1973 Plymouth Fury Wagon

That wagon looks great & diggin the paint too.

Our winter has been a dry one and we don't have salted roads, so I've been taking her out only after long stints of the roads being dry and have been very prudent in keeping her clean & dry anywhere mud/grime can accumulate.

I've just relocated to CA for work so she's going to becoming a CA shortly.
 
So, the Wagon has been in SoCal for a couple of months now.

Since she's been here she's been driven a good amount—stil less than I'd like to, thought— & had a fair amount of work done.

The steering box has been replaced a total of 3 times now; the original leaked heavily, so it was replaced with a Reman'd box which was so messed up it only provided power assist in one direction. The second reman was bench tested before installation to ensure proper pressure, but once in the car ended up having so much on-center play the Wagon was questionable to drive above 40mph. For the 3rd (and hopefully last replacement box for a long time) I went to an aftermarket box that firmed up the steering feel & effort. Obviously, in hindsight, I could've saved myself a lot of time to have simply had the original box serviced. On the plus side, though, I've become very efficient at pulling the steering box and not dinging the headers in the process.

The OE starter gave up the ghost, so that got replaced with a Powermaster high torque mini starter, which for being "mini" required me to go through the hassle of pulling the driver-side header to dimple it for clearance, as the ear on the solenoid case turned out to be ever so slightly too wide. With its improved cranking speed, the wagon fires up much quicker and smoother, though—before the EFI would stumble before catching itself due to the slow cranking.

Other work has been reconditioning the paint and installing new UCA's.

For reconditioning the paint following the steps outlined in the following forum: The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints.
I'm pretty happy with how the paint looks

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Great looking wagon. Brings back memories of high school my dad had a 73 Custom Suburban exactly like yours that i drove every chance i could get. I would get up early to take him to work so i could drive it to school there were a couple of us in school who drove wagons. Ours had a 400 cu in had lots of torque would smoke the tires.
 
We certainly have some younger guys on this forum now that are all going down much the same path with C body wagons as a focal point, improved power train performance and all very capable and willing to learn and take risks along the way and work out the issues they face successfully.

Besides you, Chandler, there are Wyatt (@71Polara383 ), @crazyboutwagons, @MonacoBlue and @T-revorNobody to name some of the ones that I can think of readily at least. Very encouraging to see all of your efforts collectively and encouraging to all of us.

It appears that 3 of us live in California now among others on this site.

Keep up the inspiring work!

I am at the other end of the spectrum at almost 75 now but still enjoying much the same kind of work you guys are doing.

Here is my latest C body wagon in the finishing stages with the goal being to achieve a really nice original driver quality vehicle. It now drives and looks very much like new but mine is mostly original with its original patina, including paint and woodgrain. I did refresh the engine with new head gaskets, freeze plugs and pretty much everything else that needed attention but did not rebuild the engine since it didn't need it and I rebuilt the Torqueflite plus all new brakes, removed the front stub-frame to sand blast it and refinish it in por-15 and rebuilt the entire front suspension, a rebuilt original radiator with a new 3 row high efficiency core and so much more to make it perform and drive like new again. I love this wagon! It has the three rows of seats, rear a/c, and a lot of other options plus a conversion headliner now made of cloth instead of the original perforated cardboard and is a copy of the headliner used in the 72 and up C body wagons (thanks to our own @Murray for his help with a couple of the conversion parts he provided to me do that task). Mine has its original 440 engine and dual exhaust system with dual snorkel air cleaner and original interior otherwise with 41K miles on it. It has an nos roof rack now and all of the grille assembly is also nos among many other nos parts. It has been a labor of love.


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We certainly have some younger guys on this forum now that are all going down much the same path with C body wagons as a focal point, improved power train performance and all very capable and willing to learn and take risks along the way and work out the issues they face successfully.

