1941 Plymouth truck, restored to origional condition, runs and drives great.

With its low-priced cars, Plymouth was a crashing breaker on the expanding American mass market when Chrysler introduced the brand in 1928. Now deceased, even for cars, the Plymouth nameplate still stands as one of the most rapidly spreading sales wildfires in industry history. By 1934, one out of every four new American cars was a Plymouth. Blessed with that kind of success, Plymouth dealers were still clamoring for more opportunities, so Chrysler began easing the brand onto commercial turf. In 1935, Plymouth introduced a two-door “commercial sedan,” and a panel delivery the year after that. In 1937, Plymouth finally rolled out a line of actual light trucks.

The first Plymouths for business use were intended to augment the Dodge light trucks that were also in Chrysler’s hat. The early ones were styled like Plymouth cars, but actually shared little of the sheet metal. They did, however, employ the very basic 201.3-cu.in. L-head straight-six, with 70hp in truck trim, that powered Plymouth cars of the same years. The “car” look lasted through 1939, when the trucks were restyled to look like trucks, even though they still shared the auto engine and most car chassis components. The 1939 styling would endure, largely unmodified except for the substitution of sealed-beam headlamps, until the last Plymouth pickups were built for the 1941 model year.