Cliff Lund, resident of Fruitport, Michigan, has spent the last five years refurbishing and rebuilding his grandfather’s old car.

            The 1928 Chrysler Plymouth Q was originally used by Cliff’s grandparents, who managed to fit six people inside for a trip from Michigan to their New Mexico homestead. Back in Muskegon, Cliff’s grandfather used the Plymouth to take his daughter to school.

            Around 1938, Cliff’s grandparents bought a new property in Norton Shores, with sixty acres, a house, and a barn. Cliff grew up next door. Before he was sixteen, he was driving the car around a nearby field with a friend. “We’d have to put boots in the tires, and patch the tubes, and pump them up. And in ten or fifteen minutes they’d be flat again.” He chuckled, recalling the memory of having to use parts of other tires to patch holes in the tire casings. The vacuum pressure fuel system didn’t work very well, either, so they had to blow into the gas tank to get fuel into the reservoir. The car would run for ten to fifteen minutes before it ran out of gas.

            The Plymouth was stored in a lean-to garage alongside a chicken coop by his grandparents’ barn. “It was pretty rusty and kind of a mess,” Cliff said, since the car was always wet, and eventually, the garage roof caved in on it. Since Cliff was sixteen, he’s owned the Plymouth. He’s stored it indoors ever since.

            Five years ago, Cliff was finally able to start repairing his car. Fixing the radiator was a big challenge. The carburetor also had to be replaced, but he was able to patch the leaky gas tank and coat the inside with a plastic coating.

            Inside the Plymouth, he redid the seat coverings, which were originally an olive colored, pleated material, but are now a more vibrant green, plushy material. The car has a mostly-handmade wooden body panels under the exterior layer of metal. Green material matching the seat covers is tacked to the wooden panels now, to finish the interior. Cliff commented, “I bet it had thousands of little upholstery tacks, they tack everything. All by hand. Imagine them doing that in a factory. I just can’t believe it.” The floor in front wasn’t originally carpeted, but had rubber mats encircling the gear shifter. Cliff decided the rubber would be too difficult to remake, so he replaced the mats with carpet. Under the carpet he refashioned the removable floorboards, which hide the battery.

            The roof’s wood, which held up the driver side door, had to be redone, because it had rotted out. The windows didn’t originally have safety glass, but Cliff had to put it in the front windshield. He also had to replace one of the side windows because of an accident when sand-blasting the rust off the body. An electric windshield wiper motor also takes the place of the original that was powered by vacuum pressure. Cliff remembered painting the car’s exterior and being able to find the original drab green colors. “I was able to copy the colors off the dash where it hadn’t deteriorated,” he said.

            There were lots of dents in the metal paneling and fenders, which needed extensive repair. He had to remake the wrecked running boards, cutting new wood copies of the old ones. But when asked what the most challenging part of the job was, Cliff explained, “Actually it got down to the door handles. The original door handles were die-cast, and they were all disintegrated…That was probably the toughest part.”

            The story of the wheels was interesting. “There’s a lot of grease fittings on it, and my uncle was big on greasing. So there was big gobs of hardened grease, and, oh, it was a big job,” Cliff said. “I had a descaling tool that I went all over everything to get all that hard stuff off with.” The original tires were shot. So, many years ago, he had to get new ones. He still has that new set of tires, which finally hit the road this April for the first time.

            The Plymouth didn’t originally have turn signals or outside mirrors, but Cliff added them to make the car more roadworthy. To top off the ancient car’s repairs, Cliff also got a refurbished 1929 license plate from someone in Zeeland, who painted on the letters, and Cliff put on a clear coat over the paint.

            Over all, Cliff’s favorite part of the Plymouth to repair was the engine—mechanical parts are the things he likes most. The engine is a four-cylinder flathead engine, 27 HP, and 174 cc, developed from a 1916 Maxwell. Chrysler bought out Maxwell, using their four-cylinder when they came out with the Plymouth model.  Most of the other Chrysler engines were six-cylinder engines at the time.

            The speedometer isn’t quite accurate, but rumor has it that the car will go up to 60 mph. Cliff remarked, “I had it going fifty. But it’s not made to run like that, you know.” Cliff thinks he’ll drive the car in the Old Fashioned Days parade this year, and if he decides to do any traveling with the Plymouth, he’ll probably try to figure out how many miles per gallon it gets.

            Cliff’s grandfather would certainly be thrilled to see his ancient car on the road again.

by Lin, Kimmie, and Kate Holtrop