Kansas Joe’s seven window sedan

The first thing you see is the profile with all windows. Normally, it should give a messy impression but not. The silver Plymouth  with black windows draws eyes to it. Different, fresh, cheeky. The hunt for Kansas Joe is on. by Krantz

Worldkustom found the car at Southwest Florida Hotrod Nationals in Jetblue Park, Fort Myers. Among cupés and convertibles, muscle cars and Mercury Sleighs it sticks out like a bicycle bell on a HD handlebar. The long, low rod from Plymouth is unexpected, surprising and odd.

No owner in sight. I don’t  know that I’m chasing a cowboy from Kansas.

After an hour I  pass the car again and now a man sits behind the car.

– Oh shoot the car for a magazine! It would be an honor.

-Look cruel like a cowboy. -Jeez how do you do that in short pants and sandals, Lars?
– I miss my boots.
Good times with Joe Jenkins, Kansas / Florida.

Joe Jenkins grew up on a farm in Kansas. Life has taken him on an economic roller coaster where he first became wealthy and then, in the real estate crisis and economic stagnation,  was close to losing everything.

As investor and manager of investment and propertys the cowboy choose early to saddle on from riding horses to ride the bull on Wall Street.

Today, he is back in the saddle in charge of his future . The farm in Kansas is still there  as well as the accommodation in Florida and he looks to the future as an active retiree, still with some papers  in the folders to be signed.

The Plymouth is from 1934 and was bought as  a well advanced but unfinished project.
-I fell for the color combination right away, says Joe.
A bright silver color from 1939 Pontiac balanced against a late Mustang color in darker tinted green  topped with black windows.
-I knew immediately that I wanted it even if it was not finished.

To complete the build was not a problem for Joe who raced in drag racing with a 1965 Nova, owned lots of cars, renovated drag boats and who also like remodeled motorcycles. He began with Ford to become a GM guy, he says, and now he’s into a rod from the Chrysler Group. The gages were moved from the center to behind the steering wheel by the former owner.  Joe liked that.

If the serial number starts at two, the car’s built in Detroit. A third indicates Los Angeles and if the  serial number begins with  nine, it is made in Windsor. 108 407 Sedans were built. The price was $ 660.  The modeled and slick Plymouth gives a fat impression. Fuel cap from Jaguar pops.

Plymouth  was first presented to the  buyers the  7:th  ofJuly in 1928 as a budget brand of the Chrysler dealerships.

Standalone Plymouth retailers did not exist. This was Chrysler’s attempt to access the discount segment dominated by Ford and Chevrolet.

The Plymouth was from the start slightly more expensive but could offer features such as hydraulic brakes and in 1934 the individual front suspension.

The motor  was a slant six with a three-speed gearbox. The car was sold at Chrysler, DeSoto and Dodge and it sold well. In the depression of the thirties Plymouth was considered the rescue dog for the whole Chrysler group.

Joe Jenkins 34 a is initially a Sedan De Luxe.  A car with a long wheelbase, low windows and beautiful proportions. The lines have been reinforced with chopped roof, lowered front and rear suspension with ingredients from the Corvette and  Fatman, plus large wheels with low profile tires. The breeder Joe has built himself with ingredients from motorcycles. The mill is a  Chevy 383 stroker with a TH700 tranny.

Result: A swollen, hungry, big rod, aristocratic silver sober with black windows  that provide limousine feeling without taxi-sence and  with well maintained hot rod rebellion.

A tough car! Seven windows because you  usually call the  rod bodies for the number of windows windshield away calculated.

Five window and three window I have heard about but never seven window. Cheeky.

Suicide doors are original and plays nicely with new flames from the custom world.

Deleted handles and hood sides are enough to the car’s original bodywork to become a full-fledged hotrod.
-It Was 75 percent complete when I bought it, said Joe starts the engine and put it in drive.
– I have had  a new interior sewn up and added an electric sunroof.

The motor surprises and palm leaves becomes a green batter outside the open window. Kansas gets 30 years younger in three minutes. He brakes, throws in the car on a side street and runs with chrome elbow along the canal where seabirds dries wings on stilts in the water.
-Here We could shoot, I say, if it were not for all signs.

We  park and now Joe is 25 where he goes wild on a road sign.

Suddenly, we have moved from Florida’s laid-back conformance to testo wrestling of the Kansas ranch with fencing and wire.

The sweat runs. We huff and puff. The heat takes over. Joe looks up, and we both feel it

What are we doing? Are we teenagers or?

Right there in a split second  the contact is full.

The peasant boy  from northern Sweden that  become a writer and the  cowboy from Kansas who became  a briefcase carrier. Both united over a stubborn stick  in the Gulf of Mexico.

-Joe Jenkins, a cool  dude with a cool rod.