I’ve been residing in Colorado for 12 years now, and I’ve discovered that the junkyards right here have loads of each the rust-free Japanese vehicles you’d discover in California yards and the late-model Detroit equipment of the Midwest yards (the liquor shops right here additionally inventory the watery yellow beers of each the Pacific Northwest and the Upper Midwest, nice information in the event you’re throwing a Denver get together that requires each Rainier and Hamm’s). The one factor that basically units Colorado automotive graveyards other than these elsewhere (apart from all of the Scouts and edge-case 4WD vehicles) is the large numbers of pre-1960 American autos that find yourself within the U-Wrench-It-type yards right here. Here’s the newest, a 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe sedan in an enormous self-service yard between Denver and Cheyenne.
In reality, that yard has three Chrysler merchandise of the identical period within the stock proper now, parked side-by-side. Over within the GM part, they’ve bought a pair of Forties Chevrolets plus a Frazer. I see the identical factor within the different Front Range yards, too.
I feel the rationale so few of those pre-1960 vehicles get intercepted and rescued by lovers is that the Front Range is one thing of a car-freak island, due to geography. To the west, it’s a 10-hour tow over one forbidding mountain vary to get to Salt Lake City and a 20-hour tow over two ranges to get to the large West Coast inhabitants facilities. To the north and south, it’s sparsely-populated desert for essentially the most half, and your tow to the large Midwestern cities will take a few days. Everyone right here who desires mission vehicles has all they will deal with, and it’s not value hauling a tough 70-year-old Detroit sedan to a spot the place it is going to be value $900. So, vehicles like at this time’s Junkyard Find find yourself in The Crusher, ultimately.
This one has a reasonably stable physique, but it surely’s very tough inside.
Can you scent the rodent poop, decaying horsehair, and High Plains desert mud by your display screen?
With the single-digit humidity and the high-UV photo voltaic radiation you get a mile up, the interiors of vehicles saved open air flip to powder as numerous critters increase generations of households inside. At least there’s no mildew and no snakes hiding inside water-filled previous tires.
If the home windows are damaged or open, the winter snow will get in and rots the flooring.
Plymouth was driving excessive in 1949, with an all-new design lastly changing the prewar fashions (Ford and GM had launched their postwar designs a yr earlier). The Plymouth nonetheless had a break up windshield, however so did many of the competitors that yr. Better than a half-million ’49s rolled out of Plymouth showrooms, with about half of these being Special Deluxe sedans.
Chevrolet topped one million vehicles bought in 1949, as did Ford, however the automotive division named after a rope firm was nonetheless a serious participant that yr.
Chevrolet had been placing overhead-valve straight-six engines in vehicles for the reason that Twenties, however Ford and Chrysler had been nonetheless flathead devotees in 1949 (Ford launched an OHV six for 1952, whereas Chrysler didn’t dump the valve-in-block design for vehicles till the 1960 mannequin yr).
If that is the unique engine (which is feasible, although nowhere close to sure), it’s a 218-cubic-incher rated at 97 horsepower. Chrysler used this kind of Carter carburetor into the Seventies.
The solely transmission obtainable within the ’49 Plymouths was a three-on-the-tree column-shift handbook. If you wished a heater, twin solar visors, flip alerts, or radio, that stuff value additional. Hey, in the event you wished bells and whistles in 1949, you purchased a Dodge!
These vehicles weren’t luxurious, however they had been low cost and dependable transportation. The sticker worth on this one began at $1,629 (about $19,840 in 2022 {dollars}), whereas the stripped-to-bare-minimum short-wheelbase 1949 Plymouth Deluxe Business Coupe bought for simply $1,371 ($16,700 now). Those costs had been a bit cheaper than the corresponding Ford and Chevrolet fashions, although you might get the wretched Crosley two-door sedan for less than $866 ($10,545 at this time) and a brand new Volkswagen Beetle for $1,280 ($15,590 in 2022).
For hyperlinks to greater than 2,200 extra Junkyard Finds, please go to the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
[Images by the author]
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Source: www.thetruthaboutcars.com
