For those of you who have been faithful readers for a while, I am again getting back up on my soapbox concerning prewar Mopar coupes.  I believe that these overbuilt but handsome coupes are one of the best choices if you want a prewar car that you can jump in and drive across the country without a fuss.  That is if you properly prepared the car for the journey.  Reader Gunter K. has located a very solid start for such an endeavor.  This 1936 Plymouth business coupe for sale on Craigslist in scenic Taos, New Mexico has already been partially stripped and is ready to be built up into a solid driver.  With a patina that only a desert car can wear, this coupe looks to be solid from stem to stern.  Is the $12,900 asking price too much for a car in this condition?  Thanks again to Gunter K. for the desert find!

To recap my madness, one of my bucket list items is to drive a prewar car across the United States.  Fueled for much of my life by reading and re-reading Peter Egan’s “On the Road” stories in Road and Track and their two-wheeled equivalents in Cycle World, the idea is to pick up a reliable, yet distinctive car and set out for a destination across the continent.  While Egan has crisscrossed the continent in nearly everything that rolls, my tastes and budget are a bit different.  I like prewar cars, and my personal belief is that a Plymouth coupe would be a good choice.  Previous iterations of this scenario included convertibles and sports cars.  A coupe is now the choice for security concerns.  It is nice to be able to lock your car up at night.  Also, if I picked a 1939-1942 coupe, a column shifter is currently the best auto theft prevention device on the planet.

The 1936 Plymouth you see here would be a great starting point if you wanted to build the car from the ground up.  While seemingly rough, the base metal shows no signs of rusting through in the pictures.  Also, all of the parts and pieces are still with the car.  The seller even tells us that it starts, runs, and stops and that the seat has been upholstered.  While it is hard to determine from the pictures, the color combination is a brown interior and exterior.

If it were mine, it wouldn’t stay brown for long.  The entire car would be sandblasted, primed, and repainted one of Plymouth’s distinctive 1936 colors.  Perhaps Maroon, Middy Blue, or, most likely, Aquamarine Blue.  After thoroughly covering the interior with Dynamat, I think I would defy Plymouth’s low-price reputation by covering the interior surfaces with supple leather in a color that compliments the exterior.  I would probably regret that if the trip was made in the summer.  Maybe a cloth interior would be more sensible.

Mechanically, I would try to locate and rebuild a later 230 cubic inch version of Plymouth’s flathead six.  The last time they were used in a Plymouth automobile was in 1959.  That year, the engine boasted 135 horsepower and 205 ft-lbs. of torque at a low 1,200 RPM.  Backing it up would be a later three-speed with overdrive or one of the more modern five-speed conversions that are now available for these engines.  A conversion to modern U-joints would be on the agenda, and maybe swap out the original rear end for a later model Mopar rear with a more highway-friendly rear-end.  While adequate, the brakes would require an update.  There are now kits available to convert these cars to disc front brakes and a dual reservoir master cylinder.  Perhaps a custom radiator, an auxiliary electric fan, and a conversion to a 12-volt electrical system and an alternator would be good insurance for the trip out west.

By the time I got done rebuilding the car the way I wanted, the cash for the trip would likely be long gone.  What I would be left with, besides a devastated credit rating, would be a car that would be ready at a moment’s notice to cross the country.  These cars are well-built and easy to work on, and parts are available on the road at your local NAPA or can be had within a 48-hour shipping window.  The asking price on this particular Plymouth may have me looking for other candidates, but I cannot deny the allure of a solid body to start such a project.

Would you like to make a cross-country trip in an older car?  Do you think I am on the right track with this Plymouth, or would you have a different choice?  Please share your thoughts in the comments.