Fireflite56
Member
**NOT FOR SALE**
I have been meaning to do a dedicated thread for this car for some time now as it deserves one. This is the story of a one-owner car that I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and put back on the road. Sit back, relax, and enjoy one of those feel-good stories about an original, un-restored survivor car. Or, just scroll to the photos and enjoy those too!
In March of 1967, Chester Foth of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw an ad in the newspaper (we believe the Milwaukee Journal) for discounted leftover 1966 cars at Wruck Motors, Inc. Chrysler-Plymouth, located at 823 Milwaukee Avenue, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The result was, he purchased a 1966 Plymouth Fury III 2 door hardtop in Light Turquoise Metallic with a black vinyl top, black bench seat interior, and the 383 4-bbl Commando V8 option, backed by a Torqueflite automatic on the column. This is probably as good of a time as any to note that Chester kept EVERYTHING for the car paperwork-wise. From the original sale, he kept the window sticker, sales invoice, purchase contract, payment receipt, punch card, certicard, owner's manual, registration papers, and the car even has a door jamb oil change sticker from the original dealer.
Within the first few months, Chester noted that the fuel mileage was decreasing and subsequently took it in (to a different, closer dealer) to get looked at. After all, it was a new car and that should be covered, right? Evidently this other dealer jerked him around and didn't want to work on it for free, so letters to Chrysler Corporation directly ensued. I have copies that he kept of his letters sent, as well as the replies from Chrysler Corporation. Ultimately, he got the issue resolved, which I believe ended up being an issue with the points in the distributor.
As one of only two new cars Chester would ever purchase, the car was used sparingly, primarily for weekend trips in the good weather for he and his wife. As such, he had the original 3.23 gears swapped out for a 2.76 set (he kept the 3.23 set and I have the parts with the car) for better mileage. One semi-frequent trip was to the (then) Lake Geneva Playboy Club and Hotel because "they had a good meal at a good price". A window cling/sticker from that establishment was put on the driver's vent window in about 1968-1969 and that is still there today. The car was used sparingly, never in the snow while he owned it and rarely in the rain. In 1986, Chester and Shirley moved to Random Lake, Wisconsin. This is where the only notable piece of paperwork is missing as the car was retitled with the move and that is the title I have today (Wisconsin will send you the old voided title upon request when re-titling a car, so I have this actual title with the papers); the 1967 title is, unfortunately, long gone. It was at that time that Chester also replaced the yellow and black 1980-1985 plates with the blue/red collector plates that are still used today in Wisconsin. This is of note because the yellow/black plates were still with the car when I purchased it and are now back on the car!
As Chester and the car aged, it was used more and more sparingly. He took it to a few WPC events through the years, including the 2002 WPC national meet in Wisconsin Dells (where oddly enough, I was in attendance at, about 10 years old at the time). Most years, the car only saw about 50-100 miles of local use. Every year, without fail, the oil was changed and I have most of the oil change stickers to verify that. Through all the years, Chester also kept a fuel log. In late 2011, Chester's wife died. Then, in early 2012, Chester had a stroke. He survived, but it limited his mobility and that was the start of his small fleet of Mopars sitting dormant.
Now, I feel it's fair to add that my dad and grandpa knew Chester for many years through the Wisconsin chapter of the WPC Club back when that chapter existed. In 2018, Chester was considering selling a couple of his cars and we decided to go visit him and look at what he had. The Fury was not for sale at that time (it would be one of the last to come up for sale), but we did get to see it. He had some nice cars, but no deals were made that day. We went home and life moved on for a couple years. In 2021, we hosted the National DeSoto Club convention in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Chester had two '61 DeSotos and is a member of the club. He had sold the 4 door hardtop, which was at the convention back on the road after sitting longer than the Fury. He would soon sell the 2 door hardtop to the same couple. Anyhow, we spoke to him and he said he was ready to part with his three remaining cars (a rust-free 1961 300G, a beautiful 1966 New Yorker Town Sedan survivor, and the Fury) as he was going to sell the home and move into an apartment. Within a couple weeks, we were back at his home and struck a deal for all three. Within a month or so, all the cars were home. All needed a thorough cleaning and to be gone through mechanically from a decade of sitting to be roadworthy.
