Dan Harris is one of the early members of the 1959 Plymouth Forum (2008). The meticulous restoration of his Sport Fury has drawn accolades from all over the world, and has been long overdue in the Showcase. Actually - Dan’s Fury appeared in the '59 Plymouth Gallery as a Showcase entry while under the process of restoration, but is due for a substantial refresh. Back in the day, founding member Ron Keij created that Gallery page - for the sake of history, it is reproduced below, followed by updates ripped from the pages of Facebook and elsewhere, with attribution duly noted. Read on!
In May of 2008, Dan wrote:
I was just cruzin round on your site and looking at the pics under the category UFOs, and guess what!! I recognise one of the cars as I have recently purchased it.
Are you able to tell me where these pics were taken or where there from? Is there some way of tracing back some of the cars previous history / owners etc. (maybe other members may know?) All I know at this stage is that the car has Washington plates and was last reg’d in '91
The car is currently undergoing a full restoration and is nearly at frame off stage. The frame will be blasted and painted this year and it will go into the body shop early 2009.
Dan wrote to another member at about the same time:
The name of the guy I bought my sf from was Brett De La Mare (He was living in Darwin Australia at the time). I didn’t buy the car from ebay, I saw it in a paddock under some trees and started making enquiries as to who the owner was. Finally tracked down Brett and persuaded him into selling it… All I know about the car from your part of the world is that it was last registered in Washington in 1991 (LFV-345) and the name plaque on the dash is engraved “REATA BAIRD”, Would like to find out more of her previous 49yrs if possible?
I don’t know if Dan has since established the provenance of the vehicle - perhaps he can comment.
Here we have the original '59 Plymouth Gallery entry, courtesy of Ron Keij.
This picture was taken before Dan bought it
This was on the UFO section on the "old" website
Needs a little work
What a beauty
Even got the rear speaker!
This is what he started the restoration with
The proud owner and his car soon after he acquired it
I know the interior looks a little different now
And then we start taking the car apart
What else do we need to remove?
This is what they call a frame off restoration
Take it to the shop
Getting ready for paint
Solid and well protected
Almost ready for the colour
He does a great job
The first paint on a car is so exciting!
Almost done
Looks like a million $$$$
Don’t scratch that paint!
Ready to take it home to finish it
Heading back home
It’s so shiny I can see myself!
There has been a lot of water under the bridge since Dan initiated his restoration! Here are three sets of Dan’s Fury on display - in somewhat chronological order, but more likely by date that I captured them. Apologies in advance for duplicates - there are so many extraordinary shots of this masterpiece!
…and yet more!
Dan’s 15 minutes of fame, being interviewed at a car show in Bendigo (~150 km NW of Melbourne)
Some magazine articles about Dan’s Sport Fury! Apologies for the lack of dates - and, for the poor quality of the “Chrysler Action” article. It was produced from photos, but Dan has a DVD somewhere with higher quality, we’ll update the pdf when he has time to find it.
ChryslerAction.pdf (1.74 MB)
Unique Cars_59.pdf (19.3 MB)