Besides you, Chandler, there are Wyatt (@71Polara383 ), @crazyboutwagons, @MonacoBlue and @T-revorNobody to name some of the ones that I can think of readily at least. Very encouraging to see all of your efforts collectively and encouraging to all of us.

It appears that 3 of us live in California now among others on this site.

Keep up the inspiring work!

I am at the other end of the spectrum at almost 75 now but still enjoying much the same kind of work you guys are doing.

Here is my latest C body wagon in the finishing stages with the goal being to achieve a really nice original driver quality vehicle. It now drives and looks very much like new but mine is mostly original with its original patina, including paint and woodgrain. I did refresh the engine with new head gaskets, freeze plugs and pretty much everything else that needed attention but did not rebuild the engine since it didn't need it and I rebuilt the Torqueflite plus all new brakes, removed the front stub-frame to sand blast it and refinish it in por-15 and rebuilt the entire front suspension, a rebuilt original radiator with a new 3 row high efficiency core and so much more to make it perform and drive like new again. I love this wagon! It has the three rows of seats, rear a/c, and a lot of other options plus a conversion headliner now made of cloth instead of the original perforated cardboard and is a copy of the headliner used in the 72 and up C body wagons (thanks to our own @Murray for his help with a couple of the conversion parts he provided to me do that task). Mine has its original 440 engine and dual exhaust system with dual snorkel air cleaner and original interior otherwise with 41K miles on it. It has an nos roof rack now and all of the grille assembly is also nos among many other nos parts. It has been a labor of love.


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Steve,

Did you end up using the headliner conversion that is available from Newstalgia in that wagon?

If so do you have any pics of the installation and finished product? Thoughts, comments, and concerns of the product?

Will be working on the servpros interior sometime in the spring, and want to do away with the boards that are falling apart.
 
Steve,

Did you end up using the headliner conversion that is available from Newstalgia in that wagon?

If so do you have any pics of the installation and finished product? Thoughts, comments, and concerns of the product?

Will be working on the servpros interior sometime in the spring, and want to do away with the boards that are falling apart.

Yes, Wyatt, I did use the Newstalgia headliner in my 1969 T&C wagon but my installer said they skimped too much on the material and had a hard time getting it secured near the rear tail gate window but he got it done. My installer said he could have made up the headliner at less cost than Newstalgia and it would have had enough material to get it to fit more easily. I did need their bows and attachment brackets for the bows at each end that came with the kit. An upholstery installer might have those available separately though or you could get some bows also from Murray and the installer might also have the brackets available to attach each end of the bows available separately too.

I did have to get a rear of inside roof sawtooth piece like at the front windshield and also the rear cargo mounting light plate from Murray Park to which to attach the headliner at the rear from a 1972/3 C body wagon and also had to acquire a dome light mounting plate to which to secure the dome light since you would not be able to install the domelight without the perforated hardboard to which it originally attached without it. It came out perfectly, just like the 72/73 models did from the factory.

Here are some photos of the completed headliner .................................

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The headliner was dusty when the photos were taken but you can see the final product. It looks even better in person with the headliner more clean and I haven't cleaned the rear air unit enough yet either.

The new headliner made all the difference in the interior and I couldn't be more happy with the outcome - it is night and day better than the crappy perforated hardboard and the cloth headliner, unlike the hardboard one, should go the distance for the rest of the car's existence.

Feel free to call me if you have any other questions or would like additional photos Wyatt.
 
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It's been a minute and just finalized what I'd consider a worthwhile update:
The inline pump has been removed in favor of a custom in-tank setup.

