28th May 2012, 09:40
Don't buy it at all. We had 1950 Plymouth flathead sixes, 3 on the tree, and got well under 20 MPG. Had a businessman coupe and a 4 door. These are heavy cars; even the sheet metal and bumpers carry some serious weight, and are not aerodynamic by any means. I would recheck your math or your odometer to see if it's not rolling the #s well.
Not knocking the cars, as we had them. If I were to nitpick; the 6 Volt positive ground was often modernized. I loved the 1950 front less so than the models following. They also had a really great ride once they were going.
29th May 2012, 17:31
I think 03:15 may have been a victim of air in the gas tank filler neck. The only way these old cars could get 40 MPG is being towed or coasting down a mountain. I had a tune up done on my V-8 Mustang once, and when I filled up on a trip afterwards, I was really excited and went around bragging about getting 30 MPG. At the next fill up I noticed that air was getting caught in the filler (very common with Mustangs), and after a real fill up I was back to my usual 14 MPG!!
2nd Nov 2012, 12:37
Have a 1953 Cranbrook and I have no brake pedal; nothing there. Where do I start?
2nd Nov 2012, 18:42
Suggest looking under the front seat - maybe it has slipped back there? Or laying under the car?
Seriously though, start at the obvious points, make sure the master cylinder has brake fluid in it, and check around the back of each wheel for any signs of brake fluid leaking out.
8th Apr 2014, 14:15
The rear drums are pressed onto the axle, thus you have to use a hub puller that is made to be whacked with a hammer. The first thing to do though is to let off any pressure to the wheel cylinder by loosing the brake line at the axle (be sure to have something under the axle to capture the fluid). Then remove the hub nut, attach the hub puller and be prepared to whack that thing multiple times... I ended up using a 16 lb sledge hammer to get mine off. This is the puller I bought:
12th Jan 2015, 18:33
The 1953 Plymouth had overdrive. I am a rather conservative driver and I usually cruised at 55 MPH. Actually, the 28 to 30 MPG was the best I ever got. Usually around 25 MPG.
I was disappointed with the 1956 Plymouth. Never got more than 20-21 MPG on the road. It had about the same engine and overdrive as the 1953. As I best remember, the 1956 was a lot larger than the 1953, and was about 200 to 300 pounds heavier.
13th Jan 2015, 00:11
I don't buy the MPG comments. The cars were full frame, thick metal bodies, heavy engine blocks in that era. No light components. Even a steel dash. No wind tunnel technology. I had a 50 Plymouth flat head six. In turn gas was cheap and who cared. In the early 70s I had a VW Bug. It was big deal to say you got 28 MPG. Most cars got mileage in the teens in the 60s. I have bought Corvettes today that get high 20s on the interstate on cruise. Even after all these years, MPG is secondary.
27th May 2012, 03:15
No stretch at all. I just bought a 53 Plymouth Cambridge. The old man I bought it from, said it got about 40 MPG on highway. I didn't buy that, but I was wrong!!! And so was he. Today was the first time I took a long drive in my car, I over flowed the tank, drove a round trip of 108 miles, mostly highway, filled the tank again, and overflowed the tank with 2.6 gallons of fuel. That's 41.5 MPG at an average speed of 60-70 mph. About 20 miles was city, stop and go.