1938 Plymouth 4dr slantback

[Alan Franklin]

I’m very new to the Mopar world.

ive seen pictures of 1938 Plymouth 2dr slantbacks but never a 4dr slantback, are they as common as the humpback?

thank you. Al

[keiser31]

The slantback was less common. There were only 6,459 built.

[Hudsy Wudsy]

A couple of years ago someone local (MN) was selling a black '39 Plymouth 2dr slantback that was the less expensive model. Roadking, maybe? Being the lesser model, it still had the floor shift. Geez, it was cute, but my health then made me pass on it.

[Alan Franklin]

Keizer 31, thanks for your response.....

i just acquired one, I was going to use it as a parts car for my 38 Humpback but it’s pretty complete.

i believe I’ll make it road worthy. 

I wonder how many are still on the road?

Edited November 24, 2017 by Alan Franklin (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Cool car!

[Hudsy Wudsy]

It has the earlier headlights.

[Alan Franklin]

When you say earlier, did they have 2 different styles in that year or they from a previous year.

the car had another set of headlight buckets in the truck.

thanks. Al

[Guest]

Hi Al,

              Some customers complained about the look of the new Plymouth in '38, thought it looked a little "bug eyed" (and they were right).  Plymouth's answer to correct this issue was to move the headlights rearward 4 inches and down 2 inches. A marked improvement for sure. They simply redesigned the headlight mount/stanchion and started installing them with the identical headlight buckets as before. Many cars were upgraded with these later type mounts at the dealerships and many were left as first designed. If one is not real familiar with the '38 Plymouth they probably would not know the difference but when you put the early style car and late style car side by side, it's pretty easy to spot.

If you have a car you'd like to upgrade, these mounts come up pretty regularly on eBay.

First pic is early style mounts. 

Second pic is redesigned later style mounts.

Best, Greg

[keiser31]

You can see the difference here with these two versions....

[Alan Franklin]

Hi Greg, thanks for the info...

i had read the article but  didn’t know they had made a way to change it.

thanks again. Al

Edited November 27, 2017 by Alan Franklin (see edit history)

[Pomeroy41144]

Humphrey Bogart drove the Coupe version in High Sierra and The Big Sleep. 

 

I think they used both a 37 and 38 Plymouth Coupe at Warner Brothers.

 

 

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Edited November 29, 2017 by Pomeroy41144 (see edit history)

[Guest]

'37 in High Sierra (although, through bad continuity, a '38 does make a brief appearance) and a '38 for The Big Sleep.

[Pomeroy41144]

Thanks Greg.

[Hudsy Wudsy]

On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 10:03 AM, Alan Franklin said:

I’m very new to the Mopar world.

ive seen pictures of 1938 Plymouth 2dr slantbacks but never a 4dr slantback, are they as common as the humpback?

thank you. Al

 

Here's an '38 4 dr:

Edited November 29, 2017 by Hudsy Wudsy (see edit history)

[Hudsy Wudsy]

1938 was a recession year during The Great Depression. I recall that auto sales slumped, but I suppose that just about everything else did as well. I know that I've seen auto sales figures, but I don't remember anything to quote about them. It's understandable that every dollar spent had to be considered wisely during those hard times. It would be interesting to know how much more money someone would have had to pay to get the larger trunk as opposed to the flat back one. I'm sure that the difference would seem minimal by todays standards. I recall reading once that the cost to get a right hand tail light on my '36 P1 Plymouth was $5.00 and the cost to have the car painted all one color, as opposed to coming with black fenders only, was $15.00.

[Alan Franklin]

Times sure have change, it cost more to wood grain a car today than it cost to purchase a car that came wood grained Brand new!

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