1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe, Nostalgia Hot Rod - Detroit Autorama Winner

For Howard Tarnoff the fever for a new bicycle during the summer of '59 led him to take on a side job at his Dad's Rambler dealership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, washing used cars. Being immersed in the late-'50s automotive culture at 10 years old laid the groundwork for his current condition.

He worked on Saturdays, which was the day the service area was closed. The mechanics who punched the clock during the week were able to use the work area on Saturday to wrench on their own cars. While he would hustle in the wash bay, the older guys would be working on their hopped-up roadsters and coupes which ruled the local streets.

Now you'd think that Howard would have attached a fascination to a nasty chopped coupe or a sinfully channeled Deuce roadster. Not so-Howard's "fire" was a '49 Plymouth coupe running a hot cammed inline six. With dual carbs and an exhaust note that sounded like nothing else it was the coolest car he had ever seen or heard.

Moving forward, Howard became involved in dirt track racing on the Wisconsin circuit and eventually wound up owning his own used car business. He later merged his skills into the software industry, married, and had a family, while still managing to own quite a few cool rides. It wasn't until he relocated to Massachusetts that he got the urge to finally build the car that never left his memories. Howard soon found out that '49 Plymouth coupes weren't as easy to come across as he thought and, after years of searching, he finally located a mint two-owner car on eBay in 2003. With 34,000 miles on the odometer, it would be the perfect base to work from.

Once the car was delivered, he wasted no time in laying down the miles in it for the first year as he began scouring swap meets and online ads for the various key parts to start the build. In his mind he had built the car hundreds of times since he was in his teens and, with the support of good friends Sam Memmolo and Mickey Lauria as sounding boards, they gave him the positive reinforcement needed to get many of his ideas dialed in.

His first stop led him to Lenny Schaeffer at Chop-Shop Customs in Woburn, Massachusetts, to begin the transformation on the body and chassis. Getting the right stance for the car was a key element for its look and the team at Chop-Shop Customs began by updating the front end with 3-inch dropped spindles from Fatman (combined with fresh springs from Eaton) while also relocating the shock mounts. Out back fresh parallel leaf springs from Posies (along with new tube shocks) gave the car just the right rake. To make sure the coupe would have more than enough braking power, 11-inch discs were added at the corners. Inside they installed a tidy set of pedals from Kugel Komponents that also incorporates the hidden master cylinder.

Chop-Shop Customs' talented team began the sheetmetal mods on the body by filling the seams of the front fenders. Other mods include the molding of the rear fenders, and frenching the headlights, taillights, and antenna. Before the welder was shut down, they also shaved the body, dumped the parking lights, and filled the license plate recess on the trunk lid. The team then filled and smoothed the chassis.

When it came to the drivetrain Howard looked to George Asche of Oil City, Pennsylvania, to prepare the block and internals, by bumping the original 217ci base to 230ci. This would allow for the installation of Arias 10:1 slug's along with a '52 Dodge truck crank and rods, which would be complemented by a cam and finned aluminum head from Edgy. Once all of the parts were delivered to Xtreme in Slatersville, Rhode Island, it was time for Richard Desautels to start the assembly of the little powerhouse. For induction and spark, a vintage Edmunds two-pot intake was used with a pair of Carter-Weber carbs from Langdon's Stovebolts, who also provided the unique HEI distributor. Dumping the spent gasses through a Fenton split-header to a custom fabricated 2-inch exhaust with electric cutouts controlled by the original radio's volume control shows just a hint of the trickery the team at Xtreme infused into the car.

Richard then rebuilt a '52 DeSoto three-speed manual transmission with R10 overdrive, which links to a Currie 9-inch Ford rear end via a custom driveshaft with an '89 Toyota slip-joint. With the stout little 300 horsepower jetpack in place, Todd Lewis (owner of Xtreme) and his team got busy to prepare the body of the car for its final trip to the spray booth. Xtreme blended a one-off medium blue pearl hue that master painter Ken LaFlemme laid down, bringing the car to life.

