Carl Barrier says he had been looking for his 1933 Plymouth DeLuxe Six sedan for a long time when he found it in 1998. `I had one just like it in 1949, when I was 14 years old,' he explains.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Barrier's slick 1940 Pontiac Silver Streak shows just under 36,000 miles on its odometer and is another call-back to his youth, when he owned another one like it. The St. Clair Poly Blue paint is mostly original, with a few touch-ups.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The 4-door Plymouth is equipped with `suicide doors' front and back, offering easy entry to driver and passengers alike.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The steering column of the Plymouth is equipped with a pair of common aftermarket accessories: a turn signal switch and a rubber-bladed cooling fan used to defrost the windshield in the winter and cool off the driver in the summer.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The Plymouth was reupholstered before Barrier bought the car; the material isn't factory correct, but the upholstery pattern is. He hopes to some day have the factory-correct upholstery installed.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The oval instrument panel in the Plymouth is simple and stylish, with all the necessary readouts: speedometer, fuel gauge, amp meter, oil pressure and water temperature gauges.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The spare 17-inch wire wheel is mounted above the rear bumper, leaving no room for a trunk. Barrier has located a set of optional 16-inch wire wheels and plans to mount radial tires on them to make the car more roadworthy.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Plymouth's 6-cylinder flathead engine debuted in 1933, this `Silver Dome' version displacing 189 cubic inches and producing 70 horsepower. The cast iron head is painted silver; an optional higher compression aluminum head, ironically, was painted bright red.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A standard-issue tail light was mounted on the driver's side of the Plymouth; the owner had a stanchion cast for an optional passenger-side tail light, which mounts the correct lens, complete with painted white Plymouth logo.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The 1940 Pontiac sedan features beautifully styled twin grilles and center molding that runs up over the hood, all the way back to the cowl. Note the unusual front bumper arrangement, which includes conventional ends but an open 3-bar design in the center.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Interior room was spacious in the Pontiac sedans of the day, as illustrated by the wide-open floor plan in the rear of Barrier's 1940 Silver Streak. The upholstery in the 72-year-old car is believed to be the original material, which is in remarkable condition.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Barrier says his Pontiac has been a popular wedding car over the years, with its wide-opening doors. `A bride can walk right in wearing her wedding dress,' he explains.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Power for the Pontiac is supplied by a 222 cubic inch flathead 6-cylinder engine churning out 87 horsepower. Also available in 1940 were a pair of inline flathead 8's producing over 100 horsepower each.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The beautiful ivory steering wheel is unrestored, attesting to the low original mileage logged by the Pontiac.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The art deco style instrument layout in the Pontiac is accented by beautiful woodgraining on the steel dash board.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
This view shows the impressive wood graining of the Pontiac's dash, as well as the center air conditioning outlets.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Headlight covers were a popular accessory back in the 1940s and Barrier was lucky to not only find a pair of like-new covers, but ones that carry the Pontiac emblem.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Wide whitewalls, pinstriped body-colored wheels, chrome trim rings and red-accented Pontiac hubcaps complete the classic wheel-tire combination.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The Silver Streak theme coninues down the back of the Pontiac with a chrome-plated band flowing down over the bustle-style trunk.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Another view of the amazingly unspoiled Pontiac cloth interior shows how lovingly used this car really was.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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