Is this a 1931 Plymouth?

[30U sedan]

I also have a 30U sedan. Send me your e-mail address and I will send you some pictures to compare your car to.

[oldjunk]

Ok, after much liquid wrench and tapping on the door handle and hinges, the passenger side door was opened to reveal a serial number plate mounted vertically on the front passender side door frame, (approx. 1/2 way up the door):

SERIAL #: 1553133

From the list of VIN's on TodFitch's www.ply33.com site, since the number is in the range of (1,500,001 - 1,570,188), it appears to be:

Year: 1930
Cyls: 4
Model Name: Finer
Model Code: 30-U
Mfg Plant: Detroit
Total Production: 70,188

[FourDoor]

It's a 1930 Model 30U late production because it has the 31 PA round rear window instead of the original or early production 'square' window. It also has a water pump which the first 30Us did not have. They were thermo siphon (and could not have a heater). The wood spokes seem to be in good condition but you might have some one who knows Plymouths have a close look at them. The engine compartment is fairly complete except for the air cleaner/silencer. As Tod says this was the transitional year for serial number placement and it moved from the middle of the dash to the right front door jamb. The plate is mounted on it's side and is originally silver with black lettters saying 'SERIAL NUMBER'. It's this number we need. The number was stamped by hand into the plate face on the production line. Overall the car is missing very little. You have a lot more than some of us started with. That's the original horn you have there and a fairly rare itiem today. The tires and tubes,4.5/5.0-19, are 'Model A Ford' tires so you won't have any trouble finding a new set. 

[TodFitch]

This is hearsay as I have never had a car with wooden spoke wheels. It is my understanding that the wooden "artillery wheels" that were used on that vintage Plymouth were over engineered and very strong. If the wood appears sound (no rot, etc.) and the wheels are still tight (don't make noises as you roll the car) then they are probably still good.

All the glass in the car is flat. If you have enough to make patterns a local glass shop can make up new pieces for you. In some parts of the country glass shops will no longer do removal and installs, so you may have to take the pieces in and install them yourself. At least for the door glass on the 1933 that is pretty easy. I have never seen the inside of the 1930 doors to see how the mechanism works and how to remove the glass.

You should drain and replace all fluids if you are actually trying to fire up the car and run it at all. If you do get it to run, you should do another complete fluid drain and replacement after only a short time. Most likely the old lubrication did not fully drain out and the second drain and refill should get out a lot of old gunk.

Hand cranking an engine is hard work, especially if you need to turn it over enough to get oil pressure up. And I'd want to get some oil pressure so that I knew the bearings were not dry when I started the engine. First I'd see if I could turn the engine over by hand. If so then I'd remove all the plugs and use the starter in bursts no longer than about 15 seconds (don't want to burn it out) until I showed good pressure on the fresh oil I just put in. Once I had oil pressure showing so the bearings and such had some protection, I'd put in the plugs and give it a try.

Hmmm. While I had the plugs out, I'd probably also run a compression test. If it has compression, spark and gas it should fire up. So your compression test should help give you some confidence in what will happen once you put the plugs back in and give it a try. The lower compression the harder it will be to start (especially if it is cold out). My car had zero, yes zero, compression in three cylinders when I got it. The other three were not in great shape with about 60 lbs. But it started and ran. I put a couple thousand miles on the car with the engine in that shape. If your engine is in perfect shape with a good starter motor, good battery and good battery cables, you should see 68 PSI for your compression. See http://www.ply33.com/Models/30-U/specs.html for the specifications on your car.

Cranking speed brings up another point: 6v electrical systems are very sensitive to bad connections and corroded or undersized wires. If someone put a set of 12v battery cables on your car you will never get the engine to turn over fast enough to start when things are less than perfect. A worn engine, tired starter, timing a bit off, carburetor mixture a bit off, ambient temperature a little low. Any of those things combined with battery cables that are too small will make your life very difficult.

[oldjunk]

The missing sheetmetal (rear passenger fender) is in the back seat.

Two peices of flat glass are broken -- not really shown in pictures.  Body and frame are solid and car appears to have been parked complete and running. Seller said it was in family, stored for 50 years.

Anyway.  If you need other pictures let me know. 

My friend is starting to buy tune up parts, carbureator, small items...


O.K -- here's a stupid question.   Are the wheels with wooden spokes dependable after sitting for 50 years?  We want to put some tires on it, throw a battery in and see if it will kick at all.  (Which reminds me:  Hand crank?  Car doesn't have one... Better to use battery or hand?  Roll down a hill and drop clutch?... which brings me back to thinking about the wooden spoke... brakes come later!

[TodFitch]

The one number you need and did not post is on the right front passenger door hinge post.

In any case you have a 1930 (Engineering code 30-U) Plymouth. And thanks for answering a dumb question of mine: The 1931 PA does not have the remote master cylinder reservoir. I was asking a fellow with a 1931 today when they dropped that and he did not know. So I guess it was in the transition from 30-U to PA.

It looks like you have a fair amount of work on your hands but aside from the missing rear sheet metal it appears to be in reasonable condition. Congratulations!

[oldjunk]

There is one tag on the firewall that reads:

BODY NUMBER
380-33474

Here's a few more pics:
















































Thanks for any info.

[Chris in Jax]

www.coker.com  for tires-   they are in Tennesee & California......

[TodFitch]

I concur with Plymouths that it looks more like a 30-U (1930) than a PA (1931). For a 30-U see:

http://www.ply33.com/Models/30-U/#4door

I don't seem to have a rear three quarter view of a PA sedan. What I do have are at this link:

http://www.ply33.com/Models/PA/

It is definitely not a 1932 PB. There should be a serial number tag on the front right (passenger) side door hinge post. The number off of that will tell for sure. You can look it up on the serial number table on the two pages linked to above to see for sure what year it was built. Serial numbers are also listed on my site at:

http://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin

Tires should be available from the usual antique car tire places (Universal, Coker, Lucas, etc.).

That car might be a bit early for an interior kit from Kathy Schrack but it might be worth contacting her anyway. My parts and vendor list is more for my year car (1933) but you might find some of the contacts useful. See:

http://www.ply33.com/Parts/

and

http://www.ply33.com/Parts/Vendor.html

From the photo the rear bumpers look correct for a 30-U. Are they too banged up to be replated?

[FourDoor]

Give us some more pixs but my first guess is it's a 30U.

[oldjunk]

Anybody know anything about this model / year ?



My buddy picked this up at an estate sale last week.? We have narrowed it down to being a 1930, 31 or 32.... not really sure.

Also looking for some parts, (4.5/5.0/19 tires, interior, rear bumper)... anything else related.

Thanks.

(more pics available if needed)