1965 Sport Fury Restoration

[Darby]

Hi Guys,

I’m going to post some other parts of the build, but for now I’m going to jump ahead to something really exciting!!! For me anyhow, but I think some of you will relate.

Some of you may remember the first time you heard your engine running in your car with a full exhaust system on it. For me that’s been building through the years. It’s been 6 years since it was on the dyno and 5 years since I had it running on a run-stand.

I purchased this engine in 2008, took it to the machine shop in the winter of 2015/16 and told them there was NO HURRY. It needed to be bored .030 for the Ross Pistons and they needed to be installed onto the lightened (polished) rods. The steel crank needed to be cut .010 and .010 and balanced with the new pistons and rods. He was really surprised when he had to remove over a half a pound of metal to balance it. He told me with over a pound of reciprocating mass removed, it should rev quicker. He also checked the heads and shaved them a couple thousandths. He called the beginning of 2017 to let me know it was finished. I built it and had it on the dyno in July of 2017. If you’ve seen the pictures and videos in this thread or on my YouTube channel, you know I Changed the cam after the runs on the dyno and built a run-stand to break-in the new cam. It has at least 15 hours of run time (probably more) on this stand and only had a set of old headers bolted to it. Sure it sounded good, but how would it sound in the car with a full TTI exhaust??? You just don’t know until that day if it has “the sound” you want.

My wife and I traveled almost all summer (I’m a school teacher), and because of this I talked to a local shop that builds/repairs hot-rods and does many other automotive repairs and inspections. I had them install the American Autowire Highway 22 Plus wiring harness, Vintage Air, Dakota Digital gauge cluster with cruise and automatic lights. They also wired the Holley Sniper and completely ignition system. They started the engine on 8/29/23 and ran it through a heat cycle to make sure the electric fan would kick on and off a couple times at the proper set points. I stopped in after school because they told me it should be running by that time. This video is recording the first time I heard that engine running in the car and with a full exhaust system on it. Can you imagine how awesome this experience was with it sounding like this!!! It’s exactly what I wanted!!! It’s idling at 1000 rpm’s and the cam still sounds awesome. The cam is a Comp Cams camshaft XE268.
BTW: it has 450 HP and 530 TQ. It passes 500 before 3000 rpm’s. I know…… if I use all of that a lot, the Tremic isn’t going to survive, I’ll cross that bridge if/when it happens.

Sorry about the long post (if you’ve read this far?), I’m just sharing my experience and I think there’s many of you that can relate to this journey

 

[rags]

I think there’s many of you that can relate to this journey

i can relate. the first time i heard the 440 run but that was with open headers. i thought it was going to blow the windows out of the building. that was 1985. like it was yesterday.

 

[Darby]

Here’s the video that should’ve been in the last post, auto correct got me on that one That’s what I get for trying to hurry!

 

[Darby]

Here's an update on the Fury. I have a large BeeCool radiator installed in my car. It has two 1 inch cores and BeeCool advertises that it will cool better than a four 1/2 inch core radiator. It's supposed to transfer heat better. You'll see in the first photo the core is partially covered.

I cut the original edge off and then cut 4 1/4 inches off. Moved the original edge back. Here you see it clamped in place.

I used a piece of the metal I cut out to fill the gap made from moving the original piece over. Here you see it all welded up.

And here you see it primed and installed. After I finish installing the a/c condenser, hoses, and drier I'll remove it for paint. It's the last of the paintwork. You can see the whole radiator core is now available for cooling. I think it'll look like a factory support when I'm finished, well, maybe not to the people on FCBO

Then it's on to the interior. I'm going with something that was never offered, ivory and red. It will match the exterior and look like the factory offered it. That comes with a price though, Legendary Interiors charged 25% more for custom orders and it adds months for them to complete it. I have everything at this time, including the seat-belts. I'm putting 3 in the back seat and I added 3-point belts in the front for safety. I have the nuts welding into the roof now. I think the factory already planned to install 3-point belts because the holes are already there. I ordered the 3-point belts for a 1970 Road Runner and they fit well. I was in a friend's RR and I liked how the belts can be placed in the clips above the door glass when I don't want them hanging down. When I start installing the interior, I'll show what's going on right here

 

[volksworld]

what's the deal with that door panel? is that something Legendary made up for you? their site shows no c body door panels...

