According to Psychology Today, “cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other,” and one need not have a degree in psychology to know that everybody has suffered from the pangs of regret when faced with the possibilities of the road less traveled. Chrysler Corporation is perhaps the most apt corporate metaphor for this psychological phenomenon, as every manifestation of corporate leadership outside of Walter Chrysler himself, and perhaps Lee Iacocca, has had to look in the mirror at the end of the day and make up a good story. This 1967 Sport Fury I recently spotted in the parking lot of a drag strip is proof that I am guilty of mixing my metaphors.
John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!'” After rereading Charles Hyde’s retrospective on the Chrysler Corporation titled Riding the Roller Coaster, I knew there was a car in my photograph files that would represent a company that had crested the wave of good fortune and was soon to become the latest of cautionary tales in American business. In essence, Lynn Townsend could not transcend his propensity for reducing the vagaries of the auto business to some figures on a spreadsheet; therefore, he made some mistakes that would have long reaching effects, such as the Sales Bank and a somewhat undercooked expansion into foreign markets.
It’s hard to tell by looking at a 1967 Fury, however, that the struggles had once again begun.
In its “Fast Top” form, the Fury is certainly handsome, a reimagined continuation of the crisp 1965 models that were among the first to emerge from Elwood Engel’s styling department. Still a couple years away from the arguably more polarizing fuselage Fury, the 1967 models maintained the boxy yet elegant origami look that made Chrysler products appealing to those who appreciated conservative styling and intelligent engineering.
Regarding my earlier reference to the Fury’s roofline: One could order a Sport Fury two-door hardtop in two varieties: standard or “Fast Top.” Many a buyer must have been a victim of some gut-wrenching, soul-searching nights when faced with a decision where neither alternative is particularly disagreeable. But I digress.
What makes the featured Fury so captivating is its overall condition – it’s a contradiction. My preference for well-worn vintage cars is a matter of record, but establishing the owner’s goal with this nearly perfect for me Fury has captured my imagination. Replacing the peeling vinyl top seems like an easy decision that would not create the pangs of regret that a whole new paint job might.
After all, the paint job is perfect. Almost certainly original, its cracks and crazes and thin spots free the owner from car cocoon purgatory. Repainting over what nature has thus far wrought would be criminal; you’ll never get it back, nor can you recreate it.
But I think the owner might be vacillating. A new vinyl top might tip the scales and push him/her into an expensive decision that will cause less happiness – a classic case of dissonance.
On the other hand, the Fury has a beautiful and expensive new set of redline bias ply tires and immaculate sporty hubcaps that look for all the world that they were borrowed from a Barracuda.
Its interior is almost equally unblemished, with only a loose seam on the seat betraying man’s relentlessly futile pursuit of perfection. How can two diverging properties, man-made perfection and natural perfection, possibly cross contaminate? Indeed, what is the goal of man and his vintage Plymouths? Is it the ignorant “oohs” and “aahs” of those who are drawn to the hollow veneer of a five-figure paint job? Or is it the knowing appreciation of those who appreciate the fact that the imperfect is not only sometimes paradoxically more perfect, but also cheaper?
My inherent bias makes my opinion predictable, but there truly is no right answer, and only man stands at the edge of the vacant cavern that is his own decision. And thus stands this Fury as stood Chrysler in 1967, one decision away from bliss or woe. Which is which?
As for my recommendation? It’s not worth the binary code in which it’s written, but I’d put a vinyl top on it and be done. It’s one of the few things in life I wouldn’t lose sleep over.
One of our tenants had a yellow/beige Fury like the one in the advertisement above. As a kid, was very impressed with the vertical head lamps. Knowing the tenant, she had a 383 V8 under the hood.
Later on, I realized how much it resembled a Pontiac with the stacked lamps.
Dang, new redline tires and OEM ‘mag-style’ wheelcovers on a 1967 Sport Fury survivor? That’s impressive. Looks like someone is a Mopar lover. I wonder if it’s got a 440 under the hood (the engine size is on the hood ornament).
And I’m curious about the vents under the rear window. Did Chrysler have flow-through ventilation back then? I thought that was a GM-specific feature.
