Restoration Underway 1971 Plymouth Sport Fury GT Canadian Promotional Car - MCG Article

FURYGT

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It's hard to keep a project car secret so after talking with Rob Wolfe from Mopar Collector's Guide Magazine on Sunday morning of the Carlisle Chrysler Nationals this past July and having him be very interested in the car including doing an Under Construction article I am letting the proverbial cat out of the bag.

The December issue has a short article on my GT and I am kind of surprised that no one on this forum has posted anything about the article since there are a lot of GT fans and owners on FCBO.

I bought this car 4 years ago from Dan a/k/a @ph23vo after having Trev a/k/a @Fury Pursuit look at the car for me since it was and still in the greater Seattle, WA area. Trev spent a lot of time and I spent a lot of money getting accurate stripe kits made for this car and for anyone else who needs them (contact me) and the restoration of this car is being done by Trev and is well underway.

The owner before Dan did an amateur restoration on the GT with a re-spray in the same color, he dyed the vinyl roof black from white and instead of patching up the quarter panels he put on the entire after market half quarters that lack the correct gauge of steel and lack the correct contour that the quarter panels should have. Then he added a plain black stripe down the side of the car.

Granted the car looked good from 10 feet away but with this car possibly being the first 1971 produced, the fact that it has an August 2nd scheduled build date, has the lower sequence number of the 2 promotional 1971 GT's produced and the fender tag has the correct coding for a promotional car I felt that this GT deserved a correct restoration, however this will not be a trailer queen. I plan on driving this car.

I am attaching 2 photos of the magazine article and some additional photos. I want this thread to document the restoration of this car and I will add additional photos as I have time.
 
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Mopar Collector's Guide December 2021 Under Construction Article. Don't ask me why they call it a Prototype when it isn't a Prototype.

MCG Under Construction Article Dec 2021 - Page 1.jpg





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71 Sport Fury GT Stripe Kit Sign.jpg


Photos of the GT when I purchased it:

Right Front Side View as Purchased.JPG
Right Front Rear View as Purchased.JPG
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Photos of measurements from original stripes and of an older correct stripe kit on a GT. The center caps on this GT show NO evidence of ever having been painted. They look the photos of a similar prototype wheel that Chrysler made.

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More photos randomly uploaded. The GT is in the process of receiving NOS quarter panels, trunk floor extensions, outer wheelhouses and a section of an NOS left rocker panel.

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Here are some interesting photos. When Trev removed the original seat covers he found several IBM cards sewn into the back side of the seat covers with "SEW HERE" typed on them. I suspect these were hand made. Anyone else ever see these tags?
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I will be posting more photos when I have time.
 
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:thankyou:

:popcorn:

The writing in the article and the, unsubstantiated, claims made remind me why I get so frustrated with MCG.
 
If the word "Prototype" gets reader's attention about any C body project in MCG so be it.
Kudos to you getting Rob's attention about your C.
Over the years I talked to him and other MCG people about my cars with no such luck.
I will definitatly be following your progress on this rare beast!
 
I'm excited to see this project when it is done. I feel like I am slacking as I love the GTs and should have posted this article. Thanks for the extra pictures.
 
. . . talked to "Mopar magazine" people about my cars with no such luck.
Our experiences . . . Back in the later 1980s, one of our NLDPT Mopar club members had a '68 'Cuda 383 FB. He had done the paint and body work very nicely himself, but wanted something more under the hood, as it was an orig 383 car, so he began to build a stroker HEMI for it, using good cranks and such from a local major drag racer's stash. Then can the then-new HEMI race heads that were just out of prototype. He put two ThermoQuads on the modified 2x4bbl intake. He found a local sign company that could do the recent die-cut decals he designed for it, for a complete OEM look, too. It all was done extremely nicely, but the air cleaner he fabricated on his lathe seemed a bit much to me. So, he/we took it to Mopar Nats that year for its debut.

Being a factory 383 car, the engine sat in the engine compartment as it should have, not being offset to the rh side such that the rh exhaust manifold was against the inner fender well (as others which were not factory cars tended to do, by observation). Which added to the "Came That Way" underhood look.

Once there, some of our club guys knew the MCG people (from other shows) and tried to get them interested in doing a feature on the car. Them and others listened but looked the other way, which frustrated us. Eventually, one said they'd take some pictures of the car. So several of us assembled at a near-by upscale business park with a deserted parking lot. They DID print the article, which was very nice, a few months later. We were glad for him!

