We came mainly for the natural scenery and hiking at Joshua Tree National Park, but we both love to look at the historical record of human activity in places like this too. So when we read about the Keys Desert Queen Ranch, and that small guided tours were available, we got up early one morning to make sure we got a ticket. It was well worth it, and in addition to the ranch buildings, machinery, collected junk parts, the gold ore stamping machine and other artifacts, there were these two old Mopars sitting out a ways off. They weren’t the only vehicles on the place, but I’ll do a more detailed post on the ranch later.
The green sedan is a 1939 Plymouth and this fine long-tailed business coupe is a 1941 Dodge. Both were missing their engines, which may well have been re-purposed for other needs on the remote desert outpost.
The Dodge is no less than a Luxury Liner. Needless to say, rust is ot a problem here, except for the most superficial kind.
Wonderful! 1939 Mopars are on my short list too…
1941 Business Coupe for me, please!
Long tail is a gorgeous compendium of curves. Funny how these seems as natural within a (semi) arid landscape as any of the vegetation.
Being that these old Mopars are in a national park, I’d imagine that they are on permanent display, forever protected, legally anyway.
I’d get into whatever business it took to drive off in a coupe like that. Impressive find.
If Phil Kaufman drove one he would have had no need for any long wheelbase “professional car” in Sept 1973
Looking forward to the next installment!
The 39 Plymouth looks like it got a conversion to round sealed beams to replace the square lensed stock units. Cool finds!
Didnt the 38 have round lights? could have just been swapped over
“Didnt the 38 have round lights? could have just been swapped over”
Certainly possible, but those were separate bulb lights just like the square 39s. 1940 was the year that the US auto industry adopted sealed beams. It is my understanding that sealed beam conversions were not uncommon because of their superior performance.
Chrysler’s styling between the Airflow and 1940 was kind of hit and miss but the 39 Plymouth may have been the prettiest thing they did during that period. This would have been the very tail end of Ray Dietrich’s influence on styling at Chrysler.
I remember when I was a kid in the late 1950’s seeing quite a few late 1930’s cars with sealed-beam conversions. It’s not surprising that a few still exist.
Talk about the grand daddy of 5 MPH bumpers, even if the bumper was attached to the bracket of the coupe it would still be sticking out a country mile!
Is that “Luxury Liner” badge in the grille a separate, removable casting? Nice!
It’s pressed into the rear bumper as well. You can just make it out in the photo.
Amazing that these relics don’t bear the wounds of being used for target practice, like the many I encountered while exploring the trails around Arizona’s Superstition Mountains.
SOMEWHERE WEST OF LARAMIE…
You hit a nerve! lol
Checking in Old Car Brochures, it seems that all Dodges of this era were “Luxury Liners.” They could be purchased with either Special or Deluxe trim. Our example here appears to be a Deluxe model, as it has the chrome strip running along the side. Other Deluxe features included a larger steering wheel and larger hub caps than the Special (Be still my heart!). Both had the Dodge 217 cu. in. L-head six, so the motors may have indeed outlived the rest of the vehicles. I believe this body style could come in either three passenger (front seat only), commonly described as a “business coupe,” or six passenger version. I do not know how the people in the back could possibly fit; perhaps that one had a slightly different roof line. There was no ’41 brochure available on the site, so I am working from the ’40 and ’46 models.
My dad told us that when he came back from the war he purchased a ’41 Chrysler 3 passenger business coupe, the pickings being rather slim at the time. He had a carpenter build a small seat “cushion” for the back so that he could double date with my mom, my Aunt Joan and my eventual Uncle Eddie. Resourceful folk, they were.
Beautiful Coupe there .
In the 1970’s I had a 1939 Dodge four door sedan, marvelous car .
-Nate