1932 Plymouth PB Seven Passenger in India

RC Drown · August 06, 2013, 04:53:11 PM

Thanks for sharing, looks as if everyone was having a good itme

Subbaiah · August 06, 2013, 12:20:09 AM

We had a Rally last Sunday and the Plymouth participated. Here are some pictures which came in the local papers

Picture 1 shows three cars , 1932 Chevy Eagle, my 32 Ply PB and a 33 Graham

Picture 2 shows the same Chevy and the Ply.

RC Drown · April 17, 2013, 07:54:58 AM

Read the fifth paragraph, starting with "Summer Dresses" that describes the gathering very well I think

Subbaiah · April 16, 2013, 11:12:53 PM

We had a small rally at a place called Whitefield. This was a fun event where people from that locality get to experience vintage cars. The Plymouth took part and appeared in a local newspaper which I am attaching. Also seen is the Daimler DE-27 formerly belonged to the Maharaja of Mysore

Below is an extract from the article

"My favourite was the Plymouth because it looks the oldest. I?ve always liked cars from the beginning and vintage ones are just extra classy,? says 14-year-old Anish, who went around inspecting each car from close quarters"

Cheers

Subbaiah

Sebastiano · September 25, 2012, 08:30:42 AM

Nice, very nice in motion..
thanks
Sebastiano

Subbaiah · September 23, 2012, 07:30:05 AM

Here is a picture sent to me by a friend, taken by an photographer I have never met. The picture shows the car in motion

Subbaiah · July 23, 2012, 01:09:44 PM

We did a 25 mile drive to a place called Whitefield, Bangalore. This the heart of the Silicon boom at Bangalore and had a big contribution to the word "Bangalored" which means people loosing jobs in the US as work is outsourced to Bangalore. The Indian companies in turn have set up shop in the US to reduce the negativity to out sourcing to India.

The first picture shows a typical Tech Park in Bangalore

The second pictures shows the first rains we experienced during the drive. We had a sudden down pour

Cheers

Subbaiah

36 Ply · June 30, 2012, 08:10:55 AM

Thanks for posting the photos, Subbaiah

Your car is awesome.

Pat O'Connor

Subbaiah · June 25, 2012, 12:04:38 AM

Here is the picture of the "Ray Pilot Lamp" and its mechanism. The lamp being linked to the steering turns in the direction of the wheels. This I understand was a period accessory and was on the car when we got it

Cheers

Subbaiah · April 29, 2012, 11:21:09 PM

more pictures.....

Subbaiah · April 29, 2012, 11:18:32 PM

More pictures of the car as she returns after a 20 miles run. We had a fun rally from the Karnataka Vintage & Classic Car Club (KVCCC)

RC Drown · April 28, 2012, 08:34:59 AM

Have fun and take lots of photos to share with us. 28 degrees here, sunny, but rather windy this morning.

36 Ply · April 28, 2012, 08:12:16 AM

Cool photos, cool car. Have a great time at the rally, Subbaiah...

Pat O'Connor

Subbaiah · April 28, 2012, 12:14:39 AM

Here are some pictures after this mornings drive. We are having a car rally tomorrow

Cheers

Subbaiah

Subbaiah · April 08, 2012, 09:06:13 AM

We are having a Vintage Car Rally at Bangalore on 29th April and we are getting the car ready for the rally. There is no competition but this will be the first time that the Vintage Car Club members (Karnataka Vintage & Classic Car Club) will be seeing the car post restoration.

Sharing some pictures as we repainted the firewall, repainted the mudguards and fixed the badges

Cheers

Subbaiah

RC Drown · March 24, 2012, 07:16:18 AM

Thank you

SD Glenn · March 24, 2012, 01:07:51 AM

Thanks Subbaiah, Your upholstery job looks top notch. Real beautiful color also. This is a great hobby, isn't it.
SD Glenn

Subbaiah · March 23, 2012, 11:43:16 PM

The car has done 66000 miles and the engine is in good shape. Since the car had not run since 1978, we opened up the engine for inspection and found it in excellent shape. We only had to change the piston rings on re-assembly

Here are the pictures of the engine and head

Subbaiah · March 23, 2012, 10:58:26 PM

We used a leatherette type material.

