How clean or neat you last stored your classic car doesn't matter if it's left unattended for several years. Sooner or later, the elements will get the best out of it. But dust and rust are nothing new for barn find prospectors when saving these old relics. They'll stop at nothing to get them back on the road.
Darren of Mustie1 YouTube channel recently stumbled upon a 1930 Plymouth Model 30U Rumble Seat Coupe that had been abandoned for about 30 years. It belonged to a friend who was cleaning out their barn.
This classic Plymouth Model 30U Rumble Seat Coupe came from the third year of the automaker's car production. It was an updated version of the preceding Model Q Plymouth. The auto company developed 76,950 units of the Model U, and about 5,850 units of the rumble-seat coupe were produced for the 1930 model year.
Under the hood, the 1930 Plymouth Model U packed a 175-cu in (2.9-liter) L-head four-cylinder engine paired to a three-speed manual transmission (dry single-plate clutch).
The Plymouth Model 30U Rumble Seat Coupes are not easy to come by, especially in stock condition. A neatly preserved version sold for about $13,000 four months ago on Hemmings.
Darren's find was in reasonably good condition on the exterior. The brakes were gummed up (hydraulic brakes on all four wheels), and since it had been neglected for a couple of decades, it wasn't in running condition.
The interior was in decent condition, and the front and rear seats appeared undamaged.
The classic car's starter was faulty from sitting all those years. The distributor and fuel system also needed a little service. Luckily enough, the engine could manually turn by hand.
After an eternity of trying to get it running, the old 1930 Plymouth Model 30U Rumble Seat Coupe roared to life, but not on this episode (sneak peek at the end of the video).
According to Darren, the car wasn't producing enough spark to get it running, and he suspected the condenser or coil pack could have been faulty.
PS: check out the video below for more of that action. Classic car revival enthusiasts can learn a lot from his methods.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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