69 Fury I 440 Pursuit (ex Cochise Cty., AZ Sheriff Dept.)

[TobiasM]

Hi everybody

As some might know/remember: I am the crazy guy who bought what was left of a once pride Plymouth Pursuit.

Car did cost 900$ and had very rare options as proofed by the non existing fendertags:
- code “PO5” => a piece of $hit interior, totally burned by the AZ sun and filled up with rat-poh

- code “E99” => the famous “99% of all ex cop-cars were gutted for their drivetrain”-option

- code “H1U” => “history unknow”-option, after being gutted, it was left abonded for I don’t know how long, person I bought it from had bought it himself to make garden art out of it, neighbours/muncipality did not like the idea of such art, so he decided to sell

- code “N0K” => no keys at all

- code “M1D” => missing passenger front door, I guess due to its Sheriff-graphics it is now wall-art in a Bar or in somebodys mancave.

- code “N0T” => no fendertags, but one can see it once were 2, probably now hang arround somebody’s neck as necklace as in the style of military-ID-tags.

- code “NOB” => no buildsheet, que surprise!

You get the idea: a real trash-can and money-pit. Only pro’s except for being a PK41 are the relatively good body/metal and a cool patina-paint.

I added a poll: would you preserve the Patina by just clear-coating (satin/matte) or repaint the car back to its (RARE!) original A4 silver?

Ok, enough of boring text, here are some pics!

 

[71Polara383]

Id find a door and try my best to make it match. Preserving the exterior the best I could.

Then I would make the interior presentable.

Then I would disguise a 500+ stroker RB as a plain jane 440 and hit the road (and drag strip of course)

 

[marko]

i dont think you can get a flat finish clear coat ? imo shiny clear coat "patina" just looks wrong .
so i'd be leaning towards repainting the original A4.
cool project !

 

[cbarge]

"....Johnson County Sherrif on the side...Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound...."
I am with Wyatt..keep the patina and make the interior liveable.
Similar to some famous race cars and Wyatt's ServPro wagon, Repainting the car silver will lose its all important history.

 

[azblackhemi]

i dont think you can get a flat finish clear coat ? imo shiny clear coat "patina" just looks wrong .
so i'd be leaning towards repainting the original A4.
cool project !

You can get low gloss clear. You can also make your own by adding flattening agent to regular clear. Just one example.

 

[300L]

Hey Toby,

I would like to see the Fury in it's aged patina, but it will be difficult to get the "Historical" status with this kind of paint here in Germany. They also don't like this "ventilation holes" in the quater panel;)
But I think you know all that kind of trouble.

Do you have a drive train for it, or do you take the HEMI out of the Roadrunner

I am very excited to see the progress of the project, have you started yet?

Just another thought, when you paint the car in glossy A4 you need to make all the other parts like the interior, engine, engine bay, trunk, bumpers etc like new too.
It is much less time and money-consuming to leave the paintwork as it is and to transform only the interior into a drivable state


Gruß
Jörg

 

[413]

Don’t clear coat it, it will change what it looks like, just preserve what’s there. Find a door and match it best as possible, use flattening agent in the paint so it doesn’t shine.

Don’t repaint it, it will loose all the cool factor it has now.

 

[TobiasM]

Gentlemen, thanks for being the firsts sharing your thoughts!

So at the moment the leading opinion is “save the patina-look”.

I agree with you, that a SHINY clear-coat would look wrong. Thus my plan was a satin/matte clear-coat.

The arguments Jörg @300L put up are also to be thought about:

- if the car would be painted new in its original A4 silver, every other nut and bolt would likely needed to be also brought to “as new” condition => costs a lot of time and even more money. I definately do not plan or want a concours-restored car. Don’t misunderstand me: my full respect to guys who go that route!

- here in Germany the car needs to be registered as a historic vehicle. Rules for that are VERY strict here and follow the mainstream taste: everything has to look shiny and beautiful and also technically in VERY good order. It will be difficult to achive a registration with that patina-exterior. And impossible with the horrible interiour.

So as of now, I tend to follow the “patina-route” on the exteriour but want to redo the interiour to a good condition.

@71Polara383 and @300L:
Car will definately be/stay a plain Jane. I personally do not like strokers, sorry, I’ll stay at 440cui. It is not very likely my Hemi will find its way into the Fury...but never say never ;-)

 

[TobiasM]

I do not want to miss the chance to say a BIG THANK YOU to some fellow board-members who already had helped me:

- John @75LandYacht gave tips for transportation from AZ to TX

- Gary @Wollfen was very kind to offer me a late seventies T-code 440 motor for a very reasonable price and doorpanels even for free. A deal was close to getting made, but I found a whole drivetrain that is an even better match to my car. Thanks anyway, Gary!

