Do you know the saying, “You’re one stripped bolt away from a 10-minute job becoming an all-day project”? Well, we’ve come to find that “you’re one $50 Earl Scheib paint-and-body job away from a quick flipper to a two-year metalwork ordeal.”

Project Marsha, our 1970 Plymouth Fury III convertible, was originally intended to be such a car. We had pulled it from a tabacco barn in North Carolina with hopes of a quick turnaround; get her running, patch up the rust holes and find her a new home.

Instead, we discovered Marsha had experienced several bad accidents throughout her life, caving in the rear bumper and valance, pushing in one trunk corner; and in another accident, creasing and folding the passenger’s quarter panel beyond repair.

Instead, Dave Chamberlain of All Classics Restoration (who is tackling the bodywork and painting of Marsha) discovered and deduced that a less-than-scrupulous bodyshop hastily tack welded and mudded a replacement quarter skin over the damaged one.

An equal amount of minimal effort was put into repairing the factory trunk lid, so a replacement was hunted down (as was a replacement rear bumper and valance). The entirety of the massive C-body was finally stripped, rough sanded and – as of yesterday – shot with an epoxy primer and later a fill primer.

Blistering July temperatures in Statesville, NC made spraying a challenge. “Too much hardener and the primer starts setting up in the gun before you spray it all. Not enough and it takes forever to dry. [Thankfully, I] had enough for two full coats,” Dave told Mopar Connection Magazine.

The next steps are the most laborious: hours of careful block sanding to find and fill any low spots. Once completed, Marsha’s factory B3 Ice Blue Metallic will be laid down. Dave joked, “I’m gonna have to pop the hood off and shoot it off of the car. I can’t reach the center without leaning into the fender.”

We’re still several weeks’ away from reassembly and getting the new white convertible top installed, but you can expect a video update on Dave’s All Classics Restoration’s YouTube channel before seeing Marsha in the flesh in the Mopar Connection Magazine booth at this coming September’s Holley MoParty event.

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