ply33

A wonderfully detailed and sharp photo of a 1934 Plymouth DeLuxe (engineering code PE) with a number of options (dual trumpet horns, bumper guards, passenger side wiper, etc.). License plate brackets front and rear but no license tags so I am assuming this is a brand new car at the time of the photo.

Being as Warner Baxter is in it and I associate him with early 1930s movies like 42nd street, I think this is before Alan Ladd’s time. Looking it up, it seems that is a poster for a 1926 movie version. Must have been pretty current stuff back then, only one year after the book was published.

Except, at least in the earlier 1930s, some states used the engine number on the paperwork.

A long that line, I once worked for a company that made long range air search radar for a branch of the military. A little before my time there, way back when they started adding a computer onto the radar to automatically detect and track targets, a team was setup at a test and training site near the Pacific Ocean. Day time was for the military teams to be trained on the new system. Middle of the night was for the software team to be working bugs out of the system mostly using “targets of opportunity”. And they kept having this weird glitch many nights. Usually around the same time. They were picking up and tracking an impossible target at very high altitude moving at very high speed and almost always on the same course. Finally the decided that maybe it was real and started showing the powers that be the data and asking if there was anything real they might be seeing. They were told to shut up, pretend they hadn’t seen anything, etc. Quite a bit later they found out that it was the SR71 returning to Edwards from various missions.

Curious on how you think dirt from the intake would be getting into the crankcase. . . Only path I could see would be getting past the rings and I suspect that most dirt can't to that. At least not until the cylinder bores or rings are badly worn. Which brings up why I believe that intake air filters are used: To keep dirt, which is an abrasive, from wearing out the rings and cylinders. Crankcase ventilation systems are what reduce the sludge build up. Well, that and better (detergent) oil and running the oil hot enough to assure evaporation of cylinder blow by gasses (unburned hydrocarbons and water vapor). On my slightly newer car the intake for the crankcase vent is a wire mesh air filter inside the filler cap. More recent cars pull some air from the filtered intake for the feed to the crankcase ventilation system.

The '57 Beetle I had in the 1970s was equipped with lamp type turn signal but the factory filling material covering the semaphore locations had aged differently than the rest of the car around it and so you could see where semaphores could have been installed (and maybe were if built for a different market than the US). Looks like semaphores would have been legal in California in 1957 but not in 1958. I think that was before the Feds started standardizing things, so it would not surprise me if various states rolled out similar laws around that same time and VW was going with what was legal throughout the US or they knew would be legal in all 48 within a year or so.

My insurance company simply wants a phone call to let them know I'm buying the car. I don't recall the exact amount of time, but I do have some time before they want all the details like VIN, etc.

The 415 area code is San Francisco. But with cellphones and number portability that doesn't mean much nowadays. My house phone and both my wife's and my cell numbers are in the 408 area code (“Silicon Valley”) but we’ve been living in the 916 area code for several years now.

I am surprised by how that rear seat back hinges up. On my '33 Plymouth it simply hangs off of a couple of welded hooks/tabs and has a couple of heavy duty wire loop pieces on the bottom that go behind the seat cushion. In '33/'34 Dodge and Plymouth shared a lot of parts, including in some cases the basic body shell. This really points out what the buyer got by upgrading from a Plymouth to a Dodge. As to size: That is a pretty tight spot. I can barely get a jack, lug wrench and a small tool roll in there. I can't imagine actually trying to put luggage into that space.

I know about Whitworth and SAE specifications for nuts, bolts and threads using the inch system. But what are “Imperial”? Yet another standard out of the UK or just a term meaning something like SAE?

Thanks for the photos. They look very much like what I think might fit my '33 Plymouth but were long gone by the time I got the car. I’ve saved them and if/when I replace the exhaust system I’ll use them to fabricate something closer to factory than what I’ve got now.

I don't recall dates like that in Carl Breer's book but my impression was that it was very late 1920s or maybe sometime in the 1930s. It would seem unlikely to me that they were doing it as early as 1926. All that speculation written, I'd like to know the answer to that too.

Wild guess: Maybe the advance mechanism(s) in the distributor was designed for more advance when running. A static setting of little after TDC might help in starting but as long as the total advance (static setting + mechanical advance + vacuum advance) gets you where you need to be once the engine is started it should run the same as all the other brands. I've not looked at the advance curves for very many cars so I can't say the above guess has any merit. Just tossing it out as a possibility.

Not that I am aware of. Time was that you could send some money And the serial number to the Chrysler Historical Collection and get a copy of the “build card”. But that was for 1930 and newer . And with all the reorganizations with different owners of Chrysler I am not sure the are doing that at all anymore.

