alas, not ready. So a
Right hand drive of course!
friend’s 1938 Buick was used instead.
By 2001 and the ‘40 had come to life, as can be seen
from the photos. The only major problem encountered was a
severe case of rusty valves caused by the engine’s long period
of inactivity. One of the valves was so difficult to extract that
a makeshift puller had to be assembled.
No silver:
Green and
all-original
Generally a bit of a disaster
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I have decided to retain all of the original interior, except
for the tatty head lining, as the old leather is in excellent condition and full of character.
This Plymouth has a body built in Adelaide, South Australia.
The chassis and mechanicals are from the USA. North
American readers may notice some clear differences in this
car:
1. Split rear windows
2. Curved bottom edge on boot lid (trunk lid)
3. More rounded corners on side windows and door tops
4. Exposed hinges on front doors
5. Presence of black fender welting on front and rear
6. Slight cut-outs in rear doors for fenders
Leather: a lot of character
7. No bumper guards on the rear
8. Slightly more curved body line
(similar to the ‘39 Dodge)
9. “Deluxe” trim, but no brightwork
around the windshield
10. Non-silver motor -- this one is green
and all original
11. Leather, not fabric, upholstery
12. Right hand drive of course!
This car is a pleasure to drive, and it looks
magnificent in its ivory and green tones.
This is one car which will not be for sale
for a very, very long time.
Incidentally, Tasmania is the small heartshaped island at the far southeast corner of
Australia and, yes, the real Tasmanian devils come from here!
More curves and split rear windows
REPRINTED FROM BULLETIN 248
The Goldsmith trio: 1952 DeSoto SP23 Diplomat, 1951 P23C Cranbrook, 1940 P10 Deluxe
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A Plymouth among the ambulances
later, a roomier
location became
1934 two
available. A year
residents
later, they purof
chased their first,
Kempsey in the
and apparently
Australian state of
only, Plymouth, a
New South Wales
1941 Holden-bodbegan a campaign
ied sedan. The
to establish an
Plymouth was still
ambulance service
in the lineup for a
to service their
1945 photograph.
community and
Thereafter, the
surrounding area.
service almost
They met success
exclusively purwith the service
chased Ford prodKempsey District Ambulance Station, 1948
commencing on 12
ucts.
PHOTO – COLIN MENGER
July, of that year.
By 1948, a new
Their first ambulance was a 1927 Buick which was supstation had been constructed, a handsome building purposely
plemented in 1935 by a brand-new 1934 Vauxhall. In 1937
designed for ambulance work. The previous building had
the older Buick was replaced by a new Buick. Three years
been shifted from its foundation by floodwater.
The Kempsey District Ambulance service continued to
serve until 1975 when it was amalgamated into a larger
regional service.
In
INFORMATION FROM A SHORT HISTORY OF THE KEMPSEY DISTRICT
AMBULANCE SERVICE, BY COLIN W. MENGER, SON OF WILLIAM MENGER,
SUPERINTENDENT, 1941-1956. SUBMITTED BY THE AUTHOR
1941 Plymouth
ambulance sedan
(Holden body)
A 1945 photo
of the same fleet
with the Plymouth
at the left
PHOTO – MACLEAY RIVER
HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
PHOTO – MACLEAY ARGUS
Second station (Lower Belgrave Street, Kempsey; acquired in 1940): 1937 Buick, 1939
Ford, 1941 Plymouth and 1935 Vauxhall ambulances.
PHOTO – MACLEAY RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
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Australia
Be-ute!
Page 29
he ute: that
uniquely
Australian contribution
to the world’s light
trucking needs.
Farmers and other
enterprising individuals
have long taken wornout passenger cars and
turned them into little
trucks. The modifications done to a few
have been of a high and
imaginative quality.
Most, however, were very “practical” cobbled-together jobs. In North America, Ford’s
Ranchero and Chevrolet’s El Camino institutionalized the genre.
Australia was well ahead of the game in
turning out passenger-car trucks from the fac-
tory with coupe bodies and cargo boxes as an
integral part of the bodies.
During WWII, the Australian military
pressed the utes of many manufactures into
duty. Here are one restored Dodge and two
unrestored DeSotos, all based on Plymouth
-- Lanny Knutson
P11 bodies.
The restored 1941 D20
Dodge utility of Ron
Sutton is based on the
Plymouth P11. He also
found this DeSoto SP11
ute in 1984. Note the
gun turret hatches over
the passenger seat.
Another ‘41 DeSoto
ute was found for sale
on eBay by Mike Kelly,
author of an article on
Australian military
vehicles which
appeared in PLYMOUTH
BULLETIN 290. The seller claimed his to be the
only one in existence.
Not quite.
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Brenton and Norma Hamilton
Woodroft, South Australia
W
Hybrid of a Hybrid
hen, as editor, I first saw
the photo below (among
the photos of Plymouths
and Plymouth-bodied cars of
Australia submitted by Richard
Tapp), I thought, “It doesn’t belong
here, it’s a full-bodied American
Dodge.” Yet, it was labeled as
“Brenton and Norma Hamilton’s
1956 Dodge Mayfair D63 sedan.” Also, something about the
rear fenders didn’t look quite right for a Dodge. But it had
the full two-tone trim treatment of the ‘56 Dodge.
RICHARD TAPP PHOTOS: UPPER RIGHT, CENTER LEFT, RIGHT
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Australians were not familiar with the Canadian Mayfair
(which, called the Kingsway Custom, was also built in the US
for certain export markets). Above is the ‘56 Dodge
Australians knew, Ross and Peggy Fleming’s Kingsway. To
North American eyes, it looks like a ‘54, and it is, but it was
sold, unchanged, for three years.
TREVOR BROWN PHOTO
Canadians familiar with their domestically produced
Plymouth-bodied ‘56 Mayfair knew it to have the Plymouth
Belvedere side trim and Sportone treatment. The chrome
Since the front view of Hamiltons’ Mayfair hinted that the
rear fenders weren’t of Dodge origin, I requested a rear shot
of the car, which Richard Tapp normally doesn’t take. He
passed my request to Brenton Hamilton, who immediately
arranged for a photographer, and I had pictures within a day.
nosepiece on the hood, as seen on this convertible, did not
extend back to the cowl as on the “big” Dodges, because twotoning was not available on the hood (it would have rather
conflicted with the Belvedere Sportone).
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Sure enough, the rear view of his car reveals that it definitely
is of Plymouth origin. The side trim -- similar, if not identical
to that on a Dodge Custom Royal [RIGHT] -- seems to hang a
bit over the Plymouth fender crease that the Dodge does not
have.
Inside, there is
another surprise. The
dash is from a 1955
Plymouth (and its
Dodge-named companion), complete with the
dash-mounted transmission lever and bullethubbed steering wheel.
1956 Plymouth
body, 1956 Dodge front clip and trim, 1955 Plymouth dash
and a Canadian model name--this car is truly a hybrid of a
hybrid.
Royal which was the only “American-type” Dodge built and
sold in Canada.
Richard now wonders if more than six of these cars were
imported to Australia or if the mine procured the cars after the
embassy was through
with them.
Interestingly, the
Hamilton Mayfair carries the D63 model
code which was used
by the full-sized V8
Dodge. The
Plymouth-bodied
Dodge V8 had the
D61 designation. The
Hamilton Mayfair’s engine number is D6113006C, which
indicates it’s the 277 V8 used in the D61 Canadian Mayfair.
Even its model and engine numbers appear to be hybrids.
-- Lanny Knutson
Richard Tapp had heard that the North Broken Hill Mine
had purchased six of these cars, which were built in Canada,
for the mine’s management. However, Brenton Hamilton
says his Mayfair was a consular car for the Canadian embassy
in Canberra, Australia’s capital. Pictured above, it is with
another consular veteran, the 1955 Dodge owned by Bob and
Judy Preston of Broken Hill, New South Wales. The ‘55
appears to be a full-bodied Dodge, probably the Custom
Under the bonnet is a Canadian 277 Hy Fire V8. Note the
right-hand-drive placement of the master cylinder.
SPECIAL THANKS TO TREVOR BROWN, WHO DROPPED EVERYTHING
TO TAKE AND EMAIL THE PHOTOS FOR BRENTON HAMILTON.
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Australia
by John and Carmel Kelly
Langwarrin, Victoria, Australia
C
Wherever it goes
hrysler, Dodge and Plymouth
were well-respected names in
Australia for a long period of
time. Strangely, Dodges were first imported by the Canada
Cycle Company. (The Canadian Cycle Company bought out
the Dodges’ bicycle manufacturing business when the brothers moved on to automotive parts manufacturing. --ed.) Many
vehicles were delivered to Australia without bodies.
Australia’s import policy determined that, to protect the growing automobile industry here, various content quotas had to be
met. Many of the bodies were built here by J. R. Richards in
Adelaide, South Australia; hence, compared
to American models, there was a variation
in early Australian bodies.
In the early 1960s, Chrysler Australia
was well-established and supported many
outlets throughout Australia. Chrysler was
ready to promote the new model Plymouths,
known here as the Valiant R- and S-series.
In the most part, the public had to rely
on articles printed in the motoring magazines. There was little promotion and few
sales brochures were available. Many of the motoring writers
lauded the arrival of the new Valiants and traded welcome
comparisons with the new Ford and the General Motors
Holden for this period of 1961-1962.
Reportedly, there were 1,008 R Plymouth/Valiant units
delivered to the Chrysler Adelaide plant in March, 1962. It
appears that most of the R-series vehicles were sold before
they hit the showroom floor. If you hadn’t gotten an R-series,
you might have been lucky to get an S-series. The S-series
also arrived in March, 1962. No Plymouth/Valiant wagons
were brought into Australia during this 1961-62 period. Some
‘61-62 wagons came in privately or may have arrived earlier
as test cars. No numbers on these are given.
To my knowledge, there are only three or four Valiant
wagons of this period currently registered in
Australia. A few more may be locked away
for future projects.
My wagon came by transport from
the state of Western Australia to Melbourne,
a distance of 2,270 miles. After some
mechanical repairs, the vehicle was registered in our state of Victoria for daily use.
In 2007-08, the wagon underwent a thorough restoration (I will let the photos tell
that part of the story.) There still are things to be completed.
However, the vehicle attracts a lot of attention wherever it
goes.
Thanks to all to helped with information and hard-to-get
parts.
