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1956 Plymouth Belvedere

Original family-owned convertible that's still driven daily 
1956 Plymouth Belvedere from Hemmings Classic Car

April, 2005 - George Mattar

Although it's not a fire-breathing Hemi-powered Plymouth, Jim Brennan says his family's well-worn 1956 Plymouth Belvedere, with tarnished chrome, torn seats and bubbling paint on the lower rear quarter panels, suits him just fine.
What's more remarkable is the car has been in the same family for nearly 50 years and remained in upstate New York, where road salt is the norm, for about four months out of the year, its entire life. The two-tone light blue and white Plymouth is mostly original, with all stock parts, including the 277-cu.in. V-8 and two-speed PowerFlite pushbutton automatic transmission. The Belvedere has been driven a tad over 119,000 miles, that is if the odometer has only turned over once. "I don't know if it's 119,000 or 219,000, but probably the lower number because the car did sit for a while," Jim says. In 1956, Plymouth facelifted the body introduced the year before. The changes included fin-shaped rear quarter panels and a new grille with a grid pattern centerpiece, decorated with a gold V-shaped emblem on the V-8 cars. And like other American iron at the time, Plymouth added a wide, jet-airplane-type hood mascot. All told, about 6,700 Belvedere convertibles were built for 1956. The V-8, in 1956, was given a bigger bore and stroke, which took it from 260 cubic inches to 277. The compression ratio also went up a notch, from 7.6 to 8.0:1, resulting in 187hp at 4,400 rpm and a torque output of 265-lbs.ft. at 2,400 rpm. This particular Belvedere was shipped in July 1956 to The Owl Garage, owned by the Wirmusky family, in Hoosick Falls, New York. Although no longer a Dodge dealer, a vintage Dodge sign still hangs from the building today. Helen Wirmusky, a niece of the garage's owner and aunt of Jim's wife, wanted to buy her first new car. She went into her family's garage and bought this Belvedere with few options, which included an AM radio that still works well. Wirmusky, a schoolteacher, moved to Middletown, New York, and drove it until the early 1970s. At that time, Helen passed the car along to her niece, Jim's wife Teresa, and nephews in Hoosick Falls. Jim admits the car needed some TLC and that was lovingly done to the car by Jim's father-in-law, Dick Hubbard. For the next several years, all of Helen's family used the car for daily transportation. When they went off to college, the car was relegated to parade use. In 1999, after sitting for about five years, the car was hauled to Jim's home in nearby Latham. His father-in-law's restoration efforts held up, but time had taken its toll. When money permitted, Jim started fixing it up. "During that time, we established two goals: Make it go and make it stop," Jim told us. "We wanted to make sure we enjoyed the car while our now 10-year-old son Christopher was of an age where he would enjoy it as well. We have fun taking Christopher and his friends for ice cream, with the top down. They just love it, and it reinforces that we made the right decision in not doing a complete and time-consuming restoration. The kids' favorite part is when I power-slide the car around a turn and they all get jostled to one side." When Jim and his wife got the car, in 1999, it was in basically the same shape it is now: The 30-year-old paint was dulling and the rust was beginning to bubble through. There is a hole in the trunk floor, but for now, Jim is leaving the car alone. But to make it roadworthy, he got out the wrenches and went straight to the mechanicals. His dad owned a school bus garage when Jim was a kid, and Jim helped out, so he knows his way around and under a car. "I completely rebuilt the brakes; I even took off the backing plates, sandblasted and painted them. About the only thing not replaced was the brake pedal. I even replaced the brake lines, while lying on my back. I bought straight tubes and bent them by hand to fit. It was a hard job, but I did it." Next, Jim rebuilt the fuel system. He removed the original gas tank, had it cleaned and sealed, and again hand-fabricated new fuel lines. "There was just no saving the original lines; they were rusted through." Last winter, he rebuilt the original carburetor, but other than that, the engine has not been touched, except for new water hoses and an ignition coil. The engine doesn't smoke, and Jim believes the cylinder heads have never been removed. In fact, the engine still sports some of its original orange paint, and the red, coffee-can-size air cleaner with its original decal is still with the car. One day the original transmission began leaking badly, and Jim had that job done professionally by a friend, who took out the two-speed automatic and rebuilt it. The transmission now shifts fine, and there are no more red puddles under the car. Jim says the old Plymouth engine gets the car up to speed quickly, allowing him to cruise along at a steady 60 mph on the New York Thruway, with no trouble. It tracks straight and averages about 15 miles per gallon, but Jim doesn't care. "I don't push it any faster than that. The car rides very smoothly, and we just love riding around in it. I take it to work quite often and get lots of thumbs-up when I pull into the parking lot. What I like best about the car is the family connection. It's been in the family since new. I sent the VIN number to Chrysler, and they sent me back a copy of the build sheet. I'm told my car is the only 1956 Belvedere convertible registered in New York. I've found a few hardtops through the DMV, but this is probably the only convertible still licensed." There are only two complaints Jim has about his Plymouth. The glove compartment is conveniently mounted in the center of the dash, which makes it great to reach for your registration should a cop pull you over. But when you're trying to reach the heater controls, they're way too far to the right. Secondly, like most cars of the same era, a paper oil filter was housed inside a metal canister. It tends to leak, so Jim replaced it with an adapter kit, which allows him to use a modern spin-on filter. He says finding mechanical parts is easy and that he can go to his local NAPA store and get just about anything he needs. "Our Plymouth drives and handles very well for a 48-year-old vehicle. Obviously, it's a different drive from a modern car, especially in light of the fact that it does not have the optional power pack, so the manual steering and braking bring me back to my teenage years when I learned to drive buses. The car tracks nice and straight with the new shocks and radial tires, which have greatly improved the handling over the original bias-plies, replaced as part of our effort to get the Plymouth roadworthy once again. The 277-cu.in. V-8 is an especially pleasant surprise. It burns no oil and does not miss a beat. It shows no sign of ever being rebuilt, yet it still has power to spare, even on hills," Jim says. Jim adds that he and his family love their Belvedere because of its heritage. "Sometimes I think the Plymouth runs on memories, not gasoline." For now, Jim is content with how the car looks, but does plan to repair the rusting lower panels. Not a full-blown restoration, but he wants to weld in patch panels in the lower quarter panel and replace the rocker panels to ensure the car's future. He hasn't found any replacement sheetmetal for mid-Fifties Plymouths, so he will likely have to make the panels needed. One project coming up soon will be replacing the convertible top's pump and pistons, as opening and closing the top manually is getting tiresome. Jim is proud to say his son is already asking to use the car when he turns 17. As a result, one significant future mechanical upgrade will be a conversion to disc brakes, thus ensuring Jim's desire that "This car will stay in the family forever."


 

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