1958 Plymouth Belvedere Fury Savoy Christine Replica Restomod

The history of this car between my and my father starts in spring of 2014. I was going to college in ohio and my dad (located in the south) sent me a message letting me know that there was a 1958 plymouth belvedere for sale in Pennsylvania (for those that havent read the book, the book is based in pennsylvania). Since there were many interested buyers we decided it would be best if i went to check it out immediately. I set up my car and drove 6 hours all the way to pennsylvania that same weekend. When i arrived, i was greeted by the previous owner, where he showed me the car in full detail.

The car was a 1958 plymouth belvedere which had all the correct exterior components to match the car in the movie and was resprayed red (not the correct shade), he had went through the trouble of reupholstering the interior and started an engine swap on the car. He had removed the original 318 and had installed a 383 out of a 71 roadrunner with a matching 727 transmission.

No driveshaft, no functional brakes, would fire but wouldnt run, factory manual steering, factory manual brakes, and original drum brakes.

We talked some numbers and eventually agreed on a price, car was sold, and so the story began.

The car was shipped to my father who took the car to a shop to have it “reconditioned”, paint, chrome, suspension and an SSBC disc conversion were done. Engine was rebuilt but not much was done as far as making the car actually run and move. The brakes were in but didnt operate, power steering box was in but not operational, and much more

2 years later, the car was on a standstill, all the latter was installed, but again no engine, drivetrain or brakes were operational.

When i graduated college in automotive, and moved in with my father, i offered him to finish the project, and after some ideas were exchanged, we agreed and the car was brought to me.

We decided we wanted the car to be as reliable as possible, keep the old style, keep the looks and make the car look like the movie, but perform better than when it left the factory. This coupled to my electrical knowledge and EFI experience, we opted to get rid of the original harness and make a custom new one, and upgrade to efi as well. Power steering, power brakes were also added, lighting systems were renewed, audio components upgraded, A/C was installed, heater system was reconditioned and the list goes on and on.

The project took me a total of around 7-8 months, i went into a lot of detail with the engine bay, so much so that i saw the movie at least 10 times trying to notice differences between cars and adding things to make our example similar, i became a huge fan, so much so that i ended up reading the book, yet again finding differences and similarities. All this while working on it part time, we did test drives and a lot of research and development as far as different components went, several items were installed and then removed and finally replaced with better ones or some that would better suit the application. A lot of time went into this car, and what we ended up with is a “turn key restomod replica of Christine”.

There is much to be said about our time with this particular example, but for now it is time for us to part ways. it would probably take you hours to read all i have to write so i will keep this short and simple by making a list of all the parts and things that have been done to our 58 belvedere in our ownership

These are as follows:

• Bare-metal movie car red paintjob
• Fully functional windows
• New stainless steel trim inserts
• Re-upholstered interior by previous owner
• Full fury exterior conversion
• Older re-chromed bumpers and winglets
• 383 big block engine from a 71 roadrunner (rebuilt)
• 727 torqueflite from the same car (rebuilt)
• Shift kit
• Push button conversion kit
• Comp cam (unsure of size)
• Dual quad manfiold
• Dual quad FITECH efi system
• FITECH fuel commander
• Fitech Post fuel filter
• Lokar kickdown cable
• 1” carb spacers
• Wrapped headers
• New mechanical fuel pump
• Pertronix igniter for points delete
• New distributor/new cap/ new rotor
• High flow water pump
• New valve covers
• Replica fiberglass oval air filters
• 75 dart power steering pump (late model saginaw)
• 100 amp alternator from summit
• New voltage regulator (custom setup with late model mopar reg)
• Msd blaster 2 coil
• New custom MSD spark plug wires
• Shorty headers
• All new full exhaust
• Modified oil pan
• Vintage air a/c compressor and pulley setup for mopar “B” engines
• Dual A/C v-belts
• Mark IV Vintage air A/C setup with custom lines
• ALL NEW CUSTOM FULL BODY WIRING HARNESS (braided harness in engine bay. added fusebox with modern fuses)
• All aluminum radiator from a 69 challenger
• Ford style heater control valve (fully functional with original controls. Deletes old leak prone setup)
• Vacuum assist pump
• Modified vacuum canister to look like movie
• Power brakes conversion (rebuilt factory brake booster bellow)
• Power steering conversion (rebuilt power steering box)
• New tie rods, ball joints and bushings
• 2” rear drop
• Dual 10” puller fans
• 12” pusher for a/c condenser
• Functional neutral safety switch
• Electronic parking brake (works with neutral safety switch)
• SSBC front and rear disc brake conversion
• Wilwood brake proportioning valve with brake switch
• New dual circuit master cylinder
• Dashboard led lights
• Retrosound bluetooth ipod compatible stereo (works with factory stereo knobs)
• 5 channel kenwood amp
• 6 ¼ front separate speaker set (pioneer with custom kick panels)
• 6x9 image dynamics rear speakers
• New horn
• NOS taillights
• Repaired, straightened and polished stainless steel trim
• Re-chromed components by Paul’s chrome (hood emblems, fender trim, interior trim, trunk lettering, and other misc pieces. $14,000 total invoice)
• Recent alignment
• New tires
• Full body aluminized brake lines
• New full body weatherstripping
• Oem style underhood mat
• Oem style trunk mat
• Inner trunk bedlined
• “belvedere “ badge delete
• Modified rear left hub to accept right hand thread lug bolts
• 74 new yorker driveshaft
• Fully functional and operational lights (high beams, low beams, turn signals, brake lights and reverse light, dome light)
• Fully functional factory heater system
• Many other adapting, reliability and aesthetic mods

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call or message me, phone number will be available to bidders only. If you would like to stop by and inspect the car you may also do so. We will also upload a video of all the cars components functioning as they should. You may also go to instagram and find my user to look at pictures of the entire build process