 

[Darby]

what's the deal with that door panel? is that something Legendary made up for you? their site shows no c body door panels...

I went through Pro Fit Auto Interiors and Parts. I ended up ordering everything from them (front seat foam, seat covers, door panels, headliner, arm rests w/red pads, seat belts, and chrome door lock knobs. I'm probably missing something, but you get the idea. If you go on their site you'll find the interior for our cars. There was no problem getting a custom interior, it is completely stock appearing as you can see on the door panel. The seats look amazing in these colors with the chrome strip!! As you can see on the box behind the door panel, it was shipped directly from Legendary to me.
I've found that going through a distributor instead of the manufacture is better in most cases. The TTI exhaust system, Holley Sniper and Hyperspark kit, American Auto Wire kit, and more was much less going through Rob's Rod Shop. I ended up getting the Vintage Air kit through Posies Rods and Customs. When you checkout the cost, I think you may find better prices. When my Sniper quit working, 2 years out of warranty, but only 6 months after the first startup (I had a video to prove it), I called Holley and they replaced it for free with a Sniper 2 because of the receipt (proof of purchase in my name) and video. Even though I didn't purchase from them directly. It's almost like the manufacture would rather just supply their stuff instead of selling to the public.

 

[volksworld]

ah , figures...they have them for a 65 but not my 68...

 

[Darby]

I'd call Lindsie at PriFit, the number is (256) 835-7107. We've talked many times.
You might be suprised. They do some things in-house.

 

[Darby]

I was going through some of my older pictures and noticed there was many missing on here, so here are some of them. I'm so thankful I didn't drive this thing in the winter (if you've gone through this thread you know I purchased it in June of '79) and blessed that I've only had to pay for a couple of the jobs to be done.
I paid for:
- the machine work on the engine - I built it.
- the differential rebuild with a Yukon LS.
- the install of an American Auto Wire highway 22 plus wiring harness (I had them put the fuse box in the trunk), Dakota Digital gauge cluster with cruise control and light kit, wire the Vintage A/C kit, they installed an adjustable voltage 140 amp alternator, and they setup the Holley Sniper/Hyper-spark.
Since then the Sniper quit working and Holley replaced it with a Sniper 2 that I installed. When the car is finished it'll be on a chassis dyno for proper tuning.
Everything else I've done. Everything has been apart and reconditioned or replaced as you've seen on these pages. So far it's been a little over 15 years since I took it apart. This car is one that several people have wanted to buy through the years. I've told them "I'm going to fix it up some day" every time. I only mention that because we've all seen cars turn into complete scrap with the owner saying the same thing. Sometimes they do get done.

Here's some of the pictures I've missed.......

The metal conditioner makes the fenders look that way.

Ready for paint...

 

[Darby]

Here's some more..........

I put a dent in this wheel well for the A/C and heater hoses coming out of the firewall.

After I finished painting the parts, I hung them to keep them safe until they were needed. Some of these parts hung here for 2 years.

I used a grinder and then sanded the calipers smooth before epoxy primer then yellow caliper paint. I've finished off calipers like this before and it's worked well, so I hope it works again for me.
I purchased the complete brake kit in December 2016. There were no other kits available at that time, well, at least that I could find. I've driven this car several miles in a large parking lot and a couple miles on a private road and they feel amazing!!

I went with yellow for the contrast, so far I really like them, if that changes they'll be a different color.
I planned on going with 17 inch wheels, so I was able to use the optional 13 inch rotors, I like how they fit inside the wheels.

Can't see much of the rear at this angle.

 

[Darby]

Here's some other miscellaneous pictures......

I was unable to use the Edelbrock Performer 440 intake because the air cleaner would have destroyed the hood liner and possibly hit the hood. I had to remove some of the divider between the barrels on a stock intake for the Holley efi. I purchased the stock molded hood liner and it'll be fine now.