The Chrysler serial/VIN decoder on my website found: Serial Number CL-678-D Found in range CY-050-P to CD-999-D Serial 26289 of 49499 Year 1928-29 Make Chrysler Model Name 75 Model Code R Plant Detroit Engine 6 cylinder 248.9 cu.in. L-head Wheelbase 121 inches FedCo Number CL-678-D

Nice! I wonder if you will get any grief for using Tennessee plates in New Mexico. . . On the other hand, if you live that far from the nearest small town the local law enforcement may never notice.

If you are referring to the California registration sticker in 1935Packard’s photo, the tab for holding the modern month and year stickers is issued by the state when you setup the YOM registration. Mine came unpainted, so I painted it black prior to using it. I think California’s YOM registration is different from anywhere else. You pay full registration and a “special plate fee” every year, so this is not a discounted limited use tag. It is more like a modern “vanity plate” than anything else. You can drive a car with them anywhere any time just like a “normal” car. Your insurance company may set limits on use for your older car, but California does not for YOM. California also has an antique plate that, I believe, cost less than regular registration and comes with driving restrictions but very few people seem to go for that: Most like the look of YOM plates and are willing to pay the extra money for them. Edit: Adding a photo of my dirty car and license plate. California motor vehicle code requires a rear reflector regardless of vehicle age, since my tail lights don't have a reflector built in I hung one off the license plate mounting bracket.

Valve stem diameter is smaller on motorcycle tubes. I’ve used them, with some washers to adjust for the larger hole in the wheel than they were designed for. But check edinmass’s advice: if you can find a truck tube that fits you will be better off.

What does the original manual for the car say? For my '33 Plymouth the owner's manual calls for 5.25x17 which you can't get nowadays. As I understand it, over the years when demand dropped the manufacturers combined sizes. So you can't get a 5.50x17 or a 5.25x17 but you can get a 5.25-5.50x17. I am not sure if it is closer to the original 5.25 or the original 5.50 though I am guessing closer to 5.50 based on how hard it is to fit the spare tire cover on. I took a quick look at the website for the vendor that I last bought tires from and it seems that most tires in the 18" wheel size are listed as 5.25-5.50 for the cross section.

In my youth I tried to replace a single piston. Managed to get one but it was from a different lot/manufacturer than the rest and the weight was way off. There was no way with my limited skill set at the time to get the whole set of pistons to the factory specified variation in weight. Buy a whole set from one supplier gives you a way better chance of having them match. That said, decades ago I got a whole set of pistons from Egge and they had more variation in weight than was specified by the manufacturer back in the 1930s.

Why would the inserts need to be fitted by a machine shop? Mike the crank journal for diameter then select the bear set that is labeled as correct for the diameter. Not like a poured babbit bearing that would need line boring and/or scraping to fit.

On my '33 Plymouth the switch has two positions: On and Off. But, like yours, there are three contacts in the switch. In the off position the wiper does not make connection with any of the contacts. In the on position the wiper connects all three contacts In the case of my switch, one of those three contacts is to a wire running in an armored cable to the firewall mounted coil. Of the other two, one goes to power on the ammeter the other powers the fuel gauge and coil. The design is such that you can’t hot wire the coil by putting power on the opposite terminal from the normal feed. But in your case, I don't see why they would bother unless that switch was somehow designed to be hard mounted to the coil without the third terminal being externally accessible.

You are thinking correctly. My 1933 Plymouth came from the factory with them.

I believe that for that year Plymouth the engine number is stamped on the driver’s (left) side of the frame around the kick up for the rear axle. Given the way Chrysler did things it wouldn’t surprise me if thst is where you’ll find it on your car. Chrysler Corporation did that for a lot of years.

My old GE miniature lamps guide lists: 2330 - A RP-11 bulb with a D.C. Pf. (A) base, 6.2/6.2 design voltage, 32/32 CP, 4.23/4.23 amps with C-2V filaments with a rated life of 200 hours. 2336 - A RP-11 bulb with a D.C. Pf. (A) base, 12.5/12.5 design voltage, 32/32 CP, 2.23/2.10 amps with C-2V filaments with a rated life of 300 hours. 2530 - A RP-11 bulb with a D.C. Pf. (A) base, 5.9/6.2 design voltage, 50/32 CP, 6.53/4.23 amps with C-2V filaments with a rated life of 200 hours. So, if your wiring and generator are up for it, a 2530 should plug in where the 2330 was and give you more light on the high beams. But you can also get a halogen bulb that will just plug in as well from Classic and Vintage Bulbs (and maybe other vendors as well). You definitely don't want to use a 2336 as it is designed for 12v rather than 6v.