PB
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Australia
by John and Carmel Kelly
Langwarrin, Victoria
Australia
My
Brides & Rides
introduction to the
Plymouth Signet
200 convertible was
a photo (of Joe Lewis’ red ‘64 V200
convertible) on the back cover of
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN 174 (January-February, 1989). I had
previously considered buying an English convertible, but I
was now on a mission to find a ‘64 Signet. Rumor had it that
there were a couple of Signets--perhaps a ‘63; maybe a ‘64-on the east coast of Australia, in the states of New South
Wales or Queensland.
I recall responding to an advertisement in a national car
magazine in maybe 1990 or 1991
regarding a left-hand-drive1964
Plymouth convertible. It appeared
that the vehicle was brought in from
the States by its American owner,
who had fully intended to take the
car home with him when the time
came. For whatever reason, the vehicle was left behind.
The car in question was located
in Queensland, some 2,000 miles
from Melbourne. By the time I made
follow-up phone calls, the vehicle
had been sold locally.
In 1993, an example of the car I
had admired on the back page of the
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN in 1989 popped
up for sale in Melbourne. I arranged
to view the vehicle and was taken with its appearance and the
quality of its restoration. In every respect, the car looked
good: red body with black top and
interior.
In brief, the vehicle met
all the criteria required for
registration of vehicles
imported into Victoria:
the original bill of sale
from the USA owner,
import authorization from
the Department of Transport
Australia and a vehicle conversion to right-handdrive to meet the
Australian safety standards. The vehicle was
issued a roadworthy certificate by Victoria Roads
and number plates were
assigned.
The car had spent most of its life in
Los Angeles. It came with its glove
box manual, workshop manual and
registration papers. It was now
ready to settle into a new life in
Victoria, Australia.
A good rally car, it has also provided transport for Father Christmas,
family weddings and served as a
parade car on Australia Day to
chauffeur one of our elected politicians. In its first outing with the
local car club, the Signet was voted
the best American car on the rally.
PB
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Plymouths of Australia
1934 PE
roadster:
Peter
Couttie
1934 PE roadster: Peter Couttie
1935 PJ
tourer:
Harold and
Pat Heaven
1938
DeSoto
SP6 sedan
(based on
the P6
Plymouth
with a
Holden
body).
1940 P9
sedan
(Note the
more
“rounded”
Holden
body)
1941 P11
P11
coupe ute
(Brochure
touts its
farm and
ball dual
role)
1959 Royal AP2 sedan: Noel & Rae Cowie
1962 Valiant
Valiant S sedan: Barry & Julie Just
1962 Royal AP3 sedan: Geoff & Cythia Chase
1962 Royal AP3 sedan: Garry & Rhonda Williams
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1962 Valiant
Valiant S sedan: Luis & Veronica Labrin
1965 Valiant
Valiant AP6 sedan: Greg Lind
1967 Valiant
Valiant VC station wagon: Jarryd Just
1967 Valiant
Valiant VC station wagon: Brian & Sharalyn Kerton
1967 Valiant
Valiant VC sedan: Allan Pike
1967 Dodge VE utility: Stephen Tyler
1970 Valiant
Valiant VF sedan: Geoff & Von Glynn-Roe
1971 Valiant
Valiant VG Regal htp: Lindsay Gibb
1958 Royal AP1 sedan: Gary & Rhonda Williams
1959 Royal AP2 sedan: Noel & Rae Cowie
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Restoration
New Zealand
of a P4 convertible in New Zealand
ed to Christchurch. With a mortgage close to our limit, and
after just two days in our new house, Lynne happened across
an advertisement for a P4 convertible needing restoration. A
quick inspection, performed the next day during a long lunch
break, confirmed that it was just what I wanted. (But surely,
even Lynne wouldn’t agree to extend the mortgage, for what
was little more than a rusted-out body on a rolling chassis,
along with a trailer load of bits.)
Twenty-four hours later, three important events had
occurred: Lynne had agreed that it was a good idea, the bank
agreed to extend the mortgage and the vendor had accepted
the deal. The next weekend was spent retrieving and stowing
the car, along with the bits and pieces that came with it. Even
then, with all the enthusiasm of a new project, I estimated this
could easily be a ten-year project.
Almost immediately, I started on the body, slowly cleaning off the oil-soaked surface rust that covered what was left
of the body and replacing it with a rust inhibitor to keep the
rust at bay for the interim. This was a very slow job, and the
best progress was made using an angle grinder fitted with a
wire cupped brush. This wasn’t very kind on the angle
grinder, and I succeeded in burning out two of these before
completing this task. Next job was to track down a donor car,
as I needed a straight chassis before I could start repairing the
rusted and dented panel work. The chassis that came with the
convertible was not a pretty sight, having suffered accident
by Nelson Lipinski
Christchurch, New Zealand
A
t the age of seven, while spending the school holidays with my grandparents, I noticed a deep maroon
convertible car in a garage at the bottom of their garden. The car belonged to my uncle and was parked up, waiting for its engine to be reconditioned, but was otherwise in
apparently good condition. At the time I knew little about it,
other than that I wanted to go for a drive in that cool car. It
was a 1937 P4 convertible.
Twenty odd years on, in 1989, my wife Lynne and I shift-
As it was first found
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Melanie with the “broken car” in primer.
Paint is applied after weeks of prep work.
damage front and back.
Within a few months I had found and recovered the
remains of a ‘37 sedan located about an hour away from
home. The chassis proved to be solid and straight, so it was
sent away to be sandblasted. Once it was returned, I fitted
front and rear axles and repainted it. The plan was to swap
the body across to keep everything in line while I replaced the
bottom foot or so of the rotten body. The body had no floor
in it, and the cross members had been gas-axed out where the
tin-worm had been particularly active. The body was impossible to lift off without a supporting space frame first being
built. This stopped the body from collapsing under its own
weight when parted from the bent chassis. Once the space
frame was in place, the body was successfully swapped onto
the straight chassis.
It was about this time that I contacted Les and Marie
Bennett from Ashburton, knowing that they also had one of
these P4 convertibles. Les took one look at the space framing
and immediately began asking for reassurance that I had no
plans to use this body as a derby car. It did look pretty horrible, but the space-frame held it all in place for the next couple
of years while the body work slowly progressed.
Les and Marie were the source of much encouragement
during the process. We made many trips to Ashburton to
compare notes and take measurements from their car. There
was always the latest POC magazine available to peruse, and
they even lent us their car to rally on occasions. All this provided a real incentive to get on with it, especially when other
interests seemed to encroach on restoration time.
By 1992, I had purchased two other parts cars. Both
these sedans had already been fairly well-stripped by their
previous owners, but I managed to recover a few elusive parts
to assist the project. I was, however, still missing an engine,
an overdrive gearbox, a good grille and sundry other small
bits that would be required to get this car on the road.
At this stage, I found an advertisement for a “complete
‘37 Plymouth flat-back sedan for restoration” only a 15minute drive away. This car was actually very tidy, but had
no wiring, no brakes, was a patchwork of colour and, of
course, was not going. But wow! It had a mint grille.
Somehow, I had to justify this one: it had an original engine
and a perfect grille for my convertible! When the deal was
done and the car was home, I somehow couldn’t bring myself
to wreck the sedan for parts, it was just too sound. So the
inevitable happened, and I made a wiring loom for the sedan,
overhauled the brakes and fired the engine. It ran like a
clock.
A quick rub down and lick of paint saw the sedan looking
quite respectable again. In two months it was driveable, back
on the road and put to use as my daily driver. In 1996 we had
the upholstery tidied up and used the sedan in the two-week
long VCC 50th Anniversary Rally.
During the two-month sojourn from the convertible
restoration, I happened across another very tidy grille that I
snapped up. I also came across and bought a rebuildable P4
engine for the convertible. The sellers of the engine were
Peter and Elizabeth Faithfull, who were restoring a ’36 P2
convertible, so we had a lot to discuss. Like Les and Marie,
Peter and Elizabeth have now become close friends.
During 1993, I located a 1937 Plymouth overdrive gearbox in Wanganui. If I wanted it, I had to bring cash, and pick
it up in person within 24 hours--a pretty tough call, given it
was mid-week. To achieve this, I would need to take leave at
no notice, fly to Wellington in the North Island, hire a car and
drive four hours each way and fly back again that night. But,
yes, I wanted it. These things are next to impossible to find
in New Zealand, this was the first one I had located in four
years that I was actually able to be purchase without having to
buy a restored car.
Unfortunately, it was another four years before I came to
overhaul the overdrive and we discovered the real state of the
overdrive. Very little inside the unit was usable for anything
other than patterns. Not only was it badly worn, but it had
Painted parts hang in the garage with the ‘37 sedan.
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apparently been swimming in its past. Fortunately, Peter was
able to assist with some of the missing parts and had some
good contacts for having the necessary machine work done to
recreate the rest. It’s times like these that you really appreciate good friends!
Shortly after the purchase of the overdrive, I had repaired
the last of the major rust holes in the external panels of the
body and removed the space frame to allow the fabrication of
the floor. Quite a large piece of this came from one of the exparts cars, and it proved to be surprisingly rust-free.
Obviously, I had already replaced the missing sections of the
body cross members.
Around this time, our daughter arrived on the scene and,
to prove that the cars weren’t the most important thing in my
life, I took a break from the garage for the next year or so for
parenting duties.
Just as the garage was starting to beckon again, we decided that the house was no longer big enough. We set our
sights on a bigger house, another bedroom, a little more living
room and definitely bigger garaging.
Finally we found one we were happy with. Once the
excitement subsided, it was easy to see that the garage was
bigger. However, several years later there was still some
debate about where that other bedroom and extra living space
got to!
The grounds of the new house took a little while to tame.
Another year or so of progress was lost while the high maintenance areas around the new place were converted to low
maintenance. Slowly, more time became available and the
next tasks on the body were attacked. The channelling around
the rumble seat and the bottom of the doors and fenders were
slowly repaired.
A variety of little jobs, like building the steps for egress
into the rumble seat, casting a new accelerator pedal and rear
engine mounts were done in parallel to the panel work. Other
jobs that trickled along as time and money permitted included
the likes of having all of the brake cylinders re-sleeved in
stainless, and sorting out precious little bundles of rust to be
sent away to polished and re-chromed.