Now, we had found that the Fury for some reason had a seized up motor prior to purchasing, which puzzled us, the G wouldn't start, and the New Yorker ran, so we started with the New Yorker after doing a thorough interior cleaning on all three. By spring of 2022, the New Yorker was back on the road and getting out to shows again. By early fall 2022, we had gotten the G running, but fate intervened on that car and a friend ended up purchasing it as one of his bucket list dream cars of his childhood (his uncle bought one) before we got it on the road. During all this time, nothing much was done with the Fury except to pull the plugs and note that two had major contamination/corrosion on the ends. That was that and it sat patiently until spring of 2023. With the other two cars out of the way, it was time to dive into the Fury and see what was up. In part of a day, I stripped the top of the motor down to reveal the front two driver's cylinders had mouse poison (d-con) loaded into them. Presumably, one of the tailpipes that had broken while the car sat acted as a nice ramp for them to go up and down, carrying many loads of d-con, which they carried through the heads and into the cylinders. We cleaned up the cylinders and they actually didn't look bad at all for what one would expect, so I sprayed them daily with Kroil for two weeks. With the help of a long custom tool from a friend that bolted to the harmonic balancer and some rocking, we got the pistons broken loose. An hour and a half later of back and forth movement, cleaning, spraying, and, finally, spinning it with the starter, the motor was looking pretty good! We decided that we'd still pull the motor, do rings, bearings, plugs, etc. to freshen it up, and reinstall it. It only had 49,500 miles after all and looked good inside. Well, that plan proceeded and on piston #4 removing rings, we found a piston cracked in two spots. Whelp, time for a rebuild.
Through the friend that had helped with the custom tool for breaking the motor loose, I managed to get the engine in at Rocket Racing in Tichigan, Wisconsin under the condition that it was all disassembled at drop-off and pick-up - fine with me! I loaded the block, pistons (new and old), rods, crank, heads, and harmonic balancer into my 2006 Charger Daytona R/T (yes, all of that in the car!) and dropped it off. This was September 2023. Refreshingly, it was done exactly when he said it would be and for about the same money quoted, something hard to find with vendors it seems. I had left the transmission in the car, not intending to touch that, but since they are cheap to rebuild and it wasn't hard to remove, I decided it was best to rebuild it too while the engine was out so I wouldn't have to worry about it failing later. A local guy who used to do trans rebuilds at his dealer handled that and I had it back in short order. By late October, I had both the motor (in pieces) and the transmission. Throughout the summer, I had been cleaning and re-finishing small engine parts, often at work on my lunch hour as we have a shop with a sandblaster and wire wheels. Every piece was documented as to how it was finished and re-done the same way, albeit tidier and nicer than original. Now, late in 2023, the race was on to try to get the motor completed enough to paint it before the temperatures dropped here in Wisconsin. I almost made it.
In late November, I wheeled it outside on the last warm day to warm in the sun before spot spraying primer (the tin parts on top) and then coating it in 1990s Mopar Performance Chrysler Turquoise we had on-hand. This is where the next phase of the plan started to get sideways - I ran out of paint before finishing. I knew I'd be short overall, but thought I had enough to do what I wanted that day. Now I was faced with finding a matching paint to something obsolete. However, as the paint cured over the next several days in the garage, I thought it was a bit too blue. I am super anal about those kinds of details and don't like "close enough". The only exceptions I made along the way was to avoid overspray like the factory did, I had the exhaust manifolds ceramic coated in a natural cast gray color, and I painted the driveshaft. So started an endeavor that was a couple months and many cans of paint (all of which disappointed) to ultimately find one that actually matched my multiple samples: Bill Hirsch 1957-58 Pontiac Turquoise of all things. See my thread here for more details: Yet Another Chrysler Turquoise Engine Paint Thread....But Maybe The Last?