He did drive and drag race the car pretty well. He had gotten most of the cooling issues worked out with hidden radiators in the front fenders, too. But then a careless drag racer happened to back into it in the staging lanes one weekend and the car disappeared into his garage, where it probably still is.

So, getting any type of magazine coverage of an interesting car seems to be a tough task to do, UNLESS THEY come looking for YOU. I suspect they get lots of "my car is worthy of your magazine" comments from readers, too, so it's all probably a bit "old hat" to them, I suspect.

So, congrats on getting and keeping their attention! Congrats on finding the car and getting it re-done correctly! It'll be a great looking car when done! CONGRATS too all involved in making it happen!!

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
:thankyou:

:popcorn:

The writing in the article and the, unsubstantiated, claims made remind me why I get so frustrated with MCG.

You should have seen the draft of the article that they sent to me. I had to rewrite most of the article but they still took some liberties.
 
Here are some interesting photos. When Trev removed the original seat covers he found several IBM cards sewn into the back side of the seat covers with "SEW HERE" typed on them. I suspect these were hand made. Anyone else ever see these tags?
Why yes indeed -- I posted similar photos when I had the seats of Buttercup, my 1972 NYB, in September. @71Polara383 had the presence of mind to ask the upholsterer to save all of them, and he gave me photos. Comments/comparisons welcome!

PS: thank you for posting the article, always great to read about PP23T1D100235
 
Why yes indeed -- I posted similar photos when I had the seats of Buttercup, my 1972 NYB, in September. @71Polara383 had the presence of mind to ask the upholsterer to save all of them, and he gave me photos. Comments/comparisons welcome!

PS: thank you for posting the article, always great to read about PP23T1D100235

Thanks for sharing the link to your IBM cards. They look very similar.
 
I just got my MCG yesterday and was surprised to see your car in there...it is also rustier than what was mentioned in the for sale ads for the car but it sure looks like you are doing the car the right way.
Good luck with the 1971 Sport Fury GT.

Dave
 
Here are some interesting photos. When Trev removed the original seat covers he found several IBM cards sewn into the back side of the seat covers with "SEW HERE" typed on them. I suspect these were hand made. Anyone else ever see these tags?View attachment 494480


View attachment 494475 View attachment 494476 View attachment 494477 View attachment 494478 View attachment 494479

I will be posting more photos when I have time.

Those are the factory tags on the seat upholstery. Not uncommon to find on original seat covers. I’ve observed many on all mopar body styles.

Chrysler made all of the interior seat covers in house.
A good friends mother worked in the upholstery shop at Dodge main for 40+ years. I had the opportunity to get some info from her on the process.
Basically, the seat patterns were laid out and cut from the vinyl including the corresponding backing material. All the individual pieces were then sewn by the seamstresses into the sections that make up each seatcover.
These panels were sorted by model and had a part number stamped on the backside and also on the paper tag (check the tags you have - there’s probably one printed on the tag). When a car was being built the seamstresses would get all the individual components and sew them into the “finished” seat cover.

The “sew here” tags were guides to ensure the seamstresses assembled each piece correctly and efficiently. Remember this was a production line !
 
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It's hard to keep a project car secret so I am letting the proverbial cat out of the bag.

WOOHOO WAY TO GO BILL, CONGRATULATIONS!!

Tell me about it about letting the secret outta the bag, I'm surprised I didn't ruin it for ya since you first told me about it. All I can do to contain my excitement, since as you most likely know I am a BIG GT (& S/23) fan.

I will DEFINITELY be following this build, looking forward to seeing more!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::)
 
I just got my MCG yesterday and was surprised to see your car in there...it is also rustier than what was mentioned in the for sale ads for the car but it sure looks like you are doing the car the right way.
Good luck with the 1971 Sport Fury GT.

Dave

Is this your car Dave (the one on the right)?

sport-fury-2-jpg.jpg
 
WOOHOO WAY TO GO BILL, CONGRATULATIONS!!

Tell me about it about letting the secret outta the bag, I'm surprised I didn't ruin it for ya since you first told me about it. All I can do to contain my excitement, since as you most likely know I am a BIG GT (& S/23) fan.

I will DEFINITELY be following this build, looking forward to seeing more!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::)

You will get a ride in it when it is done.
 
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