With snow still on the ground in places, it was quite a surprise to catch this ’66 Fury III out and about a couple weeks ago. I’ve not seen it before and there were no car shows going on in the area.
We’ve discussed this before, but it was nice to see a (non-restored?) four-door sedan – definitely not the ‘go-to’ body style for restorers, but maybe that’s starting to change. We have more coverage of the Fury III here:
1967 Plymouth VIP – Very Important Plymouth Or Footnote To The Great Brougham Epoch? (Tom Klockau)
1967 Plymouth Fury III – Thanks Mom (Brendan Saur)
1967 Plymouth Fury III Coupe – 1963 Revisited (Paul Neidermeyer)
Another blast from my past. First the Rambler, now this.
My Aunt, the same one who later had the 70 Ambassador wagon, had a 65 Fury III wagon, also white, with a red interior. Her first car with an automatic. (the Ambassador was her first with a/c). Really strange headliner in that Plymouth: perforated cardboard, with stainless steel or polished aluminum bows, like it was supposed to look like a covered wagon inside.
I’ve seen 1961(or 62) Lincolns with something similar, although it was probably perforated vinyl glued to some kind of cardboard-like stuff. It might have gone with the ones with brushed stainless steel panels on the doors instead of the wood you usually see. My ’62 had the traditional fuzzy material stretched between bows and the wood. The one I saw with the perforated vinyl was done in red with probably red leather. Maybe it was a red thing.
I think I’ve seen the perforated/stainless steel bows on the outside stuff on other period Chrysler wagons. The idea was probably that it was less likely to be damaged by cargo than the stretched fabric or vinyl typical of the period.
I think if it were the choice, I would pick a 66 Plymouth over a 66 Ford, the choice between a Plymouth and a Chevy would be a lot tougher.
But after reading the articles about the broughaming of Plymouth’s largest, I think that the 69 is THE epitome of the brand.
I think that the 69 is THE epitome of the brand.
My dad had a 69 Fury III, bought new. Most horrid piece of poo created, until the POS 78 Zephyr.
Wow, the spitting image of the car I drove in the late 80s. One of the most trouble-free cars I ever had. I eventually came to wish it had been a 67, if only because the 67s used the new LA block 318 which was so much easier to buy parts for. The 66 was the last year of the old wide block and parts were around but most stores had to order them in.
The turquoise interior was fabulous!
In the summer of 65 my driver’s training car in small town Indiana was a white 1965 Plymouth Fury III sedan, almost the twin of this 66. I have pleasant memories of that car – 318, Torqueflite, the infamous low effort P/S, and a big greenhouse – all made it an easy car to drive and park. IIRC it had the combination vinyl and cloth upholstery in pale blue.
At the time I was disappointed not to have been assigned to the other car used for our two groups that hot summer – a beautiful burgundy 1965 Chevy Impala four-door hardtop with A/C. But at least the Fury was white and the seats were a lighter shade and didn’t stick to us badly and it was probably easier to park than the big Impala.
The Plymouth did have a few quality issues, panel fit, some rattles and most notably the transmission selector was out of alignment with the quadrant. Overall a good and handsome car that sold well in our area and brought Plymouth back after the disastrous downsizing for 62-64.
Bummer – in Drivers Ed you probably didn’t get to park using your index finger to spin the wheel around with that super light “full time” power steering. These were best controlled with the left elbow out the window and the left fingers on the wheel. Also undoubtedly verboten. 🙂
Sharp example of a sharp design. I prefer the export-type rear lights.
Sharp example of a sharp design. I prefer the export-type rear lights (Australian ’66 Dodge Phoenix shown)
These were seemingly everywhere in the late 60’s and throughout the 70’s. I like the design: clean and not at all fussy. I remember working on plenty of these in my dads garage. Most had a 318, but a few would show up with a potent 383. Those were runners.
Very nice to see that picture and accompanying articles. I hadn’t seen them before.
My maternal Grandfather, in (very) small town Saskatchewan had for his last car a 1967 Fury III. 4 door sedan, dark blue, light blue vinyl interior. 318 Auto with manual steering and brakes. It was actually the very first vehicle I ever drove at age 11, way, way out one of the gravel grid roads that crisscross the Prairie provinces here. If I recall it was on a visit to my Grandma’s old family cemetery some ways from town and I slowly piloted it down the centre of the gravel road for a distance.
It was garage kept every night and was in immaculate condition upon Grandpa’s death in late 1988, showing if I recall correctly about 50K miles. On the cold and dry prairies it appeared to have escaped any rust problems common in other more temperate parts of Canada. In the last few years it rarely left the small town – 3 blocks to the store and post office, maybe 8 blocks to church.
For many years we believed it to have no seat belts in the back seat, instead while looking for something they were found neatly wrapped up in plastic as delivered from the factory.
