This 1946 Plymouth Business Coupe was in rough condition when found. Restoration took three years to complete, yielding impressive results.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The 1948 Plymouth Club Coupe was Patterson's first find, mirroring a '48 coupe he owned in high school. It took only a year to bring it to its current level.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Patterson's wife, Nancy, prefers the red '48 Plymouth in part because it features beautifully upholstered bench seats front and back. He's not even allowed to talk about selling this car.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The differences in body styles are slight, but apparent in this photo. Note the smaller rear quarter windows and longer decklid on the black '46 Business Coupe, as opposed to the longer roofline on the red '48 Club Coupe.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
One of the few modifications performed on either car is a set of dual exhausts Patterson installed on the '46, using a home-built split exhaust manifold and steelpack mufflers. The car purrs like a contented jaguar.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A close-up of the '46 engine bay shows how the exhaust manifold was split, using a second flange from a stock manifold, with twin head pipes running to the rear.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A peek inside the roll-down quarter windows of the '48 Club Coupe reveals the red vinyl/gray cloth rear seat and cloth headliner stitched by Morgan-Bulleigh.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The Business Coupe has no back seat, but the red-and-gray all-vinyl interior by Mike's Custom Upholstery provides a nice contrast to the rich black exterior.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Patterson chose the all-vinyl approach for the '46 upholstery because he planned to drive the black car on a regular basis and wanted durability.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The deck lid of both cars feature a factory third brake taillight cleverly incorporated into trunk emblem.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The 217-cubic-inch flathead 6-cylinder engine in the red car was in good enough shape to be used as-is, after a little cleanup and detailing.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Patterson said there are only minor differences to be found in the front end treatment of the '42 Plymouth and his '48 post-war version.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Both cars feature a very subtle touch: Patterson blended the rear fenders seamlessly into the body lines by first bolting, then welding and finally fiberglassing the pieces into one solid unit.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The '46 Business Coupe is probably even closer in styling to the pre-war '42 than the red car. Note the vintage Kansas license tag on the rechromed front bumper.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Both cars ride on reproduction 15-inch wide whitewall bias-ply tires. Patterson added reproduction trim rings to surround the original button-style "Mayflower" hubcaps.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The dashboards are almost identical in the two cars, with vertical Motorola brand radios in the center and push-button starter controls at the left-hand side. The red coupe has add-on turn signals, with a pair of underdash green and red lights to show which blinker is blinking.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Here's where the Business Coupe's lack of a back seat pays off: a huge trunk area, perfect for a salesman to haul all his samples and supplies.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
This is the factory upholstery pattern on the '46 Coupe's door panels, trim pieces intact when the car was purchased and since reupholstered.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The '48 Club Coupe's door panels are not stock; the owner used '64 Buick Special door panel trim to separate the contrasting colors because he couldn't find stock trim pieces at the time.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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