Unlike many restoration stories that you may have read,
nothing for this car was lost at the chroming shop. Every
batch of goodies was sent with an accompanying photo so
that it was easy for the chroming shop to see what belonged
in this batch and keep it all together.
By mid-1997, I had pretty well finished the metalwork of
the body and had made hood bows and the header to match
the originals in Les and Marie’s car. I had also made new
window frames and had them chromed, despite a “well
known” restoration shop in town telling me it couldn’t be
done!
My daughter Melanie, who was approaching four years
old, one day wanted to know when I would get that “broken
car” going. Being put on the spot by a four-year-old, I promised her that I would take her for a ride in it before her fifth
birthday… that should leave plenty of time!
A couple of weeks later I realised I was in it deep. I put
together a spreadsheet of all the jobs that I had left to do with
realistic estimates of how much time that I thought that each
would take. Somehow I was going to have to find a day and
Parked, with passengers, the convertible is complete.
a half every week if I was to keep my promise to my daughter
and have the convertible ready for her fifth birthday.
Early December 1997 was the time I chose to take a couple of weeks off work and get serious about prepping the
body and getting some paint on it. Two weeks should do it, I
thought. Not so! It ended up taking me 22 days to prepare
and paint the body! Squirting the paint doesn’t take long, the
cleaning up a bit longer, but the preparation and rubbing
down--that’s a different story!
With the body work essentially finished, I ordered the
engine overhaul kit from Kanter, and it duly arrived in
February of ‘98. Next, I built a cradle to hold the engine
secure in the back of my Landcruiser for its trip to my chosen
engine rebuilder (five hours drive away in Dunedin).
The engine was sleeved back to original, everything crack
tested (whoops, the first crankshaft failed this test), machined,
balanced and rebuilt. These guys performed this, the only
external work that I had done, on time and for the price they
quoted! (Isn’t it strange how deep your pockets are expected
to be when you mention that the part you are after came out
of a vintage car?) I fitted the motor and gearbox into the car
in April ‘98. After this the front guards, bonnet, rumble seat
lid, wiring, dashboard, instruments, etc., all slowly found their
way back to where they belonged.
Initial “fire up” time was organised to coincide with
Peter’s next trip to Christchurch. This was for the McLeans
Island Swap Meet, held the second weekend in October every
year (New Zealand’s equivalent to Hershey, although a lot
smaller). The motor burst into life almost immediately. So
with no further ado, we jumped in, switched on the lights (it
was nighttime) and off we went down the drive. I had previously decided not to go any further than the end of the drive-just in case--but the temptation was too great. Lynne, Peter
and I all had turns driving down the road and back. My
daughter’s first ride in the “old car” occurred the next morning, just a couple of weeks before her fifth birthday, as promised. As we cruised around the block, Melanie wore a solid
grin from ear to ear, just like her dad!
But it wasn’t all over yet--next was the upholstery. By
this stage Lynne and I decided that perhaps we should get the
upholstery done professionally. The prospect of prolonging
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the completion for even longer, as we slowly
stitched through that little exercise, was too much!
We sought quotes from several local upholsters and
chose the one we believed to be most appropriate. A
few weeks later, just three weeks prior to Christmas
‘98, the convertible was transported into town for
her new clothing. And what a transformation it was!
We had obviously chosen well, as our upholsterer
was a fanatic, and made a great job covering everything inside in leather or carpet and constructed a
fabulous soft top. As usual it was more expensive
and took longer than we were first led to believe, but
we were very happy with the results, and quickly
ignored the hole in the bank account.
We got the car back from the upholsterers in the
First rally with Melanie and Les and Marie Faithfull’s blue P4 convertible.
last week of January ‘99. And a few days later, we
finally had everything back on the car that was
and is currently undergoing a full and deserved restoration.
required to make it legal to use.
We hope to be able to rally them both together some time in
I booked her in for her VIN registration and WOF inspecthe not-too-distant future. With a little planning, we should
tions on 15th February 1999. She passed first time. On went
be able to include Les and Marie’s P4, along with Peter and
the personalised number plate that my wife and daughter had
Elizabeth’s P2 as well.
bought me for Christmas--37 WPC--and I was now legally
allowed to drive the convertible on the road.
H ERE IN N EW Z EALAND , Todd Motors were the local representatives for Chrysler Corporation during the period when
my P4 convertible was built. Todd Motors assembled and
sold Chrysler, Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge vehicles, but
most of the Chrysler, Dodge and DeSoto vehicles were actually rebadged Plymouths. Todd Motors imported the cars
knocked-down and reassembled them locally in order to get
some New Zealand content in the finished car. This appeased
the local government of the time sufficiently for them to
allow Todd Motors to keep renewing their import licences
over the years.
Apparently only 80 right-hand-drive 1937 P4 convertibles
were built by Chrysler Corporation. Ten of them were reputed to have made it to New Zealand’s shores. I know of five
of these that have survived. All are Chrysler-badged, and all
are early versions of the model which have vent windows
instead of wings. Four of these five are currently roadworthy.
The fifth, my uncle’s car, is finally having its engine rebuilt
Over the shoulders note the Chrysler badge the P4 wears at the
centre of its dash. Note also the neat clip Nelson has to keep his cap
from blowing away if it comes off during a convertible drive.
A N UNFULFILLED DESIRE to go for a drive in my uncle’s ’37
P4 convertible was the catalyst that started me on this path.
However, it was being able to reflect on the transformation
from rusted-out body to a presentable classic that gave me the
most pleasure in the end.
Along the way I took a few risks, some paid off, others I
have paid for appropriately, but I have learnt some new skills,
and I have enjoyed myself.
Two huge positives stand out above all. Firstly, the satisfaction and enjoyment of solving the many problems that presented themselves during this
restoration. And, secondly,
the wonderful people that
we met along the way.
A ND 37 WPC ?-Walter P. Chrysler, of
course.
PB
Two other survivors of the ten P4 convertibles brought to New
Zealand.
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by Lars Sorensen,
Valparaiso, Chile
As
an old car nut, I must
admit that my weakness is
well spread out. By this I
mean to say that I am a fan of anything with wheels and if there is a little rust added, so much better! Of
course Plymouth is one of my
favorites.
I presently have four Plymouths,
but only one of them is actually running, a 1938 P6 sedan. The others
include a ‘41 convertible, a ‘47 club
coupe and a “Plodge” woodie station
wagon of the same year.
Of these, only the first one is
roadworthy, and it is dependable and a
joy to drive. I got it about 20 years
ago from a retired commercial pilot
who was the second owner. It had
been very well cared for, so I didn't
give it a full restoration but rather a
thorough mechanical checkup, renewing or repairing as required. That was
followed by a complete paint and
upholstery job. I also saw to lots of
small details both inside and out. As
can be seen in the photo, the interior is
not at all original but I did it as close
to original as I thought, considering I
had no original car to go by.
The 1941 convertible is, of
course, unrestored and in a sorry condition due to collision damage. It is
first on my list of cars to be restored.
I bought this car from its original
owner some six years ago. He had
kept it in fine condition until he was
rammed head-on by another driver
way back in 1965! He left the car like
that all these years, until I came up, so
I really look forward to starting work
on it!
My ‘47 coupe will probably be
put on sale, as I am beginning to lack
A “weakness” well spread out
space and time (sound familiar?). But
that’s not final yet.
Lastly, my Plodge. Although quite
a challenge, this car will definitely be
restored once the convertible is finished. I’ve already had some experience with woodies--a ‘48 Ford and a
‘46 Chevy--which actually arrived as
“splinter-cars!”
The name “Plodge” came after
some researching, when I read of
Lanny Knutson indicating that these
cars were badged as Dodges but were
actually built in Canada on the
Plymouth chassis and body, hence the
name. I understand they are becoming
quite rare. To me, it’s a Plymouth at
heart.
Here in my country, Plymouths are
very scarce nowadays, but some model
years were at one time quite plentiful,
for instance 1929, 1937-38, 1946-48
and the early fifties. Chrysler
Corporation sales were shared quite
evenly by the Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge
PB
and Plymouth divisions.
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by Adrian Stern
Lima, Peru
I
bought my 1934 Plymouth PE
convertible in June 2003.
The car came from a group of
unrestored cars owned by the
biggest collector of antique cars
here in Peru.
What I know of the history of
the car is that it came to Peru
from Argentina in the 1980s with some other antique cars.
All of them were driven more than 4000 miles. After they
arrived, they were kept, without being restored, in part of the
museum warehouse. Finally, with too many project cars and
not too much time, this old car lover sold part of his unrestored collection. I bought this car, and, at the same time, my
father bought a 1959 German sport car, a Borgward Isabella.
I have been in the old car hobby since the ‘80s and have
restored a 1929 Model A and a 1934 Ford roadster (which I
still have). I was looking for something different from a Ford
but, at the same time, something that could be driveable.
(The Model A, with its inefficient brakes, is something too
stressful for today’s driving.) At the same time, I wanted
something with a beautiful design.
When I saw this car, I knew it was the car I wanted. The
problem I thought I’d have was convincing my wife of buying
another old car. With this particular case, that wasn’t so difficult. I have to say that my wife’s dad was Argentinean, and
my wife’s second name is Allende. Well, the plate of the car
has numbers as every plate has, but it also has the name of the
place in Argentina where it came from: Villa Allende (villa in
Spanish means a small town). When I told this to my wife,
she was amazed of this coincidence and said… “please buy
it.”
As it has been since I have been in this hobby, I have
always wanted to follow a true restoration--meaning ending
with a car with the exact characteristics as it had when it
rolled from the assembly line on its first day--and here came
the problems.
When I saw the car in the collector’s warehouse, I noticed
that it was right-hand-driven. That didn’t surprised me, as all
cars in Argentina were right-driven until 1949 when they
decided to change sides. The rare thing was that, after
making a more detailed exam of the car, I found that the
car was originally left-hand-driven and that the steering
had been changed. Luckily, it wasn’t that difficult to find a
new steering and a central steering arm and return the car
to its original condition. Still, I don’t know why, if the car
came from Argentina, it wasn’t imported to that country
right-handed. Maybe its first origin was in another South
American left-handed country… maybe.
Also, when I had the car in my garage and started making
a more thorough exam, I found that originally the car had a
rumble seat instead of a trunk, and that it had been transBought it! Adrian Stern with his new acquisition formed. I also discovered that the car had come from the
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factory with double side-mount spare tires; both holes had
been closed and the wells lost.