From what I understand it was the last of several Plymouths my Grandpa owned after his arrival in Canada from Poland in the 1920s. It was sold to a cousin as my Grandma didn’t drive, and I lost track of it. Would have, could have, should have . . . .
Ah, memories. Drove a ’65 Fury III that I purchased for $1.00 from my grandfather asa winter-beater. What a great riding car – not handling, but ride. Started to feel the restoration temptation but then I discovered how badly rusted the torsion bar mounts were.
Loved that I could push-start it as the automatic still had a rear oil pump. Now that freaked some people out.
CHRISTINE!!! Just don’t speed in Ridgeville….
E
The push-start Torqueflite was a neat feature, but quite understandable why they dropped it. I mean, imagine a salesman pointing it out:
Salesman: And, unlike Fords and Chevys, you can push-start it!
Customer: Why would I need to push-start it? You mean it’s not going to start all the time?
Salesman: (?)
Given the problems I had with the starter the push start “feature” came in handy.
According to what I’ve read, the Torqueflite’s rear oil pump was eliminated because it was seldom used. Evidently, that was not the case with your car.
It would be interesting to know if the rear oil pump was actually useful or not. Honestly, it sounds more like a simple cost-cutting move. I certainly would have liked to have had the ability to push-start an automatic-equipped vehicle built back in the sixties.
Yeah, but it wasn’t like a stick shift car you could push start at a few mph. You had to be really moving to get the energy through the pump and torque converter to the engine.
Automatic Corvairs can also be push-started. Not sure what other cars.
I know that the 4 speed Hydra Matic used in Cadillac and big Pontiacs as late as 1964 still used a rear oil pump and could be push-started.
The rear oil pump was used by the transmission for a number of uses – getting oil pressure for the torque converter was the main one. If you lost the rear pump, you could go nowhere as there was no pressure for the torque converter.
Back in those days the owners manual would advise the driver to shift to N or P if the vehicle was left standing still, engine running, instead of in gear. Reduced the likelihood of the torque converter overheating.
As to whose automatics had front and rear oil pumps – Dynaflow, Powerglide, Hydramatic, Ultramatic, Fordomatic/Mercomatic (3 speed), Studebaker (early 3 speed with torque converter lockup), Powerflite and Torqueflite. In other words, all the early ones did,. And the rear pump was used in all cases.
Chrysler changed their automatics in 1965-66 and reworked them so only the front pump was needed and used. And the car could no longer be push started. (You had to get up to 15mph before putting the car into 1st gear with a tranny with rear pump)
By the late 1960’s only Powerglide, Corvair’s Powerglide, Cruiseomatic and Fordomatic (cast iron case) had rear pumps.
An acquaintance drove a ’65 4-door very much like this one to my high school in Ohio. It was powder blue.
I know he put chrome reverse wheels on it while he owned it. And maybe glass pack mufflers.
Nice example of that car- good find.
My father’s first cousin drove a 1966 Fury III convertible that had been purchased brand-new. It was robin’s egg blue with black top. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1968, and drove that car until 1977. It was apparently a good, tough car for them.
These Plymouths sometimes pop up at various car shows. The most common body styles are hardtop coupes, convertibles and four-door sedans. It wouldn’t surprise me if the four-door hardtop body style had recorded the lowest production numbers, as I don’t remember seeing many when these cars were still plying the streets as “used cars.”
You made me curious. According to one source (http://www.v8meetings.nl/66/?page_id=85) The top 5 model/body styles were:
1. Fury II 4 door sedan – 55,016
2. Fury III 4 door sedan – 46,505
3. Fury III 2 door hardtop – 41,869
4. Fury I 4 door sedan – 39,698
5. Fury III 4 door hardtop – 33,922
That 4 door hardtop barely came in ahead of the Sport Fury 2 door hardtop (32,523). The next two were the Fury I 2 door sedan and the VIP 4 door hardtop, both under 13K units, and the Fury II and III wagons were the only other body styles to be built in numbers that exceeded four figures. These numbers confirm what my sense had been of things on the ground when these were common.
Thank you for the figures. These Plymouths were reasonably popular when new, but it always seemed as though they appealed to more practical folk.
I managed to find this one in 1983, and purchased it for $725! Recently, I passed it on to my nephew, after it having been parked for the past 10-15 years. He’s currently restoring/updating it, and it’s almost about to be back on the road again! 🙂
The 1965 Chevrolet was described as big in an early post. Both the Chevrolet and the C body Plymouth were built on a 119″ wheelbase. The Chevrolet was 213″ while the Fury was 209″. The more flowing lines of the Impala made the Chevrolet look longer than the boxier Fury.
Learned to drive on a Canadian-market 1965 Dodge 330 with a slant six and Torqueflite. Picture a 1965 Polara sedan with no nameplates on the front fender, a Plymouth instrument panel and a Fury I interior. (Arm rests for the rear passengers were optional). For a boat with no P/S it was easy to handle.
My first car is a 66 Plymouth Fury 4 door sedan