19 feet of fun, this 1977 Plymouth Gran Fury Brougham 2-Door Formal Hardtop looks good, but being located in beautiful North Phoenix, Arizona, the interior has seen better days due to the relentless, hot, nice, beautiful, wish-we-had-some-in-Minnesota sun. The seller has it posted here on craigslist, and they’re asking $6,000 or best offer. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
If I had invested wisely, I would be all over this car. A last year, first-generation Gran Fury two-door Brougham, or what Plymouth referred to as a 2-Door Formal Hardtop, in nice condition – at least on the exterior – with power windows and a new four-barrel carb? I’d restore this to factory specs instantly and put it in the 400 x 400 warehouse if there were an empty spot with all of my other restored or perfect original vehicles in there.
White wall tires are the first order of business here, although we don’t get to see closeups of the Brougham’s optional Canopy Vinyl Roof, I bet the Arizona sun wreaked havoc on it even more than it did to the interior bits. The seller uploaded all vertical photos (sigh), and they’re tiny, so it’s hard to really tell what this car looks like. The first-generation Gran Fury was a full-sized C-body, and they were made from 1974 for the 1975 model year until 1977, at which point they were changed to the slightly smaller M-body platform. Here’s a fun brochure on these cars. Is this color Mojave Beige or Jasmine Yellow? (last page of the brochure)
A dash cover is usually covering a cracked dash top. Not always, of course, some owners just like to protect their perfect padded dashes. The driver says about the condition: “minor surface rust on roof but otherwise solid frame, quarter panels and wheel wells are clean. Paint still good and all glass intact. 97-98% complete car.” The steering wheel has a cover (to protect a perfect wheel? Hey, it could be.) and the seats are pretty fried. Seat fabric is a fairly easy fix for any good upholstery shop, or hit up YouTube for one of the many do-it-yourself videos. The trunk could use a new gasket, as both door openings do. This car appears to have the optional cloth and vinyl seats, and also power windows.
The engine is Chrysler’s 360-cu.in. OHV V8, which with a four-barrel carburetor, had 170 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque, not a lot of power for a 4,500-pound car. It’s backed by a three-speed TorqueFlite sending power to the rear wheels as expected. The seller says it has a new four-barrel carb (I wonder if the original air cleaner comes with the sale?), and they don’t say how it runs, but hopefully everything but the AC works. I can’t imagine that’s working. This is what I call a 13/13 car: 13 MPG and 13 seconds to get to 60 MPH. Ouch on both of those, but I love this thing. Are any of you fans of the big Plymouth Gran Fury?
Nice writing, Scotty! Whitelwalls should definitely be on the new owner’s list of improvements/personalization. The domed hupcaps especially stand out against the blackwalls. One could source a set of the Chrysler rally (road?) wheels that look oh-so-good on the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst, as well as other C body cars
That’s a great, and very true line Scotty, a 13/13 car…. Very true, unfortunately. I’d keep the original wheel covers but would really like to see a proper set of whitewalls on here. The sheetmetal looks terrific. Chrysler corp certainly had some nice interiors back then too. Thanks for posting the link for the brochure too Scotty . I always enjoy seeing those too. It makes me wonder just how many people iver the decades would get a brochure from thwir local dealer and take it home and pour over it and figure out what they’d want. Thanks Scotty!!
Seen plenty of Gran Fury cop cars over the years. Nice looking coupe as well. 👌
My Dad’s Gran Fury Brougham he and Mom bought new, has the 360 V8 and will actually get right around 18 mpg on the highway at the speed limit. It is a large and comfortable car with ample room inside and a trunk which could hold a body. In the coffin.
These were rarely seen back in the day when they were new and never, ever seen at MOPAR shows today.
A car definitely worth the effort of preservation into the future
Mopar shows: this is the type of car which if taken to a Mopar show (which would be full of Super Bees and Barracudas and newer Challengers), when it shows up the typical participant might thumb their noses at it. Later, when no one was looking, they would go check it out. And a year later, it would be the car they would remember from the show.
Still never understood why someone would bring a car to a car show, that is still available new on a dealers lot. Many of the shows I attend only allow vehicles 25 years or older. If you bring something newer, they direct you out to the back forty.
My dad had a 74 same color with a 400 ci V8. Ran nice! Smooth. Handled well. Too bad the emissions sapped a lot of power.
white walls and lose the fuzzy dice. can’t be many 2drs like this left
Boy those seats are fried, but not unrepairable. Certainly not my favorite year for the Fury nameplate but overall it looks really clean it probably wouldn’t take too much to get it back to appealing condition.
Nice clean cruiser typical interior damage from the sun,