The good thing regarding these two modifications was
that all welding lines in both cases had been left. So, with
these marks, and the help of a very experienced body man,
we could return the car to how it was originally.
At the same time, I have to say that the car was very
complete, and parts that nearly always show a lot of wear
were in very good condition.
Other difficulties came in finding parts. Not many old
Mopar cars survive to this day in Peru. Spare parts for this
car are very difficult (although not that difficult for old Fords)
to find here. But I have found in the recent
years that eBay is a good source for buying
spare parts, especially the parts I was missing.
The other problem is we are not allowed to
bring used auto parts into Peru; the reason,
who knows? Well, with a little imagination
over the past years I’ve had to camouflage.
Many of the parts I bought on eBay, I’ve
entered together with my luggage when I was
Progress: The PE
convertible as it was
at the time of the
writing of this article.
Patching: Replacing
rusted-out sheet
metal
Customs job: A PE
bell housing and
Borgward radiator
became a Christmas
display to enter Peru.
coming back from the United States after
work or visit trips.
You can understand better
by looking at the pictures.
One of them shows a big
green part, a very heavy
transmission housing for a
the 1934 Plymouth.
Underneath is a radiator for
the Borgward Isabella. The
characters were made by
my daughter. On the right
side of the part is my son;
on the left is my cousin and
daughter. The picture was
taken in Miami in my brother’s house garage (he lives
there). I use a space there as my small warehouse--always
arguing with my sister-in-law, who wants to throw my dirty
parts away. In this case, when I arrived to Lima, a customs
officer was surprised by such a “beautiful” Christmas craft.
After examining it, he let me in. I have brought with me
other parts, changing them to lamps, electric clocks, desk
paper weights, etc.
I started working on the body months after I bought the
car and, by now, it is all done. Most of the mechanical parts
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are also ready. I will be working next on the engine and finishing all mechanical parts. I hope to have the car ready within the next couple of years. I have to say that my restorations
always take several years. I like to try to do it all by myself.
I have to mention that, since the beginning of this project,
I have received a huge amount of help of 1934 Plymouth
Tech Advisor, Edward Peterson. He has helped me with
advice, information, pictures and also in finding the parts I
had been missing. For all I am very grateful.
PB
Return to rumble: Having once been converted to a trunk, the
rumble seat is returned to its former glory.
Back to the well: The filled-in fenders are opened up again for
dual side-mounts.
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by Roberto Marenzi
TRANSLATED BY ORLANDO BONGIARDINO
It
PHOTOS BY MIGUEL TILLOUS
was May 2003, e were
dining at CAdeAA (Club
Amigos de Automóviles
Antiguos) when fellow member
Jose Maria Pedota mentioned
there was a 1936 Plymouth convertible on sale. Apparently little
was missing, but it was disassembled and obviously needed a total
restoration. I rather liked the idea
of having a late ‘30s convertible
coupe and more so, it being a Chrysler product. Pedota said
he knew the right person to tackle the body work, so I decided to go and see the car.
“Disassembled” hardly describes the condition of the car. Parts were scattered all over the
place, the body was off the chassis and the doors,
fenders, hood and trunk lid were piled in the
body. The engine had supposedly been rebored
and was partially assembled. It was impossible
to know what was missing, because the gearbox,
steering, front axle, differential and back axle had
been taken apart, and all the bits and pieces,
small and big, were in boxes. The door locks,
window winders, dash instruments, windscreen
wiper, carburetor--everything--were totally in
pieces. It was a basket case if ever there was
one. But I had seen only two or three 1936
Plymouth convertibles in Argentina; I really liked
the car, and Jose Pedota accepted to undertake
the restoration, so I went ahead and bought it.
We soon came across the first problem: the
chassis was not only rotted where the body is
attached, it was also bent beyond repair. My
friend Ruben Roges, to whom I’ll be eternally
grateful, had many parts he would not be using,
as well as a four-door sedan, with dual sidemounts, that I bought as a donor.
Work on the body advanced very slowly.
Meanwhile, Jose Pedota and Emilio Bartolletti
went ahead with the chassis--nothing was left
without repairing. The engine was completely
overhauled, with new pistons, bearings, water
distribution tube and oil pump. We decided to
preserve the RHD (Argentina switched to LHD in
1946). All bearings were replaced with new
ones; brake cylinders and pump were lined in stainless steel;
the chassis from the donor car was sandblasted and ovenpainted black, the same as all the other parts that are painted.
Axel Tritscheler restored the trim, windscreen
frame, bumpers and many other smaller parts. I
found a brand new grille, made in Argentina
years ago; it required some work to fit acceptably.
The rolling chassis was ready for the body,
but the body was nowhere near ready--it took a
few years more than expected. Finally, in
December 2007, it was being painted. The colour
I chose was Palm Beach Gray, original for 1936,
and fortunately (as it’s available from Gasurit),
the paint shop had no problem preparing it.
The wiring came from Rhode Island, the
rubber from Steele and many missing parts such
as locks, handles, headlight glass, reflectors, radiator and gas caps, were found on eBay.
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the Ladies Cup Montecarlo
Rally with a Plymouth.
PB
Reassembly of the car was all that was missing, but it
became a time trial because CAdeAA’s 30th Anniversary
Rally was scheduled for May 2008, and I was planning to
attend. Thanks to Pedota’s tireless work and Carlos Pugliesi’s
impeccable upholstering, carpets and top, the car was ready to
go.
Many thought it was madness to undertake a 3000-mile
rally without having thoroughly tried the car, but they were
proven wrong. Even though the car had less than 300 miles
since its total restoration when we left, we had only minor
problems that were easily repaired. Only an unpleasant vibration at certain speeds could not be
solved until we returned and replaced
the drive shaft.
Roberto Marenzi’s
Marenzi’s P2 convertible was the cover car of
the May-August, 2008, La
Luneta, magazine of the
CAdeAA. POC member
Orlando Bongiardino, the
director of the impressive,
high quality publication,
translated this article.
I N 1936, a Ford convertible coupe
sold for $625, a Chevrolet for $595, but
whoever wanted a Plymouth had to pay
$725. It came with a forced lubrication
six-cylinder engine, hydraulic brakes,
hydraulic shock absorbers with a front
torsion bar. The all-steel body was
attached to the chassis from the top and
sides, giving the car great rigidity.
Plymouth offered two models: the
P1 Standard and the P2 De Luxe. The
convertible coupe was available only in
the De Luxe form. Even though 1936
was the last year that black fenders
were standard and all one colour was
optional, most buyers chose this option.
This was also the last year for the sidemount spare tyres. Right-hand-drive
models came with a push button starter,
unlike the US version, which still had a
pedal. Between the P1 and the P2,
over 500,000 cars were produced, but,
of those half million, only 3,297 were
convertible coupes. That year
Plymouth number 1,500,000 left the
assembly line, and Swedish race driver
Greta Molander, who was to have a
brilliant racing career with Saab, won
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Focal Point
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by Orlando Bongiardino
Buenos Aires, Argentina
T
his 1938 Plymouth convertible coupé is located in Argentina where its owners, POC member Orlando Bongiardino and Nestor Fourcade, spent five
years in completing the restoration process.
Today, knowing it’s one of just a few soft top ‘38s in the world gives them a
great motivation to enjoy driving it. (Only 1900 convertibles were made in 1938.)
In the three years of its new life, the Olive, as we affectionately call it, has won
a Best of Show and two second places and has travelled 4,300 miles.
It is a focal point wherever it is parked and a real headturner wherever it is running.
PB
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Argentine Plymouths
P HOT OS SUBMITTED BY
O RLANDO B ONGIARDINO
1934 PE sedan; 1935 PJ convertible; 1938 P6 convertible; 1947
P15 sedan
The 1937 Argentine magazine ad
was submitted by Michael
Owens.
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by Jim Benjaminson
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The Magnificent Autodromo
A South American Rarity from
Located at 3151 Centenario Avenue (today called
Figueroa Alcorta Avenue) in downtown Buenos Aires, bordered by Bulnes Avenue, Ocampo Street and M. Coronado
Street, the building, dedicated to the “representation of
Chrysler,” was more than just a showroom. The basement
comprised the showroom, where more than 50 vehicles—sitting on marble and Paris rock flooring in a
“salon setting”—could be viewed at any one time.
On the same floor were offices, a large patio and
service area for prepping or repairing cars.
Medallions of famous race drivers appeared in deep
relief around the building.
The first floor contained two giant warehouses for
assembled vehicles, a paint shop, an upholstery shop, as well
as showrooms for DeSoto cars. The second floor was the
location of the carpenters’ work area, plus parts and material
storage as well as an assembly area where cars received from
the USA were completed.
Built in ten vertical sections of solid concrete (so it could
be added to if necessary), the edifice had a third floor so
unique that the building became a major attraction in Buenos
Aires. The top floor housed the famous AutoDrom, a test
track on the roof. Measuring 200 meters by 300 meters, the
test track provided prospective customers opportunity to try
out a new car on the building roof top without having to deal
with the hustle and bustle of big city traffic. The track
allowed speeds of up to 60 miles an hour.
T
he year was 1924; the place, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Resta brothers, Eduardo and Carlos, began
construction of what would become probably
the most magnificent Chrysler dealership anywhere
in the world. Choosing a site in “the park district, a
wasteland in which only four houses had been
built,” the Resta building, when completed, would
cover an entire city block, stand three stories tall and
provide 11,000 square meters of space on each floor.
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The stairway that led to the test track and tennis courts
Also on the third floor was the Olimpo Restaurant, which
offered some of the finest cuisine to Resta Brothers clientele.
Inside the race track was accommodation for a tennis court,
with seating for up to 3,000 spectators. More than 10,000
people flocked to the grand opening of the building which
cost over three million dollars to build. For Buenos Aires at
the time, the building was a spectacular edifice with a significant investment of time and money. It was named the Palacio
Chrysler.
In 1931 the building became the property of two
Frenchmen, Fevre and
Basset, who had been the
representatives for Dodge
in Argentina since 1916.
Thirty years later, in
1946, Fevre & Basset
acquired 38 hectares of
land in the town of San
Justo, where, two years
later, they began constructing a plant for automobile production. The
plant came on line in
1950. No longer needing
the Palacio, they sold it
to the Argentine Army.
