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'64 Fury Pro-Touring

carnalsupply

Well-Known Member
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11:47 PM
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Sep 12, 2010
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Location
Las Vegas
I've had a life-long love affair with '64 Fury's and Belvedere's, especially those from NASCAR back in the day, so now I'm building myself a Pro-Touring style Fury with a 500" RB and lots of other goodies.

I am a newbie to For B-Bodies Only so in the future I'll make sure to post updates here, but to see what I've been up to and where my project is at this point I hope you'll follow this link to Pro-Touring.com:
http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?52504-64-Plymouth-Fury&

If my putting the link to another site is problematic or an issue please let me know; I just don't have the time to reconstruct the many posts I've already made.

I hope you enjoy my take on the perfect MOPAR,

Bob
 
First: welcome aboard! Second:Sorry to hear about your dad.This Feb 2011 will be 2 years my mom went down the "C" road. Third:Why did you use motor mounts and not a plate??Fourth:will you be posting the updates here or over there with links posted here?I give you alot of credit,I don't think I would have gone that far to save that ruster:icon_rambo:Unbelievable workmanship and determination!!!!KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!
 
That fury sure is nice I'm really liking the billet wheels got the same planned for mine but in 18s, keep us updated with any progress cant wait to see how it turns out.
 
Thanks to everyone for the welcome and the kind words, I really do appreciate it.

I used motor mounts because I didn't want to mess with plates and the associated spacers, etc. The mounts were an easy, quick, strong, and attractive solution.

I'm going to try and do simultaneous posts from this point forward for a few reasons:
a) Now that I've found B-Bodies I want to become an active participant, getting to know other knuckleheads foolish enough to build these old beasts.
b) I'm hoping to build a source of information and resources here that are B-body specific, something that's difficult on Pro-Touring because the Fury is so far outside the box in terms of the typical build.
c) There are some AMAZING builders running around on Pro-Touring, people with far more imagination and talent than I have, and virtually everyone is willing to give and share with their thoughts and ideas, so maintaining a presence there is very important to me.

I decided to build the car, regardless of the rust, because I'm a dumbass who spent WAY too much money with a person I trusted (wrongly) and I couldn't bare to simply throw the money away, besides, what else would I do with my time?

Thanks again for the welcome and the well wishes.

Bob
 
Finally, after what seems like months away from the Fury I got back to work this week and the progress, while visually minimal, has taken a great step forward, and hopefully I'll get some momentum going and the car will progress somewhat quickly from here (where's the "fingers crossed smiley face?).

Unsure whether some of my sketchy welding results were my lack of experience, poor technique, or a combination of these, I twisted Jimmy's arm and convinced him to make the trek over to my shop for the day to give me a hand and the results were outstanding. Along with getting a number of vital pieces finish welded into the chassis Jimmy was kind enough to give me some pointers and instruction in welding that should really help me in the future.

The engine mounts, noted in an earlier post, were sent off to Jimmy's shop to be finish welded (TIG), so he brought those back with him and once mounted on the engine we dropped the engine back in place, tightened everything up, ensured we had between 2.5 and 3.0 degrees of tail down angle, and Jimmy proceeded to finish weld in the frame tabs for the mounts.

Here's the drivers side and the picture below that is the passenger side:

IMG_1626.jpg


IMG_1627.jpg

Once we got the engine mounts completed we moved on to the Truck Arm Cross-member, which I had previously tacked in place. Jimmy and I discussed the various options in terms of the vertical placement (the fore-aft had already been decided by the wheelbase) and in the end we decided to place the cross-member as far towards the top of the frame rails as could be managed without interfering with the floor, which is going to sit directly on top of the rails as opposed to channeling the floor over/around the rails.

This is the Truck Arm Cross-Member finish welded in place and the picture below details the welds:

IMG_1625.jpg


IMG_1624.jpg

With the engine and suspension placement now finalized Jimmy and I sat back and began to plan out our next move, which will be the firewall and floor placement, but this brought about another set of issues (what else?), such as exhaust placement and interference between the firewall and engine. Knowing these two areas had to be addressed here's what we decided:

Exhaust - as noted in an earlier post we will be using V-band clamps on the exhaust, both eliminating the need for gaskets as well as allowing for 360 degree rotation of tubing, but we've now decided to use the V-bands even more extensively as well as something a bit more out of the norm: instead of cutting oblong holes in the frame rails and lining the inside of this passage with sheet (forming a tunnel) and passing the exhaust tubing through the newly created tunnels we are going to weld the 3" stainless tubing directly into the frame rails, then run stainless tubing from the headers to the newly created frame/tube junction, joining them with V-bands, then running more 3" stainless on the outboard side of the rails, into 12" - 14" round mufflers, then blending into oval tubing that will exit out the sides of the car through openings in the rocker panel. I wish I had my desktop PC to work (killed it with a virus on Thursday) with because I'd draw up a quick picture in Photoshop to illustrate exactly what I mean. As soon as my PC is back up and running I'll throw something together.

