The Indianapolis Motor Speedway thought enough of the new-for-1965 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible to choose one for pace-car duties in that year’s 500-mile classic. Similarly, someone in the 500’s home state must have watched the race and fallen in love with the pace car, because this Sport Fury, which is up for auction on Bring a Trailer in Converse, Indiana, has the same white exterior and blue interior that the pace car had (it is not, however, a pace car replica). The seller has owned the Sport Fury for 31 years, but it’s only covered 100 miles during that span; therefore, it’s more of a project than a turnkey driver.
Bring a Trailer has saved us some work by posting a break down on the Fury’s fender tag, and it’s a fairly well-optioned convertible, with air conditioning, power windows, and power seats. Unfortunately, those power options have worked against the car in terms of selling, because none of them work (well, the power seats appear to move forward and backward, but not up and down).
But we might as well get the real bad news out of the way first. The car looks like a really decent driver in the pictures, but being from Indiana, it’s bound to have had some rust repairs. You don’t find a car from the Midwest/Great Lakes regions without a screen-door floor in a spot or two, so this isn’t a cause for much concern.
This is a little worse. Luckily, the real corrosion is not in the torsion bar anchor area, and the rest of the undercarriage looks quite decent, but holes in the subframe are always going to be a dealbreaker for some.
But honestly, this is the kind of thing I would welcome as a buyer: It would lower the car’s sale price and I’d have no qualms about doing a quick-and-dirty metal repair.
On the other hand, the projects are going to add up; a car just can’t sit for three decades without accruing a long list of maintenance projects. For example, there’s no way I’d feel safe without swapping out the master cylinder, wheel cylinders, and brake hoses before making this a regular driver. The radiator will also certainly need recoring (or a cheap and ugly aluminum replacement, painted black). I could live without working air conditioning, but the heater also doesn’t work, and a car up north needs heat for those 30-degree mornings in the spring and fall.
Based on this video the seller has posted, however, the big 270-horsepower 383 runs pretty well. The seller had a mechanic clean the fuel system and get the engine running, and it seems like the drivetrain is OK. Chrysler engines of the 1960s are pretty tough.
The interior and convertible top were redone in 2000 (26 years ago now—yikes!), and the Sport Fury’s sporty bucket seats and console were a worthwhile upgrade (at least in terms of looks) over the Fury III’s bench. Maybe that’s why the Sport Fury Convertible outsold the Fury III: 6,272 to 5,524 (not much of a win, really).
Unfortunately, those long periods of sitting have given the new owner a lot of cleaning to do. The pictures of the interior show a lot of opportunities for detailing.
Still, I love 1965 C-Body Chryslers, and this could be a real opportunity for someone such as me who enjoys tinkering, isn’t afraid of a car with a little rust here and there, and likes ten-footers. As long as the reserve isn’t set too high, someone’s bound to get a decent deal on a very nice-looking Plymouth convertible. But they’re also getting a to-do list.
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Curbside Classic: 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible – If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em (by Mike Butts)
I wonder…..did this `65 have the factory skirts when new? The rear wheel openings lead me to believe some patchwork and repaint has been done. They don’t look quite right. And being a rusty IN. car, I bet the lower quarters etc. had their fair share of rust. Hope it isn’t all bondo!
The Sport Fury came standard with fender skirts, and they’re missing here. Being a Midwest car it’s almost guaranteed that it’s had quarter patching done (and the close up pictures point in that direction).
Whether or not it’s all bondo or somebody welded in patches (not too hard on such a rectilinear car) is a toss-up. Honestly, if you only drive it on decent days and keep it garages, a poor repair can last decades.
It’s a good opportunity to compare this to the 65 Ford. Both similar profiles and both with stacked lights. Seeing them in proximity makes me realise I prefer the Plymouth. The Ford feels fussier whereas this has a better fore/aft dynamic. Handsome, but I’d have to own a fusey first.
I have always really liked the 65 Plymouth – and find several of its details nicer than on the 66 I owned years ago. Oh boy, this is just the kind of car I would have loved a number of years ago. And of all the white cars I have had, none had blue interior, so there is that.
The one thing that would bother me more than the subframe and floor rust (which doesn’t have to be fixed so that it is pretty) is the level of pitting on the interior chrome. That is not going to polish out.
This is an abnormally well equipped car, even for a full-sized convertible of those years. The air conditioning alone makes it unusual. This will make someone a really nice driver if that person is willing to spend a little more time and money on it. But for me, I will have to make do with the 65 Fury convertible I already own – made by JoHan.
The 65 ragtops look fine because they dont have the hideous slanted C pillar.
65 full size Fords are so much more handsome to me…….especially the two door hardtops.
The console is simultaneously interesting and disappointing I expect something that age to have push buttons like my parents’ 64 Valiant.It’s still a nice car if you fix the rust and accessories
IIRC, 1964 was the last year for the push-button TorqueFlite. 1965 was when Chrysler switched over to a conventional lever selector (floor or column).
The worst part was I ‘think’ the changeover was also when Chrysler ditched the transmission tailshaft pump which allowed the cars to be push-started. I always thought that was a very nice feature and sorry when they did away with it.