Later the Army put the
A walkway in a photo taken in 1993 building up
prior to the building being turned for auction.
into apartments The building
was sold in
1993, at which time work was begun to convert it
into apartments.
During the building’s lifetime, cars were
received from the USA in huge crates, in completely knocked-down form. A typical crate contained complete roof stampings, body side stampings, floor pans, doors, deck lids, hoods and more,
all packed a dozen or more to a crate. Upon
arrival, the parts were uncrated, then assembled in
the AutoDromo. Because of local content laws,
items such as glass, paint, tires, upholstery and so
forth were locally sourced, making Argentine cars
similar but not exact matches to cars built in either
the USA or Canada.
Fevre & Basset's entire workforce gathered on the rooftop to
celebrate “The Miracle Car From The Home Factory,” the ‘41
Plymouth of the Richardson Pan-American Highway Expedition, in
this 1941 photo.
P ERHAPS ONE OF THE MORE UNUSUAL CARS to survive
from the Fevre & Basset days is the 1939 P8 Deluxe sevenpassenger sedan pictured here. The car surfaced several years
ago pretty much in the condition you see here. Two of the
most obvious differences one notices are the blanked-out rear
quarter windows and the sidemount spare tire covers.
Nineteen thirty-nine was the last year that fender-mounted
spare tires were offered by Plymouth, and then only on the
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Blanked rear quarters create darkened privacy for passengers in
the spacious rear seat. Elegant covers were designed for the sidemounts which remained as open wheels on commercial vehicles. The
instrumentation is in metric.
station wagon, sedan delivery or utility sedan (and, as well, a
one-off specially ordered convertible coupe now owned by
club member Wilbur Burkett of Ida, Michigan, which was
recently featured in
Antique Automobile
magazine).
Sold new to
Carmen and Dolores
Maria Clara Cecilca on
April 12, 1939, the car
was purchased for
9,500 Argentine pesos
with an additional
charge of 400 pesos
for “division to
chauffeur
with
glass
rack inasta” (TRANSLATED)
which I take to mean a division window
was supposed to have been installed.
Photos of the car (which has recently been
offered for sale on eBay) clearly show there
is no division window. The car is one of just
118 right-hand-drive seven-passenger 1939
Plymouths built. (Had it been a limousine with division window, it would be just one of nine right-hand-drive
models produced!)
Much mystery still surrounds the car. Who built it
with the blanked-out quarter windows? There remains a
question as to whether the fender-mounted spare tire covers
actually can hold a tire (the sales invoice clearly shows the
car was delivered with “5 steel wheels”). It appears that
the first purchasers were two women (sisters?). Who were
they, and why did they need a seven-passenger sedan?
Were they like Dr. Santiago Radatz, of Santiago, Chile,
who purchased a 1937 Plymouth seven-passenger sedan
new (along with two spare engines and other parts!)? The
good doctor (who was 96 in 2005) needed such a car,
because he had ten children, and it was his only car until
2003.
PB
THANKS TO CLUB MEMBER ORLANDO BONGIARDINO,
CHRYSLER PALACE
FROM AUTOS DE EPOCA MAGAZINE.
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE “RESTA BROTHERS
MAGNIFICENT AUTODROME” FIRST APPEARED IN
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN 132, JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1982.
WE OFFER A FEW PICTURES OF THE
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Plymouth Miniatures
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… on paper
E
very once in a while I decide to
digress a bit from writing exclusively about miniatures. There’s
no lack of subject matter, for sure, when
it comes to Plymouth toy cars nor lack of
enthusiasm on my part, as my regular
readers know by now. What happens is
that I often come across an interesting
Plymouth item or two that just begs
some comment on my part and which I
also think the readership of the BULLETIN
will enjoy seeing. I do try to avoid writing about actual Plymouth cars (the real
things), as I believe there are many
others in the club who are much more
knowledgeable than I about particular
Plymouth model years. I likewise
enjoy, best of all, reading about “real”
Plymouth cars “straight from the owners’ mouths,” because who better
knows a car than its loyal, enthusiastic
owner. The pride, hard work and true
love of a vehicle are most evident in
these owner-written stories in the
BULLETIN. So when it is not miniature
Plymouths I'm writing about and not
real cars, it is more than likely some
small (yes, still on the mini scale side)
bit of Plymouthmobila that is just too
fascinating not to put down in print.
So here goes, again…
J UST T O PUT THINGS in further perspective before I proceed: I spend my
winter months in warm Brazil and the
rest of my time in not-always-so-warm
Pennsylvania. Yeah, I admit to being a
wimp in the eyes of many North
American and European friends, but I
am retired, so I can fortunately chose
where to be. I have lived and worked in
Brazil for 15 years or so and have visited
that country and much of Latin America
every year since 1969, so by now Brazil
is almost as much a home as is cooler
Pennsylvania.
Climate notwithstanding, one of my
retirement hobbies is trekking flea mar-
kets and antique fairs in search of miniature vehicles (no surprise there!) and
other examples of vintage automobilia. I
look for just about anything auto-related
and am thrilled with all my finds, especially when I can afford them. It is even
a bigger bonus when I come across
something here in Brazil that is
Plymouth-related (or Studebaker, my
other favorite car; okay, I like all other
orphan cars as well. Call me a sucker for
these unloved, but never to be forgotten,
wheels).
you can see two thin,
parallel factory paint
strips that stand out on the dark wheels.
At first I thought that these two cars
might be different Plymouths, as the
folks in them are not the same. However,
on closer check, it is possible to verify
that the license plate is the same. The
background scene is somewhere in
Brazil, and I would guess that the road is
the same, but I am not sure where in the
country it could be--things have changed
a lot since back then, and Brazil is an
immense land. For sure, it was a rural
area, as the road is unpaved as were most
of the secondary and even many main
roads in Brazil back in ‘51-52, when
these photos were most certainly shot.
Interestingly, the Plymouth looks factory
fresh and is oddly still quite clean and
dust-free (yeah! I know, light colors
don’t show dust) for having been driven
on a hard-packed dirt road. I'm also
asking myself why in one picture we
see two well-dressed executive types
posing in front of the Plymouth and,
in the other, a couple who are probably on a Sunday drive? Pictures are
worth a 1000 words and two photos
featuring a ‘51 Plymouth and taken in
an exotic foreign country some 50-odd
years ago should be enough to keep us
all speculating about the origins and
destinations of our favorite brand of
car and much more for that matter.*
*Two city gents (salesman and friend) are delivering a car to a rural couple? -- LA
The woman took the picture of the two men; the
short man took a picture of the tall man (sans
jacket) and the woman? -- LDK
TAKE A GLANCE at the two original
black-and-white photos that accompany
this article. I recently found them in a
pile of other vintage, non-auto pictures at
a flea market in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The car, obviously, is a ‘51 Plymouth
Cranbrook four-door sedan, sporting
whitewall tires and factory dog dish hubcaps and, if you look closely as I did,
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N OW TAKE A GANDER at the '59
Plymouth cover car on Garagem magazine, another recent find of mine in
Brazil.
While the
Plymouth
is certainly a
vintage survivor, the
magazine is
not, as it
was published in
January of
‘09, and is
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he imported the car into Brazil
as recently as 2007; that it is in
very good condition; he rents
the Plymouth out for events
such as marriages and TV specials, and it has already
appeared in one local soap
opera set back in the days when
the Belvedere would have been
new. It’s a fine looking ‘59
with an original look, but were
factory wheel rims painted
bright yellow or gold in ‘59 as
they are on Sr. Moura's dream
car?
a compendium of earlier issues. No one
can fault the magazine editor's choice of
a “cover girl” car, something the
BULLETIN editor himself couldn't have
done better (right Lanny?). Better yet, it
is the only Plymouth to appear in a thick
magazine that is filled with choice cars
of all makes--so our ‘59 does stand out,
no denying it. As you can see from the
picture, the black Belvedere received a
three-page color spread inside the magazine. Way to go Garagem! The
Plymouth, called a “fish tail” by the
magazine, belongs to Sr. Abdilio Soares
de Moura, whose address in Brazil is
not given. The article goes on to say that
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L ET ME CLOSE with a brief
word about Plymouths in
Brazil--as much as I know.
Dodges, not Plymouths, were
the most popular Mopars in
Brazil, as Chrysler Corporation
built both cars and trucks in
this country from the late ‘60s
to early ‘80s and again in the
‘90s when only trucks were
assembled. As recently as
2008, Chrysler still had a plant
(together with BMW--explain
that one!) for building motors in
Brazil. This plant was just sold,
as I saw in the local press, to
FIAT -- right, the same FIAT
that now has a 35% stake in
Chrysler. Does that tell you
something?
Of course, many a Plymouth
was imported into Brazil over
the years and were frequently
seen up until the mid-50s when
imports tailed off in the face of
the growing production of
Brazilian-made cars. Plymouths
imported after 1955 are rare
items for sure, as ever-higher
taxes on imported vehicles
slowed the sales of all nonBrazilian-made cars and trucks.
The heyday for Plymouths in
Brazil was the postwar period
of 1947 through 1952 or so. I
base this claim on the vintage automobilia I turn up on antique flea market
trips. It’s not serious automotive scholarship, to be sure, but it’s lots of fun that
we all can share.
-- Bill Brisbane
[email protected]
Achievement
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by Gerald Mizen
Welkom, South Africa
I
purchased my 1935 PJ sedan in 1997
and completed its restoration in 2005.
Purchased from a deceased’s estate, the
PJ had been driven by children who abused and
rolled the car.
I had worked in my father's engineering workshop in
1950. There, we did repairs to cars of this age and, in 1954, I owned a 1934
rumble seat (dickie). Because I had a lot of fun experiences, as well as repairs
to keep the car on the road, I therefore had always wanted to rebuild a car of
that year to its original showroom status.
The PJ was completely stripped and sandblasted. Every bolt, bearing and
oil seal was brand new. The brake drums were recut, and the master and wheel
cylinders are all stainless steel lined.
The rebuilding of the PJ was an
achievement for me at my age. I found it
very satisfying.
The assistance I received from my
friend Paul Curtis provided me with great
encouragement. Thank you, my friend in
need, Paul.
When my wife, Lorna, and I are driving this car, we find it to be great fun as
people passing us shout and hoot. When
we stop at a shop, we are approached by
admirers, and I must say that the black
population are especially attracted to the
PJ.