With doing more small parts over the winter indoors at work (including the driveshaft) and armed with paint I was happy with, I hit the ground running in spring 2024. My new goal? The (possibly last) c-body show at IRM In June. One month out from the date, the motor was mostly reassembled and ready to go back in. I had a car with no motor, no driveshaft, no cooling system, no brakes, and an unknown fuel system. I busted my butt every free moment I had to get it done. I almost made it. One week from the event, the motor was in and running, the driveshaft was in, new brake hoses were installed, all four wheels had new cylinders and shoes, the rebuilt master cylinder was in place, the front drum bearings were re-greased and re-sealed, the fuel tank was drained and inspected, and it was almost ready to bleed brakes. Unfortunately, the brake booster was still not back from the rebuilder, which meant no brake bleeding, no brakes, and no show. I was disappointed of course, but I kept at it. With the booster and new steel brake lines in place, the car went on its first test drive on July 22, 2024, the evening before I left for the National DeSoto Club convention in New Orleans, LA. It was a beautiful day and the car drove nicely with only a few small adjustments needed.
I quickly added to the mileage, making some small adjustments along the way, changing the oil early, and got the exhaust done. On Labor Day Weekend, I took the car about 1.25 hours away to visit Chester and gave him a ride in his old car. He was smiling the whole day as the car gleamed in the sun. I still have some small things to finish this year - putting a more correct spare tire on the rim in the trunk, installing the heater box, gently polishing the paint, fixing a water leak on the passenger side, and replacing one of the quarter window edge rubbers. This is one of those cars that you just don't find in this condition and with the kind of history it has. It's definitely a keeper and one I plan to have for a long, long time! And, yes, of course I have saved every receipt and scrap of paper to add to what Chester had given to me!
Even with all the paperwork I got with the car, it hasn't quite been enough for me. I recently scoured newspapers from that time and came up with ads from Wruck Motors for their leftover '66 Plymouths and Chryslers. I also got in contact with the grandson of the dealer owner and he was able to provide two very nice color photographs from circa 1964 that his uncle took of the dealership, which still stands. This year, I hope to park the car in front of that building and get some photos.
Here's everything that I did:
- A deep cleaning and polishing inside and out, including treatment of the vinyl top and chrome polishing.
- Scrubbed the engine bay.
- Had the block, heads, crankshaft, and rods cleaned and machined. The block is .030" over and was decked and planed. (Rocket Racing, Tichigan, WI)
- Had the trans rebuilt (local acquaintance, Jerry Quaden)
- Drained and refilled the torque converter
- Rebuilt the driveshaft myself, cleaned, and painted
- Had the heater core re-done (Wedige Automotive, Elkhorn, WI)
- Had the radiator re-cored (Antioch Radiator - they have since stopped doing re-coring work)
- Had the p/s pump rebuilt (Lares)
- New oil pump
- Disassembled, cleaned, re-lubricated, and re-assembled lifters and rocker assemblies.
- Replacement oil pan (Murray Park)
- New timing gear and chain (Summit?)
- Had the exhaust re-done from the floorboards back (RPMs, Lake Geneva, WI)
- Had the exhaust manifolds ceramic coated (Motorsport Powdercoating, Delavan, WI)
- Had the exhaust manifolds planed (Kilpatrick Racing Engines, Waukesha, WI)
- Had the carburetor rebuilt (local acquaintance, Larry Kraut)
- Had the original water pump rebuilt (Arthur Gould Rebuilders, MA)
- Had the alternator rebuilt (Alstar Company, Union Grove, WI - they no longer do rebuilds)
- Cleaned and detailed the starter
- Had the original master cylinder (single reservoir with only one port) rebuilt (White Post Restorations, VA)
- Had the original brake booster (dealer installed unit) rebuilt and re-coated (Power Brake Booster Exchange / Booster Dewey, WA)
- Rebuilt the brakes (shoes, wheel cylinders, and hoses from Craig at mobileparts , steel lines from Inline Tube)
- Checked functionality of the parking brake while the rear drums were off - all good!
