“I was stationed at the Naval Air Station Miramar, San Diego, CA in 1978 when my wife at the time came home from a Saturday morning garage sale trip and informed me that an old 39 Plymouth Coupe with a “for sale” sign, was sitting in a yard a few miles from where we lived. Growing up in Southeastern Ohio as a kid in the late 40s and early 50s, my Dad was driving 1930’s Coupes which were soup-up for racing. I always had it in the back of my mind to own my own 30’s Coupe someday. The 39 Plymouth was my answer. Within a few hours, I had negotiated a price for the car and a couple of days later nursed the car home and into my garage. The very large trunk of the car was full of spare parts, to include a spare engine, and transmission. My goal was to rebuild the car in my garage to the point that I could use it as my every day car. Over time, I rebuilt the engine and drive train, brake system, put in a new wiring harness, hoses, etc. I even purchased “how to’ books for body work, painting, instrument rebuilding, wood graining for the dash and garnish molding, interior work, new tires, and a couple of years later it rolled out of my garage and became my everyday car for 4-5 years in the San Diego area. Only thing I could not do in that car was be discreet. Everybody knew who was behind the wheel.
While stationed at Miramar, I was occasionally deployed on Aircraft Carriers for 6-8 months at a time. My wife was in charge of keeping the 39 Plymouth running. I found out through my daughters, that most of the time she was not very diligent with her duties and often the battery would go dead from lack of running. A neighbor taught her how to let the car roll out of the garage down the inclined driveway and on down the inclined street in second gear, popping the clutch to start the car, thus having everything up and running when I returned home from the deployment. This worked every time except the last when the deployment was extended to 10 months. When she popped the clutch for my return, she was in first gear and stripped a gear in the transmission. A few days later when I returned and had my homecoming with the family, I went to the garage and tried to start the car. After charging the dead battery, I started the car and tried to drive out of the garage—nothing but grinding noses from the transmission. I ended up having to remove the transmission and replace a couple of gears. I used this car to teach both of my daughters how to drive a stick shift while they were in school in the San Diego area.
In mid-1980’s I was transferred to East Coast and the 39 Plymouth came with me, towed across the country. It again became my everyday car. After I was divorced it became my only car for some time. It was known as a good date car. After retirement from the Navy in 1992, I moved to the Northern Virginia area and was unable to bring the 39 Plymouth with me. It sat outside for a while and then I found a couple of amateurs that did some engine work and a body guy that fiddled with the car for several years. My family got after me to get the car out of storage and have it restored. When I got serious about doing so, I had trouble finding a reliable restoration shop that I felt comfortable in contracting to have the work done. One of my Tidewater area family members told me about FantomWorks and, after doing some background research, I determined that FantomWorks might be the solution. I made an appointment with Dan and based upon that meeting, his background, and the work around the shop, we made a deal and I feel very comfortable that I will have a fantastic, eye catching, panty dropping 39 Plymouth again that I can use to teach my grandkids how to drive a stick shift.”
–Jerry N.