PB
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A
tkinson Motor
Holdings
Group, with the
full cooperation of
Chrysler, established an assembly
plant in Cape
Town in the early
1940s. The first
cars came off the
line in 1946. A
full range of
Chrysler cars and
commercial vehicles was assembled
from imported
components supplemented with
locally produced
paint, glass, tires,
batteries and
upholstery. The
latter was genuine
leather in all vehicles.
Detailed histories of
Plymouth in South
Africa can be found
in issue 145 of the
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN.
Check the PB DVDs.
It’s a ‘67: The ‘66 unchanged in SA
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRENDAN MILNE OF DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
COURTESY OF allpar.com
Right-hand-drive dash
Lettering: VALIANT, not PLYMOUTH
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Atkinsons
I
don't know anything about this
Barracuda,
although I bought a
new Valiant in 1968
from Atkinsons.
I had a friend
who told me some
time back of how he
and his friends used
to soup up their
Barracudas and
even used racing
fuel.
He had a used
car dealership close
to Atkinsons, so
there might have
been a connection.
Basil Green is
one of the bestknown people for
doing car conversions and racing
cars in South Africa.
However, he specialized mostly in
Fords--from the
Ford Cortina GTs to
Ford Mustangs
and Galaxies.
-- Hans Matter
Cape Town, S. A.
This article was found
and brought to our
attention by Marten
Carlsson of Sweden.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF allpar.com
For 1962, the South African Valiant used the US Lancer body.
The same car was also sold as a DeSoto Rebel.
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Plymouths of South Africa
1934 PE
sedan
1947 P15 sedan
1948 D25
convertible
(Based on
the P15
Plymouth,
this D25
convertible
was not
available in
Canada.)
1953 Cranbrook sedan
1956 Savoy sedan
1957 Savoy sedan
1959 Belvedere sport coupe
1959 Kingsway sport coupe (minus side trim)
1959 Kingsway sedan
1959 Kingsway sedan
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1963
DeSoto
Rebel
(Known as
a 1961
Dodge
Lancer in
the USA)
1968 Chrysler Valiant
Valiant sedan
1968 Chrysler Valiant
Valiant sedan
1978 Plymouth Fury (imported into SA; note LHD
1959 Belvedere (Note the V8 emblem unique to SA Plymouths)
1959 Belvedere sedan: Hans & Pam Matter, Cape Town, SA
A DeSoto dash was used by all RHD Chrysler products.
Hans Matter provided these SA Plymouth pictures. Look for
the full story on his car in the ‘59 50th anniversary issue.
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Pl
Plymouth body plates
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hese body plates were attached to Plymouths built
by assemblers in overseas assembly plants.
Melbourne Body, Lane's and T J Richards were body
suppliers in Australia. Fevre & Basset were the
builders in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The French body
plate is from an unknown supplier, perhaps Chrysler
-- Jim Benjaminson
France?
Melbourne Motor Body: a small plaque attached to the cowl-left-hand side near the running board--on 1928-29 Plymouths
assembled by this company.
T. J. Richards built bodies for a number of
Australian-assembled cars.
The plate reads:
reads:
SOLE AGENTS FOR VICTORIA & RIVERINA
(CHRYSLER) PHONE CEN10490 (MORRIS CARS)
LANE'S MOTORS, PTY. LTD.
89-105 EXHIBITION ST. MELB.
STOCK NUMBER P27-5961.
The plate reads:
reads:
SOLE AGENTS FOR VICTORIA & RIVERINA
LANE'S MOTORS
(CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH)
89-105 EXHIBITION ST. MELB.
STOCK NUMBER P24 PHONE CEN10490.
( Riverina is a region of the state of Victoria, Australia.)
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Fevre & Basset bodyplate found on the Argentineassembled 1939 seven-passenger sedan
French body plate for a 1957 Plymouth
R ECENTLY
ECENTLY this Plymouth Roadking emblem came up for sale
on eBay, the internet auction site. The Roadking was a midyear model, replacing the “Business” P5 series for 1938. The
Roadking name was used again in 1939 and 1940, as the
model name for the less expensive P7 and P9 series. The top
of the line models were sold as the Deluxe.
This brings up a question: Where did this emblem appear
and on what model year(s)? Is it a dash emblem, a hood
emblem or a trunklid emblem? Or is it an aftermarket item?
Any help in identifying it would be appreciated.
It was being sold by Walter Miller, who is a Plymouth
Owners Club member.
-- Jim Benjaminson
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Norm Pennie’s
International P15s
Swedish manmanufacturer ’s
and body
plates, such as
those found on
Thorsten
Larsson’s ‘35
PJ built by
Phillipson’s.
Norm Pennie
Vancouver, British Columbia
M
ost of these cars belong(ed) to members who bought parts from me.
Three are from the Southern Hemisphere;
two are not. The blue weathered convertible is from Brazil. The pair of P15s with
right-hand-drive is from South Africa.
The Charlotte Ivory convertible with a tan
top belongs to Michael Dagan of Hadera,
Israel. The Taxi Cab Yellow convertible is
a 1946 export model with a metric
speedometer that shows 160 KM/H for top
speed instead of 100 MPH and a temp
gauge showing 100° instead of 212° as the
boiling point. I imported this car into
Canada from Mexico in 1987.
PB
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Swedish 1935 Plymouth
1935 PJ “Philipsons”
Deluxe sedan
Part 2
by Thorsten Larsson
Ystad, Skåne, Sweden
It
Memphis Bound
was hot that Sunday
afternoon, as we left
Detroit and the wonderful week we had spent
there at the Grand National.
We had the normal “air conditioning” running, that is: cowl
lid fully open, front side windows down and rear windows
two inches open. This produces a nice airstream through the
interior. An open windscreen is a bit noisy. The traffic on I75 had cooled down, and most cars seemed to be on their way
back home to the Detroit area.. A small group of classic cars –
probably having attended a meeting – saluted us.
Entering Kentucky
The next day we continued through beautiful, hilly
Kentucky and stayed overnight in Lebanon, this time at a
Hampton Inn. More like a hotel than the motels at which we
stayed while on the road to Detroit, it could offer more services – among others, a guest computer. We had left our laptop
at home to reduce luggage weight, not knowing that most
motels offer built-in high speed internet instead of guest comLeaving Motor City
puters. The staff was very friendly and could suggest a suitAt Findlay, we turned into Route 68, a very nice road that
able Hampton Inn in Memphis, which was within reach the
would take us out of Ohio, through Kentucky and all the
following day.
way to Tennessee. After winding through a tidy,
For the final distance to Memphis, we dropped Route
beautiful farm country, passing horse breeding
68 and turned south on Route 51 – a very scenic
farms, small towns, we found it ideal to take a
and sometimes narrow road heading to our goal.
break at the local ice cream parlor in order to
At sunset we reached the expressway encircling
cool down a bit. We think that Route 68 is a
Memphis, and before long we had parked our
perfect road for classic car driving, and the PJ
PJ outside Hampton Inn. WE MADE IT! Twowas running great, keeping its engine temperaand-a-half days, not bad!
ture just a little over normal, which was underAs we were bringing in some luggage, one
standable, as the temperature was hitting the 90s.
of the uniformed security guards of the hotel came
The first night on the road again was spent at a
up to us and wished us welcome. We asked him for
Ohio Rt 68
motel in French-sounding Bellefontaine.
advice about where to park the Plymouth. After
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some consideration,
his order was: “I want
her right here in the
entrance arcade!”
Now, Hampton
Inn slowly began to
be our favorite – after
all it’s the old story:
you get what you pay
for!
After breakfast
the next morning our
sightseeing in
Memphis could start:
Number one - you
Elvis’ Convair and Thorsten’s PJ.
guessed it: Graceland!
Graceland: Sonja at her goal. We picked up the
then invested in customizing the interior: gold-plated sinks
expressway again and, after a while, we entered Elvis Presley
and seat-belt buckles, bedroom – you name it! This aircraft –
Boulevard and after a number of traffic lights, we were there.
The Lisa-Marie – was used during concert tours and designed
Visiting Graceland, it is easy to understand why the
for 28 passengers only. A smaller, ten-passenger Lockheed
KING makes more money today than when he was alive. The
Jetstar was beside the Convair.
premises are divided by the Elvis Presley Boulevard – on one
We were both pleased with our visit at Graceland, but we
side Graceland, fairly untouched, and on the other side the
avoided the enormous offering of souvenirs. However, if you
commercial events, split into a lot of activities – on the whole,
were in the right mood, you could have bought an Elvis jump
very well-organized.
suit – the one with the high collar (you know). Price tag: 3000
We decided to have a look at the mansion – Graceland –
dollars!
first. The house is reached by a shuttle bus just crossing the
Boulevard and taking us up to the building, which is of rather
modest size – that is, for a King to live in. Originally built by
a doctor, it was bought by Elvis for $100,000 when he was
starting to get his career going.
The interiors give some hints about Elvis’s hectic life –
for instance three separate TV sets mounted on the wall.
On display were numerous dresses, jump suits, gold
records, etc., but, disregarding all this, it was a real nice
The Million Dollar Quartet: Jerry
house, and one could imagine that Elvis felt at home in it.
Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley
and Johnny Cash.
Unfortunately, it was too small for his family and all the
King’s “friends,” who seemed to have been there all the time.
It was time to leave Graceland
No wonder Priscilla left.
and drive downtown to Sun
In front of
Studios – the place where it
“It’s
“It’s alright, Mama!”
Graceland is the family
all started. This studio, in
grave – designed by
which Sam Philips recorded Elvis, Johnny Cash and other
Elvis. His stillborn
rock’n roll legends, seems to be pretty much original and is
twin brother had been
still in use. It was really interesting to see Sam Philips’ old
moved there.
recording machines. In those days no editing was possible
After some contemafterwards – you had to deliver directly. If not: new take!
plation, we decided it
Although Memphis is a big city, we found it quite
Pink Cadillac
was time to try the comhandy to go around with our PJ. On day two, we
mercial section. We were a bit hungry, so why
visited Beale street – the classic blues street –
not try the King’s favorite – the fatal Peanut
and of course the mighty Mississippi.
Butter and Banana Sandwich. A great taste –
but calories en masse!
