Watched this last night and, while I was familiar with Goody's 51 Mercury (and appalled by it's destruction), I didn't remember what looks like a 34 Ford pickup near the end of the movie where they find the one room school house. Eastwood and Bridges seem to fill the bed of that little truck with no room to spare! No end of off-topic but cool old cars filling the background, too. That poor old Merc.....
Good grief, my buddy was in love with Clint Eastwood, and when he saw this movie was inspired to install a 4 speed in his '73 Fury. He went through a couple different versions, the first attempt used a bellhousing made from a chopped off 727 with a 1/4" plate cut and drilled by hand that attached to the former pump bolt bosses. He died last year, and I had not thought about that for a while. You could call him very determined when he set his mind to something, I wont go into the rifle stock he hacked from a piece of black walnut with his mom's meat cleaver.
I imagine the tranny in the Fury they used in the movie was pretty much roached by the time they got through filming! Amazing how much abuse that Merc took and kept on rolling; they beat the hell out of that car. Toss a 20mm antiaircraft gun and tripod and ammo in the trunk and it didn't sag a bit!
Just watched that movie again a couple weeks ago and almost started a similar thread. Loved that Merc. The one plot point I never understood was how they are able to get that cannon so quickly by truck freight. Was it from the same person he got it from years ago? You'd think that after the first time one was used in a heist, the authorities would've zeroed in on the source. Even in the 70s that had to be a tightly controlled item LOL. And those little ice cream delivery trucks...I want one!
I watched part of it the other day on Firestick. Still pretty hokey but the cars were cool. The Merc would be worth some coin in present day value.
The Jalopy Journal
