Searching for an old Plymouth

Back in '63 I had a small shop in Fort Worth and got a call one day
from a friend who had just picked up '62 Plymouth factory drag race car. He said it ran poorly and asked if I was interested in repairing it.... of course I was.

It had a 426 with cross ram induction, cast iron rams horn headers with dumps and a flat cam. After replacing the cam I decided that I probably should drive this beast for a day or two just to be sure it ran okay. What a awesome machine.

I would like to locate a simular car to buy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wow!! Good Luck!! It's going to take a lot of searching and or a great big checkbook to come up with one of the factory Mopar drag cars. The national Mopar Club has a mag they put out with some ads in it, might want to check there. I have seen a couple of them listed in National Dragster over the years. It's going to be a tough find.

Thanks Dave, probably just a pipe dream but you never know.

Thumbone, What might be a more realistic plan is to find a '62 of the right body style, build it with a 440 torqflite, which would be just as fast, and if you can ever find the right engine, then swap them.

Thanks for the suggestion HRP, makes good sense and is probably more affordable to boot.

Thumbone, I think the major pieces you would need, besides a 440 and 727 torqflite of course), would just be superstock rear springs, A positrac unit, and maybe a lower gear, maybe an electric fuel pump and the battery moved to the trunk, whatever kind of MoPar hood scoop might have been used, and some headers. I bet all of that stuff is available. Add some vintage mags, and some cool paint, and you'll be cruisin'!......oh yeah, and personalized plates!

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Originally posted by HOTRODPAINT
Thumbone, What might be a more realistic plan is to find a '62 of the right body style, build it with a 440 torqflite, which would be just as fast, and if you can ever find the right engine, then swap them.

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why not a 4 speed:3dSMILE:

In my mind, building a "clone" has a lot of advantages over owning the real thing if you actually want to drive and have fun with the car.

The original Max Wedge cars are few and far between, and for the Mopar guys they probably rank right behind the HEMI cars (and maybe the wing cars) as far as desirability and price. The original cars that are in collections or still being raced :3dSMILE: are now valued far beyond the point where most people who could afford them would take them out and thrash them on a regular basis. Building a "close" clone can give you a car you could actually enjoy driving on a regular basis.

Once you find a body that is a likely candidate for the build, this could be a fairly simple and RELATIVELY inexpensive build depending on how closely you want to duplicate the original cars. The closer you want to exactly duplicate the car (date coding parts absolutely correct engine and drive train etc) the more expensive it gets.

Visually the major components you will need include:

The intake ( as I recall the ports on the MAX wedge heads were HUGE and using the intake on standard B/BR Chrysler heads results in MAJOR port mis-match.

The Exhaust, which as you say were long tube cast iron headers, but I understand that someone is reproducing these now.

4 speeds or pushbutton Torqueflights were both correct for these cars, and either would be fairy easy to come by.

Super Stock rear springs (which usually set these cars up pretty high in the rear, I believe are still available through Mopar Performance.

Personally, If I were building one just as a fun car, I would build a fairly "mild" 440 throw on an in line dual quad intake, cast-iron headers, a set of 3.54 gears, and a 4 speed. I would defiantly upgrade the front brakes with discs, and then take it out and have fun with it.

By the way, if the car you remember was a 62, it would have the 413 Max wedge as the 426 Max Wedge engines were not introduced until mid 63.

Good new, bad news.

Good; Here's a website specifically for '62-65 mopars http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/welcome.html there's lots there to help you figure out what configuration you can do. About half way down the page on the right hand side is the "Swap Meet index", cars and parts are listed by year and as clusters. This'll keep ya up for hours.

Bad; you've picked the time in car fascination when these are at their highest interest level ever..............which means they ain't gonna be cheap.

Good; Because of the high interest there is lots of support for these now that wasn't there 10 years ago, so, as Mike mentioned there are repops of some of the especially hard to get parts.

Bad; Even if you're making a clone, aren't concerned about date codes, are willing to use the repop parts that will visually "make" the engine compartment, hang on. The repop crossram manifold alone is $1400. By the time you do the linkage, fuel lines, carbs, and air cleaners it's any easy $3k. Those beautiful, upsweeping, cast iron exhaust manifolds will run around $1500.