T HE NEXT DAY
DAY we set out for our next goal:
In Elvis’s Automobile Museum, the cars
visiting Cousin John’s son in Chester, South
you would connect with Elvis were displayed:
Carolina. Going west on Route 72 – partly
a pink Cadillac, Stutz Blackhawks, Harleys, but
parallel to the Tennessee River – we found the
also a red MGA roadster from Blue Hawaii.
scenery breathtaking. Watching people rafting in
Two of Elvis’s aircraft are also on show –
the river gave us vibrations of the movie
a Convair 880 bought by Elvis in 1975 for
Crossing a tributary to the
Deliverance.
$250,000 USED. Another half-million was
Tennessee River
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At
Huntsville,
Alabama, we
made our
overnight stop.
A Saturn space
rocket was
standing as a
landmark as we
entered the city.
Evidently, parts
for the space
industry are produced here.
Service before the Great Smokies
Before leaving next morning, we drove by a service station in
order to check fluid levels of the PJ. It was still
very hot –- mid-nineties –- and we knew there
would be some climbing as we continued east,
approaching the Great Smokey Mountains.
We stuck to smaller roads and it did get
steep, and on several occasions we had to
drive in first gear. The Plymouth showed no
tendencies of overheating, even when the temperature had risen. I think the reason for this is
spelled V-O-L-V-O. It is like this: The radiator element comes from a Volvo military vehicle – the RAPTG
4WD Radio Car. These vehicles have Volvo slant six engines,
very similar to the Mopars. As the military put this model out
of service, the NOS parts went with it, and I was lucky to find
a NOS radiator in a scrap yard. Surprisingly, the element fitted in perfectly with only small modifications. The Volvo
RAPTG was designed, wearing a flexible exhaust tube on the
roof, to be dug down and was supposed to have the engine
run for stationary power support to radio transmitters. I think
our driving in the gorgeous Smokey Mountains those hot days
was equivalent, in the view of the radiator, to staying put in a
hole.
In the Great Smokies
twelve, and he is now 48! It was about time…
We spent time with Brent and his son and
enjoyed his small farm, where, as a hobby, he
keeps horses, among other animals.
The day after, before heading north, Brent
took us to a cattle auction, and that was really
worth seeing and listening to. What a tempo!
And don’t ask us what the prices were… An odd
thing was that the buyers were sitting in rocking
chairs. When we were about to leave, one of the cattlemen moved us back into the building again. A bull was
loose! After a few minutes it was all clear, and we took
farewell of Brent.
Gettysburg
PASSING C HARLOTTE , we later picked up Route 29 at
Greensboro and continued towards our overnight stop at
Lynchburg. We continued on this two-lane highway through
hilly Virginia. Our next stop was Frederick, Maryland.
Leaving there, we headed for Gettysburg – a place we simply
had to see. The old battlefield had a brand new visitors’ center, where you could hire a CD with headset and drive a selfguided tour around the battlefield. At this time, we
only visited the museum, which we found most
interesting.
Later that day we crossed the massive
Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey
and stopped overnight in Malaga.
The next morning we headed for Lakehurst,
the airfield where the German Zeppelin
Hindenburg crashed in 1937. Of course, noth-
Family reunion with Brent Larson and son and
their horse.
In Chester, we again had a nice family
reunion, meeting the son and grandson of my
cousin John. It was another long-time-no-see
thing. Brent visited us in Sweden at the age of
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idea. It seemed full everywhere, so we turned some miles
inland from the coast, where we found a nice motel not too
far from Newark.
We needed to spend some time to prepare our Plymouth
for the cross-Atlantic shipping back home. The fender skirts
were dismantled and stowed in the trunk. We would also let
some of the things we bought stay in the trunk. Still, there
was time to take excursions in the beautiful Garden State.
The day before the meeting with the shipping agent, E.H.
Harms, at Elisabeth, we moved our position to Linden, quite
close to Port Newark. Again, we choose a Hampton Inn, with
arcade parking and computer as usual We Googled some
Lakehurst Naval Air Base: NOT the Hindenburg hangar
maps and asked the manager about the possibilities of
ing is left of the airship, but the original hangar is
calling a cab from the harbor area.
still there, and we thought it would be interesting
“ No need for that! Just give us a call and
to view the dimensions of this enormous buildwe
pick you up. We have free shuttle service
ing.
to
Newark
Airport!” That’s Hampton Inn!
The airfield is now upgraded to a Naval
After
a
good
night’s sleep and breakfast, we
Airbase and, as we approached the entrance,
were
ready
to
join
the eighteen-wheeler race
we were directed to an open shelter, where we
again.
presented our purpose to the guard. He permitWe kept on track according to our map, but
ted us to proceed to a smaller office building,
driving
on the very street less than a mile from
some kind of visitor’s center. Inside the office, two
E.H.
Harms,
the only incident of our tour in the
men resided behind a desk, one of them reading a
Beautiful Virginia
Virginia
United
States
– now exceeding 3000 miles –
newspaper, the other just looking out in the blue.
occurred:
A
truck
driver,
going
beside us, yelled as he was
We presented ourselves and asked for a possible tour.
pointing
to
the
rear
right
“All you need to know, can be read on the red sheet of
of our PJ, “Hey, you
paper on wall to the left of you,” was the response from the
have a flat tire!” We
newspaper reader, still not lifting his eyes from the newspapulled off at one of the
per.
port entrances, and
Ok, we read the red paper and found out that you had to
indeed we had! The
register your tour 14 days in advance. Again, we informed the
security guard at the gate
newspaper reader that we were just passing through and had
immediately approached
problems with this 14-day notice.
us, telling us to move,
“What! Are you not US citizens? Then you can forget the
but as he understood our
whole idea. We do not let foreigners in here,” the man
situation, he turned very
declared, for the first time taking his eyes from the newspahelpful and friendly.
Puncture! Less than a mile from
per.
Our PJ has dual sideour final destination
Well, apparently there would be no Hindenburg crash site,
mounts, so that was not a
so we left the office. We were standing by the car when the
problem. But the jack was in the trunk as, for this tour, I kept
door to the office suddenly opened. Out came the newspapera spare generator under the front seat where the jack has its
man, now with a big smile on his face. “Wow, what a great
normal place. The trunk had to be emptied, but soon the
car!” he started sweet-talking. “Sorry, we can’t let you in.
spare wheel was in place. The guard blocked the traffic in
Nine-eleven, you know…”
both directions and we could finish the last half-mile.
The paper work was smoothly executed. We chose at this
time to have the PJ transported in a shared container. The
price was about the same as the ro-ro freight.
Now the car was to
be left in a warehouse.
We found the place
inside the warehouse
where there were cars in
various condition waiting for transport. A
handful of young men,
armed with boards, hamBack in the 18-wheeler run
mers and nails, were
W E HAD HOPED T O FIND a motel at the coast, but it was the
loading containers. You
weekend, and apparently a lot of New Yorkers had the same
could really say that they
Warehouse
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were squeezing standard
cars into the containers,
building wooden stands
above the already-placed
cars and then putting
another on top of the
first.
The foreman, at
the moment checking
out our car for dents and
Tight loading: “Don’t worry!” damages, noticed my
somewhat worried mind
and calmed me. “ Don’t worry! We never load classic cars
like that. We don’t even start the engines. Your car will be
loaded when we have another suitable classic available.”
Sonja and I felt relieved as we left the warehouse. Now,
the PJ was secured, waiting for its match. A
phone call to Hampton
Inn and we were picked
up, now having two days
to spend in New York
City. This time we
stayed at Hotel Edison, a
wonderful hotel close to
Times Square, built 1931
Art Deco
in Art Deco style.
During these two days we enjoyed being back in New
York. We took the Circle Line around Manhattan, providing
us with a very enjoyable
lesson in New York history, and visited
Greenwich Village
again. Sitting on a
bench in the Village with
a nice cup of coffee, we
read of something fantastic in The Village
Voice: Benny Golson,
the famous tenor saxophonist and composer,
had again started his
Circle Line
Jazztet from the ‘80s and
was to have his premiere at a small jazz club on 103rd Street
the following night, our last night in the United States!
The next evening, we were in the line outside Smoke
Jazzclub and had a wonderful time listening to our favorite
since the late ‘50s.
One of the last, still
active jazz stars
from those days,
Benny Golson actually became eighty a
couple of weeks
ago.
An unbelievable
finale to our more
than five weeks in
Benny Golson: Having a chat at Smoke
the United States!
Jazzclub.
Out of the box on Swedish soil again in Göteborg harbor
Epilogue
A FTER THREE WEEKS at home we got an email from E. H.
Harms that our Plymouth was loaded onto M/V Atlantic
Conveyor with a scheduled time to destination of ten days.
We were able to follow the route of the ship on our computer
via GPS: First to Belgium, then Britain and finally to
Göteborg, Sweden. Five days after landing, we got a notice
telling us that the Plymouth was ready to be picked up.
We drove to Göteborg the next
day, anxious to fetch our car.
We brought a 6-volt battery,
just in case. At this time
there would be no radio
listening by the stevedores. I had disconnected
the radio.
The Plymouth was kept
in a warehouse, extremely
dusty, but a quick walk around
showed no damages! Great!
Same old story...
story...
Just to press the starter pedal?
flat “stevedore battery”
Oh, No! The battery was
flat! Apparently, the Swedish stevedores were a bit cross not
being able to listen to the radio, so they left the light on!
It was a lot of work to arrange this very special trip to the
US, but let us say this: it was worth every minute spent on
these efforts, regarding all the POC members and people we
have met and all the places and highlights we have experienced.
Sonja and I thank you all and hope to be back for another
PB
Plymouth meet.
Back home in the garage between the 1950 Mercedes-Benz and the
1975 Citroen DS. Safe and sound, with another 4000 miles on the
meter.
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G’day,
share
our
cars,
Mate?
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The “Aussie” is what this 30U tourer was affectionately called by the late John Toteve who purchased it from fellow member Ken Hicks of Australia. Shipped to the USA in 1975, John trailered it to his Colorado home for a complete restoration. The “camping body” was built by Holden. (See BULLETINs 146, p. 34, and 248, p. 26)
LANNY KNUTSON PHOTOS TAKEN AT THE 1997 NATIONAL SPRING MEET IN KANSAS CITY.
This 1956 P25A3 coupe utility was imported from Australia by Merv Afflerbach, Quakertown,
Pennsylvania. Parked behind it is his American 1954 P25 Belvedere convertible.
