1956 Plymouth Convertible 2 Door Hardtop Dodge DeSoto Chrysler Fury 4 Hemi 1955

Description for Plymouth Belvedere 1956

This listing is for a very straight and relatively solid 1956 Plymouth Belvedere convertible. These are very scarce cars in any condition. I have three of these 1956 Plymouth convertibles and this is the best of the three.For an un-restored car, this one is in way better condition that most of them are.
Why do I have 3 of these scarce convertibles you might ask? Well, the answer to that question goes back to 1967 when I was in high school and got my first 2 cars the same day. I was raised on a ranch and worked hard there whenever I was not in school. I had saved about $800 of farm wages and wanted to buy a nice Model A Ford. A super nice original 1931 Chevrolet 3 window coupe became available for $595 in Great Falls Montana. The day I bought that old Chevy coupe and drove it 70 miles to the home ranch,I went through Fort Benton where my Grandmother lived.
My Grandmother bought a 1956 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan new and never drove it. Two of herdaughtersused it some but it had only about 20,000 miles on it in 1967. I rode the school bus most of the time but needed a car to drive to school whenever I had to stay after school for some activity. My Grandmother gave me the Plymouth sedan and was ratherdisappointed that I was driving "some old clunker" so that Mom had to drive the Plymouth home. That Plymouth served me very well for the next 3 years. Dad even used it for a few months when the automatic transmission on his 1962 Oldsmobile lost reverse gear. The only problem that I can recall dealing with was a collapsed rubber hose between the suction side of the fuel pump and the steel fuel suction line on the frame. I still have both the 1931 Chevrolet coupe and that 1956Plymouth Belvedere sedan setting side by side in my warehouse. They will not be available until I am no longer here on this earth.
Over the next several years, I had often wished that my Grandmother would have bought a fancier 1956 Plymouth than the sedan that she selected. My best high school friend and 2 of his brothers had a 1955 Plymouth Savoy 4 door sedan. They bought a 1956 Dodge D-500 two-door hardtop toget the 354 hemi V8 that they transplanted into the poor old 1955 Plymouth sedan. I found a Chrysler 392 V8 and came close to putting it in my Plymouth but thank goodness fate intervened and that never happened. I did some minor modifications to that car back in 1968 including 4 ET Super 14 x 6 mag wheels, a plastic fake wood grain steering wheel, some custom pedal covers and a pair of rear spring shackles to raise the back high enoughto clear the Goodyear F-70 x 14 Polyglass tires.
Through the years, my friends who had the supposedly "cool" 1955, 1956 or 1957 Chevys, looked down on my lowly "Plymouth". I often challenged them to try to explain why their Chevys looked any better than the "Forward Look" of the 1956 Plymouths did. Nobody ever came up with a convincing argument in favor of the Chevrolet styling so my fascination with 1956 Plymouths never diminished at all through the years but gradually increased as time went by. I decided back in the 1980's that it would be nice to add a 1956 Plymouth convertible to my extensive vehicle collection which now numbers over 250 collectible vehicles.
I found my first 1956 Plymouth convertible in an older wrecking yard here in Montana about 10 years ago. I had to buy a rough but solid 1963 Pontiac Lemans convertible in order to make the deal work on that first 1956 Plymouth convertible. That Pontiac LeMans convertible is available for sale here on eBay.My second 1956 Plymouth convertible came from a broker here in Montana who found it in an old wrecking yard in Idaho. I may be listing both of those convertibles here later this summer after I have had a chance to work on them a bit. One is missing about half of the convertible top assembly so I am looking for those parts from a 1955 or 1956 Dodge or Plymouth convertible.I bought this car here on eBay about 6 years ago from acollector in Minnesota who claimed he bought it out of Texas. That may be true because it is in way better condition than the typical Minnesota car of this vintage is in.
The body on this car is very straight with not a lot of old damage that I can find. The front of the left side quarter panel and the back of the driver's door appear to have been repainted with body filler about 1/16" thick in some places. The backs of both tail fins may have been touched up at some time as well. The windshield is bad and will have to be replaced. The left door vent window was missing when I bought this car. I found one and it is setting in place but will need to be removed before this car is transported.
Now we must go to the ugly issue of rusted through spots in the sheet metal. This car is stored 225 miles north of where I live so I can't merely walk over and look at it.I spent several hours last fall at the home ranch cleaning up this car and took a lot of photos of it so I have a very good idea where the rust is or is not located. The rust in this car was caused by water trapped under the carpets and trunk mat rather than from corrosive salt water from eastern roads eating at the steel whenever there was wet weather.
As you can see in one of the photos, the front floor is beyond patching and will need to be replaced. As you can see in two of the photos, the rear floors have a few small holes that may be able to be patched but complete replacement may be the better option.
There appear to be no rust holes or even blisters above either rear wheel opening where both of my other 1956 Plymouth convertibles have some rust holes. That is where the trunk floor hooks up to both quarter panels so that speaks well of the condition of the trunk floor, at least on the edges. Two photos near the end of this listing show both sides of the trunk floor and some small holes in both sides that may be able to be patched. Neither of the 2 doors has any rust issues anywhere. Neither of the rear fender skirts which may have been made by Foxcraft has any rust out problems either. They were in the trunk of this car when I bought it and I just recently installed them. The appropriate brackets at the front and rear of both rear wheel openings were also on this car when I bought it. If you can tell if someone other than Foxcraft made these fender skirts, please let me know who made them.
