New and Needing to Learn

Hello from North Carolina.

In 2012 my Father passed away leaving behind for my brother and I his 1966 Plymouth Fury Sport (which he bought brand new) and his 1972 Plymouth 340 Duster (which he purchased in 1974, he was the second owner). Both cars are running (I drove the Duster to work this past Tuesday).

Before he died he had began to restore the Fury's exterior, which only really needs to be painted and have some rust knocked off. It's interior is restored to it's original off the show room floor look.

The Duster only needs minor interior restoration and has some spots of rust on the exterior. This is the car I'm focusing on first to get it back to being nearly perfect in every way.

Milestones for me and the Duster:

I was 5 years old when he took me and my brother, who was 2 years old, to trade one of his other cars in for it. As a side note, shortly afterward he took us to the car wash and somehow my brother, again being only 2, managed to rearrange the 340 decal at the end of the stripe running down the side. I saw him do it and tried to put them back in place. My dad saw me doing this and figured it was me who scrambled them and I had to take the punishment that should've gone to my brother.

When I turned 11 he taught me how to drive in this car. It's a manual 3 speed and about 4 seconds after I let out the clutch I ran it into a ditch.

At 16 I wrecked my car (toyota celica) so he let me drive it to school. I managed to tear one of the tail pipes off while demonstrating my burnout skills to my cousins. Terrified, I took a shoe string and tied it back in place. Years later I found out that he knew all along what I had been doing and of course shoe string is not going to fix a tail pipe. Cars tend to sound different when a tail pipe is detached or should I say ripped off.

Now I'm 46 and could not have a greater love for these cars and it is going to give me great pleasure to get them back to their original splendor because I know it would make my Dad proud if he were around to witness it. I look forward to learning a lot from other members here in the forum.