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| Original 46-48 Plymouth Ad |
So what is a 1947 Plymouth Special Deluxe Club Coupe anyways? Well, it's a coupe that I've been dreaming about since I first saw one on television in the 1980s. At that time, AMC was a small television network before projects like 'Mad Men'. If memory serves, I was watching a Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in some movie. A convertible was shown and then a coupe. Of course, I fell in love with the convertible first and the coupe second. Having owned two convertibles in the past, my rage for all things 'vert have passed. Replaced are my love for a coupe, but not just any coupe. A Club Coupe. Well that opens up many different questions and one of them being...what is the difference between a Businessmans and a Club Coupe? A Businessmans coupe was a two seater and didn't always have a back seat. Some businessman's coupes did, but as far as I know 46-48 did not. The Club Coupe could fit 6, or rather 5 comfortably. Both are two doors, and both came with the same power plant. There were also two trim levels. One was Deluxe, and the other was Special Deluxe.
My 1947 Club Coupe is a Special Deluxe. But by jove! What specifications come with the Special Deluxe? In 1947, they sold for $1,254 and were made in Detroit, Los Angeles or Evansville. My car indicated by the Briggs body tag was built in Detroit. At time of original manufacture, she was 3,057lbs. Goodness only knows what she weights now with the modified tires, wheels and custom exhaust. From 1946 to 1949 they built 156,629 of these Special Deluxe Club Coupes. Who knows how many of them still exist. But what were the specifications?
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| The Original Plymouth Specifications Chart, click to enlarge |
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| From the actual brochure. . . |
The body styles came in a Club Coupe, Businessmans Coupe, 2 door and 4 door Sedan. The brochures came in Deluxe and then highlighted the Special Deluxe for the up sell to the customer. Plymouth after the war was able to convert quickly from wartime to peacetime production.
But, let's remember 1947 shall we? Our boys were coming home the Pacific and European theaters and America was about to be introduced to their Congress being televised. In 1947, a young woman by the name of Elizabeth Short was soon going to be known as "The Black Dahlia". The Truman Doctrine proclaimed to stem the spread of communism. While back here at home in the United States, the baby boom was beginning and American families were going to need automobiles. That, is where Plymouth came in. You hear of Ford, Chevy, Mercury, Buick, Hudson and others. However, MoPar/Plymouth barely gets a mention. Hailed as a common man's car, everyone has a story from those days about their parent's Plymouth.
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| Special Deluxe Trim from Brochure |
Women went back into the home after helping in wartime production and even Plymouth was showing that these cars were for everyone. These cars were favorably three on the tree manual transmission, as Stella is. Although the Borg-Warner R10 overdrive was available, these cars did not come from the factory with them. I will someday be putting my newly acquired Borg-Warner R10 overdrive in Stella when I feel the time is right. These engines from 46-48 were designated P15, flathead V6 with a 217/218 displacement, single carburetor.
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| Back to Stella! |
Stella has the stock engine and apparently it has been rebuilt. The engine starts and runs like a top and hasn't had any problems (so far...). She has her stock P15, stock Carter carb, with two slight modifications. She has been converted to 12V from the original 6V and also she has dual custom exhaust. I am unsure how and when she was rebuilt, but she sounds fine with no pings, knocks or anything of that sort.
Initially when I drove her for the first time, I was impressed by how easy and quick the push button ignition brought her to life. When you turn the key before starting, you hear the voltage regulator spring to life. When pushing that starter button, she's ready to go. As with most older cars, I let her idle for a bit and then consider driving her.
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| 1947 P15 Flathead V6 Engine |
The heater core is completely gone. However, in Southern California I'm thinking that won't be much of a problem. And if it gets cold, I'll just wear extra clothing. As I've stated previously, the previous owners before Jim started out hot rodding the car. I have no idea what is inside of that engine block other than the fact that a) The exhaust makes her sound like a bad mutha, b) It runs like a top. I'm thinking of taking her from a single throat carb and adding a single Holley or Carter Weber dual throat carb. This should help some to gain some horsepower. The exhaust is custom and definitely without a doubt not stock. In other blog posts, you'll see how strange the exhaust system is. In some places, it is downright mind boggling why they would create such a menagerie of unnecessary pipes. Here is the picture of the exhaust out of the engine block making its way down to the under carriage of the Plymouth and split to the rear. For those of you that are wondering, Stella has pea shooter exhaust tips. She also has dual fatboy mufflers. I ran the same fatboy mufflers on my VW Karmann Bug Convertible.
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| Intake Manifold, carb and Exhaust |
The oil filter is not a screw in FRAM like every modern car out on the road. This is a drop in oil filter with two seals, one at the top and one at the bottom. Oil is filled by removing a breather on the drivers side of the engine. The dip stick is in the middle of the drivers side of the engine next to the distributor. The cooling system of course is new to me as I have previous experience with aircooled engines. This would be my first water cooled engine. I will need to keep up on the maintenance to make sure that Stella stays in tip top shape.
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