- Raoul @Darkrapid made my Fury look like a car again, by not only selling me a passenger door but also installing it. As icing on the cake he sold me several other bits and pieces for cheap (e.g. 15” rims, throttle-pedal, springs for the hood hinges, window cranks). Thanks, Sir!

Looks much better with the 4th door, doesn’t it? ;-)

 

[TobiasM]

Fury and parts finally arrived this month

Unfortunately of my 1,200$ parts ordered from rockauto.com and stored inside the Fury nearly all had been stolen...only some lugnuts, 2 rubber brake-hoses and a radiator petcock made it through...ehm, worth about 20$ :-(

Here is a pic of the Fury as now in its storage in Germany. Sorry, that the car is so stashed away, but space is scarce.

 

[TobiasM]

DRIVETRAIN:
the Gods were good to me as I could score a 440-Police-drivetrain that popped up on E-hay.

It is nearly complete from carb to pan, only missing the alternator, the starter and (not sure if it ever had one) the power-steering-pump.

Best thing is it is even a 67, meaning this is the only 440hp-version with the closed-chamber-heads. The same engine that was in the 67 GTX / RT...and yes, with chrome-valve-covers factory, even on a cop-car.

Some plugs have metal-heat-shields and there seems to be a ground-strap on trans-pan: are these police-only-things?

 

[TobiasM]

Also got an AWESOME surprise-present from engine-seller Jon: a Unity S6 police-spotlight, even with the ivory-handle which thus is a perfect match to my ivory-steering wheel.

 

[Binx]

Sir, I admire your perseverance with this car! It's going to be GREAT

 

[413]

Those heat shields are standard parts for all 1967 cars. The pass side is the same on all 67 440’s weather HP or not. The drivers side is specific to the HP manifold.

I’m saying don’t clear coat the car at all. With any clear of any kind. It will change the Look of the paint. It will look very different.

The interior is horrible and needs to be fixed up.

sorry your parts were taken, not right.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

That isn't patina, nothing left of the original paint, total restoration is the only way for this one.

Patina = politically correct for lazy, cheap.
Original paint = no patina (see above), thin spots ok. Surface rust, if can be repaired on a small scale and preserve the original paint, maybe. Basically maybe less than 5% or less?

Those are two out of control terms.

Right up there with Fake becoming Clone becoming Tribute. They are all FAKES!


Don't get me going on Survivors


Alan

 

[TobiasM]

That isn't patina, nothing left of the original paint, total restoration is the only way for this one.

Patina = politically correct for lazy, cheap.
Original paint = no patina (see above), thin spots ok. Surface rust, if can be repaired on a small scale and preserve the original paint, maybe. Basically maybe less than 5% or less?

Those are two out of control terms.

...

Alan

@alan: with all respect, but I have to disagree with you.

Because this car still wears the original paint/livery of the agency it was last in service for.

For me it is about preserving history. That not necessarily equals to "as rolled from the assembly-line".

To express it more positive: due to having lived at least 2 Police-lives, this car offers me 2 options to bring it back to "in service" conditions.


@all: any ideas from what agency my car was from originally ???

My car came factory all A4 silver, the white roof was added later. Final Change was the copper-ish body-colour of Cochise Cty. Sheriff Dpt..

 

[TobiasM]

Those heat shields are standard parts for all 1967 cars. The pass side is the same on all 67 440’s weather HP or not. The drivers side is specific to the HP manifold.

Thanks for that info, @413 !

 

[polara71]

@alan: with all respect, but I have to disagree with you.

Because this car still wears the original paint/livery of the agency it was last in service for.

For me it is about preserving history. That not necessarily equals to "as rolled from the assembly-line".

To express it more positive: due to having lived at least 2 Police-lives, this car offers me 2 options to bring it back to "in service" conditions.


@all: any ideas from what agency my car was from originally ???

My car came factory all A4 silver, the white roof was added later. Final Change was the copper-ish body-colour of Cochise Cty. Sheriff Dpt..

Which proves there is a lot of different perspectives on the subject only you can decide.
I'm with Alan I think but I don't know the complete story.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

To me restoration is the very essence of history preservation.

Don't confuse artifact preservation with history preservation. Two totally different things.


Alan

 

[tallhair]

I’ll be following