Matthew Keij’s convertible was acquired in 2010 from Roger Howard, a former member of this Forum. -Dan
Roger says, I bought my Belvedere convertible, sight unseen, from Exner-era Mopar vendor Dave Donley, who resides in MN. He had purchased the car from an Iowa carpenter, had hauled it home, and advertised it in Hemming’s Motor News, where I spied the ad.
Since the car spent its entire life in the central Iowa region, it was easy enough to write to the Iowa DMV and request a list of prior owners. However, the list arrived with the prior owners’ addresses blanked out, due to new privacy laws!
I probably should not admit that the marker they used did not sufficiently hide all information, so with the help of Anywho.com, Reverse White Pages, and some other Internet services, I tracked down and contacted eight of the nine previous owners, or their survivors. I gotta say survivors, because, remember, this Plymouth was new 45 YEARS AGO!
I won’t bore you with specifics. Let me just say that this was a ‘fair weather car’ to most of its owners! Each owner (except #8) owned the car for two years or less. Most of them were not even 20 years old at the time. One owner took it to Yellowstone where the head gasket blew. Two owners reported electrical problems, melting wire insulation, and a horn that would sound by itself upon left turns.
Another owner admitted the car was used primarily for ‘parking"’ if you know what I mean. In fact, that particular woman married her mechanic, sold the car, then bought the car back, ( for more fun?)! The car spent most of its life around Fort Dodge.
The owners who owned it the longest (16 years) were neighbors of the ‘parkers’ just mentioned. These new owners (#7) had over 125 cars on their farm, according to the widow. She told me she didn’t recall the car..her feeling was it was probably stored with many others, awaiting restoration that would never come.
Owner #8 was a retired man who wanted to restore it, but again it didnt happen. He sold it to the carpenter (#9) who began a restoration only to give up in the face of such a big challenge.
So I am #10. They must use salt on Iowa roads, as the car was very nearly unrestorable..frame and body rust were extensive! The car was, however, complete, and we were able to splice it together with a SF hardtop to come up with the Sport Fury convertible it is today…(WA State Rules state that the frame and drivetrain define the title of the vehicle.)
Purchased June 1994, as a Belvedere convertible, bought sight unseen from Iowa… it arrived at my house so rusted out that the leaf springs had broken in transit. Virtually no floors, or rockers. Body and frame were rusted beyond reasonable repair. Uh-oh.
…I then located a stripped-out junkyard Sport Fury hardtop, and the two cars merged into one. It is now titled in WA as a Sport Fury convertible. The car still needs top and boot canvas, and inner door panels, and of course the ‘bugs’ worked out of it (leaky P/S, needs front end re-build)… The interior upholstery was re-done as original, thanks to materials supplied by SMS Auto Fabrics, Portland, OR, and Original Auto Interiors, MI.
It has a 1961 Chrysler 361 w/ torqueflite. Some of the options are factory a/c, Mirror-Matic, dual antennae, power windows, power seats, and front bumper wings.
I also have the Autronic Eye, but I have not decided whether to install it. I had the radio improved by FLFrank…he revived it and added a CD input jack. The car is licensed and insured, but it is still in the ‘local road test’ mode!
