My 1970 Fury 3 project

jumbreit

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Picked up this 1970 Plymouth Fury 3 this summer. Was sort of running but not very well or for long. Cleaned up the points and it ran better but not very strong. Pulled heads and found some cracked valves and a bad cylinder.

I’ll be posting updates on the project. The plan is to keep the budget reasonable and not do a full restore. Just going to make it a driver and keep budget between $5k-$6k. I’ll post costs as well.

Here are some initial exterior pics.
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Some shots before I pulled the engine and carpet.
The owner before me removed the vinyl top and filled in one side of the c-pillar. I plan on sanding it back down and giving it a smoother paint job.
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The interior is pretty roached...no headliner, cracked dash, ripped seats and nasty carpet. I did pull the carpet and the floors were pretty solid.
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ENGINE
Engine was a 318 that was running but not very well. Previous owner was having issues with cyl5, I also noticed cyl1 wasn't firing either.
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When we pulled the heads to replace with a good set of 318 heads I had, we noticed that the reason cyl 5 wasn't firing was because of this mess.
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Luckily I scored a 360 block for $100 and started pulling items off another 360 I was building for a D100 stepside I have. I AM putting the 318 heads on because they had been gone through by a machine shop because I was told they were 360 heads but didn't look at them so had them redone (derp). Since it's a going around town rig, that'll be fine and may even help the low-end torque. It's still getting a 4bbl because I have a few of intakes and carbs.
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After I pulled apart the 318 (block may be good if it hasn't been bored over and the pitting isn't too bad) I checked that nylon timing gear and that was ready to go as well.
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Body
First thing I did was clean the undercarriage and engine compartment really well. Very little rust, some minor holes in floor pan under back seat and trunk and bottoms of rear quarter panels. So after lots of scrubbing, copious amount of rust-reformer and flat-black paint everything looks pretty good. I have some cavity wax on the way that I'm going to spray on as well in some of the nooks and crannys.

Some befores and afters
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I've installed new rear springs and shocks at a cost of about $550. I did order new shackles but they aren't going to work which is fine because the bushings are actually still pretty good so I'm using those.

That passenger side spring was pretty sprung.
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You can see that the one end of the shackles is longer and the new ones wouldn't fit into the mounting bracket.
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Next steps is to get the engine in and running...I'm just waiting on the flex plate for the 360 to bolt onto the 318's 904. Then I'll be working on getting sound deadener down on the floors and roof and I'm going to try to remake those c-pillar trim pieces and package tray with some of what they call "cowlboard". Once it's running I'll also order up my carpet, one thing at a time.

I have a YouTube channel (stage0garage) and I've already posted a few videos of the Fury if you want to see more (there's a few other cool mopars as well):
Walk around of my 1970 C-body Plymouth Fury
1970 Plymouth Fury 3 cleanout
 
One suggestion is as long as you have the engine out I would inspect that 904 and rebuild if needed. The 904 can be built to handle a heavy car but they are not the best choice. It would really suck to get it back together and find out the transmission is on its last legs. Don’t ask me how I know. Lol
 
One suggestion is as long as you have the engine out I would inspect that 904 and rebuild if needed. The 904 can be built to handle a heavy car but they are not the best choice. It would really suck to get it back together and find out the transmission is on its last legs. Don’t ask me how I know. Lol
Honestly, that’s outside the budget I’m trying to keep and it really isn’t too bad getting that engine in and out so I’m willing to chance it. If it does go, I happen to have a 727 sitting here not doing anything at the moment :)
 
you go man go!
BTW, I chill went down my spine when I saw that god damn vinyl gear!
 
I got the 360 dropped into the nice and clean engine bay. Love the bright "hemi" orange in the mostly black bay. I have a few things to do and then hopefully by this upcoming weekend I'll get it running!

I did pull the A/C lines and plugged the ends. If I go with A/C I'll probably do an aftermarket setup.
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I had to modify my water pump a bit...on my D100, the alternator belt came directly from the crank pulley with no upper pulley. Well when I did that on this one, the water pump had a fin that was interfering with the belt. All the other pumps I had didn't have this fin (or at least not as large)
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...so now this one doesn't either.
 
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I don't know much about points distributors yet, but does this one look worn down? I haven't checked the gap but the points arm that rides the cam looks worn down. The cam looks worn too but again, I don't know what they're supposed to look like.
 
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