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World’s oldest known Plymouth restored in Windsor where it was built

By Samad Fitzgerald

  1. Local News
  2. driving.approx
  3. automotive

Michael Hunter poses with his 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Michael Hunter poses with his 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

Michael Hunter never tallied the cost of restoring the world’s oldest surviving Plymouth, a 1928 Windsor-built Chrysler-Plymouth Q.

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“Just so that you can enjoy the car, don’t add it up,” a Windsor car buff told Hunter shortly after his high bid of $25,000 returned the car to its Windsor roots.

So the semi-retired Windsor pharmacist can honestly say he doesn’t know how much he spent during the last seven years on the restoration.

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The four-door green sedan was the star Thursday at one of its few public events. Ladies dressed as flappers from The Old Bats with Red Hats chapter posed with it and three other antique cars for their “Great Gatsby” Roaring Twenties luncheon at the Serbian Centre.

“This is just beyond my wildest dreams,” Linda Hill, the chapter’s leader called a Queen, said of having the restored Plymouth at the event. “It’s Windsor’s history.”

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Michael Hunter poses with his 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Michael Hunter poses with his 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

Hunter wanted to rescue the made-in-Windsor Plymouth after reading a 2010 Windsor Star story about an auction out west for what was believed to be the oldest remaining Plymouth.

It was like an anti-climax because it took so long

His wife Mary Edna Hunter said they weren’t really into cars but an old Windsor-built Ford that had not only left the area but was sold to an American owner was fresh in their minds.

“We said, ‘No. This one’s going to come home,” she said.

The Chrysler-Plymouth Q started production in June, 1928 and the Hunter’s car was the 287th one off the line, Michael said. It was assembled at the Maxwell plant that Walter P. Chrysler had acquired on Tecumseh Road and McDougall.

The Chrysler-Plymouth Q was meant to compete with Ford’s Model T. It has a ship like the Mayflower on its front decal.

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The car was in rough shape when the Hunters got it below his pre-arranged maximum bid at the Alberta auction. The car was bought new in Alberta and had stayed there for 82 years. It wasn’t driveable. The faded upholstery had tins cans covering pointy seat springs. The car has a wooden body with a metal skin and the paint — the Plymouth came in green and blue — was missing on parts of the sedan.

It had to be completely dismantled and then rebuilt.

Linda Hill, the queen of the Old Bats with Red Hats, poses for a photo with 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Linda Hill, the queen of the Old Bats with Red Hats, poses for a photo with 1928 Plymouth outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

Dan Docherty, owner of Danny’s Transmission in Windsor who is more accustomed to Rolls Royce restoration, headed up the Plymouth restoration that took about seven years not counting a winter in storage.

The first ride in the finished Plymouth was in July, Mary Edna said.

“It was like an anti-climax because it took so long.”

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Her husband, who likes to joke he’s 83 but is actually 73 years old, said when the four-door sedan was built it would have cost about $725 US.

He got an early estimate of at least $125,000 to restore it in authentic condition but he wanted to be able to drive and enjoy it. The original plate glass windshield for example was not practical or safe.

“Do you want to see what the original 4-40 Chrysler air conditioning was?” he asked on a mini-tour around the car Thursday morning. “Four windows down at 40 miles an hour.”

But the Plymouth also has a hand-crank inside to move the front windshield up a few inches.

Another interesting feature is the Plymouth’s four-wheel, hydraulic brakes and a special back license plate with a red triangle to warn drivers the car could stop much faster than the mechanical brakes, he said.

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The license plate, warning of four-wheel brakes, on a 1928 Plymouth, is parked outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. The license plate, warning of four-wheel brakes, on a 1928 Plymouth, is parked outside the Serbian Centre, Thursday, May 16, 2019. The Plymouth, built in Windsor, is the oldest in the world. Photo by Dax Melmer /Windsor Star

Ads claimed the Chrysler-Plymouth Q would go 60 miles an hour but the Hunters have only been able to get it to a noisy 40. Cruising speed would be about 35 miles an hour or 56 kilometers an hour, Mary Edna said. You won’t see it in parades because idling would cause the engine to overheat.

The best part about driving in it is when somebody waves, she said. “He honks the horn when somebody waves.”

  1. Gallery: Michael Hunter brings home Windsor-built classic

  2. Gallery: World’s oldest Plymouth up for sale

  3. The grand opening of the Windsor Public Library's new WF Chisholm branch was held Oct. 21, 2017. The automotive-themed facility features vintage fuel pumps and the city's automotive archives.

    Windsor’s automotive history finds home in new Chisholm library branch

  4. Gord Osborne, a transportation technology teacher at Kingsville District High School along with students Paige Roddy, left, Grace Vermeulen and Alec Tonkin pose with Dragula 2.0 on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, at the Canadian Transportation Museum in Kingsville. The purple coffin dragster is based on a car from the TV show Munsters. The car built by about 80 students under Osborne's guidance won two awards at the Detroit Autorama show.

    Kingsville student-built dragster wins two Detroit Autorama awards

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