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My Ride: Rob Pearson with his 1961 Plymouth Fury

Name: Rob Pearson
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Photo by Jeff Stokoe/Advocate staff Rob Pearson with his 1961 Plymouth Fury 2-door hardtop at a recent Red Deer Cruise Night event.

Name: Rob Pearson

Make/Model: 1961 Plymouth Fury

Tell us about your car.

“It’s a 1961 Plymouth Fury 2-door hardtop. This car was purchased by a local businessman in Red Deer here in 1961 brand new. He painted the roof red, then he traded it in, and my father-in-law bought it in 1962. He drove it until 1971 when the transmission went out of it.”

“He parked it in his Quonset. I married his daughter in 1982. I didn’t know he had it until 1987 when I was helping him clean his Quonset out.

“He said, ‘hey, you want to buy that old car over there?’ and I said what is it? He said, ‘well have a look at it’. We cleaned all the junk off it, and I said those are the ugliest cars on the road. We dickered for an hour and then finally he sold it to me for a dollar, so he basically gave it to me.”

“I patched it up and got it running. The motor was seized up; the transmission was shot.

“I stripped it and painted it and drove it the summer of ’88 and the summer of ’89 and then I parked it until last year.”

“Last winter, I tied into it and I rebuilt everything, redid the upholstery, rebuilt everything that moves, everything is new. I just got it running about a month-and-a-half ago.”

What kind of options are on the car?

“Back then the only options you could get are power steering and power breaks, which this doesn’t have. This (car) is manual but it steers easy. It has a cigarette lighter and a spare tire, so I guess it has four options.”