- Re-greased the front end, wheel hubs, and installed new grease seals.
- Tuned up and re-lubed the distributor with vintage USA parts, including a correct tan cap (Marx Parts, MN)
- Installed correct date-coded plug wires (Lectric Limited, IL)
- Purchased (yet to be installed pending heater box installation) correct ribbed heater hose (YearOne)
- Purchased correct ribbed overflow hose, radiator cap, thermostat etc. (YearOne, Mancini Racing)
- Obtained correct hoses and clamps locally, aside from the specialty ribbed hoses previously mentioned.
- New ground strap (made myself)
- Cleaned and repainted numerous parts, all documented and re-finished correctly. I used Bill Hirsch 1957-58 Pontiac Turquoise and semi-gloss black.
- Bought and placed a new air cleaner decal on the dual snorkel air cleaner (Classic Industries)
- Found and installed a correct NOS batter hold-down.
- Installed a new battery with the stickers stripped (EverStart from Walmart as they are made by the company that bought out Johnson Controls, who used to make the good batteries that last)
- Purchased correct battery cables (one from YearOne, one from Atlas Obsolete I think?)
- Replaced the broken washer jug (I bought an NOS one, but the reproductions available through Murray Park are also good)
- Replaced numerous light bulbs and one headlight with a correct, matching TS unit
Fender Tag Decoding:
d6 Rear seat speaker
e8 Rear window defogger
f6 Bumper moulding
p6 LH remote outside mirror
AB 62 383 4 bbl
C 5 Automatic
R 1 AM radio
X 1 Tinted glass (all windows)
Y 6 Black vinyl top
SO # 61502180 Scheduled to be built 6/15/66 + 02180 is the shipping order number
BDY PH23 1966 Plymouth Fury high price class 2 door hardtop
TRM H5X Black vinyl
PAINT KK1B Light Turquoise Metallic with black vinyl top (B)
VIN Decoding:
P Plymouth Fury
H High price class
23 2 door hardtop
G 383
6 1966 model year
4 Belvedere, IL assembly plant
I have been meaning to do a dedicated thread for this car for some time now as it deserves one. This is the story of a one-owner car that I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and put back on the road. Sit back, relax, and enjoy one of those feel-good stories about an original, un-restored survivor car. Or, just scroll to the photos and enjoy those too!
In March of 1967, Chester Foth of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw an ad in the newspaper (we believe the Milwaukee Journal) for discounted leftover 1966 cars at Wruck Motors, Inc. Chrysler-Plymouth, located at 823 Milwaukee Avenue, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The result was, he purchased a 1966 Plymouth Fury III 2 door hardtop in Light Turquoise Metallic with a black vinyl top, black bench seat interior, and the 383 4-bbl Commando V8 option, backed by a Torqueflite automatic on the column. This is probably as good of a time as any to note that Chester kept EVERYTHING for the car paperwork-wise. From the original sale, he kept the window sticker, sales invoice, purchase contract, payment receipt, punch card, certicard, owner's manual, registration papers, and the car even has a door jamb oil change sticker from the original dealer.
Within the first few months, Chester noted that the fuel mileage was decreasing and subsequently took it in (to a different, closer dealer) to get looked at. After all, it was a new car and that should be covered, right? Evidently this other dealer jerked him around and didn't want to work on it for free, so letters to Chrysler Corporation directly ensued. I have copies that he kept of his letters sent, as well as the replies from Chrysler Corporation. Ultimately, he got the issue resolved, which I believe ended up being an issue with the points in the distributor.