The rear pump lasted one more year. The ’65 torqueflite is a year only oddball. Last year for the rear pump, last year for the cable shift (but lever rather than pushbutton) and the first year for the slip yoke instead of ball and trunnion output.
Unfortunately, most old cars have a “to do” list. An example is my buddy’s 1978 Sedan DeVille. That car runs well, but getting the climate control to work properly has been the impossible dream
Those late-1960s Chrysler drop tops break my heart. In the up position, the canvas looks like ten pounds of baloney in a five-pound bag. Cheap, cheap, cheap!
A car that age would have a “list”. Imagine, if the right buyer gets it. thinks will shake into place.
Interesting to note then in Canada, the Belvedere wasn’t sold in Canada for the 1965 model year but however instead of the Fury I, the Savoy nameplate did one final in the Great White North. https://www.oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/Chrysler-Canada/Plymouth/1965-Plymouth-Full-Size-Brochure/slides/1965_Plymouth_Full_Size_Cdn-10-11.html
Still it could be interesting to compare the 1965 Fury with the 1965 Ford Galaxie 500. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule-1965-ford-galaxie-500-convertible-straight-laced-in-a-curvacous-new-world/
I think if former Ford designer Elwood Engel have stayed at Ford instead of moving to Chrysler, would have probably gived the Galaxie the slanted C-pillar who landed on the Fury.
I’ll repeat, for a second time again, that that rusty data plate, up that high, told me not to look under the car and be surprised.
Sadly, that’s just the way things are up here. The rust up high is certainly from long-term storage in a non-climate-controlled situation, as most of us have. It’s not uncommon in the spring and fall for the temperature to be 32 degrees when I leave for work and 70 when I get home, and on those first warm days after it’s been cold, I have to be careful not to slip on my garage floor. It’s not that big of a deal if you get the cars out and use them regularly for at least half the year, but if you let them sit for years at a time, that humidity just goes to work.
Two words: money pit. All that non-working stuff, along with the bondo in the body and gaping holes in the frame, means expensive repairs (if done right) which will never be returned on a resale. 1965 Sport Fury convertibles simply aren’t worth that much, even in Grade 1 condition, and this one is far from that.
Current bidding is at $4,500 and, given what it needs, that’s just about the max this one should go for.
I think this is one of those cars that you’re not going to do right, but it will be a money pit in the long run, as most old cars are. The secret to one of these is to know going in that it’s never going to be a nice one and spend accordingly.
I agree that 4-5K seems reasonable, but I’m not seeing a money pit by any means. I bought my ’65 Chrysler 24 years ago and it was not nearly as good as this. It still may not be as good as this Fury, but I have averaged less than $1000 per year and driven it about 80 thousand miles. Could I get that much back out of it, of course not. Are old cars the only hobby that people somehow expect to make a profit off of?
Does it have power steering?
Yes, the pump is mounted low on the driver’s side. It’s a little tough to see, but you can kind of make out the hoses going from the pump to the steering box in the engine compartment picture.
If that top is actually 26 years old, this car has definitely been stored indoors. While the stub frame rust is not ideal, the fact that the torque boxes are intact suggests the body isn’t terrible.
This Sport Fury also has the newly available on Plymouths for 1965 tilt steering wheel. This option was rarely chosen by buyers.
I saw the tilt wheel, too. That does sweeten the pot a bit.
When I was a kid my town’s police car fleet was Plymouth Furys. Maybe with the 383.
No sale at $8,250…I wonder what the seller was expecting out of it.
I wondered too? Being a Grade 4, because of that rust, he should have taken that $8,250 which is dead in the range for a Grade 4 car.
Same here. Sure seems like the seller is dreaming.
$8,250 was a whole lot more than I’d give for a non-collectable needing the kind of extensive work that one does. The bondo, the frame rust, all the systems that aren’t working. Maybe he’s holding out because of the rare tilt wheel. I guess that still works.
ironically, if he puts it up again, it will almost always reach a lower amount on the second try so forget a third try. Buyers tend to remember the cars that don’t sell and from my experience they never do as good as the first attempt.
It would be interesting to know the history of the car. 31 years ago, the current owner acquired it, maybe thinking it was a valuable collectable. Five year later, he presumably had the interior and top redone, but little else and a scant 100 miles has been put on the odometer in all that time.
I suspect he might have overpaid by a large amount, in both initial purchase and refreshing the interior, not knowing the poor shape of the undercarriage or bondo in the body. Then, overestimated how difficult and expensive it would be to repair all of the non-operational mechanical bits just to make it fully driveable. Hell, the power windows don’t even work.
So, he’s finally decided to unload the car and set an unrealistic reserve in a vain attempt to recoup his losses.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, someone originally pulled the car out of a junkyard and got it back into barely presentable shape, decided they were in way over their head, and flipped it or are now trying to flip it and simply get out from under it.
When my uncle got married in 1965, my grandparents gifted the couple a ’65 Sport Fury 2dr hardtop in a light cream over black vinyl, with a black interior. Loaded, and a step up from the ’55 blue with a light blue top Belvedere 4 door sedan my parents received. On the other hand, that’s what they wanted, and over the years an inordinate number of their cars were blue Plymouth sedans, with a racy ’70 Fury III 4 door hardtop in a kind of deep teal.