In this picture you can see the proportioning valve for the rear brakes, the hydraulic clutch is finished, the line-lock is in, and I haven't made the spark plug wires yet. With the wheel well in, all of this is out of the way and doesn't really look out of place. I have to reach around the clutch master cylinder to adjust the proportioning valve, but once it's adjusted, I shouldn't need to mess with it anymore. It's not hard to get to and I like how hidden it is. You can also see the larger plate that fits around the steering column and has the clutch master cylinder mounted to it. I made the edge of the opening match the factory opening and welded the factory square nuts where they needed to be.

This is why I had to enlarge the opening.

The blue tape was what I used to make the template for the new 1/8 inch aluminum plate.

I've made changes all over this car, some pretty significant, but I always try to make it look like the factory would have made it. Obviously, in my eyes and we all look at things differently.

 

[3175375]

Excellent work! Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Darby]

But wait, there's more............

Here you can see the cruise control box from Dakota Digital. I didn't want it under the hood where it would be seen. There's several settings that need to be made when I start driving it, but after I make them, I'll install the outer wheel well and it's hidden away and in a safe place. I used sound deadener everywhere.....

When the aluminum driveshaft arrived (in Jan. 2022), it was so nice, I took it to the shop and clear-coated it to keep it nice!!

It's come a long way.........

I think I made the quarters in 2017. They fit like a glove, the skirts fit as they should, and all the lines are correct, even the one that fades out above the skirt.

I wanted the rear tires to fill the space between the springs and skirts. A 9 inch wheel with a 1/2 inch + offset was it. I don't like the low profile of these tires and when I'm close to having it ready to drive, they'll be changed to a tire a little over an inch taller. It's a shame that these tires have aged out, they're over 6 years old and will not stick to the road nearly as well as new tires.

There's more, but this is enough for now.

 

[Darby]

On November 7, 2018 I made a post on page 1 of this thread. I mentioned that I got my pedals (for the stick swap) from a '65 SF convertible and that I'd mention it later, well, it's much later........
The car only had around 40,000 miles on it and had been sitting in a salvage yard since '70 or so I would guess. The top was half way up and the material was gone.........for a long time! It still had one of the SF moldings and I also got it. The car was really stripped down. Nothing but the frame from the firewall out. The dash, column, pedals, front seats, and console were still in it and you can imagine what they looked like. When I stepped on a seat, it fell about 3 inched to the ground. What was really odd about this car to me, was that it had a 3 on the tree. The console had a plate without an opening for a shifter, the lid (not really an arm rest - not high enough) was there, but in bad shape. I had never seen this before, or since then. I had to chisel the section of firewall out that the pedals were fastened to and pull them out the front, there was no way to get the bolts out. There was no booster or master on it, so I didn't know at that time if it was power or manual - later I found out it was manual. At that time I didn't know there was a difference. I had to use the mount for my brake pedal and make some other changes and it works like it should. I found this car when I was there getting parts for another old car. This was summer in 2006. I have seen pictures of a '66 Fury with this console and column shift, but never a '65. Are you guys familiar with this setup?

 

[Darby]

If interested, here's a walk-around video with a video of the modification to the radiator support opening I made that day. The pictures of that process are above this post.

 

[Darby]

Hi guys, I'll start off this post be saying "I really don't like a dash, especially the dashes in these car being altered - screwed with"!! I mentioned back on post #52 of this thread that I was going to screw up my dash and that I'd be cutting/welding it up beyond recognition. Well, it has happened. I have a 10.1 inch screen/head unit, 6gb + 128gb running system memory and 1200p resolution, basically a computer. Dakota Digital also doesn't offer a factory gauge cluster for this car so that requires more modifications, haven't done that yet, but I have some ideas. There's going to be a lot of modifications there to make it look right. It's going to be set back as far as the factory speedometer and angled the same. Every gauge here functions as it should, including the turn signals, high beam, and cruise (when the cruise is turned on) lights. It also gives me the 0 to 60 times and quarter mile time and speed, just for fun, like the line-lock.