I'd been kicking the idea around for some time but was reluctant to go drilling holes and cutting up my fuel pickup on account of wagon-specific replacement parts being pretty sparse. But after finding out Dantes sells repro's, I felt better about modifying the fuel pickup to work with an in-tank pump since worst-case, I could just buy a new one if I messed up.
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What I did
• Used the OE pickup/sending unit as the foundation so that I could retain the fuel level sender function

• I used a Holley Sniper 340LPH pump and a Racetronix harness.
BLT1 Bulkhead Wiring Assembly, HD Tyco (BCWA-BLT1): Pump Bulkhead Wiring Systems
Holley Sniper 19-342 Holley Sniper E85 In-Tank Electric Fuel Pumps | Summit Racing

• The original lengths of the in-tank wire harness were too short I replaced them with longer runs. For that pass-through bolt — which is how Racetronix did their primary grounding due to amperage draw limitations of the connector — I sealed it by putting a generous amount JBWeld on the threads and on both sides of the hole before tightening down the nuts.

• Welded a -6AN bung to the outlet to easily adapt to 3/8" fuel line

• Made sure that the wires and heat shrink used in-tank were both fuel-compatible. Zipties should hold up since they're not seeing any movement or force on them.
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Issues after installing the new pump
Despite initially doing research to make sure I wasn't going to create more problems for myself by going to a larger pump and concluding it would be OK, I was mistaken.

The internal regulator of the Snipers are nonadjustable and set at 59.5 psi, but with the new pump the fuel supply pressure jumped up to 75 psi. Since Holley makes a point to make sure return line pressure is zero, that was the first thing I checked. It was reading roughly 10 psi on the return side so I routed the return port on the sniper straight into a gas can & confirmed it now read zero psi — Supply pressure still didn't drop.

I consulted a couple of people with years more experience building fuel systems than do and they were both confident the regulator had gone bad & I was finding lots of Sniper-specific forum threads that paralleled this theor

SO, I replaced the regulator thinking that was the issue, once again bypassing into a bucket — still too high.
And then I find buried in a forum thread that the pre-set regulators inside the Snipers can't handle pump flow much greater than the 255LPH the kits ship with.

This was surprising to see since the replacement regulator part states "A 175 GPH 10 Micron filter and a regulator preset at 59.5 psi". 340LPH is roughly 90GPH so, not too sure why the bigger pump is causing pressure to spike? Maybe it's just incorrect information on the part description? Or maybe there is something else about the Sniper systems/or fuel systems and pump sizing I'm missing?

Regardless, I have gone to an adjustable regulator now & that resolved the high-pressure issue.

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Closing Thoughts
Frankly, I wish I had gone to an in-tank setup sooner The original inline setup was horribly noisy and I'm not sure how I convinced myself for the better part of a year that it "isn't that loud". By the time I was at cruising speed or high speeds, that inline pump noise was pretty well blended into the road, wind, & engine/exhaust noise, but at low speed and idle it was louder than the exhaust
In-tank, pump noise levels are effectively non-existent. It is now possible to hold a conversation or listen to music at normal levels.
 
I found this thread again, I looked at some of it before and forgot about it. Your trans cooler install looks good, nice cleanly bent cooler lines
 
Been rebuilding a 727 on the side last few month and got it swapped in over the last weekend.

Nothing special:

-TSR rebuild kit with upgraded clutches and bands, Teflon sealing rings.
-Extra clutch to the direct clutch pack (from 3 to now 4)
-Hughes 24-20 converter - to help with accel from a dead stop.
-Extra capacity pan
-TF-2 shift kit.
-External cooler
-Oiling mods, vent relocation per Carl Monroe 727 handbook.

Definitely a little more lively to drive now considering it’s a 4600ish lb car with 2.71 gearing

Last image is trans when I first opened it up.

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I guess the trans with the "milk shake" in the pan was not the trans you were running in the wagon?! I've never seen such a mess. Great work! Lindsay
 
Finally redid the supply line for the EFI. I didn't have a good tube bender for 3/8" tube when I first installed it a few years and was using the softer easy-bend stuff. I never was too happy with how it looked, but it did the job so I lived with it. Oh, I also went and bent up the new engine bay lines too since the original setup was pretty ugly. New lines have better routing away from exhaust too

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