1964 Plymouth Fury - A Maximum Effort

Now with his game plan coming together, he set out to perform what would turn into his greatest challenge-achieving concourse quality. Most old cars wear more than one coat of paint and carry a few body issues, and Paul's Plymouth was no exception. Since his plan called for mirror straight black paint, the car needed to be media blasted and then sent to a quality paint and body shop. Once the media blasting was completed, the car was taken to the first body shop, where the body man quickly lost interest after discovering just how serious Paul was about high quality. Two painters later, Paul finally found the right guy, who made the body perfectly straight and then sprayed on generous coats of jet black PPG.

While all of this was going on, Paul sent out his taillights for replating and ran into more difficulties when the chrome shop damaged his cores. To find replacements, he spent months online and finally collected another set of viable taillights. Finding those items was especially challenging because the needed cores are unique to only Fury and Sport Fury models and are prone to pitting. After several months, the taillights and all the other chrome items were replated to meet his unwavering standards.

Since Paul's expertise is upholstery, he performed most of the interior renovations himself, using seat and door panel kits from Legendary Auto Interiors. The aging dashpad was handed off to Just Dashes in Van Nuys, California, where the original pad was reskinned with a special vacuum process to closely match the factory appearance. Special attention was given to the entire instrument housing where G Car Plastic Grille and Trim renovated the chrome plastic instrument bezel to a better-than-new appearance. Next, the factory instruments were recalibrated and refaced at Redline Gauge Works to exceed new condition.

Paul's objective also called for glistening exterior aluminum and stainless trim to bounce shine off the deep black paint. To fulfill this goal, he collected every molding, grille section, and headlight bezel and sent them to the King of Trim (kingoftrim.com) in North Hollywood, California. There they were straightened, buffed, and renewed to shine better than ever.

To power his Mopar, Paul pulled a 440 from a worn out '67 Chrysler, disassembled it, and delivered it to Adams Metallizing & Grinding Machine Shop in Lancaster, California, where it was cleaned, decked, and bored. Paul and his buddy Bob Stagg assembled the short-block with a large by huge hydraulic Comp Cam, Eagle 4.25-inch stroke forged crank, JE forged .030-inch-over pistons, and a Milodon pan and oiling system. The longer stroke 4.25-inch Eagle crankshaft and .030-inch-over slugs yielded 505 torquey cubic inches. Then they topped the works off with a set of Edelbrock RPM aluminum cylinder heads and a reproduction cross-ram Max Wedge intake with two Edelbrock 750 carbs. For free exhaust breathing, Paul added a set of tti 2-inch headers and a TTI 3-inch exhaust system.

With almost three years dedicated to the build, the completed car was almost in sight. Once Paul and Bob had the engine in the bay, Paul reinstalled all the shining body items, chrome, interior, dash, glass, and electrical to the body. Then he added a full set of American Racing wheels. The Mopars at the Strip event in Las Vegas, Nevada, provided added motivation to finish the few remaining details. After many late nights and weekend hours, the car was finished just days before the big event.

By the end of the Mopars at the Strip weekend, Paul had won First Place in the '62-'67 B-Body Restified class. With that trophy on his mantle, he has continued to drive his Sport Fury to lots of shows and weekend cruises. His Sport Fury also encored by winning First Place at the Spring Fling in Van Nuys, California. The Sport Fury delivers plenty of performance, too. The mammoth 505's huge torque levels deliver rapid full-throttle blasts.