chance to pick up a 49 Plymouth

-
northeastmopar

northeastmopar

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
773
Reaction score
52
Location
Massachusetts
Just curious. I have my sights on a 1949 Plymouth business coupe. It has 2 doors and only one seat and no rear side windows. Kind of a cool looking Plymouth. I always wanted to build a street rod and I was wondering if anybody here knows about these cars relative to installing small blocks in place of the flathead 6 and disc brakes ect ect. I am going to look at it tomorrow and would appreciate any input.
 
I bet it looks like my 41 Chrysler from your description then.

coupe002.jpg
 
Here's one from the net. The B5 blue one is a 42 that belongs to a friend in town. It has a torsion bar front end, a slant 6, od 833, and a 8 3/4. It gets upper 20's for mileage on the highway. Good luck. Let us know if you get her. tmm
 

Attachments

  • Bud Ackley.jpg
    113.3 KB · Views: 452
  • 100_5192.jpg
    70.3 KB · Views: 411
  • 100_5193.jpg
    62 KB · Views: 414
Most street rodded Mopars of that era are usually clipped with the front half of a Dakota or S10 frame, this gets you disk brakes, power steering, motor mounts, cheap rebuild parts for the front end, etc... all in one shot. There is really nothing wrong with the stock front end on these cars, parts are available for them, several companies make disk brakes kits for them. Putting a v8 in these cars isn't terribly difficult, the steering box and column kinda get in the way, the inner fenders need to be trimmed, and the firewall needs a dent in it to clear the passenger side valve cover. It's been done many times before and pretty well documented on the web, just poke around a little.
 
daliant said:
Most street rodded Mopars of that era are usually clipped with the front half of a Dakota or S10 frame, this gets you disk brakes, power steering, motor mounts, cheap rebuild parts for the front end, etc... all in one shot. There is really nothing wrong with the stock front end on these cars, parts are available for them, several companies make disk brakes kits for them. Putting a v8 in these cars isn't terribly difficult, the steering box and column kinda get in the way, the inner fenders need to be trimmed, and the firewall needs a dent in it to clear the passenger side valve cover. It's been done many times before and pretty well documented on the web, just poke around a little.
Click to expand...

Mine is clipped with a Camaro sub and sports a 440/727 driveline.
 
Just swap a Dak set up to the front. If you want to leave it a cruiser the 6 is ok. Here is our 52. We had a 49 at one point, the only body mods you have to do is cut the pass fenderwell some.
 

Attachments

  • Wagin.jpg
    126.9 KB · Views: 335
I have a 51 Plymouth, started out swapping the flathead 6 for a 318, had a street rod shop do the mounts, used a pickup oil pan, a-body exhaust cleared the steering like it was made for it. Heres a couple pics of the motor mounts.
DSC00749.jpg

DSC00750.jpg


I started to swap it over onto a 83 Elcamino frame, and then the project got sidelined and haven't got back to it yet, now the radiator and steering box want to share the same spot. In hind sight I wish I would have had it set up for Volare front suspension.
 
What a bummer. Called the guy this morning to head down and he informed me he sold the car last night. Kinda sucks as he only wanted 1200 for the car. I think it was a really good deal that I could not pass up. I was just going to save it for a rainy day. Oh well, back to the Demon. I hear her calling me.
 
That '42 is nice but it needs a little paint on that slant. The flathead is a lot shorter than the slant 6, I was just curious on how much the firewall had to be cut to fit the engine. A v8 is a lot easier to slip in there.
 
Yep! The slant itself isn't too pretty but it runs like a Swiss watch. The owner does his share of machine work and most of the car is home built. He put 4:10's in the A body 8 3/4 so it gets to the end of the block pretty quick and with the od tranny it gets good highway mileage.

Northeastmopar, too bad the deal fell through. It would have made a coll fat fendered ride. tmm
 
I love the old Plymouths. I had a 41 business coupe that I put a 340, 4 speed. 355 8 3/4 rear. What a cool car that was, good luck with your project.
 
I've been told that an "A" body diff will bolt right into these cars,...don't know if It's true...
 
I put an a body rear in my 51 and now I have plenty of room for big tires, it was around 4 inches shorter but the spring perches were very close to perfect, I bought a front disc brake kit from ECI and it works great
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top