Further, I can’t say I’ve ever been enamored with the Plymouth ‘Fast Top’ roof. I much prefer the more traditionally styled hardtop.
This likely has the 318. The 383 “Commando” and 440 “Super Commando” engines had callouts on the front fenders of the Fury. The 318 did not.
That’s a little surprising. I know that A- and B-body Mopars got the fender engine call-outs, but wouldn’t those have interfered with the fender model emblems on the Fury?
FWIW, the 1967 had a stand-up hood ornament with the engine size at the base of the Plymouth spear (with the 318 engine getting a simple ‘V8’).
The 1968 had an ornament that was flat with the engine size (including the 318) at the rear, facing the windshield.
Here’s a ‘67 Sport Fury with the 383 Commando. The fender “Commando V8” callout is clearly visible. The full size Fury’s got a “Commando V8” fender callout as well as the 383 or 440 hood ornament callout.
Here’s a close up.
I’m not sure that’s technically an engine call-out since it doesn’t display the engine size, but that might be splitting hares.
I totally didn’t think of it at the time…I wish I would have checked out the hood ornament. I think CPJ’s right – it’s probably a 318 without the Commando emblems.
Did the 383-2v rate a ‘Commando’ emblem? If not, I guess it could have that engine.
And, although it’s unlikely on an upper trim Sport Fury, it could possibly have a slant-six, too. That’s why the hood ornament is the best place to look. A six would have a blank ornament, a 318 would say ‘V8’, and the big-blocks would have the displacement shown.
Yes there is a toggle switch on the dash to open the vent.
Not sure of the others, but Studebaker had flow-through “Refreshaire” ventilation for its last-gasp 1966 models. Exit vents were integrated into the tail-light assembly.
What a nice survivor. I’m with you, new top and call it done. Hopefully it’s a 383.
I have read Charles Hyde’s book “Riding the Roller Coaster, History of Chrysler Corp” which covers the pitfalls from the beginning thru the DaimlerChrysler struggles. “Overhaul” by Steven Rattner covers the 2009 bailout.
Utterly amazed how a Broad of Directors will follow a CEO so blindly; no questions, no push back. Just a bunch of nodding heads. As long as they collect their fee, they will rubber-stamp anything. Yet, they will act so indignant when it hits the fan.
The issue with boards is that they usually are made up of CEOs of other corporations, a cabal of cronies, so they protect each other as “professional courtesy” and get picked for each other’s boards – with all the associated perks, benefits, and compensation – by sticking together. And a board will only take action against a CEO if there is egregious behavior by the CEO, one that affects the stock price negatively. Of course they sound indignant when it all hits the fan – that’s the only thing they do. They were complicit in allowing the actions, so they have to harumph when it all goes down the toilet to try to absolve themselves.
Remember, the deck is stacked, and the other players are in on the ploy along with the house. There is no board I can think of that does not do just as you say, and I cannot think of a situation where the board has intervened prior to a CEO really causing havoc.
Lynn Townsend gets a lot of grief over the Sales Bank. But, when economic times are good, it’s not a bad idea. It’s when times aren’t so great that it doesn’t work so well, particularly when the dealers figured out that all they had to do was wait it until Chrysler was desperate to unload all the overbuilt volume they had sitting in Detroit lots at steeply discounted prices.
And I’ve never figured out how Iacocca solved the root cause of the problem when he eliminated the Sales Bank. The idea of it was, if you had to pay UAW members whether they were building cars or not, it was better to do the former. I guess Iacocca was content to pay them for the latter.
When Iacocca closed the Sales Bank in the late 1970s, that provision was not in the UAW contract (it was agreed to around 1984, if I recall correctly). Iacocca had more flexibility in setting production schedules. By the time it was in the contract, sales had improved enough that it wasn’t immediately an issue.
Well, that answers that. ChryCo was in such dire straits when Iacocca took over, I would hope that the UAW would have had enough sense to make concessions for the cost-effective elimination of the Sales Bank. But you have to wonder why Ricardo/Cafiaro hadn’t done it sooner.