Turning the final corner, the Xtreme team began to design the interior by first breathing life into the stock dash using a burled wood insert combined with gauges from Classic, and just enough Alsa soft-feel paint on the dash and stock steering wheel. More trickery from Xtreme came by way of installing the customized air conditioning system from Hot Rod Air where the stock dash speaker grille would act as the outlet for the icy breeze. To handle the threads for the car, legendary stitcher Fred Carello of Warwick, Rhode Island, worked with the original seats and transformed the business office with a perfect combination of pleats and plush carpet to meld the richness of the exterior to the inside of the car. The finishing touch came from Rudy Desautels who brought the tunes to life with a near-invisible Sony head unit installed in the sun visor while hiding the killer Kicker 400 watt amp and related electronic goodies in the trunk. When it was all wrapped up, Howard took the reigns of the car and lit the fire rekindling the raucous sounds from the exhaust that he remembered as a kid, only this time he did it his way! Also, read NSRA Streetscene Magazine Feature March 2016.

1949 Plymouth Special DeLuxe 2-Door Sedan

CHASSIS

Frame / Manufacturer

Stock / Plymouth

Wheelbase

118.5"

Modifications

Filled and smoothed by Chop-Shop Customs, Woburn, MA

Chassis plumbing

Stainless

Rearend / Ratio

9" Ford by Currie (Anaheim, CA) / 3.25:1

Rear suspension

Posies (Hummelstown, PA) parallel leaf with tube-style shocks

Rear brakes

'03 Ford Explorer 11" disc

Front suspension

Fatman (Charlotte, NC) 3" drop spindles with Eaton

(Detroit Michigan) coil springs, and relocated tube-style shocks

Front brakes

'78 Camaro 11" disc

Master cylinder

Kugel Komponents (La Habra, CA) under dash

Wheel covers

'59 Dodge Lancer, modified

Wheel make, size

Wheel Vintiques (Fresno, CA) steelie, 15 x 6

Tire make, size

BFGoodrich (Greenville, SC) Silvertown P215/70R-15

Other chassis items

Custom front antiroll bar with neoprene bushings by Xtreme (Slatersville, RI)

ENGINE

Make

'49 Plymouth

Displacement

230ci (217ci block bored .100 over)

Machining / Assembly

George Asche, Oil City, PA / Richard Desautels at Xtreme

Crankshaft

'52 Dodge 230ci truck

Rods

'52 Dodge 230ci truck

Pistons

Arias (Gardena, CA) 10:1

Camshaft

Edgy (Santa Rosa, CA)

Alternator

GM

Head

Edgy, finned aluminum

Valves / Springs

Manly (Lakewood, NJ) stainless steel

Manifold / Induction

Vintage Edmunds / Dual Carter- Weber

Ignition / Wires

Langdon's Stovebolts (Utica, MI) HEI / stock

Headers

Fenton

Exhaust / Mufflers

2" with electric cutout's by Xtreme / Smithy's

Other engine facts

Balanced, bored, & blueprinted, O'Brien Truckers (Charlton, MA) air cleaner

TRANSMISSION

Make

'52 DeSoto 3-speed manual with R10 Overdrive

Clutch disc

Centerforce (Prescott, AZ)

Pressure plate

Custom by Portland Transmission (Providence, RI)

Shifter

Stock on column

Trans mods

2nd gear from '40 Chrysler fitted

Driveshaft

Custom by Xtreme with '89 Toyota slip joint built in

Other Trans Facts

Rebuilt by Richard Desautels at Xtreme

BODY

Body style / Material

2-dr sedan / steel

Body manufacturer

Plymouth

Hood

shaved

Bodywork

Initial by Chop-Shop Customs, final by Xtreme

Paint type / Color

PPG / custom blue pearl by Xtreme

Painter

Ken LaFlemme at Xtreme

Headlights / Taillights

AutoNik / '39 Ford

Outside mirror

LimeWorks (Whittier, CA)

Bumpers

stock, tucked front and rear

INTERIOR

Dashboard

Stock with Alsa (Vernon, CA) soft-feel paint by Xtreme

Insert / Gauges

Burled wood by Xtreme / Classic Instruments (Boyne City, MI)

Stereo / Speakers

Sony / Kicker, Pioneer

Air conditioning

Hot Rod Air (Selma, TX)

Insulation

Dynamat (Hamilton, OH)

Wiring

American Autowire (Bellmawr, NJ) / Skip Readio (Ayer, MA)

Steering wheel

Stock with Alsa soft-feel paint by Xtreme

Upholsterer

Fred Carello (Warwick, RI)

Material / Color

Vinyl / dark blue and garnet

Carpet

Mercedes Benz dark blue square weave

Seatbelts

Juliano's (Ellington, CT)

Other interior items

Power windows and custom Sony head unit installed into sun-visor

with Kicker 400 watt amp and 10-CD changer in trunk by Rudy Desautels at Xtreme