Tom Klockau’s CC this morning about the 1967 Plymouth VIP reminded me of my first-ever VIP sighting. I was passing through Peru, Indiana, one Saturday six years ago to find the main street through town closed for a little car show. Of course, I stopped to look – and there it was. This one’s from 1966, the VIP’s inaugural year.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2b1t1_1966-plymouth-v-i-p_auto#.URWPJqVEFBM
Incredibly, I didn’t know about the VIP until just a few days before, when I came upon this old TV spot for the VIP on Dailymotion.
The fellow who restored this car talked with me briefly. When I told him that I saw an old TV ad for the VIP on Dailymotion, his jaw dropped. He said he’d had a terrible time finding information about the car, and that parts were especially hard to come by. He pointed out how the trim strips didn’t quite line up (you can see it in the photo above) as an example. He also showed me where one trim strip was scuffed, and said it was the best he could find anywhere. Despite the challenges he faced getting parts, I think he did a nice job on his car.
With extra sound deadening and a cushier interior over the lesser Furys on which it was based, the VIP was poised to go head-to-head against the Chevrolet Caprice and the Ford LTD. We all know how that turned out for Plymouth.
Nice!
Plymouth VIPs are like buses,never see one for ages then 2 at once!This one looks better in red well spotted and written Jim.
Those seats are quite a bit more luxurious than the ones in my Fury III sedan. As for the chrome strips on the side, it looks like the problem may be more in his door alignment than in the trim strips. Probably just the way Chrysler built it. 🙂 Actually, I wonder what the difference is on the trim strips – these look like the ones I recall on my Fury III.
Sigh – I spent about 40k very happy miles behind one of those steering wheels. It would have been cool if my car had been a VIP instead of a Fury III. I like this one in red and black as well. Cool wheels, too.
I was wondering what the difference in trim was as well. A few months back the CC was a ’65 Plymouth Sport Fury and I wrote about the difficulty I had in finding trim parts for it, and that was over 30 years ago. I can only imagine how hard finding such parts would be today!
I have a lot of respect for people who restore obscure models like this, it’s a lot more of a project than the mainstream stuff like Camaros, Mustangs and ’55-’57 Chevys. From the photos, this guy did a nice job. And yeah, Chrysler probably did build it that way. Nice ride.
> As for the chrome strips on the side, it looks like the problem may be more in his door alignment than in the trim strips.
I was thinking the same thing, it doesn’t look like the door lines-up with the panel behind it.
It’s quite possible that the chrome for a Fury III is almost the same but slightly different than that for a VIP, even though almost nobody would notice the difference. I say this because I’ve seen similar detail differences.
For example, 1966 Chrysler New Yorker and 300s have a thin chrome strip in the same place down low along the body. For whatever reason, the NYer and 300 chrome strips are slightly different. I discovered this when looking at a Chrysler 300 that had had NYer front fenders swapped onto it.
I noticed the same thing with my 68. I went to replace a fender skirt, and discovered that the rocker trim on a Newport was different than on a Newport Custom. The Custom’s trim went up about an inch onto the lower doors (instead of covering just the rocker on the regular Newport), and the trim piece for the fender skirt therefore went higher up o the skirt to match the higher rocker trim. I’ll bet nobody else in the history of the world (besides a body man) has ever noticed this difference. Nobody was as good at wasting money on trim differences invisible to the naked eye as was Chrysler in the 1960s.
For me the chrome trim strips recall a few years in the 1980s when Caprice Estate wagons had chrome strips at the end of their dinoc paneling instead of vinyl wood grain strips.
This certainly helps explain one of those little curiosities that tend to stick around in the brain for too long…
Prior to my having met him, a friend of mine had a ’67 VIP. He could not get any buyers when he attempted to sell it. This went on for an extended period of time. So, needing money, he parted it out. It was still in great shape. He made more than his asking price when parting it out plus he still has the 383 4bbl to this day. He said the parts went like hot cakes.
Ahhh…that lovely C-Pillar again. One of my favorite oldies. The stacked headlights aren’t so bad, either. Probably why I also like the 1965 & 66 Galaxies, too.
No time over the weekend to chime in or even check out this or TTAC, so I’ll start anew with this.
Not to be facetious, but did Chrysler trim ever line up perfectly as much as GM and Ford? Probably as good as the others at that time, though, all things being equal.
In early 70’s, there was a ’66 VIP coupe ‘hot rodded’ by a teen in my neighborhood. The last era of big Plymouths that got modded at the time were 65-68’s. Mag wheels, glass packs, duals, and jacked up, etc.
The bigger 69-71 fuselage Sport Furys sold to parents and didn’t catch on with 70’s era ‘Hot Rodders’.
We never got these only the Valiant came in VIP with all the fruit but that was all. Im sifting thru 2 cars worth of stainless trim mouldings for my Hillman I have 1 piece missing so far but at least I can get it I hope.
Really great looking car! This is one of the few instances where I can say I think something actually looks better with the vinyl top than without. I’m very impressed by this interior/dashboard, too. Simple and obviously built with decent quality pieces… if this had been the trajectory that Brougham cars stayed on over the next 20 years I’d be the president of their fan club.
Looking for the thin wood part that goes inside the trim for my 1966 Plymouth vip.