1940 Plymouth paints a pretty picture
Restored classic club coupe evokes memories of Cochrane man’s youth
COCHRANE, Alta. — It’s difficult to resist the tug of nostalgia.
Arthur Lange gave in when he found a 1940 Plymouth club coupe. It’s 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,” the Cochrane resident said. “I spent years looking for one of those but never saw one for sale locally.”
He found something with similar lines, and it was the next best thing — the 1940 Plymouth club coupe.
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 and two and four-door sedans. It was even available as a limousine. These were all new bodies for Plymouth in 1940, and the cars featured more modern lines.
Plymouth had further streamlined its 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. As well, the windshield wipers were moved from above the glass to below, with the actuating mechanism under the cowl.
The wheelbase was stretched by 76mm, the engine was moved forward and the rear axle placed further back. These changes helped increase overall interior room, and the body sat on a stronger, cross-braced box-frame chassis equipped with new shock absorbers.
Powering the Plymouth was the company’s in-line six-cylinder engine that measured in at 201.3 cubic-inches and produced 84 horsepower at 3,600 r.p.m. It was coupled to a three-speed column-shift manual gearbox that had been redesigned for 1940. It was more compact, allowing for a lower tunnel in the cabin.
Lange found his De Luxe P10 club coupe on an acreage near De Winton, just south of Calgary. The owner of the car was working on two or three other vehicles, and Lange thinks the Plymouth was taking up more time and room than was available.
The Plymouth had been brought up from Portland, Oregon and had once been repainted. A restoration had been started, but was far from complete. Lange knows nothing else about the car’s previous history.
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 paint booth. A retired drafting and visual arts teacher; Lange is a self-taught auto body and paint man.
He has restored a few other vehicles, including a 1952 Chevrolet half-ton truck and a 1965 Ford Thunderbird. The paint on the Chevy truck was his work, but he didn’t spray the finish on the T-Bird. The Plymouth was the last restoration he completed before downsizing and moving to his current home in Cochrane.
“I had the body right off the frame, and sandblasted the chassis before painting the rails black,” Lange said. “I stripped the body by hand, and did all of the priming, block sanding, colour spraying and the final wet sand and polish myself.”
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.
He did add a new exhaust system and muffler, and replaced the rotting tires. The final touch, which he had done this spring, was completion of the interior.
“This is custom, because the fabric we used on the seats is a blue that complements the body colour; it’s not 100 per cent correct, because it should be tan.”
Lange enjoys driving the Plymouth, and has added approximately 1,500 miles to the odometer. He’s displayed it at local car shows, and he said the comments he hears most often are about the paint. The colour is called Aviation Blue and glistens like a mirror.