| After arriving at my house, the car was
cleaned out and evaluated. A look inside the trunk revealed. . . no trunk !
Furthermore, the floorboards, quarter panels, fenders, hood, doors, rocker panels, door
sills, inner rockers and trunk lid were all found to be unuseable. All the
convertible top pieces needed replacement as well. What was needed was a parts
car with good metal. |
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Fortunately, a 59 Dodge 2dr HT parts car
showed up within a few months. The car was about five miles from Hartford. The guy
was so happy to get rid of it, he even offered to tow it to my house for free.
Another lucky break was finding a 59 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible that a muscle car guy
was parting out. The car yielded a perfect convertible top frame, working motor and
pistons and other convertible only parts. |
| After finding a place to do the restoration
and acquiring a MIG welder, I began to piece the car back together. A floor board from
Kansas was the first thing to go in, followed by the rockers, inner rockers and door
sills. On the convertible, the latter pieces are made from 12 gauge stamped
steel to give the car added structural rigidity. I had a sheet metal fabricator make up
these panels for me. The rear floor pan was cut from the parts car. Photo taken
in Fall 1992. |
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In this Fall 1993, photo, you can see some
of the progress. The quarter panel from the parts car has been patched in the lower
areas and welded onto the convertible body. The doors have also been replaced with
the ones from the parts car. I added the trunk lid to check alignment. The
windshield, which I thought was good, had a few stone chips in it. So that will be
replaced as well. Photo was taken at my first shop. |
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