Mopar of the Month: December, 1999

1964 Plymouth Sport Fury

This month's Mopar of the Month is a tribute to the process many of us struggle so long to achieve: getting a project car beyond the project stage! You see, Bob's 1964 started its listing on the 1962 to 1965 Mopar Web Site as a Works in Progress vehicle.
In this season of good cheer and remberance of what is important in our lives, let us all hope that our projects turn out as well. :-)

Seasons Greetings everyone!

The car is a 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury by the VIN numbers, although it wears Belvedere side trim.

I work for the FAA in NJ doing air traffic control system engineering and back in 1996, I was asked if I would be willing to move from NJ to California's Silicon Valley to work for a year with NASA on an Air Traffic Control system prototype they were developing. After some convincing of the wife, she agreed it would be a great opportunity. Upon arriving there in January, 1997, I quickly realized that this was a car guy's paradise. There were a lot more old cars on the road than I was used to.

I had left behind my 1966 Chrysler project and was feeling the need for a toy before long. One day in February, I called about an ad I saw for a 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury (I had always liked the look of the early B-bodies).

When I arrived at the guy's house to look at it, I realized it was a 1964; the guy said "yea, I've had people tell me that". Well, I bought it along with two 440's the guy had sitting in his garage. The 440 in it ran pretty well and I proceeded to enjoy it for the rest of my year long tenure in CA after which I towed it across the country home behind a Ryder truck loaded with all the stuff we had brought out (and the two extra 440s).

When I got home, it wasn't long before I started to think about restoring it, those thoughts quickly turned to restoring/racing it. So the long process began. I worked on the car from early 1998 until September, 1999, (as if it is ever finished).

For more background on restoring this Plymouth view Bob's Works in Progress Web Page!

Believe it or not, the paint job is the only thing I did not redo: 15 years old and it still looks pretty darn presentable. I disassembled the whole car inside and out, scraped all the old undercoating off the bottom (a very enjoyable job, I do not recommend it to the faint at heart), sandblasted the whole underside and engine compartment and had a friend spray a remarkably good color match. This friend (Bob Dyer of Dyer Enterprises in Alloway, NJ) also convinced me of the merits of powdercoating, I soon purchased an Eastwood powdercoating kit and began to coat anything I could get my hands on. I did have to have a couple of the larger pieces (K-frame, Rear Housing) profesionally done but most everything else I did myself. By the way, those Eastwood systems are great, after screwing up a couple pieces I quickly mastered it and would recommend it to anyone performing a resto.

Since the car was from California, I didn't have any rust to correct, but there were some interesting things done to the car prior to my ownership. For instance, it had been retrofitted with a late model heating system for some reason, including hacking a hole in the firewall for the blower motor to stick through! The car had apparently had about 100 different seats mounted in it, 'cause I had to weld up about that many holes in the floor.

Parts to complete the car came from all different sources: Dyer had a complete heater system as well as many other miscellaneous parts necessary; Honda Civic bucket seats served my purpose well from the local boneyard; a roadtrip to Pittsburg netted a B-body Dana rear, the 1962 to 1965 Mopar Web site supplied me with a few sources; and Summit Racing/Jegs provided most of the performance goodies. The roll cage, rear suspension setup and a few other miscellaneous things were performed by Dyer Enterprises and the machine work and engine assembly were masterfully done by another good friend, Rich Sayell of R&R Machine in Vineland, NJ. They still make fun of my excitement the first day we fired it up!

1964 Plymouth Sport Fury

I couldn't be happier with the results as I have taken it to the track 4 times now running a best of 12.21 @111mph. Later in the winter I hope to put an exhaust system on it (pitty, it sounds so good open) so I can put it on the street in the spring. I have to run aviation fuel in it so I don't suppose I'll be comuting to work too often but I do look forward to the looks I'll get while cruising!

December, 1999

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