So, I did this in many steps. First I took a 1/4 inch steel rod and bent it to fit the screen (try that some time - the first bend is easy, then it starts to get way more difficult with each bend!!). Then I had to decide where the screen would be. In the new cars today, a lot of the screens are above the edge of the dash. I like that and figured I'd cut the edge of the dash back to about a half inch from the speaker opening and angle the cut on the ends so I could roll the edges down (third picture). I clamped a piece of angle iron on the top and bottom of the dash to keep the bend straight and bent that section up to match the gauge cluster angle on the dash. Then I tack welded the 1/4 inch rod (screen opening) to it. The third picture has the screen in the opening.

Once I got the angle of the screen the way I wanted it, I just cut pieces of steel and molded them to fill in the gaps, then did the welded.

I wanted the edge of the dash to roll into the screen just like the dash rolls into the gauge cluster cover.

Then I primed it and installed it again to keep working towards something that I could live with. I don't want it to look like a hacked up dash. Even though it really is......... I'll get into the hacked up console when I have something a little more interesting to show you guys.

You can also see the ashtray opening is gone at this point.

Next I'll get into where the heating/air conditioning controls and vents will be. Up to this point I still wasn't sure how that was going to happen. Possibly angle the front of the console up and put them there, or maybe extend the dash lower, what could possibly look right in a '65 car??????

 

[3175375]

The screen setup looks great, but what are you doing regarding the gauge cluster in front of the driver? One picture you showed is a mess. I expect it is temporary.

 

[Darby]

The screen setup looks great, but what are you doing regarding the gauge cluster in front of the driver? One picture you showed is a mess. I expect it is temporary.

The picture is only me holding the gauge cluster in behind the plastic frame. At this time I haven't done anything more than just hold it in place, but I do have a plan. I could change the plan as I get into it, but for now I'm thinking the edge I removed on the sides for the cluster to fit back through it will be completely removed and the frame will be extended back to where the original speedometer sat. I have 1/8" plastic sheets to build parts of the console, I've already made the sail panels out of it and it's great to work with. I will use that to build the area where cluster will be mounted. The plastic can be molded with a heat gun and I have plenty of epoxy, so I'm sure I can come up with something that'll look OK. The picture does look bad, it's just to show where it starts.

 

[Darby]

So here's the the direction I decided to go in with the heat/air condition controls and the center 2 vents. I mocked up the console to mount them and I just didn't think it would look good, so I went with adding more to the dash. I made that section step back and put oval holes in it under the screen so I can reach up behind the screen to pop it off the head unit. I'm sure at some point I'll need to get into the dash for something and wanted to make it's easy to work on. The large opening for the screen will also make it easier to install the tubing for the vents in the dash and the tubes for the defrosters. Yes, I sanded almost all the primer off.

I also used the 1/4" rod to make the shape for this lower part and then just added the steel. It's not as wide as the screen and the console will come up to it and step in just a little more.

You can see the oval holes where it steps back here.

Then I added the vents.

Had to do a test fit, pull it out and prime it, then install again. The dash has been in and out probably 30 times or more......

Then I needed to add the vents to each side of the dash. So you guessed it, I used the 1/4" rod to make the shape match the rest of the dash mods.

Right side.

Left side finished

After all of that and the bodywork, it was time to paint it............

 

[Darby]

So here’s the dash painted. I’m really happy with it and think when I finish it off with chrome and some wood grain accents it’ll be nice. I’m going to modify the original pieces of plastic/chrome or have some 3d printed and use a chrome wrap and use a wood grain wrap that matches the steering wheel in the center where the black is now. At school (where I teach) there’s a class that loves to use the 3d printer to make new things. Either way, there’s going to be chrome and wood grain accents that will carry from the dash down and back into the console. It’s hard to explain without showing it, but when it’s completed, you’ll see it here.

The paint matches the interior really well.

I don’t have any good pictures of the package tray, steering column, or the fillers that go down beside the rear seat. I’ll get some and post here. But for now I took some screenshots from a video I made after everything was dry.

More to come…….