Recapturing the Fury

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This article was published 01/09/2023 (1141 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do you give your spouse for a 50th wedding anniversary present?

A dream vacation? How about the convertible you had when you took her out on your very first date?

Keith Watt will say he wasn’t on the lookout for a 1963 Plymouth Fury convertible, but when one became available, the timing was too good to resist for him and his wife Ann.

“I had one when I was about 20 years old, and this one is exactly the same with just a few differences. My first one had a flat six engine, and this one has a 318,” Watt said from their kitchen in Brandon with Ann sitting right beside him.

“Also, it was red with a white interior — and that’s actually why Ann went out with me on that first date, because she liked the car.”

“Well, he’s not completely wrong,” Ann added as they both laughed.

That first convertible would be with the couple for their wedding in 1968 until the birth of the second of their three daughters.

“We had two kids at that time, and it wasn’t a safe car for a growing family,” Watt said. “So, we traded it in to Wilton Motors in Brandon, where Superstore is now, and we bought a Caprice, then as the years went by another Caprice, a Volkswagen, and about four trucks.”

Fast forward to six years ago, Watt said, when he was talking with their neighbour, Calvin Mikelson, who they both credit with conducting the convertible search. Mikelson is a car enthusiast and expert when it comes to restoring vehicles.

“He told us, ‘you two are retired, you should get a convertible — have some fun, and cruise around.’ And I said, well, first of all, I need a convertible like I need a hole in the head, but if I was to get one it would have to be a 1963 Plymouth Fury — and yes, a convertible,” Watt said.

About a month later, Mikelson found the ’63 Fury convertible in Detroit, Mich., the very state it was manufactured 60 years ago at the Lynch Road assembly plant.

“The Fury is a nice car,” Mikelson said. “They don’t make them like they used to. After 1967, they start rusting everywhere, but the older ones like the ’63 Fury — they just seemed to be made with thicker metal.”

The car was in “good shape,” but because it hadn’t been through Manitoba’s safety certification, it wasn’t drivable. So, Watt had it shipped to Fargo, N.D., and went with Mikelson to pick it up.

“It was exciting. But also, I thought, what am I doing?” Watt said as he chuckled and added, “But by the time summer came for the year of our 50th anniversary, it was all fixed up and drivable.”

In 1963, Plymouth gave its Fury a facelift because of low sales from the previous year’s model, which car dealers considered a “disaster,” according to MotorTrend, a monthly automobile magazine with a circulation of more than one million.

The year it was released, sales went up more than 40 per cent. Overall, Fury production accounted for about 15,000 vehicles, with 11,483 hardtop coupes and 3,836 convertibles.

The Watts’ model has bucket seats, a push button transmission for reverse, neutral, drive, second and first. The 1963 model was the last year for the push-button automatic. The bright headlights are activated by a switch using the left foot.

On the front chrome grill, there are four headlights with the turn signals mounted high on the fenders — the only year they were installed that way.

The rear bumper is also chrome, with thin lines that run along each side, chrome trim on the hood and trunk, a hood ornament with Plymouth in capital letters on the front, and Fury on the back.

“This car is original. The upholstering is original, but we know that the paint job is not — it used to be red. But it has the same wheels and flooring, and I want to keep it original, I like it that way,” Watt said.

Aside from a new transmission, only a few minor adjustments have been made in the six years that the Watts have owned the Fury, including new wiring for the taillights, an emergency brake cable and changing all the engine seals and gaskets.

This summer they’ve put a few hundred kilometres on the convertible at car shows in Killarney, Souris, Dauphin and Asessippi, which is about 20 minutes north of Russell.

“We’ve had fun with it. It’s not good for our health, but we like to use it to go for ice cream,” Watt said as he laughed.

And the most fun, Ann added, “Is when you drive by little kids sitting on a doorstep and they’re waving, giving you the thumbs up. When we pulled into Asessippi, some kids came running over and said, ‘Wow, that’s a nice car, I’d like to own one of these.’”

Keith said while it’s great to have conversations about the convertible with people in the grocery store parking lot, he added, he never did have a “hankering to have an old car.”

“The only reason we have this is because I had one when I was young, and my wife is the only reason we bought this car for us to celebrate our 50th and have some fun with our memories, and that’s what we got.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» X: @enviromichele