RC Drown · March 23, 2012, 04:35:12 PM

I have to agree with Glenn, need some photos of the finished seats, I bet they look great.

By the way Glenn, how about some more recent photos of the '39?:):)

SD Glenn · March 23, 2012, 03:24:27 PM

Did you go with the leather seats when you were restoring the car? Pictures would be great. Thanks My "new" 1939 model has been re-upholstered with a leatherette type material. Looks pretty good, plan on leaving it that way for a while at least.
SDGlenn

Subbaiah · March 23, 2012, 01:59:07 AM

The seats were original leather seats, but in very bad condition and hence could not be saved.

BobT-47P15 · March 13, 2012, 01:41:49 AM

Hi. Welcome. Very nice looking car. This has become a truly world wide forum.

Sebastiano · March 12, 2012, 02:16:14 PM

Hi
it is very difficult but if you can find the documents of the life of this car it could be very nice to trace his life through the lives of people and events that have been around it.
The cars pass through our lives and survive to us.
They are a monument, like the houses and the mountains,
we must take care of them, are our history and our culture
Sebastiano

I found some documents of a truck, before the war it was a car.
it has been changed and I tracked down the documents of each condition.
the National Association of vintage cars is being very happy with this work.

RC Drown · March 09, 2012, 08:45:35 AM

That is some interesting history to have with the car

Go Fleiter · March 09, 2012, 08:33:09 AM

That is really lucky to get these documents!!
Congratulations!
Very interesting!

Subbaiah · March 08, 2012, 10:38:40 PM

You all are aware that India got its independence from Britain only in 1947. The Indian Motor Vehicle Act came into force only in 1939. So cars before 1939 were registered under British India laws.

We are fortunate to have got access to these records, and the scanned copies tells you some interesting stories.

Here are the pictures

1. The original British India Registration
2. Fuel rationing during WW-II
3. Fuel rationing continued till 1947, when we got our independence in August 1947
4. Tyre rationing where only specific tires sizes could be bought

Subbaiah · March 06, 2012, 10:29:13 PM

The registration records show that this car has trailer in 1945. When we checked with the family they confirmed that they had a caravan since 1945 :o. This would have been very rare in India. Unfortunately in the late 1990's the caravan got burnt in a fire accident. I have no pictures of the caravan unfortunately. I understand the owner used to go on hunting trips and spend the nights in the caravan during such trips. The car was locally modified to fix a hitch.Obviously with caravan and the fact that they travelling into the forests meant that fuel was problem. Hence they modified to number plates to house fuel cans behind the number plates.

Here are picture of the rear again showing the hitch, number plates and jerry can for fuel. I guess these modifications were done in 1945

Cheers

Subbaiah

RC Drown · March 06, 2012, 07:14:52 AM

Thanks for sharing all these photos

Subbaiah · March 05, 2012, 10:14:13 PM

Here are pictures of the dash sporting a patch its original color. There is some thing like a card holder in place which when removed revealed the original colors.

All here is a picture of the Tyre which shows a size being 5.25-5.50 - 18. Please note the locking mechanism for the spare tyre as marked by an arrow

SD Glenn · March 05, 2012, 12:26:24 AM

I Appreciate getting a look at your project. You sure got it looking beautiful
Thanks You
SD Glenn

Subbaiah · March 04, 2012, 10:06:23 PM

Here are more pictures of the car on Jan'09 when the car arrived in Bangalore for restoration

SD Glenn · March 03, 2012, 10:59:09 PM

Subbaiah, you amaze me with this automobile. I have never seen anything like this, but your pictures sure explain a lot. lol
I can understand how it works now. It should not surprize me that these cars were "so far ahead' of there times. I have an old 1918 "Dykes" automobile manual, it have a lot of stuff in it that is now common place on new vehicles, like they had an "Air" Starter on cars way back then, now, on most of our new trucks. lol . Keep up the good work and keep us up to date. Thanks
SD Glenn

Subbaiah · March 03, 2012, 10:47:18 PM

Quote from: FourDoor on February 28, 2012, 06:49:39 PM
Very pretty car. Nice to see a rare 7 passenger back on the road. The books say only 159 were built. The engine area is strange though. The air filter should sit vertically up the firewall but I guess that would be a problem with right hand drive. But what is hooked up in place of the BB-1 Carter carb? I also see the exhaust pipe is not coming out the front of the manifold. Why?

