Plymouth Club Coupe rekindles teenage memories
It’s difficult to resist the tug of nostalgia.
Cochrane, Alta. resident Arthur Lange gave in when he found a 1940 Plymouth Club Coupe. It’s certainly not the exact car his parents owned when he was a teenager, but it evoked memories of his youth.
“My parents drove a 1940s Chevy business coupe and I remember that car distinctly,” Lange said. “I spent years looking for one of those but never saw one for sale locally.”
That’s when he found his Plymouth. With similar lines, it was the next best thing.
For Plymouth, 1940 was an important year. Engineers had completely redesigned the automaker’s line of vehicles, including the less expensive Roadking P9 series and the upgraded De Luxe P10 series.
The Roadking P9 was available in two or four-door sedan body styles, and a two-passenger coupe. The De Luxe P10, however, came in several different body styles, including a station wagon, club coupe, business coupe, convertible coupe, two- and four-door sedans, and even as a limousine.
Plymouth had further streamlined their vehicles, adding hidden door hinges and longer hoods. The roofline was lowered and gone was the split rear window from the Plymouths of the 1930s. A new one-piece rear window added 23 per cent more room to a driver’s field of view and the windshield wipers were moved from above the glass to below, with the actuating mechanism under the cowl.
The wheelbase was stretched by 76 millimetres and the engine moved forward and the rear axle placed further back. These changes helped increase overall interior room and the body now sat on a stronger, crossbraced box frame chassis equipped with new shock absorbers.
Powering the Plymouth was the company’s inline six-cylinder engine that measured in at 201.3 cubicinches and produced 84 horsepower at 3,600 rpm. It was coupled to a three-speed column-shift manual gearbox that had been redesigned for 1940 — it was made more compact, allowing for a lower tunnel in the cabin.
When Lange bought the Plymouth some 10 years ago, he was living on property in west Bragg Creek where he’d built a shop that included a complete paint booth. A retired drafting and visual arts teacher, Lange is a self-taught auto body and paint man.
Mechanically, Lange restored the brakes and suspension, and purchased many of the required rubber replacement components from Roberts Motor Parts in northeast Massachusetts. The engine, which had about 86,000 original miles on it, ran well and had good compression across all six cylinders so Lange did not rebuild it.
However, he did add a new exhaust system and muffler, and replaced the rotting tires. The final touch, which he had done this spring, was the addition of the interior.
Lange enjoys driving the Plymouth, adding about 1,500 miles to the odometer.
He has displayed it at local car shows, and said the comment he most often hears is about the paint — it’s called Aviation Blue, and thanks to the many hours he spent meticulously prepping every panel, the final finish glistens like a mirror.