66 Sport Fury-From The Beginning

Clay Harrison

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So before I get to far along I thought I'd start sharing the process here. That way folks can chime in when they see me doing something stupid (assuming folks will not be too bored to check in).
So far we have the car and I've began collecting parts and trying to formulate a plan based upon what's available. I guess you would call this a restomod? for lack of a better term. I'm not going to completely disassemble this car but we will go thru it and get it mechanically sound and hopefully make it easy on the eyes. Some stuff will be period correct and some stuff will be modified to correct bad taste on the part of the PO. My wife and I would rather do some cruising than have it in the garage being restored the rest of our lives...
Feel free to add any info you'd like.

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Looks like a good candidate and I like your idea of driving it sooner than later. Good luck and enjoy.
 
I had some time off over the holidays so I thought I'd begin prepping some interior parts for the chromer. I ordered some stainless steel with 1/16 perforations to rebuild the rear seat speaker cover. Got the donor frame and emblem ready to ship. The other parts will be blasted and powder coated.

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Thanks for sharing
We can always learn from each other
There’s lots of threads here of shared info on how to do it the right way and even some not so right way :lol:

Best of luck in getting the Fury road worthy and enjoying the drive :thumbsup:
 
The console in the car shows 50 years of abuse so when we did the road trip for the 440 from the 66 New Yorker, I salvaged the console. I'm not all that into the stock wood grain top and since they are identical except for trim, the plan is to send these parts to the chromer and powdercoater and swap them out.

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OK heres where it starts getting weird. The NY'er console came with this console mounted vacuum gauge. I'm wondering if I can swap the guts out with a tach?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

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Thanks for sharing
We can always learn from each other
There’s lots of threads here of shared info on how to do it the right way and even some not so right way :lol:

Best of luck in getting the Fury road worthy and enjoying the drive :thumbsup:
BTW, love the interior in the Polara...
 
OK heres where it starts getting weird. The NY'er console came with this console mounted vacuum gauge. I'm wondering if I can swap the guts out with a tach?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

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The 4-speed cars came with a factory 6000rpm (I believe that rpm range was 6K, but might have been 7K?) factory tach in that location. Automatic cars got the vacuum gauge. That console mounting location was pretty upscale back then, rather than having one band-clamped to the steering column shaft or mounted on the top of the dash (which padded dashes kind of eliminated).

The OEM tach might have needed a "driver box" under the hood, as other factory Sunn tachs did in the earlier '60s. You'll need to look around to see what's still around in that particular gauge size dimention. The ones you'll now find will be purely electronic and could well have a 8K rpm dial on them.

The thing about tachs is that they, as normal instruments do, have a percentage of error at full scale. This means that a lower rpm dial will be more accurate than a higher rpm scale would. 2% + or - will be more for a 8000rpm tach than for a 5000rpm tach, for example. But if you're using it for a "relatively-accurate gauge", that's not a big deal. But if you're looking for specific numbers, it can be. FWIW.

The term "restomod" is a recent invention. I first heard it at the televised auctions. In prior times, it might tend to relate to what was termed "Day 2 Restoration". Meaning what owners of new cars did to them the second day they owned them. As accessory gauges for oil pressure, a tach mounted somewhere easy to see, different wheels/tires, etc. Of course, when I first heard of this term in the later '80s, finding vintage items to replicate these things was still possible at reasonable prices. In modern times, some newer alternatives are possible. When they were still available, the Chrysler Mopar Performance electronic ignition kit was an accepted modification that everybody approved of. Check with Mancini in Michigan for something of that manner as they were a big-time Chrysler parts dealer when these kits were still around, back then.

Looks like you have a very good platform to deal with, from what I've seen. Winter's a good time to get things done, but that time can evaporate if you don't watch it. But DO plan things out and do research prior to what you do. Keep us posted!

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
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Glad to see another one of these fixed up. I have pretty much completed this one and enjoy whenever we can. It’s a great car to drive. Only wish I had the 383 or 440 vs the 318. Worst part of this restoration was getting parts
Good luck and enjoy it.
 
