41 Plymouth mild custom with a twist

[alan barton]

I've had three 41 Plymouth kits in my stash for some time now but never got one finished.  After a disastrous first paint job decades ago, this was one of my first attempts at paint stripping, using caustic soda flakes in a solution of water. Much the same as Draino.

My goal was to get rid of the boring appearance of the original car.  My two main issues with the original design are the height of the sides and the bluntness of the front. The roof shape and the rear deck are quite a pleasing design so I set out to correct the shortcomings to be more harmonious with the strong points.

I could imagine a young man who wanted to join all the cool kids in town with a hot Ford V8 coupe but his Dad was a Plymouth dealer, so it was a case of Mopar or Nocar! Still, Dad gave him a decent allowance and he had the workshops of the dealership at his disposal so why not make lemonade out of lemons?

Dad wouldn't let him cut up a perfectly good car so he worked with the dealership auto body guys to hatch a plan. Leave the basic body shell alone but raise the fenders to give the impression of a section job.  Could it work?

Here is a clean untouched body. To my Ford biased eye, the front fenders are too tall, the rear fenders too low and the side just looks massive.

My plan is to remove and raise the rear fenders and to section the front fenders. I used some old vinyl pinstriping tape to mark out my cut lines as well as a felt tip pin.

To avoid hacking up the smooth surfaces of the door and quarter panels, I used the back of an X acto to scribe vertically down the join between the fenders and the vertical surfaces before I started any other cuts.

I made the first horizontal cut along the top of the tape - it makes it easier than taking off the fender itself and then having to hold it while you remove the strip.

The second cut, naturally enough, was below the tape.  I kept the strip removed to help reinforce the join later on.

Edited June 12, 2021 by alan barton

[Tom Geiger]

Looks promising!  Can’t wait to see more!

[alan barton]

Your wish is my command.  I might ahve known this would appeal to your quirkiness and love of six cylinder Mopars!

Cheers

Alan

[alan barton]

Moving to the rear of the coupe, I eyeballed a good spot to make a vertical cut through the rear fender to body join.

The newly removed fenders await re-joining.  So far so good.

Edited June 12, 2021 by alan barton

[TarheelRick]

These kits are somewhat underrated IMHO. Will be following this build, I like the direction you are taking.  One question: Once you raise the fenders how are you going to reconcile the running board and the remaining longer door sides?

[alan barton]

While I was at it, I removed the running board supports. I then glued the front fenders back together and glued the previously removed strip onto the seam on the inside of the fenders. The second photo shows just how much a difference the fender section produces.

I'm a big fan of concertinaring aluminium tubing for a whole bunch of things.  I was going to need to do some extensive reshaping of the headlight areas so i found a size that would allow a standard sized headlight lens to be inserted, and then found the next largest diameter to insert into the fender opening.  The plastic was getting a bit brittle after all those years so I had to take it easy.

 

[alan barton]

Hi Rick, part of this vision was to remove the running boards altogether.  In real life this car would probably be channelled - I'm not planning to do that just yet but I will see how low I can get the frame first before making a commitment one way or another.

Cheers

Alan 

[alan barton]

I went through my custom grille box and really struggled to find a simple grille that would do the job.  I enlisted the services of my good friend and custom building guru Dave who brought a few grilles with him and we spent a fun night trying things out but kept coming back to the custom grille from the AMT 51 Chevy kits.  The rollpan from that kit took the tiniest bit of massaging so it looked like we were onto something.

[Paul Payne]

This is very interesting- good info and good step by step photos! Might you be considering a V-8 hemi??

[alan barton]

Only problem was, I was getting a distinctly "wide mouthed frog" look from this combo. The grille was crowding the headlights way too much.  I then decided to summon up the courage to both narrow the grille and V butt it at the same time, to help remove the Plymouth blunt forehead.   Not the easiest thing I've tackled but again, I seemed to be heading in the right direction.  

Of course, now, the grille opening no longer matched the grille.  I grabbed some thin styrene and wrapped it around the V'd grille, using liquid cement to laminate it together.  I let it sit overnight before inserting it back into the front of the Plymouth.

In the last photo you can see how I installed the aluminium tubing for the headlights somewhat proud of the original headlight mounting surface, to try and achieve some Barris styling touches. I have also scraped all the original swage lines off the lower training edges of the fender and covered the whole assembly with a thin coat of filler to start getting this into shape.

