"something of an extraordinary nature will turn up..."

Mr. Micawber in Dickens' David Copperfield

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CarPort

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CarPort
January 12th, 2005

Where's Walter?

If you have puzzled your way through the Where’s Waldo books you know how Wayne Graefen felt. He had come to California to buy a Plymouth, and he was feeling like the child looking for Martin Handford’s cheeky little bespectacled gent. All he could see was a huge heap of ivy. In tribute to Walter P. Chrysler, he exclaimed “Where’s Walter?”

After an hour’s work, Wayne and his friend Press Kale, along with seller Cal Moxley, had the Plymouth out in daylight. Seeing, at long last, a rare 1932 PB convertible sedan, Wayne renewed his committment to buy it. Consummation merely awaited disposition of the Pontiac, Packard and GMC truck in front of it, as well as another Pontiac and two Cadillacs, so it could be moved.

The car has since emigrated to Wayne’s Texas home, and restoration awaits. Plymouth’s convertible sedan was not as popular (690 built) as Ford’s equivalent B400 (41 fours and 842 V8s), nor as well known today. It is not, however, as obscure as the similar 1930 Sun Sedan built both as a Hudson and an Essex.

Perhaps surprisingly, after too much time outdoors the Plymouth is in remarkably good shape, the seats almost comfortable for sitting. Wayne reports, however, that the ivy had obscured the car’s true gender; “Walter” has since been re-christened “Ivy la Deuce.”

Serendipity: n. An aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
“They were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”
Horace Walpole, The Three Princes of Serendip
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