Can you please check again if only 159 were built? When I had Googled I had read that that 2179 Seven Passengers were produced, but I stand to be corrected. If it is 159 only, then this makes this car even more rare.

Here is the list of the three surviving cars as per POC. You will note that my car is the oldest of the survivors known to POC

Chassis# 1697856 Body# 537-185 - Bangalore, India
Chassis# 1713124 Body# 537-887 - New York State
Chassis# 1728827 Body# 537-1104 - New York State

With regard to the carb, it is Carter B&B updraft carb. The air filter must have been specially designed for the dusty conditions in India and appears to be original. As FourDoor states this could be right hand set up too. The first two pictures should make things clear.

The fitment above the carb is vacuum system which works from the inlet manifold. From this one pipe is supposed to go to the vacuum operated wiper. This is currently blocked in the car and I have marked the same with a red arrow. We plan to restore this later. The second part goes to the auto clutch system. With Free Wheeling and Auto Clutch one can change gears without engaging the clutch. The 3rd and 4th pictures show the vacuum system and auto clutch.

Since I have limited technical details, it would be nice if the experts from Forum can add to this.

Cheers

Subbaiah

SD Glenn · February 28, 2012, 09:50:52 PM

I noticed the carb also, but not knowing what it should look like...... I,m betting it is Propane carb. or something to vaporize the fuel? Maybe?
SD Glenn

Sebastiano · February 27, 2012, 06:48:40 PM

Hello Subbaiah,
nice to know you and your nice car too.
Fantastic the story and the car.
Thanks for sharing memories and photos
I hope to hear more about the story
Sebastiano

chetbrz · February 27, 2012, 12:32:20 PM

Beautiful car, I especially like the center light that turns in the direction of the wheels. I was able to see one of these up close at a recent show put on here in Virginia by the Washington chapter of the Modal A Ford Club of America. The show was at The Sully Plantation in Dulles.

Great Car.., Thanks for sharing the pictures:

Chet?

Subbaiah · February 27, 2012, 11:01:14 AM

Here are pictures of the engine both before and after restoration. This is a 4 cylinder engine as you can see and was quite complete

Go Fleiter · February 27, 2012, 01:05:09 AM

That is really a fine car! Enjoy it!

Greetings from D?sseldorf! Go

Subbaiah · February 26, 2012, 09:53:36 PM

Quote from: SD Glenn on February 26, 2012, 11:46:35 AM
Beautiful, congratulations on a job well done. How long did that restoration take? Years I would imagine. Great history also.
Thanks,
SD Glenn

Thanks Glenn. Actually we completed the restoration in 15 months. Though the car looks in bad shape, it was remarkably intact. The car has done 65961 miles on the clock. The piston is 10 over size. In Jan 2009 when I started to restore the car, we were able to get some great deals on eBay for trims like hubcaps, naked goddess radiator cap etc..... we just got lucky. The color combination was based on a 32 PB Phaeton in the Walter Chrysler Museum.

Quote from: RC Drown on February 26, 2012, 01:02:57 PM
Welcome to the POC forum, and thanks for sharing the photos of your '32, good luck with the car
If you haven't already, I might suggest that you join the POC and write up a nice article about your car, it would make for interesting reading in the "Plymouth Bulletin"

I am member of POC since 2010. Mr. Jim Benjaminson was very excited when I mailed him the pictures of the car for the first time, requesting his views whether I should join POC. I am happy to be a POC member. I was supposed to write an article for POC, hopefully will do the same this year.

Warm regards

Subbaiah