GM did the sales bank thing for years, too. They’d build up an enormous stock and then cajole the dealers to sell them. Being GM, they were scummy and sneaky about it. When the Cobalt came out, the sent the dealers all loaded cars with absurd sticker prices. They were running well above C$20,000 and with the exception of hardcore GM lovers, sales sucked and everyone who would buy one waited for incentives. The dealers squawked like crazy at not having a car to compete with Honda and Toyota. After the incentives made the first cars go, we got a load of two door coupes with five speed manuals. In all fairness, these were pretty good little cars. The problem is nobody wanted a two door manual. These cars were fire saled. In each example GM made no money. They probably lost. Then the zone rep would come and visit, apoplectic and scream it was bad sales that made the cars languish.
Chrysler was much the same but on a much smaller scale. For example, when I was there each dealership had to take two Crossfires. They almost always became the boss’s demo, or his son. The other would languish. I was gone before I found out what happened to them.
We had nothing to do with Vipers. The guy I had replaced went on a joy ride in a Viper with his three year old with him. One block from the shop he crashed it into the Bank of Montreal.
Great car! Thanks for writing it up. This generation of Mopar full-sizers was fine looking in all its varieties. I agree with Rudiger above that I slightly prefer the regular hardtop over the the Fast Top. I’ve never really liked rear side windows that slope up (parallel to the A pillar).
I can appreciate a well-patina’d original finish, especially when it hasn’t yet worn thorough to primer or metal. I would totally respect the owner’s decision to keep it as is or put a new vinyl top on. For me personally, what I would do would depend on the underbody. If it is rusty at all, I would probably leave the whole car untouched and let it live in originality as long as it could.
If the underbody is rust-free, I would take a different approach. The rust creeping out from under the rear window trim is a bit concerning and would make me not comfortable having the car be exposed to rain. I’d be more worried about weather than I would be on a car with a perfect new paint job. Also, the interior is nice enough that it would fit with a shiny, sharp exterior that matches the new tires and perfect hubcaps. So, I would strip off the old top, fix the rust and repaint the car. Before doing that, I would wrestle with myself over whether to put a new top on it or go all metal.
This is what is happening under the trim piece and the deep channel.
Like the dash on these. Full instrumentation was standard. I recall they were illuminated by “floodlight” lighting from above the dash, which looked a bit strange. Lit up everything nicely, but backlit instruments looked better.
I think someone once mentioned that the dash of this generation Fury was the largest made of metal. It was almost certainly one of the last not made of plastic.
Late sixties Chrysler products also had the infamous thumbwheel radio. Stylish, but those metal wheels got hot to the touch when the radio had been on for a while. I believe 1970 was the last year for them. They didn’t start using them until 1968 so the feature car still has the typical round knobs.
If I recall correctly, the 1965-66 Chrysler instrument panel was the industry’s largest single diecast piece of metal.
A stubby beer bottle fit snuggly between the upper and lower dash pads on these babies!
I like the ’67 Plymouths, but could never fully warm up to their appearance. I imagine they must have looked quite dated in their time next to the curvy and voluptuous GM and Ford cars of 1967, and desperately trying to add coke-bottle contours to a straight-edged car that wasn’t designed for them didn’t help. Looks aside, they felt nice and tight when driving them.
Did the Fast Top result in a shorter trunk lid? If so, I’ll take the regular slow top.
Even with its stylistic flaws, the 1967 Fury still looks better than the 1968 refresh with its worse taillight treatment which, I guess, was done to better align it with the rest of the Plymouth line with backup lights inserted into the middle of the taillight lenses as was done on the new Belvedere and Barracuda.
But, then, the following year, the backup lights all dropped down to the rear bumper.
The 1968 Fury features a squared off, blunt back end. No doubt the change was made to make the car look more “formal” and upscale, as sporty full-size models were declining in popularity throughout the industry.
The change really only works with the four-door hardtops, in my opinion – particularly the VIP with the rear fender skirts.
The 68 also got an odd grille update – the upper half was made a little bigger and was the grille, the lower part was smaller and a filler panel. Then there was the switch from chrome to argent on many interior pieces.
I’d forgotten about that subtle change to the Fury’s grille for 1968. Unless you’re specifically looking for it, it’s easy to miss.
