Second time around with a ’38 Plymouth sedan

Call it fate, or maybe just a lucky break. Whatever it was, it brought Jerry Mehl back behind the wheel of a near-twin to his first car.

“It was about five years ago and I was looking at eBay Motors one night. A friend of mine was looking for a ’55 Chevy. I was about ready to get off when all of a sudden, this ’38 Plymouth popped up.

“I told my wife, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but when I was a kid in high school, my dad found a ’38 Plymouth … it was an identical car. He paid $60 for it,” Mehl explained.

His father ran a body shop and every night after school, young Mehl would go to the shop and sand on the car, preparing it for the snazzy midnight blue paint job that eventually was sprayed on it.

“I drove it all through high school and my first year of junior college. It was the first car I ever owned,” he recalled fondly. But he began having transmission trouble with the old Plymouth four-door and then the engine gave out. Still, he and has dad were able to sell the car for $200, which made a nice down payment on a ’62 Chevy for him.

Mehl was tempted to bid on the old Plymouth in the online auction, but had pretty well talked himself out of it. Not something he really “needed,” he figured.

That’s when his wife, Jeanne, stepped in with some good advice.

“She said, “Just put in $100 over the bid right now. You’re not going to win it, but you would always kick yourself if you didn’t try.’ ”

So he submitted a bid and two days later, he was the proud owner of a 1938 Plymouth Deluxe four-door sedan. The car was located in Rice Lake, Wis., a jaunt of a little more than 700 miles. So Mehl arranged to have the car shipped to Kansas.

The Plymouth was in remarkably good shape when it arrived, having been repainted once in a fairly dark Dove Gray, with twin green pinstripes accenting the beltline.

People who recalled the midnight blue ’38 from the 1960s have asked Mehl if he plans to repaint it that color, but he said he actually likes the shade of gray and will keep it pretty much as delivered. Corky Cook did a bit of color-matched touch-up work on the rear fender lips, but that was about the size of it.

Mehl did have Steve Malcom in Andover do some rewiring after switching the Plymouth over from a 6-volt to a 12-volt electrical system using a modern alternator. He also added aftermarket turn signals, for safety’s sake.

The only obvious outward change from a stock-appearing ’38 is a set of chrome reversed wheels with baby moon hubcaps. They mount BG Goodrich T/A raised white letter radial tires that fill up the wheel wells better and make the car handle better in traffic. Front tires are 205/70R14’s, while the rears are heftier 255/60R15’s.

“I still have the original generator, wheels and tires in my shop,” Mehl noted.

Under the hood resides the original Plymouth 201 cubic inch flathead six, unmodified except for a replacement piston. The Plymouth can roll along comfortably at 60-65 mph, Mehl said.

Inside, the car still wears factory-style mohair upholstery and features an art decco-style dashboard with the instrument cluster centered in the dash.

“I actually like the four-doors better than the two-doors,” Mehl said, opening up both the conventional front doors and the rearward-opening rear doors, which gives the old Plymouth a wide-open look.

People are afraid to touch the car, let alone sit in it, but he insists, saying, “That’s what I got it for. I want people to have fun.

“I like to go to smaller shows where you see something different. It’s always driven, never trailered. I’m just dumbfounded at some of the awards it wins. People say, `I’ve never seen one of these before.’ And that’s the novelty of it.”

That, and the fact he’s once again driving a ’38 Plymouth four-door and having a great time doing it.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Second time around with a ’38 Plymouth sedan."