1970 Plymouth Fury Convertible build

The lower grill is made of some pretty soft metal, as long as you take your time and gently work it, it will come out fine. Enjoy! :poke:
 
Wow! 8 years outside without a windshield did a number on your firewall. I wonder if it would have been simpler to have had a firewall cut out, palletized, and shipped over from a US junkyard. Glad Swamp is working at a deep discount. Great tenacity in getting this car done!
 
I so need a Swamp and Moomin
You got that right, those are some MAD skills! Can we get a work visa for those two for a year so they could come to the states?

LOL, you could get a running 318 for almost nothing here. Most bare blocks are used as door stops. Noticed on the first page you have a decent windshield washer reservoir. If it is solid it's worth it's weight in gold.

Great progress!
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I'll take a look for the manuals.

Wollfen, I'm interested in those strips.

1970FuryConv, that car looks awesome. Something for me to aim for. Swamp is working at a massive discount for me, so I couldn't possibly say how much that trunk floor cost.

So, more rust.
View attachment 75110 View attachment 75111 View attachment 75112
And more stout work:View attachment 75113 View attachment 75114 View attachment 75115 View attachment 75116 View attachment 75117
So, onto the cowl area. This bit was hidden from view by the front fenders. It adjoins the rusted out holes that first got the car parked up and I half expected more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised to find mostly metal, with a few small holes. Need a patch panel:
View attachment 75118
So far so good, but when the hole was cut for the panel to go in:
View attachment 75119
In the words of Homer Simpson, "D'Oh!"

In the words of Homer Simpson, "D'Oh!"
In the words of Long John Silver: Aaarrrgh !
 
Parking it with no windshield was pretty sound logic if you're concerned about a small amount of rust in the glass channel. Can't trap moisture there if it's exposed!

So much for sending cars to Europe where they're more appreciated, lol!

Good luck with your project!
Some years ago, there was a 1968 Imperial Crown convertible here in South Australia, it sat out in the rain all winter, with no top on. Very sad.
 
Her Majesty's Government has banned the export of Swamp and Moomin as this country needs their services!

So taking a short break from firewall duty it was onto the passenger side cowl area.
Doesn't look so bad.
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But as usual there's more to do underneath.
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Patching begins.
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It's great when you can compress a whole load of work to 4 photos.
Now to the windshield frame.
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Main rotten section replaced.
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As with the driver's side, the patch is made but we'll offer up the windshield before welding in place. If everything works out, that should be this week.
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So, back to the firewall. Couple of smaller, rotten areas getting cut out and patched.
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A few rust holes where the floor meets the firewall.
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And some of last week's patches going in.
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Paint!
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Got to say I'm really pleased with how this is coming along. The guys are doing an awesome job.
 
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OK, questions guys:

The A post had some funny little things screwed to it:
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Something to position the glass? Or hold the trim in place? Whatever they are, most of them have rusted away. Does anyone make them?

Also, could anyone identify this object?
IMG-20160426-WA0000.jpg

It was loose in the bottom of one of the doors. The inset panel has the Chrysler star.
 
OK, questions guys:

The A post had some funny little things screwed to it:View attachment 77439
Something to position the glass? Or hold the trim in place? Whatever they are, most of them have rusted away. Does anyone make them?

Also, could anyone identify this object?
View attachment 77440
It was loose in the bottom of one of the doors. The inset panel has the Chrysler star.
I looked at my doors and couldn't find anything like that. I wonder if the door is original? I had to replace my passenger door and I used one from a 2drht which did not have a vent window. After swapping the guts the door worked perfectly. That molding you have might be from a ventless door.
 
The clip on the A-pillar is for the windshield trim and yes they are available
 
OK, who thought I'd given up?

Work has been continuing, but I've been busy, so I haven't been posting updates. I'll try to catch up over the next few days. My work has been through it's busy period, which I won't bore you with, but we've been having fun too.

Like making the annual pilgrimage across the pond for some of this:
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and a little of this:
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Not to mention buying too much stuff for my luggage allowance:
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This is on top of the already huge pile of boxes from Summit, Corvette Central and ebay. I can see a container in my future.

We also made it to France for a show and back again without completely breaking down:
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And there were some neat old Chrysler Corp products there (although Plymouth was independent when this one was made):
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And our local meet is still getting some cool, full-size stuff turning up.
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So, enough of that. Back on topic.

Patching continues around the passenger side.
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And the floor needed several little patches too:
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Before being painted:
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Really good to see a large area like this finished.
 
The external body work has also begun. Now, at this point I should observe dwindling funds for the car, which means we're not going to do a full-on, bare metal restoration. This car has been in the UK's notoriously wet climate for quite a while now and stripping the paint off reveals multiple layers of filler below:
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So it's a case of rust repair and smoothing for now.
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I was given something by the previous owner - the build sheet:
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So the car has (or had) an LSD. I seem to remember turning one of the wheels and the other one went the other way, so an open diff now. Two paint codes though? DT7776 (dark green) and DT1417 (white). Why two? With a white roof. By trim, I imagine it means the interior color - Tan? Wrong colour - it's blue. And I'm struggling with that VIN: AA0BL5X153594 I think. That L might be an E.

He's the tag on the core support - bit hard to read, but I was expecting it to repeat the VIN from the build sheet.
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And there's something on the door too, which seems to agree with the tag.
LI-Plymouth-00.jpg

P - Plymouth Fury
M - Medium price class
27 - Convertible
G - 318 two barrel
0 - 1970
D - made at Belvedere, IL

All seems reasonable.

So, is the build sheet wrong or am I reading it wrong?
 
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Build sheets weren't necessarily placed in the car that it belonged to, the inspector often times simply placed it in the nearest car after final inspection. In fact many forums have a "swap" offer for anyone who finds incorrect build sheets in their cars and are happy to give them to fellow members if they happen to have the car with the correct VIN that matches the build sheet. The VIN you have described on your sheet doesn't belong to any Plymouth that I know of, the number doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Thanks for the informative posts. WRT the build sheet I've never seen anything like it so maybe the PO was confused and mixed up the paperwork for different cars?
 
Thanks for the informative posts. WRT the build sheet I've never seen anything like it so maybe the PO was confused and mixed up the paperwork for different cars?
That's for a Dodge Ramcharger. They were stuck to the bottom of the hood.
 
OK. time to catch up. Nothing too exciting has happened, so here's a quick summary of where I'm at.

I pulled the pan off the trans and found some shiny stuff (expected) and an inch of broken off stud with a nut on it (uh-oh).
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Came from the lever on the right, you can see where it broke off in the lower right.
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Now, I have no idea how an auto trans works, but I figure this is probably not good, so it's been off to the trans specialist I use and they found a broken clip on the reversing band, which apparently puts extra pressure on that stud. All replaced and back, cleaned up and ready for some paint.
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Meanwhile, the engine has been coming together over at the engine builders.
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It's further along now than in this photo, but I'll post about the engine in more detail when it comes back. That should be later this month.

So the big development is that the car has come home. Well, most of it has anyway. This was Wednesday of last week.
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The other panels are painted, but still needed some final buffing and polishing so they'll be coming back in the near future.

Now it's over to me, so this is where I'm going to start asking loads of questions.

Like, do you think the driver-side front will be good for much more than 60mph?
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