As one of only two new cars Chester would ever purchase, the car was used sparingly, primarily for weekend trips in the good weather for he and his wife. As such, he had the original 3.23 gears swapped out for a 2.76 set (he kept the 3.23 set and I have the parts with the car) for better mileage. One semi-frequent trip was to the (then) Lake Geneva Playboy Club and Hotel because "they had a good meal at a good price". A window cling/sticker from that establishment was put on the driver's vent window in about 1968-1969 and that is still there today. The car was used sparingly, never in the snow while he owned it and rarely in the rain. In 1986, Chester and Shirley moved to Random Lake, Wisconsin. This is where the only notable piece of paperwork is missing as the car was retitled with the move and that is the title I have today (Wisconsin will send you the old voided title upon request when re-titling a car, so I have this actual title with the papers); the 1967 title is, unfortunately, long gone. It was at that time that Chester also replaced the yellow and black 1980-1985 plates with the blue/red collector plates that are still used today in Wisconsin. This is of note because the yellow/black plates were still with the car when I purchased it and are now back on the car!
As Chester and the car aged, it was used more and more sparingly. He took it to a few WPC events through the years, including the 2002 WPC national meet in Wisconsin Dells (where oddly enough, I was in attendance at, about 10 years old at the time). Most years, the car only saw about 50-100 miles of local use. Every year, without fail, the oil was changed and I have most of the oil change stickers to verify that. Through all the years, Chester also kept a fuel log. In late 2011, Chester's wife died. Then, in early 2012, Chester had a stroke. He survived, but it limited his mobility and that was the start of his small fleet of Mopars sitting dormant.
Now, I feel it's fair to add that my dad and grandpa knew Chester for many years through the Wisconsin chapter of the WPC Club back when that chapter existed. In 2018, Chester was considering selling a couple of his cars and we decided to go visit him and look at what he had. The Fury was not for sale at that time (it would be one of the last to come up for sale), but we did get to see it. He had some nice cars, but no deals were made that day. We went home and life moved on for a couple years. In 2021, we hosted the National DeSoto Club convention in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Chester had two '61 DeSotos and is a member of the club. He had sold the 4 door hardtop, which was at the convention back on the road after sitting longer than the Fury. He would soon sell the 2 door hardtop to the same couple. Anyhow, we spoke to him and he said he was ready to part with his three remaining cars (a rust-free 1961 300G, a beautiful 1966 New Yorker Town Sedan survivor, and the Fury) as he was going to sell the home and move into an apartment. Within a couple weeks, we were back at his home and struck a deal for all three. Within a month or so, all the cars were home. All needed a thorough cleaning and to be gone through mechanically from a decade of sitting to be roadworthy.
Now, we had found that the Fury for some reason had a seized up motor prior to purchasing, which puzzled us, the G wouldn't start, and the New Yorker ran, so we started with the New Yorker after doing a thorough interior cleaning on all three. By spring of 2022, the New Yorker was back on the road and getting out to shows again. By early fall 2022, we had gotten the G running, but fate intervened on that car and a friend ended up purchasing it as one of his bucket list dream cars of his childhood (his uncle bought one) before we got it on the road. During all this time, nothing much was done with the Fury except to pull the plugs and note that two had major contamination/corrosion on the ends. That was that and it sat patiently until spring of 2023. With the other two cars out of the way, it was time to dive into the Fury and see what was up. In part of a day, I stripped the top of the motor down to reveal the front two driver's cylinders had mouse poison (d-con) loaded into them. Presumably, one of the tailpipes that had broken while the car sat acted as a nice ramp for them to go up and down, carrying many loads of d-con, which they carried through the heads and into the cylinders. We cleaned up the cylinders and they actually didn't look bad at all for what one would expect, so I sprayed them daily with Kroil for two weeks. With the help of a long custom tool from a friend that bolted to the harmonic balancer and some rocking, we got the pistons broken loose. An hour and a half later of back and forth movement, cleaning, spraying, and, finally, spinning it with the starter, the motor was looking pretty good! We decided that we'd still pull the motor, do rings, bearings, plugs, etc. to freshen it up, and reinstall it. It only had 49,500 miles after all and looked good inside. Well, that plan proceeded and on piston #4 removing rings, we found a piston cracked in two spots. Whelp, time for a rebuild.