Due to where the trunk floor attaches to the quarter panels above each of the wheel openings, there is only a single thickness of sheet metal below that point and on down to the bottom of the quarter panel behind each wheel opening. Due to there only being a single layer of sheet metal there, there are also no rusted out spots or even blisters at the bottom of each quarter panel behind each of the rear wheels. As you can see in the 12th and 13th photos of this listing, there are some rust blisters showing at the bottom front parts of each quarter panel in front of the rear wheel openings. That problem will require that a patch panel be installed there.
I could find no holes or even rust blisters in either of the rocker panels so that is a real blessing. It appears that there is no rust above either headlamp and none showing at the bottom rear part of the right front fender where they seem to rust out first. There appear to be a few tiny rust blisters showing at the bottom back part of the left front fender so that too will need some repairs done. The convertible top header that fastens above the windshield is a hollow sheet metal assembly. It has some rusted through spots on the top of the right end as you can see in the 4th from the last photos of this listing. The 5th from the last photos shows were someone welded a piece of the cast aluminum top frame above the back of the driver's side window many years ago. I can find no other damaged areas anywhere on the folding top assembly.
I believe there is neither a paint nor a trim tag on these cars until the 1957 model year. Consequently, one could paint this car in any authentic combination they might like and not be discounted at a major competition or show. The sheet metal on this car is nice and straight enough for the most part so that one could paint this car black or another dark color without having to do a tremendous amount of body work on it. Because these cars never had a trim tag either, one could install any combination of interior fabrics and colors that were originally available and still have an authentic restoration.
The last photo of this listing shows a 1956 Plymouth Fury convertible that is white with tan interior and has gold anodized aluminum exterior trim. To the best of my knowledge, Chrysler never made any Fury convertibles until 1957. If one had access to a rusty 1956 Plymouth Fury hardtop for the high-performance engine & transmission as well as the heavier suspension, tachometer, gold anodized aluminum side trim and other lesser items, one could certainly build one of the arguably most interesting and desirable 1956 Plymouths of all.
To the best of my limited knowledge here, this Plymouth convertible shares the same basic body (with different rear quarter panels) with the 1955 Plymouth convertible and the 1955-1956 Dodge convertibles. One could use this car as a donor to fix any of these other convertibles but I think it would be a shame to do so. Either of my two other 1956 Plymouth convertibles that I plan to list here this summer would make better donor cars. Please watch my listings here for over the next few months for many other vehicles that I plan to sell here.
The very special, fragile die-cast metal and most often missing sun visors with brackets are present on this car so that is a real bonus. I have no idea what engine is in this car or even if it turns over or not. I never really cared because I planned to buy a running parts car and use the drivetrain parts that were the best between the pair of cars. Someone told me they thought it was a 318 so please let me know if you can tell which engine is in this car.As far as options on this vehicle are concerned, I believe they would include the V8 engine, Powerflite automatic transmission, power top, AM pushbutton radio and perhaps some lesser items I am not aware of.
I am selling this gem that is somewhat tarnished partially because I recently turned 65 years of age and have several other projects in the works that matter more to me than this car now does. My loss may be your gain on this deal. I received no paperwork with this car when I bought it several years ago. I did recently apply for a new Montana tittle and should have it in a month or so at the latest. I need to be paid for this car withina week (7 days) after it sells whether I have new paperwork in hand or not. The money from the sale of this car goes to pay for a nice 1932 vintage automobile that may be my last hurrah in the world of collector vehicles so that car is very important to me. This is my deal here so if those terms are not satisfactory to you, then you had better not buy it and try to find another deal somewhere else. My reserve is reasonable and set a considerable amount below the "Buy It Now" price.I can accept various forms of payment so please contact me so we can discuss those options. I have required a $500 PayPal payment in order to keep the "wannabees" from hitting the "Buy It Now" button and not paying as I have had 7 people do here in the last 8 months on some of my other listings.
This car has been stored inside for the last several years and as long as I owned it until November of 2017. I moved it outside then and covered the passenger compartment to keep it reasonably dry. We have had record snowfall this year here in Montana. This car is stored at a building site where I can access it unless we get another 2 feet or more of new snow which is possible but not very likely. Even then, my brother has a tractor that can be used to scoop the snow out of the way so this car can then be loaded. Do not expect one of the big name transporters that have the large rigs with 2 trailers to pick this up without working this out with me first. I would have to drive 225 miles where the car is stored, load it on my single cartrailer, haul it 5 miles to town and meet them there to transfer it to their rig. I can do that if need be depending on the weather here. Normal winters are nowhere near like this winter has been. It has been so cold this winter that my brother at the home ranch, where this car is stored, has had trouble with theears freezing on his newborn calves.
It is no problem if you buy this car and wish to leave it here for a few months until you or a friend can make a trip this coming spring or summer to beautiful Montana to pick it up. I have a friend that may be able to deliver this car anywhere here in the USA or Canada for around $.70 per loaded mile depending on where you live and how soon you need it. If you live somewhere other than North America, I can have this car delivered to the port of your choice where it can be included in a large sea-going container being shipped to your country.
I have a lot more detailed photos of this car that I can email to you.I have also been saving photos for many years off of the internet of restored 1956 Plymouth convertibles painted in many different color combinations. If you would like to see what this beauty might look like when completed, I would be happy to email them to you. Please do not expect me to send them to you through the eBay mail system because I can only send 5 photos at a time and they get considerably reduced in size before you receive them.
This is a rather rare opportunity to acquire anexceptionally nice unrestored 1956 Plymouth Belvedere top of the line convertible. If this car interests you, you might dell to give some very serious thought to purchasing this project while you can. Thanks a lot, Bob Woodburn in Bozeman Montana USA - 406-799-1847