[alan barton]

No Paul, no Hemi this time although I had entertained the idea of a Viper V10 before remembering the original back story of the young guy with a reasonable but not unlimited budget. So i want to see what I can do with the flathead six.

Cheers

Alan 

[alan barton]

Out back, having already removed the rear fenders< I raised them until they were flush with the lower edge of the body. I let them setup over night before cutting some tapered strips to fill most of the remaining gap.  The second photo indicates just how high the fenders were raised. And yes, that rollpan was an easy fit from the 51 Chevy kit again.

Finally, I found some unidentified fender skirts that fit the Plymouth fenders like they were meant for them.  A wipe of putty and things were looking good.

[espo]

Great idea to get the look of the body being channeled by moving the fenders up on the body sides. Much more pleasing to the eye this way. 

[cobraman]

Interesting modifications .

[bisc63]

Cool project; liking the direction you're taking...

[alan barton]

Thank you, David, Ray and Rusty for your support - it's one of the best things about participating on this forum. Finally got the first coat of primer on and I like where it is heading.  The drop in height is immediately obvious -I will explain how I achieved that in my next post. The hood is essentially stock - I simply filled the indentation for the stock hood ornament.

You can also see the results of adding additional distance between the end of the hood and the grille opening - this was a major step in getting rid of the very blunt front end of the stock Plymouth.  

[alan barton]

I was really trying to avoid overcomplicationitis on this build so took the easiest approach I could to lowering the old girl.  At the back, after filing a C-notch into the frame, I took a pair of plyers and gently squeezed the leaf springs as much as I dared without snapping them - I had a rear end from a later kit with grey plastic and I think that helped somewhat as it is noticeably more pliable.  I also cut the pins of the rear of the springs to allow them to slide rearward on the frame.

Next step was to glue the front of the springs to their original mounts and leave them to dry overnight.  I then glued the rear of the springs the frame with as much pressure as my clamps could generate to get them closer to the frame. 

I decided I could achieve a gentle channelling effect by simply filing off the four thick pads on the bottom of the interior.  This was quite easy to do and gave me the lowering effect you can see in the last photo.

[oldscool]

I love what you are doing with this one. Just throwing this out there but have you thought about going with a slant six? It would be different and would modernize the drive train without being over the top. If it will fit in the engine bay that is.

[alan barton]

Yes Gerald, I certainly did but I only have one spare slant six in my stash, the one from the Deora, and I want to use it in a hot rod where it is exposed to the viewer rather than hidden under a hood. At this stage I think the flathead six in the kit is going to get a makeover!

Thanks for your comments and glad your are enjoying it.

cheers

Alan

[Tom Geiger]

Slant Six! That woke me up! ?

I did put that flatty in my 34 Ford rod just for fun and the odd looks I’d get from purists.. ya know, the guys who would’ve thought a Chevy V8 in there was fine and dandy!

Here’s my flathead six reference file:

https://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/11_car_reference_library/engine_details_for/mopar_flat_head_six/

[alan barton]

How ya goin', Tom?  Ya don't need much bait on the hook in these parts, eh?  

I'm just going to bed so you must have just got up.  I will be looking at your references in the morning.

Cheers

Alan

[Tom Geiger]

Nothing like the time difference! Yup, 9:35 am here, sipping the morning coffee!

[espo]

Some interesting engine suggestion and since you're wanting to stay with the kits stock in line six I have a suggestion there. You could take some very small strips of plastic and glue them the length of the head to represent a fined aluminum head. The intake could be reshaped with a mounting for two or even three carbs. You could make an exhaust header in much the same way. Who knows this little Plymouth might be able to keep up with the Ford flatheads running around at that time.  

[alan barton]

Have you been spying over my shoulder, espo?  That's exactly what I have done! The fins are part of the custom grille from the old Revell 57 Chevy. I didn't realise until i was cutting it up that it wasn't a solid unit- you can thank Revell chrome plating flash for that.  I still have to do some work on the head because as you can see from the photo I have a few wonky bits.

I then glued a coupe of carb bases made from scrap plastic onto the original manifold.  I then added parts of a second downpipe to create my slightly dodgey version of a split manifold. 

[espo]

Very funny how this worked out. I remember the way you talked about the theme of your build and wanting to keep it under the radar from dear old dad. I knew this would be something you could do based on your body work skills. This engine will make this just that more interesting than throwing a SBC in it.