The 4-speed cars came with a factory 6000rpm (I believe that rpm range was 6K, but might have been 7K?) factory tach in that location. Automatic cars got the vacuum gauge. That console mounting location was pretty upscale back then, rather than having one band-clamped to the steering column shaft or mounted on the top of the dash (which padded dashes kind of eliminated).

The OEM tach might have needed a "driver box" under the hood, as other factory Sunn tachs did in the earlier '60s. You'll need to look around to see what's still around in that particular gauge size dimention. The ones you'll now find will be purely electronic and could well have a 8K rpm dial on them.

The thing about tachs is that they, as normal instruments do, have a percentage of error at full scale. This means that a lower rpm dial will be more accurate than a higher rpm scale would. 2% + or - will be more for a 8000rpm tach than for a 5000rpm tach, for example. But if you're using it for a "relatively-accurate gauge", that's not a big deal. But if you're looking for specific numbers, it can be. FWIW.

The term "restomod" is a recent invention. I first heard it at the televised auctions. In prior times, it might tend to relate to what was termed "Day 2 Restoration". Meaning what owners of new cars did to them the second day they owned them. As accessory gauges for oil pressure, a tach mounted somewhere easy to see, different wheels/tires, etc. Of course, when I first heard of this term in the later '80s, finding vintage items to replicate these things was still possible at reasonable prices. In modern times, some newer alternatives are possible. When they were still available, the Chrysler Mopar Performance electronic ignition kit was an accepted modification that everybody approved of. Check with Mancini in Michigan for something of that manner as they were a big-time Chrysler parts dealer when these kits were still around, back then.

Looks like you have a very good platform to deal with, from what I've seen. Winter's a good time to get things done, but that time can evaporate if you don't watch it. But DO plan things out and do research prior to what you do. Keep us posted!

Enjoy!
CBODY67
Thanks for the info. Honestly, being an automatic, I have absolutely no use for the tach. I just thought it would be cool. Maybe we just go with the vacuum gauge? Decisions, decisions.....
 
Thanks. These have lots of appeal and I felt looked better than many aftermarket rims. They were a bit rough when I got the car but once we disassembled and cleaned them they looked good. Also repainted the black inserts, the glass inserts and then polished them.
 
Thanks to one of our members in NY I have the correct fender skirts on their way here. Now if I could just find a reasonably priced set of bumper guards I'd be a happy man.....
 
Cool ride. I'm also partial to 66 SFs. Does your VIN indicate it came with a 440 (J )? Even cooler.
 
Well I got a good bit done this week but very little to show for it.
A bunch of chrome (interior stuff) is packed up and ready to ship out.

The Carter carb is packed and ready for the post office Monday going to Dana in Ohio. I've decided to do the restoration job on it in lieu of just the standard rebuild.

I still haven't picked up the donor 66 VIP car that I bought for parts due to rain/warm weather and MUD (both where it's parked and where it has to go). The first Saturday the ground is frozen that puppy is coming out of there!!!

I caught a local powder coater having a slow spot so my dual snorkel is back and put away for when we need it. While I was there I dropped off some smalls that I figured would be better to PC than paint.

All of my repro engine bay decals have shown up and I think I found a semi local set of Mickey Thompson valve covers that will deff need a visit to Leanna.

I still have a laundry list of stuff I'd like to get my hands on;
Front bumper guards
Aftermarket intake
Good set of headers

Tomorrow morning we are going to steam clean the engine from the New Yorker, get it on the stand, and start dismantling. I'm excited......

And could someone let the mods know I think this thread is in the wrong place so they can move it if they wish. I didn't realize there was a projects and restoration section.

Here's a before and after of the dual snorkel. Not bad for 50 years old!

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The rain finally stopped so we got the New Yorker donor motor hoisted to begin the process of cleaning 50 years of grime and move it into the garage for dismantling.

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