Good; 440's are great, look close enough to the original 413 to pass for the normal viewer, make good horsepower without a lot of expensive internal parts, and bolt right in if you've got the big block K member.

Bad; (well, sorta) If you're going for an automatic and (hopefully) aren't going to use one of those tacky looking "ricky racer" floor shift conversions instead of the nifty push buttons, then you've got some decisions to make. The original trans didn't use U-joints they used a trunnion. If you're just going to putt the car that will probably be ok. If you're going to hammer it, you'll want to change to stout U-joints. In order to stick with the original park mechanism on the push button panel you'll need to get a trans, or at least the tail shaft and housing, from a '65. That was the first year they used a U joint, and the last for that type of park pawl, lever, housing combination, and cable selection for gear engagement. And it has to be from the V8 version of the trans, no leaning tower of power type. Similar situation with the rear end, they used taper end axles with the funky old style drums through '64, the more conventional flanged axles and U-joint center section started in '65.

Good; The '62 is the least popular of the '62-'65 B bodies, so they'll cost you the least to buy originally. But along with that comes the reality that fewer people "saved" these from the crusher so parts can sometimes be harder to get, but far from impossible.

Bad; The tin worm (rust) loved these cars. Having to replace floor pans is very, very common. Trunk floors too. They also have a nasty habit of erroding around the cowl corners (trash and moisture collect through the cowl vent), and under the corners of the rear window (Ma Mopar used foam for anti-rattle, acted like a sponge). The quarters behind the rear wheels are very vulnerable. There are still some cars out there that aren't eaten away (I got my very rust free [except from some light surface rust on the under belly] '65 Coronet last year), but you have to work and be patient to find one, and then be willing to step up as quickly as you can to secure the deal. Yes, rust replacement is expensive in time, effort, and parts............buying a car that doesn't need replacement tin is nearly ALWAYS worth the premium the seller is asking.

Good; Nothing says '60's super stock like a '62-65 Mopar!

Thanks everyone for the inputs, a lot of good suggestions.

The year was this happened was '63, and the engine was a 426, so after 40+ years I guess I was remembering the car was a '62.

Probably just a senior moment (another one)

A little story. After high school, I was running with a big group of "car guys" (who also were "drinkin' guys") and I helped one of them put a 426 Stage 3 Max Wedge into a black 62 Sport Fury. Cool car! Another one of them had a 63 Plymouth factory prepped two door sedan, battery in the trunk etc. which he built with a 413 2X4 inline motor. What was the most memorable was the tall Hurst 3-speed shifter sticking out of the factory floor hump! Ahh, the good old days! :-)~

Bob, I'd forgotten all about the tappered axels (They bring back some painfull memories).

On the tranny, I THINK 64 was the first year for the slip yolk input shaft, at least on some of them. I pulled a 727 with a slip yolk for a 57 Dodge I built years ago from a 64 Dodge wagon.

The tranny also has to be from a B/RB motor car, as the bellhousing are different between the BB and SB.


"......Nothing says '60's super stock like a '62-65 Mopar!......"


Absolutely RIGHT!!!!!!


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So what body would you actually be looking for? There's a plymouth for sale near me...looks to be late 60's but i'd be willing to take a look see if you want to know...think it's a fury...looks to be decent as far as rust goes from a distance...think the price was $600...Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with what you're talking about, but let me know if ya want some pics or something. :whacked:

You might "google" the different years of Plymouths to see what it was. If it isn't that important, all of the 63, 64 & 65 bodies looked great. I wouldn't use anything but a 2 door, either in a sedan or hardtop, or the value won't be there when it's time to sell.

i have a 65 coronet 500 413 with 525lift cam tunnel ram 2 650 hooely double pumpers 252 heads,727 torqueflite reverse manual vaulve body 3500 stall 355 posi its for sale make an offer

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Originally posted by Mike P
On the tranny, I THINK 64 was the first year for the slip yolk input shaft, at least on some of them.

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my 64 plymouth sport fury automatic used a trunnion instead of a u-joint & the 64 plymouth 4 speed fury convertible used a u-joint...joe