What this solution offers us is tighter packaging as well as avoiding the chance of exhaust tubing touching the frame rails and rattling. We do realize the exhaust passing through the frame will cause a sensation all its own but I'm willing to take the trade-off. Besides, this method, combined with the use of the V-bands, will make maintenance of the exhaust system a breeze.

Next we moved on to the problem of interference between the engine, cowl, and firewall. With the engine set back we have (some 3" - 4" more than stock) we knew the firewall would need to come back, but how far we weren't sure, so we decided that rather than try and use the tattered and patched cowl we had in the car we would simply cut that entire piece out and patch in the one purchased from Texas Acres a month or so ago. This would also give us the advantage of having a couple of stock fender mount locations back on the car since the originals were lost to rust.

Jimmy and I carefully cut the excess material off the Texas Acres replacement cowl then outlined exactly what needed to be cut off the Fury. The replacement cowl went with Jimmy to be soda blasted and below is how the Fury looks with the cowl removed:

IMG_1628.jpg

Luckily the window frame and the adjacent inner panels are all in good shape so melding the replacement cowl onto the body should be pretty straight forward as well as give us lots of strong material to work with. The one thing that's still up in the air is just how much we're going to have to pull the firewall back to clear the engine, and part of that question will be answered soon with the arrival of the A&A Transmissions Max Wedge Cross Ram.

This intake is a direct replica of the cross ram intake used on '64 Max Wedge cars and should work really well with the new Edelbrock Victor Max Wedge heads I've got. The one thing of concern is just how much of an overhang is there with the intake in place, hence the questions about firewall set back and clearance.

Here's a shot of the A&A Transmissions Max Wedge Cross Ram:

RMWACRIM.jpg

At this point I'm not sure what throttle body injectors I'm going to run, there are so many choices out there, but I am leaning towards dual Retrotek's since they have the appearance of carbs and they make a complete system that is set up for dual quads as well as being "self learning".

Here's the Retrotek throttle body:

RetrotekP4020153-1.jpg

That's it for now but it sure is nice to be back at it!
 
Nice fabrication Carnalsupply, man that thing is going to be solid.
 
Thanks Red, I appreciate that. What's under the hood of that red monster of yours?
 
It's a factory 383 car, rebuilt but stock......seeing as the engine's out for the engine bay overhaul, i'll change the cam,springs,intake and exhaust while i'm at it.
 
On the other forum we've been discussing the exhaust situation, which is inherently more difficult on a car like my Fury because of the Truck-Arm suspension. While you can get exhaust tubing over or around the truck-arms it's extremely difficult to package without compromising your floor pan, etc. To accommodate the exhaust I've chosen to have the tubes exit the side of the car, but rather than simply have the exhaust tubing hang under the car like the T/A Challengers and AAR Cudas (which IMHO looked horrible) I'm going to scallop the rocker panels and have the oval tubing fit neatly into the scallop, then add a small vertical rocker extension like a current Cup car.

Here are an illustration I threw together showing my thoughts:

ExhaustOutletProposal.jpg


Here's a shot of the rocker extensions on a current Cup car:

Gordon-Side.jpg
 
How deep are you thinking of going with the extension CS and will it be radiused like the existing rocker?
Seeing as your throwing ideas around....and this is just a thought, could you rebate the inner and outer rocker in same place as your extension idea.
I suppose what i'm picturing is a side exit exhaust semi rebated, similar to that of the tailpans of some cars. Either way it won't look as half arsed as the T/A's and AAR's as you mentioned.
 
Hey Red,

I'm not sure if I follow what you mean by "rebate", but if I do follow your meaning here's my idea:

From the bottom of the door to the bottom of the rocker is just about 4" (101.6mm) so I plan on scalloping approximately 2" from the bottom up, thereby making a small recess for the oval exhaust tubing to pass through, and yes, the ends of the scallop will be radiused, basically mimicking the shape of the oval tubing.

The rocker panel rolls under the car as it proceeds downwards, and the exhaust tubing will be cut to match this contour as well. I do not want some unsightly blunt exhaust tubing end to protrude past the rocker panel face.

BTW - are you a fan of V8 Supercars? It is, IMHO, the BEST racing on earth.
 
The way I was thinking of it was similar to your drawing.....minus the lower side skirt.......just the scallop/recess in the rocker panel only.

Yeah, I watch the Supercars sometimes, not a huge fan though. Funny part is,everyone over here assumes your a die hard Holden or Ford fan....they look at you strangely when your asked which side your on,and reply .........neither,Mopar.
We refer to them as V8 Supercabs........90% percent of our Taxis are Holden or Ford.
 
LOL, I like that, SuperCabs!
A friend of mine who lives in Melbourne was telling me the support races for the SuperCabs are V8 Utes, which must be absolutely insane.