DAVE AND DICK ORR PHOTO TAKEN AT THE 1999 NATIONAL FALL MEET IN DOYLESTOWN, PA.
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The 1st Vermont Harvest Tour
1928—1932 Four-Cylinder
Plymouth Meet & Tour
September 11th - 14th, 2008
The first Vermont Harvest Tour was held September 11th through the 14th at the Hilltop Inn, in Berlin,
Vermont, and by all accounts was a great success!
Fourty-four people attended the tour with 12 Plymouths participating. Terry Winters led the group in Irvin
Stephensons 1932 PB Convertible Coupe.
Thursday, September 11th
Registration opened at 5:00 p.m. and the planning committee welcomed attendees!
Friday, September 12th
The first stop of the tour was to Vermont’s famous Floating Bridge in
Brookfield, VT. Sunset Lake is crossed by a floating bridge, buoyed
by 380 barrels, (the lake is too deep to support a pillared span). The
lake is the site of much fishing off the bridge and in January it is a
coveted viewing point for one of New England's last remaining ice
harvest festivals. Unfortunately weeks before the tour the bridge was
closed due to safety concerns, so we could not cross the bridge, but
that did not stop the group from walking across and enjoying the
view! Miss Clara enjoyed sitting on the concrete hippo in the center
of Brookfield (just to the right of the bridge)
The tour then moved on to Porter Music Box in Randolph, VT, which
brings the splendor of antiquity and the music loved by generations to
your home or business in one exquisite piece. Fashioned after the
heirlooms of Victorian Europe and America, Porters are world renowned
for blending the grace and elegance of fine furnishing with the moving
tone and depth of superior musical instruments. The owner was nice
enough to bring out his restored cars for everyone to enjoy. Little known
to Miss Clara her parents bought her her first music box for her
upcoming birthday.
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The rain had managed to hold off until we reached the Tunbridge Fair in Tunbridge,
VT. The Tunbridge World's Fair has run continuously since 1867 except in 1918, due
to the great flu epidemic, and during World War II. Though this is a “small” fair
(despite the insinuation of the name), it is a great place to see a lot of antique
machines, cars, etc. on its antique hill. There are also many animals there from farm
animals to horses, as well as llamas stealing kisses.
Stuart and Linda Riddell were kind enough to host a tech talk session in their garage in Williamstown, VT.
This was a great success with a lot of questions, great panel answers from Earl Buton, Steve Stephenson
and Bob Wilcox. Stuart displayed his 1932 Roadster for participants to view as a “work in progress”. While
some met to discuss cars, some of the ladies drove to the Weathered Barn Doll Museum also in
Williamstown VT, where they viewed over 10,000 dolls, many in lovely scenes.
The last event for the evening was a chicken pie supper put on by the ladies
of the Williamstown Congregational Church. Many in the group had never
experienced a chicken pie supper, so this was a special treat. Even as oldtime box socials and Grange picnics have faded from much of rural America,
the chicken pie supper, a culinary tradition peculiar to Vermont, has
endured. Everyone went away full and satisfied.
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Saturday, September 13th
The second day of the tour started out with some heavy fog that was still
present when we arrived at Rock of Ages Granite Quarry, the world's
largest dimension granite quarry. We began with a short film on the
history of granite in Vermont, in hopes the fog would lift in time for the
visit to the quarry. We drove the cars from the visitors center to the
quarry to find heavy fog still settled into the quarry. Our
friendly guide explained the recovery methods, as well as
a little geology relevant to the Barre deposit and some of
the impressive history of the two-hundred-year-old Barre
granite industry. We learned why Barre granite is prized
by sculptors and architects alike and can be found in
memorials, statutes and buildings in virtually every city around the globe. As this was a
Saturday there was no work being done in the quarry, but by the time the guide had finished
the fog had lifted and we could see the true grandness of the workings of the quarry. Leon
Bennett shows off his muscles and pushes up a huge granite block.
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On the way to our next stop we stop by Vermont’s State Capitol Building
in Montpelier, VT for a quick photo-op of the cars and the group in front of the
Statehouse. After 140 years, the Vermont State House still commands the landscape
of Montpelier, the smallest capital city in America. The House and Senate chambers
are the oldest legislative chambers in their original condition anywhere in the country.
Thank you to the Capitol Police for saving the parking spaces and directing traffic to
keep the tour together! Next stop, Cold Hollow Cider Mill.
At Cold Hollow we broke for a picnic lunch outside the mill – great food,
thanks to Emerys store, just across the street. After lunch the group was
free to tour around the stores in the area and sample lots of great food. The
mill is one of the top producers of Fresh Apple Cider in all of New England.
They are also one of the very few that press year-round. The Mill has
become one of the top tourist attractions in Vermont because the operation
is open to public viewing.
After lunch and the tour the group had a free afternoon to do whatever they wanted. The tour planners
offered a couple of options for those who wanted:
o
A number of people visited the Trapp Family Lodge, continues to be owned and operated by the
Trapp family, the inspiration for the classic musical and movie "The Sound of Music."
o
Four brave drivers took the challenge and drove their cars up smugglers notch. Terry
and Stephanie led Don Feeney and Dennis Williams in Dons 1928 Q Touring; Earl, Jeff,
Bruce, Jennifer and Clara Buton in Earls 1932 PB Convertible Sedan; and Gene and Shirley
Bibber in their 1929 U Four-Door, up the winding, sometimes one lane road lined with large
boulders and trees. It provides truly spectacular views and miles of walking trails though
caves and caverns. The cars made it without a problem and we headed back to the hotel for
the banquet that night.
The banquet was held at Suzannas Restaurant and
served as the conclusion of the tour. Great food,
raffle prizes and a big thank you to all those who
attended. The willingness of the group to be the
guinea pigs at our 1st Vermont Harvest Tour was
great! We hope that you all enjoyed your visit and
will come back again!
Sunday, September 14th
Sunday morning it was time for everyone to grab some breakfast and head home. Since it was raining most
carpooled in modern cars to the Wayside Restaurant, touted as a place to eat true Vermont food.
To all those who helped plan this event (Dianne Stephenson, Bob & Joyce Wilcox, Stuart & Linda Riddell,
Irvin Stephenson & Becky Watson and Stephanie Winters) great job on the success of this event!
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Clif ’ s Notes
The lesser “Bees”
I
am not sure if an article about the
lesser-known B-bodies from 196870 would fly in a muscle car magazine, but here in our beloved PLYMOUTH
BULLETIN, it will be welcomed with
open arms. There are more models than
the Road Runner by far, including
Satellites and Sport Satellites plus
GTXs and, last but not least, the basic
Belvedere model.
I have included pictures of some of
these cars in various stages of disrepair
or undress. There is a basic four-door
Belvedere like those used as cop cars in
Adam-12, and there is an aqua ‘69
Belvedere in a coupe model from which
they got the idea for the famous
Runners. This one had a six-cylinder.
in a drag race out on the back roads. It
was faaassst. I know, I rode in a
buddy's car that got beat by this
Plymouth. I do not recall what X-brand
car I was riding in, but it got beat, and
my love for Plymouths grew.
In 1968, according to my source
book, they built a total of 118,175 Bbody units. This divides up into 30,328
Satellite hardtops, 1,771 Satellite convertibles, 21,014 Sport Satellite hardtops, 1,523 Sport Satellite convertibles,
17,914 GTX hardtops, 1,026 GTX convertibles, 29,240 Road Runner coupes
and last, but not least, 15,359 Road
Runner hardtops. They were all offered
in seventeen colors and nineteen different interior options, quite a cry from the
three shades of grey that most Mopars
have been offered within the last few
years. My new Challenger Classic R/T
interior comes in a dark grey--almost
black--with B-5 blue piping in the seats
that match the exterior color I ordered.
I have a 1970 Challenger RT/SE in the
same color. The two should be a neat
combo. It’s a last fling for the ol’ bird
who wants to stay young--most of the
Baby Boomers do, right?
Also included in my pics is a wildpaint original ‘69 Road Runner. This
car came with a 335-horse 383, four-
You could get a 318 V8 in them, too, or
even a 383 two-barrel or four-barrel.
Included is a photo of a blue ‘68
Satellite hardtop that had the 318 V8
even though you could get the 383 in
these too, including the 330 horse fourbarrel.
A friend had a 383 two-barrel ‘69
Sport Satellite that hardly ever got beat
speed and 3:55 gears (woulda been
quite a ride, eh?). Besides that, you see
what is left of an original white ‘69
Runner--this was 383 with column automatic. Right beside it is what is left of
a yellow ‘69 Sport Satellite--rusty, but
if I showed you a picture of what it
looked like when I brought it home with
the ol’ style Rocket wheels and big
-68-
meats, you’d say it looked real cool.
Hiding under that shiny yellow paint is
a rusty car, but it has supplied lots of
parts to keep other cars on the road.
(I’ve still got its original 318 and the
automatic transmission, if anyone needs
those for his/her car.)
Last, but not least, is a maroon
restorable ‘68 Satellite hardtop that my
41-year-old son wants to “restify” with
a 440. It has quite the story: the young
man, Loren, who owned it back in its
day, lent the car to his high school-age
sister. Well, she wrapped it into a light
pole. It sat for years until Loren needed
some cash, so it came to my place about
eight years ago. It was complete when
I got it with the exception of the engine,
a few parts that had gone to people with
‘68 Runners. Still, son John says he
will redo it. I hope so.
I WILL WRITE MORE about the basic
‘69 and ‘70 models next time around.
Got to get to bed and get my beauty
sleep (lord knows, I need a lot of it,
ha,ha). I still work summers for the
county, running a motor grader. Our
roads are in bad shape, so I have to
blade on a Saturday. Oh well, O.T. to a
retired man is kinda nice. See you next
time around.
-- Clif Nelson
[email protected]
test
test
test
test
Nelson and Lynne Lipinski’s 1937 P4 convertible
Founded 1957
on a garden drive in New Zealand
March - April 2009
Eighteen-time Old Cars Weekly Golden Quill Award winner
295
Volume 50 Number 3
MIGUEL TILLOUS PHOTO
F19472 Plymouth Bulletin 295 Stripped By Patty Desautel CMYK
NELSON LIPINSKI PHOTO
Founded 1957
Orlando Bongiardino’s 1938 P6 convertible
on a woodland drive in Argentina

Plymouth`s of the Southern Hemisphere

Transcription

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