Another change was to the fender emblems denoting the model level. 1967 had more stylized emblems that were attached via a couple of mounting holes on the outside of the fender. The 1968 emblems had formal lettering that was inset into a rectangular fender stamping
The ‘67 was the last good year for Chrysler before decontenting really went nuts. As in the comparison with the ‘68. Or even more so look at a ‘66 vs ‘67 Charger. By the next gen fusies it was all over. GM went at about the same time. ‘66 was the last really good year before the demons at GMAD went to town. Same with Ford roughly, but I peg them as ‘65 as last really good year. When bean counters pushed plastic chrome on the world, that was the end. People talk if the crappy brakes and flabby suspensions on most ‘60’s cars, when combined with declining build quality, that was it for me in the latter parts of the decade. it’s not that there weren’t outliers to this trend, but in general, the trend shown by this Fury compared to say a ‘70? Bad move Charlie Brown!
Dad had a ‘67 four door HT. Loved it. It was a Fury 3. If you flip on the flashers, and then put on the radio and wipers they all move and sound in concert with the flasher circuit. As a five year old in ‘ 70 bored but mesmerized by this car, you come up with a lot of details that get missed. I particularly loved the ridge on the doors just below the side glass. It would hold the rain and magnify the metal flake in the dark teal blue paint colour. Magic !
My father had a red with black top Fast Top Sport Fury III with a 383-4V and loaded as a company car. What impressed me was the console and the courtesy lights in the sides. He got rid of the car in a year due to driveability problems never solved by the dealer. The car could be driving along the 405 to the Valley and stop dead on the freeway. I was only 13 so still too young to be the amateur car mechanic that I became later.
Bought a used 67 VIP Fast top in 1978. No right outside mirror (an option). With that huge c pillar I had to change lanes with a cane.
The 67 is a favorite of mine. A high school friend drove his parents’ 68 Plymouth wagon – the top trim without woodgrain. In typical Chrysler fashion, the hardboard headliner was cut short and sagged after it pulled out from the trim strip designed to hold it up against the roof. Still, it was a good car for them despite really high miles.
I wonder if someone tried to paint that silver car once before in its life, or maybe there was a collision repair. Silver paint from that era aged really badly, but that checking looks like an aging repaint to me. But I would do as you note – new vinyl roof and maybe do some spot touch up around the rusty fasteners.
I learned how to drive in a ’67 Chrysler Newport sedan (with concave side panels). This Fury is definitely flashier inside with the console shift and bucket seats. Even the steering wheel is sportier with the deep hub and without the full horn ring that our Chrysler had.
To an earlier comment, it had the thumbwheel controls on the radio.
The history of the Chrysler thumbwheel radio sounds like it would be an interesting read on CC. From some basic research, it looks like full-size Chryslers and Dodges got the new thumbwheels for 1967. Then, with the exception of the full-size Plymouths, they were installed across all model lines for 1968.
All Mopars had them in 1969.
The A-body switched to plastic knob radios for 1970, with the thumbwheel radio being completely eliminated for 1971.
One interesting tidbit was the short-lived thumbwheel radio in the 1970 E-body. Unlike the other radios, the thumbwheels for both volume and tuning were on the same side in the E-bodies. I’d wager that those are a rare find these days.
If I didn’t know the facts, I would have thought the 68 rear end came first,. To me the 67 rear looks like a face lift, (tail lift?) of the original and not a good one.
The 68 Sport Fury had red reflectorized paint to give a full width tail lamp appearance .
Very handsome I thought.
I also prefer the grille of the 68 .
Magnum 500 wheels look perfect on these.
The instrument panel, mentioned earlier in the comments is plastic from memory, and looks good when in good condition like the feature car ,
Summer of 1968 my dad replaced a ’61 Chevrolet with a new sunfire yellow ’68 Fury ll sedan. What a wonderful auto that ’68 was. That Plymouth is the main reason I have been a hardcore Mopar fan for most of my life. Mopar will alway’s be #1 in my life. Nothing else comes close.
I’ve always thought that the term “Sport Fury” is one of the greatest oxymorons of all time.