Over the years I've owned just about every manufacturer of American car so I'm not a brand loyal kind of person overall, but I must admit to having some serious leanings towards Chevrolet, so when I watch the SuperCabs I absolutely pull for Holden. Don't get me wrong, I love Mopar, but don't plan on having the logo tattoo'd on my bum or anything :)
 
If you like the SuperCabs you'll definately like the V8 Utes,it's very close matched racing.......a little too close actually....it's more like a Demolition Derby at times.
 
So this weekend turned out to be pretty productive: I wanted to get the remaining body to chassis mounts fabbed and installed, which I did, as well as add some reinforcement to the truck arm cross member, which I did.

The truck arm cross member is fabbed from 2" x 2" square tubing, which is probably just fine in terms of strength, but with the mid point of the piece scalloped for the driveshaft I just wasn't as comfortable as I'd like so I decided to add some additional 2" x 2" bracing to aid in preventing any fore/aft deflection. I'm not at all concerned about any vertical deflection because the truck arms are so long and the suspension travel so limited the arms can't gain enough angle to exert any pressure in the y-axis.

Here's an overall picture of the cross member and the braces I added. One thing to note in the lower left of this picture are the layout lines for the 3" stainless exhaust tubing discussed in an earlier post:

IMG_1633.jpg

I mentioned in a previous post my friend Jimmy had come by and given me some really good pointers on welding, and I hope/think/believe the results have improved drastically. I'm not saying I'm some kind of professional but the results are markedly improved over my initial attempts and I have every confidence they'll both hold up under extreme duress as well as continue to improve.

Below are some close-ups of the welds for the right and left braces:

IMG_1635.jpg


IMG_1634.jpg


IMG_1639.jpg


IMG_1636.jpg

Once the additional bracing was completed I went ahead and fabbed up the 2 mid-rocker "stringers" that run from the outside of the frame rail to the inside surface of the rocker panel. While not complicated or difficult, these were actually pretty time consuming because of the various angles and contouring involved.
In order to get the bottom surface of the stringers to conform nicely to the shape of the car I had to use my plasma cutter and pie-cut the sides, then reshape and weld the pieces together. Like I said, nothing difficult but certainly time consuming.

Below are a couple shots of the right stringer and below them are a couple pictures of the left:

IMG_1638.jpg

IMG_1640.jpg


IMG_1637.jpg


IMG_1641.jpg

What's really exciting for me is the fact the chassis and body are now "1" and I can remove (if I want to) the car from the chassis plate and put it back on the rotisserie, a set of jacks, or a lift to make working on it easier.

Next is the exhaust, cowl, and floor fabbing, and if all goes well Jimmy and I will be getting a bunch of that done in the next week or so.
 
Plasma cutters are definately our friend with this sort of fabrication CS.
As you said,all this welding is a learning process for you......don't get me wrong here as this is a purely constructive comment/suggestion.....try weaving a little more when your doing the vertical welds,they'll come out looking more like your horizontal welds. I'm sure Jimmy can point you in the right direction in regards to technique, keep up the good work.
 
Thanks Red, and you're correct, Jimmy said the same thing!
Practice, practice, practice!
 
Christmas came a little early to my house today: both my A&A Transmissions Max Wedge Cross Ram as well as my stainless Borla mufflers arrived!

The intake was a bit rougher than I'd expected; it appears the intake comes out of the casting a bit rough and they touch them up with a grinder to remove slag, but all in all a nice piece and I LOVE the way it looks on the engine. This piece alone has me totally amp'd up to get moving.

AAMaxWedgeCrossRam.jpg

Here are some shots of the intake on the engine. Please ignore the beautiful blue marine Holley's, they're just there as placeholders.

It's amazing how wide the intake looks mounted on top of a wedge versus on top of a Hemi:

CrossRamwCarbs01.jpg


These next two shots give you a good idea of just how low we've placed the body over the chassis (note how close the top of the carbs are to the level of the cowl):

CrossRamwCarbs02.jpg


CrossRamwCarbs-Side.jpg

Knowing we had such a tight area for mufflers I was thinking I'd have to fab up something but luckily I found these little 14" x 8" stainless Borla's.

This first shot shows where the mufflers will sit between the frame rail and the rocker panel. We should have just enough room to get some 3" 45 degree bends in through the frame then the same going out through the rockers:

BorlaInPlace.jpg


Sorry about the box in the picture but if you look carefully you'll see how the muffler will just barely protrude below the bottom of the frame rail, keeping things clean and tidy:

BorlafromBelow.jpg

Once Jimmy gets healthy (caught some NASTY virus) we'll get the cowl back in place, the exhaust tubing routed up to and through the frame rails/rockers, build a firewall, and drop a floor in place. Damn, sounds easy from here!
 
This is looking friggin' saweeeettt!!!
 
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