POC award winner turns up in Holland

[49plymouthdotcom]

I received more information from Holland today:

The history of the Plymouth

On April the 4th 1977 Samuel Di Gregorio got to be the owner of the Plymouth P17. The car was restored in that year, the engine was partly overhauled, the body was spray-painted and the interior was covered again. All technical things were performed by Samuel himself.

It is known that Samuel won the second price with his car at the car show of 1989 in Mullica Hill N.J.. In that time Sam was the owner of five classic cars/old-timers, among which this Plymouth 1949. In 1991 his collection had to be diminished, so he decided to sell the Plymouth. Sam got in touch with Hans Doorman who lived in Amsterdam Holland. I?m not acquainted with the details. They wrote some letters to each other, and the deal was closed.

At the 2nd of September 1991 the car arrived in Holland. From the harbour in Amsterdam the car was illegally transported to the garage. On that moment the mile-age was 77423. At the end of 1991 the car was driven from the garage of Hans to a farmer, where the car was stalled in a shed.

Between 1992 and 2008 Hans Doorman got sick. He had a stroke in this time. The car therefore was still stalled and slowly forgotten. Hans is no longer the old Hans and can?t fiddle with nor drive the car.

In July 2008 I was in the possession of a 1960 Chevy Impala Coupe, but I wanted a older car. Then I got a tip from a acquaintance that there have been an old Plymouth stalled in a shed from years. He then gave me the telephone number of Hans Doorman. So I called with his brother and after a consult between him and Hans was decided that the car could be sold to me. And in September 2008 I became the owner. The mile-age in that time was 77840. The car was dirty and the was a family of mice living in the couch. After a winter?s work on the Plymouth, on April 15th 2009, I got the official paperwork and licence plates to drive. After some short rides with the Plymouth I left June 18th 2009 to Denmark for a short vacation. A total of 1000 miles with the car without any problems, so it is a good car. This is the story of my Plymouth.

Greetings from Holland,
Rob?r

P.S.
Can someone tell me if Sam is still alive and is still in the possession of cars?
I would like to find out more about the history of the car if that is possible. I only have an address of him from 1997.

The photos and more of the story can be found here: http://www.49plymouth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=975

[49plymouthclubcoupe]

Thanks for sharing the story more widely ... it's great to see our Plymouth "bloom" everywhere.

[49plymouthdotcom]

I wanted to share this with the club. I received an email that had ?picktures 1949 from holland? as the subject. The email came from Robert Dekker in Heerhugowaard Holland. He sent some photos of his 1949 Business Coupe showing what it looked like when he got the car and in some follow up emails some more photos of the work he has done on it. Then he sent an email that had a photo of an award. Turns out that Robert?s car won a 2nd place trophy at the 1989 Plymouth Owners club national meet! So I looked at the back issues of the bulletin and sure enough there was Robert?s car!

The photos and more of the story can be found here: http://www.49plymouth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=975