FIRE-RED AND REVVED
Restoration clears way for owner’s $150 catch to cruise summer nights
Reader restores $150 steal 1962 Plymouth Fury to original summer car glory.
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Mike and Lynne Boyd: Wheels Readers
Occupation: Happily retired The Car: 1962 ‘ Canadian’ Plymouth Golden Commando Fury
I purchased this 1962 Plymouth Fury for $150 as a fixerupper in March 1970, and I’m the third owner of the car.
Built during the extended 1962 production year at Chrysler’s Windsor factory in late 1963, it was delivered to Fred Maveal’s (Plymouth) Motor Sales, in Georgetown, Ont., on Sept. 26 1963.
Special ordered by Miss Muriel Newns, it came with the 361 c.i. 305 horsepower. Golden Commando V8 engine and a push button Torqueflite 727 transmission. A two-door hardtop, the Fury was fittingly painted flame red, with a white accent strip stretching from the top of the front to the rear fenders, and a striking Dodge Polara red and white interior.
There were 4,700 American models made, which were branded as the Sport Fury in the U.S. And as it’s been estimated that less than 10 per cent of the Golden Commando versions were assembled here, this Fury would have been limited to less than 50 being produced for the Canadian market.
I patched up my $150 special and dragraced the Plymouth at the newly opened Golden Horseshoe Dragway, and many other drag strips in Ontario.
My wife Lynne and I used the car for our wedding in 1973 and that winter, we put the Fury into storage, where it peacefully resided for nearly two decades. Two Corvettes and two children later, the Plymouth came out of storage in 1991 and went to Danny’s Auto Body, in Norval, Ont., for a complete nut-and-bolt body restoration.
Retrieved from the body shop with a primer coat in 1993, it was later painted in a polyurethane-acrylic flame red colour by professional auto painter Barry Allen in 1997, restoring it to its full Fury glory. The bumpers were re- chromed and a new Naugahyde interior, ordered from Legendary Auto Interiors, Ltd., in the U.S., was expertly stitched together by Barry Mann, at Caledon Auto Trim.
The original 361 V8 was replaced with a rebuilt 413 c.i. engine at Ray and Ruth Ann Russiani’s family-run business, R&R Complete Auto & Tire, in Georgetown, Ont. The pushbutton transmission was also freshened up.
The Fury was proudly shown at Toronto’s Performance World car show in 2000, winning first place as Mopar Best in Show, and then it went on to win at Wheel World in Niagara Falls and at the London Auto Expo show.
Lynne and I are enjoying the Plymouth, going to car shows and cruise nights throughout the summer.
A few years ago, we met our Fury’s original owner, Muriel Newns, at our local cruise night and she was happy to see we had taken really good care of ‘her car.’