1963 Plymouth Fury Barn Find Outlasted Its Original Owner And Still Does Smoky Burnouts After 59 Years
Birds had been using a farm shed beam above this red 1963 Plymouth Fury convertible as a perch, and the lowered top paid the price.
Underneath the mess sat a car that spent nearly six decades with one owner, who kept a folder of receipts dating back to the dealership.
Brake jobs, carburetor tweaks, and a new top are all on paper, along with the original window sticker. When his family finally let it go, two YouTube shops teamed up to see if this barn find could run again.
Only 5,221 Plymouth Fury Convertibles Were Built For 1963
Plymouth downsized the Fury onto its B-body platform for 1962, making 1963 the second year of the smaller car. Just 5,221 Fury convertibles left the line that year, all with V8 power.
The 1963 lineup ran from a 145 hp 225 Slant-Six to a 230 hp 318 V8, a 265 hp 361, a 330 hp 383, and the 426 race engines. The indestructible 318 engine was a Poly, part of the polyspherical A-engine family Chrysler built from 1956 to 1967 before the LA replaced it.
Collectors usually chase the push-button automatics and big blocks. A base Poly with a column-shift three-speed, manual steering, and manual brakes was a plain-wrapper combo few people kept.
A One-Owner 1963 Plymouth Fury With 59 Years Of Paperwork
This Fury’s date code reads 12/24, a Christmas Eve 1962 build date. Its window sticker at Chrysler City in Portland, Oregon, totaled $3,379.38. That bought a radio, heater, Sure Grip differential, tinted windshield, whitewalls, and even $5.60 worth of antifreeze.
The Fury sat unsold for eight months until Pacific Trailways bus driver Don Richardson paid cash in August 1963. He negotiated $667 off the sticker and paid $2,724 including title and license fees.
Richardson kept every receipt, including front suspension work in 1988, a new top in 1989, and an engine rebuild in 1993. In 1972, he moved the car to a farm outside Pomeroy, Washington, where the dry climate kept the rockers and quarter panels solid. A front bumper flag bracket is a leftover from its parade days.
Richardson passed away in 2022 after 59 years with the car, and Tom Hergert of Rocket Restorations later bought it from his daughter, Sheila.
The 318 Poly Woke Up On The First Turn Of The Key
Jamie of Dead Dodge Garage got the brakes working again and replaced a crusty rubber fuel hose. He dumped gas mixed with Marvel Mystery Oil down the Stromberg carburetor, and the Poly fired up first try on old fuel.
Its radio still wears CONELRAD triangles at 640 and 1240 kHz, Cold War emergency marks required on US AM radios until 1963.
Tom cured an oil leak by replacing a pinched, silicone-smeared oil filter adapter gasket. Jamie fixed the noisy front end with a correct cast-iron water pump, a single-pulley alternator, fresh hoses, and a new belt.
Smoky burnouts proved the Sure Grip works, and Jamie even took the Fury on a road drive on 2008-dated tires. Tom plans to sort the brakes, tires, and power top before driving it up to show Sheila.
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