Through the friend that had helped with the custom tool for breaking the motor loose, I managed to get the engine in at Rocket Racing in Tichigan, Wisconsin under the condition that it was all disassembled at drop-off and pick-up - fine with me! I loaded the block, pistons (new and old), rods, crank, heads, and harmonic balancer into my 2006 Charger Daytona R/T (yes, all of that in the car!) and dropped it off. This was September 2023. Refreshingly, it was done exactly when he said it would be and for about the same money quoted, something hard to find with vendors it seems. I had left the transmission in the car, not intending to touch that, but since they are cheap to rebuild and it wasn't hard to remove, I decided it was best to rebuild it too while the engine was out so I wouldn't have to worry about it failing later. A local guy who used to do trans rebuilds at his dealer handled that and I had it back in short order. By late October, I had both the motor (in pieces) and the transmission. Throughout the summer, I had been cleaning and re-finishing small engine parts, often at work on my lunch hour as we have a shop with a sandblaster and wire wheels. Every piece was documented as to how it was finished and re-done the same way, albeit tidier and nicer than original. Now, late in 2023, the race was on to try to get the motor completed enough to paint it before the temperatures dropped here in Wisconsin. I almost made it.
In late November, I wheeled it outside on the last warm day to warm in the sun before spot spraying primer (the tin parts on top) and then coating it in 1990s Mopar Performance Chrysler Turquoise we had on-hand. This is where the next phase of the plan started to get sideways - I ran out of paint before finishing. I knew I'd be short overall, but thought I had enough to do what I wanted that day. Now I was faced with finding a matching paint to something obsolete. However, as the paint cured over the next several days in the garage, I thought it was a bit too blue. I am super anal about those kinds of details and don't like "close enough". The only exceptions I made along the way was to avoid overspray like the factory did, I had the exhaust manifolds ceramic coated in a natural cast gray color, and I painted the driveshaft. So started an endeavor that was a couple months and many cans of paint (all of which disappointed) to ultimately find one that actually matched my multiple samples: Bill Hirsch 1957-58 Pontiac Turquoise of all things. See my thread here for more details: Yet Another Chrysler Turquoise Engine Paint Thread....But Maybe The Last?
With doing more small parts over the winter indoors at work (including the driveshaft) and armed with paint I was happy with, I hit the ground running in spring 2024. My new goal? The (possibly last) c-body show at IRM In June. One month out from the date, the motor was mostly reassembled and ready to go back in. I had a car with no motor, no driveshaft, no cooling system, no brakes, and an unknown fuel system. I busted my butt every free moment I had to get it done. I almost made it. One week from the event, the motor was in and running, the driveshaft was in, new brake hoses were installed, all four wheels had new cylinders and shoes, the rebuilt master cylinder was in place, the front drum bearings were re-greased and re-sealed, the fuel tank was drained and inspected, and it was almost ready to bleed brakes. Unfortunately, the brake booster was still not back from the rebuilder, which meant no brake bleeding, no brakes, and no show. I was disappointed of course, but I kept at it. With the booster and new steel brake lines in place, the car went on its first test drive on July 22, 2024, the evening before I left for the National DeSoto Club convention in New Orleans, LA. It was a beautiful day and the car drove nicely with only a few small adjustments needed.
I quickly added to the mileage, making some small adjustments along the way, changing the oil early, and got the exhaust done. On Labor Day Weekend, I took the car about 1.25 hours away to visit Chester and gave him a ride in his old car. He was smiling the whole day as the car gleamed in the sun. I still have some small things to finish this year - putting a more correct spare tire on the rim in the trunk, installing the heater box, gently polishing the paint, fixing a water leak on the passenger side, and replacing one of the quarter window edge rubbers. This is one of those cars that you just don't find in this condition and with the kind of history it has. It's definitely a keeper and one I plan to have for a long, long time! And, yes, of course I have saved every receipt and scrap of paper to add to what Chester had given to me!
Even with all the paperwork I got with the car, it hasn't quite been enough for me. I recently scoured newspapers from that time and came up with ads from Wruck Motors for their leftover '66 Plymouths and Chryslers. I also got in contact with the grandson of the dealer owner and he was able to provide two very nice color photographs from circa 1964 that his uncle took of the dealership, which still stands. This year, I hope to park the car in front of that building and get some photos.
