PB 308 new page 14-18.indd - Plymouth Club

Hemmings magazine. He said if a Fury would ever go up for
sale, Hemmings would be the best source for finding it.
Finally in December 1987 a person listed three ‘56 Furys for
sale. I bought the best one. Six months later I found that the
seller was not the rightful owner (and he didn’t know it). I
got all my money back.
In 1989 another Hemmings ad appeared, advertising a
Fury with “minimal rust in the usual spots.” I called, put a
deposit down, bought a trailer and drove two-thirds of the
way across the country only to find that this Fury needed a
total body replacement save the roof! The trailer came back
empty.
At the end of 1991, I found my Fury and it was right in
my own back yard of Salt Lake City, Utah. (My career moved
us to Utah in 1986). It was painted red, had rust in the “usual
places” (this time for real), was missing just a few items and
the price of $1500 seemed right.
Les Streitmatter’s Streitmatter s Fury
at the 1991 National Spring Meet
While looking for my Fury, I got hooked up with Les
Streitmatter, an Illinois ‘56 Fury owner. He was willing to
share his knowledge, copies of his Fury literature, including
magazine articles and a registry of some 50 or so ‘56 Fury
owners that had been originally started by a fellow
named Paul Oxley and later maintained by another
Fury owner, Loyd Groshong of Missouri. Les also
paved the way for a correspondence/telephone relationship
with the Plymouth Owners Club ‘56-58 Fury
Tech Advisor, Tom Van Beek of Wisconsin, also a
‘56 Fury owner. Tom’s help was invaluable and selflessly
given!
I began work on my Fury right away, but my
progress was slow. And with every bit of progress
came discovery of new requirements for restoring my
Fury properly. I also found that obtaining parts,
especially unique Fury parts, was nearly impossible!
The years 1992 through 1997 proved very frustrating.
I did have some experience with the Chrysler
300 Club as an owner of a ‘79 Chrysler 300, and was
amazed at the networking the club had that was especially
helpful to owners of the “Classic” 300 letter
cars of ‘55 through ‘65. I wondered if such a network
was possible for “Classic & Golden” Fury owners? I
decided to try to develop such a group. At the end of
1997, with the encouragement of two ‘56 Fury own-
-30-
ers, John
Teske and
Ed Dea, and
‘57 Fury
owner John
Paxos, I
placed ads in
Hemmings,
the WPC
Club and
Plymouth
Owners Club
magazines.
The response was swift and gratifying!
What to call the group? I don’t know how or why, but the
name “Golden Fin Society” popped into my brain and that’s
what it would be called. I initially provided four then soon six
newsletters a year, continued to maintain the ‘56 Fury registry
and added new 1957 and 1958 Fury registries, and with the
help of Hemmings magazine, developed a website hosted by
them: http://clubs.hemmings.com/goldenfin/ Since then, the
club has grown to over 250 members or associates who have
contributed to a networking of friendship and interest in each
others cars! The ‘56 registry is now up to 227, the ‘57 grew
from 0 to 96 and the ‘58 to 119! The late Tom Mitchell suggested
an annual National Gathering and he hosted the first in
1999 in Missouri. We are having our Tenth GFS Gathering in
Utah, in June 2011. Through these gatherings I have met over
fifty percent of our group face-to-face – a fantastic group of
people.
My Fury? It is progressing, as all bodywork has been
completed to include paint, the motor is rebuilt, the car has
been rewired. Remaining is plating and polishing, fabrication
of the interior, and final reassembly. I can’t wait to turn the
key. I am still hooked on the ‘56 Fury!
PB
Jack with with his Fury
at the 2008 Utah Concours d'Elegance