1966 Fury III - Unfinished Project

[Philip Andrews]

Imperfect but certainly workable.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

You know you're gonna have fun when you load the angle grinder up with a coarse polystrip wheel and get to work on the sheet metal where it all looks wrong...

We are deep in Bondo. I worked my way along the swage line with the grinder.

For some reason the new metal had been attached to the crest of the coachline.

Zip, clatter. Yup, don't need that bit, it's all wrong.

Cleaned up a little, the original line is visible right there so why it was deleted I have no idea.

I started digging back through the strata of filler that had been shoveled onto the sheet metal. Most of it easily a quarter inch thick.

Doesn't look too bad there, I ran out of time and my angle grinder motor was getting a bit hot.

Looks, however, can be deceiving; with a bit of gloss paint on the panel the issues are evident. It's been dented quite badly in the past, and from what I can see the damage is conducive to a ratchet strap being wrapped all round the back end of the car and over-tightened.

Got some panel beating in my future...

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

A little more work removing rust. Got the last of the center panel out, need to remove the side section and tidy up.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

Overall shape is better. Not perfect yet but better. A bit more hammers and a light skim of filler to take up the imperfections.

Yes filler. Slapped on inches deep, no. To fill out where the metal is stretched and dimpled, yes.
Getting there.

 

[Philip Andrews]

Yup, it's 88 degrees in the garage, what better to do than add a 1.5kW heat gun in an enclosed space and start removing tar underseal?

Started out with this. Impossible to see the dinks and bumps in the metal and not particularly good to put the dolly against.

I got this far before giving up, overheated. I need a smaller scraper to get into the swage line.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

A hot half an hour with hammers.

Overall profile is now essentially correct. Now the fun of finessing the wrinkles flat begins.

Phil

 

[3175375]

A hot half an hour with hammers.

View attachment 471032
Overall profile is now essentially correct. Now the fun of finessing the wrinkles flat begins.

Phil

I see color changes as you have progressed. Are you using left over paint to see imperfections or ?

 

[Philip Andrews]

I see color changes as you have progressed. Are you using left over paint to see imperfections or ?

Correct. Just cans of paint to put on the surface to produce a more uniform gloss, which makes it a lot easier to see the bumps and dinks.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

Doesn't look as bad as I was fearing. I'm going to have to dig that out.

 

[cantflip]

View attachment 483887
Doesn't look as bad as I was fearing. I'm going to have to dig that out.

Wow... congratulations... you were already doing enough panel beating, this looks very promising for the car.

 

['66 Fury I]

So glad to hear from you! Not as bad as feared. We know you can and will get "back on track"! Just be thankful it is a"real" car, not a tin can/plastic "clone car"! Lindsay

 

[Philip Andrews]

Lucked out a little - the rear windshield missed the window unit landing on it by s few inches.
I haven't found the side glass yet, I don't hold much hope for it.

 

[live4theking]

Wow, that could've been a whole lot worse.

 

[Philip Andrews]

Cleared a little space today. Headlining is gone. Though, the wall must've come down on it fairly gently.
There's a lot to move yet.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

September, through now... How time flies when you're having fun.
We had to gut the inside of the house due to water ingress through the roof. Rebuild, redecorate, with the house unusable for 7 months while we bounced around AirBnB houses.
Still, managed to remove the garage from the car, which escaped with very very minor damage (some bumps and dinks, scratches and a couple small dents in the roof).

Finally cleared the big pile away and liberated the car, placing it up next to the house. Made the best of two bumpers from the parts I had, yes- this was the straighter of the pair.

In the interim, I bought a crapshoot of headlight buckets (three LH ones as it turns out, unless I misunderstand how they fit), cleaned up and cut out some plexiglass Canadian-spec turn signal lenses (had the orange plexiglass so why not?) and bought the correct Fury 3/Sport Fury outer tail light assemblies.
A ways to go in collecting trim and niknaks but seeing the front end on is a mental boost.

The engine... it's unhappy. It filled up with rainwater and seized up. I'll tear it down. It was always only a temporary stopgap. It'll run again but I suspect high oil usage...

But, onward and upward.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

Didn't realize the grill was stainless.

Took two hours to get a good gloss finish on the headlight surround. Stainless is so hard of a metal.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

Temporarily stuck the rear lights in, for giggles. Looks good (crusty chrome and broken lenses notwithstanding).
Need to dig the rear bumper out of the garage and put it on. Granted, it'll all have to come back off but I've never seen the car with all the pieces on.


That, and there's some random trim that I'm not sure actually belongs to the car in the trunk.
Quarter lights don't wind any more, need to look see why.
I think I need a service manual, to see what I'm missing from the window mechanisms.

Phil

 

[Philip Andrews]

This is the mental place I needed to get to.

I had forgotten why I bought this car. Now, with the front and back on, it reminded me of the reason why.

 

[MetalManiacAZ]

This is the mental place I needed to get to.
View attachment 546677
View attachment 546678
I had forgotten why I bought this car. Now, with the front and back on, it reminded me of the reason why.

I actually have that same trunk key on my Imperial. Haha! Nothing like a little "mock up" action to keep you motivated.

 

[D Cluley]

You can download a PDF of the Service Manual here.

Service Manuals – MyMopar