Here's everything that I did:
- A deep cleaning and polishing inside and out, including treatment of the vinyl top and chrome polishing.
- Scrubbed the engine bay.
- Had the block, heads, crankshaft, and rods cleaned and machined. The block is .030" over and was decked and planed. (Rocket Racing, Tichigan, WI)
- Had the trans rebuilt (local acquaintance, Jerry Quaden)
- Drained and refilled the torque converter
- Rebuilt the driveshaft myself, cleaned, and painted
- Had the heater core re-done (Wedige Automotive, Elkhorn, WI)
- Had the radiator re-cored (Antioch Radiator - they have since stopped doing re-coring work)
- Had the p/s pump rebuilt (Lares)
- New oil pump
- Disassembled, cleaned, re-lubricated, and re-assembled lifters and rocker assemblies.
- Replacement oil pan (Murray Park)
- New timing gear and chain (Summit?)
- Had the exhaust re-done from the floorboards back (RPMs, Lake Geneva, WI)
- Had the exhaust manifolds ceramic coated (Motorsport Powdercoating, Delavan, WI)
- Had the exhaust manifolds planed (Kilpatrick Racing Engines, Waukesha, WI)
- Had the carburetor rebuilt (local acquaintance, Larry Kraut)
- Had the original water pump rebuilt (Arthur Gould Rebuilders, MA)
- Had the alternator rebuilt (Alstar Company, Union Grove, WI - they no longer do rebuilds)
- Cleaned and detailed the starter
- Had the original master cylinder (single reservoir with only one port) rebuilt (White Post Restorations, VA)
- Had the original brake booster (dealer installed unit) rebuilt and re-coated (Power Brake Booster Exchange / Booster Dewey, WA)
- Rebuilt the brakes (shoes, wheel cylinders, and hoses from Craig at mobileparts , steel lines from Inline Tube)
- Checked functionality of the parking brake while the rear drums were off - all good!
- Re-greased the front end, wheel hubs, and installed new grease seals.
- Tuned up and re-lubed the distributor with vintage USA parts, including a correct tan cap (Marx Parts, MN)
- Installed correct date-coded plug wires (Lectric Limited, IL)
- Purchased (yet to be installed pending heater box installation) correct ribbed heater hose (YearOne)
- Purchased correct ribbed overflow hose, radiator cap, thermostat etc. (YearOne, Mancini Racing)
- Obtained correct hoses and clamps locally, aside from the specialty ribbed hoses previously mentioned.
- New ground strap (made myself)
- Cleaned and repainted numerous parts, all documented and re-finished correctly. I used Bill Hirsch 1957-58 Pontiac Turquoise and semi-gloss black.
- Bought and placed a new air cleaner decal on the dual snorkel air cleaner (Classic Industries)
- Found and installed a correct NOS batter hold-down.
- Installed a new battery with the stickers stripped (EverStart from Walmart as they are made by the company that bought out Johnson Controls, who used to make the good batteries that last)
- Purchased correct battery cables (one from YearOne, one from Atlas Obsolete I think?)
- Replaced the broken washer jug (I bought an NOS one, but the reproductions available through Murray Park are also good)
- Replaced numerous light bulbs and one headlight with a correct, matching TS unit
Fender Tag Decoding:
d6 Rear seat speaker
e8 Rear window defogger
f6 Bumper moulding
p6 LH remote outside mirror
AB 62 383 4 bbl
C 5 Automatic
R 1 AM radio
X 1 Tinted glass (all windows)
Y 6 Black vinyl top
SO # 61502180 Scheduled to be built 6/15/66 + 02180 is the shipping order number
BDY PH23 1966 Plymouth Fury high price class 2 door hardtop
TRM H5X Black vinyl
PAINT KK1B Light Turquoise Metallic with black vinyl top (B)
VIN Decoding:
P Plymouth Fury
H High price class
23 2 door hardtop
G 383
6 1966 model year
4 Belvedere, IL assembly plant
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