1958 Plymouth Other

2-door sports coupe

318 cubic-inch dual quad V-8

2-speed pushbutton automatic

LP2269877

Clear

Gasoline

Here is an immaculate and fully-restored 1958 Plymouth that I acquired recently from the widow of the man who purchased it back in 1999. The car was sold to him as a 1958 Fury, with a full complement of Fury trim and badges. It even has the 318 cubic-inch, dual-quad engine. But, it turns out the car is a Belvedere that was modified into a Fury clone. It uses an automatic transmission with a push-button selector mounted on the upper left side of the dashboard, and two astute eBayers noticed in my prior listings for this car that the transmission only had one button in the lower section of the selector quadrant - indicating a 2-speed "Power-Flite" rather than the 3-speed "Torque-Flite" transmission that a Fury would normally have. This started a search to determine why the car did not have the correct transmission. It led to the discovery that this car was originally a Belvedere that was modified at some point into a very convincing clone of a Fury. I have to imagine that a former owner must have stumbled across a Fury in a scrap yard with its appropriate parts intact, and the swap was made. Records from as far back as 1987 list the car as a "1958 Fury." But this car IS NOT A FURY. The Fury was Plymouth's top-of-the-line offering for 1958, and the company only built 5,303 of them for '58. Very of those still exist today. Each could be identified by the "Buckskin Beige" exterior color accented with anodized aluminum gold trim along the sides. The former owner of this car, unaware of its history, gave it a "blank-check" restoration by a professional shop in San Diego. The process lasted three years, dictated by attention to detail and spare parts availability. In other words, this was not a quick or cheap job to sell it down the road; the car was a "keeper" and was restored as such: it was fully disassembled, the body was stripped to bare metal, and any damaged areas were fully repaired before being refinished. The chassis was stripped and repainted, with every corresponding system rebuilt/ renewed as necessary, including suspension, shocks, brakes, cooling, transmission, engine, low-restriction dual exhaust, etc. Fresh upholstery was installed, including carpet, dash covering, seats, door panels, headliner, soundproofing, and weatherstripping. All interior and exterior chrome was replated and new Michelin radial tires were installed. Since the original drum brakes were considered marginal for a car this powerful, front disc brakes were added, along with a Sirius satellite radio system that works in conjunction with the original radio, augmented by a more powerful speaker in the dashboard and rear deck. Since its restoration, during which the car's odometer was reset to zero, this Plymouth has only been driven some 2600 miles, usually on its way to or from a car club event of some type, or just fun cruising on the local southern California back roads. The car is licensed and registered in California; the Hawaii plates in the photos were used just for their aesthetics. When it's not on the road it resides in a dry garage under a car cover. It has not been smoked in, and there are no peculiar odors or unusual things to report. It is simply a gorgeous example of a rare automobile that runs and drives superbly. It receives positive comments whenever it is displayed. It has just had a full service, and it is being offered at a price well below its restoration cost. The widow from whom I acquired this car, who knew my purpose was to assist her and resell it, has been remarkably accommodating. When I discussed with her the fact that research proved this car was a Belvedere rather than a Fury, she agreed to adjust what I still owed her for the car based on its selling price. I am therefore relisting it with a major price reduction to reflect its true provenance. The listing price reflects book values for a nice '58 Belvedere. Think of it as one of the nicest Belvederes in existence, or as an amazingly-cherry "almost a Fury" at a half-price. Either way, opportunity is knocking. In response to a question: the car's odometer read just over 46,000 miles when the restoration started. The shop reset it to zero during the process. Anyone with questions is welcome to contact me at (858) 442-7917.