Works in Progress
1963 Plymouth Belvedere
Pete Berge writes:
My car was bought in probably the worst way, after a friend had taken
the good bits for his car and put the bad bits on this one. I stepped
up and bought it.
Although the floor and trunk were excellent, it had
fist size holes in the firewall to contend with -- as well as half of the
rear parcel shelf was rusted out.
I will be running a 318 LA engine and original push button auto, as the
LA engines were used in the Australian Valiants so are in plentiful
supply.
It may be of interest to readers that it was assembled new at the Todd Motor assembly plant at Porirua, here in New Zealand. It has a different dash to the U.S.
models, though I'm told all export models did.
The car was going to be pale blue but I have since decided to
paint it as a cop car after seeing one in Mopar Muscle Magazine. It's
got to get more looks at runs than pale blue right?
It's a budget build as it will be a daily driver. I'll keep you posted
as it progresses.
Update - November 2001
Not long after my last contact while looking for a good grill & windscreen, my cousin came across a complete car with a brand new screen & immaculate grill. What made it even better was the tidy interior & the pannel work was done ready to rub back & paint. At $1300 N.Z it was a good buy. When the friend I bought my original car off herd, he offered to buy back the bare shell from my first car as it turned out to be in better condition than the one he kept. Will send photo's when developed.
Pete,
Well, I don't know about New Zealand, but 1963 Plymouths on the road will get looks whatever color and whereever they cruise!
Hey, they are very pretty cars, after all! Scarce, too.
Thanks for stepping in and rescuing the Plymouth. It will take some work, but you certainly will end up with a unique and VERY noticable fun daily driver. :-)
I
Gary H.
January 23, 2001, revised December 26, 2001
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