Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
I now have two white late-'60s Valiants.
Ever since Stretch picked up his '73 Dart, I've been thinking that a "worthless classic" is really the way to go for a daily. Decent fuel economy, no real inherent value to worry about, and drive a cool old car on a regular basis. I've eyeballed a few since then, including an '80 Volare, '76 Colt (he wants way too much, but you never see 'em anymore), and a '72 Charger that I wouldn't be able to leave alone. The latter was also seven grand, more than I'd care to spend on such a rig.
Stretch has been looking for pedals, and last week one of his customers mentioned a car with a stick sitting a couple of miles from my house. Stretch mentioned wanting to go look at it, where it was and what it was. He thought he might buy it for the pedals. I knew which car we were discussing immediately. "That's Reid's car. I don't even know for sure if it's for sale. He's been on the fence about it for a long time. You definitely will not get it cheaply enough to scrap it for pedals, and it's too solid for that from what he's told me." I'd never actually seen it, but Reid and I had discussed it several times in the past.
We decided to go have a look after work unannounced. What we found was a 1968 Valiant 100 2-door sedan, an absolute bare stripper of a car, with a 170-cube Slant and a floor-shifted 3-speed, though the original bolt-action column was still present. Zero options. Manual drums, manual steering, etc. It has an AM radio, and that's about it. It's even generic white. Oh, one other thing it has is a Wyoming license plate. WY doesn't use salt. Stretch said he knew as soon as we saw it that I'd probably buy it. He was not wrong.
I called Reid the next day and started asking questions. Yes, it ran and drove when he parked it. "If you bring a battery when you come to look at it, it'll start." I mentioned to him about Stretch being told about it and wanting the pedals out of it, and he said, "You know, if you'd just call Reid you'd know Reid has pedals too. I've got a couple of sets. I'll sell him one." We talked a bit more about him originally wanting to build a 4-speed drag car from it, but he's already got an 11-second Duster with which to play, and another project doesn't appeal to him anymore. I asked if it was OK if we stopped by that night, and he said sure.
When we got there, the hood was open. He'd been working on his boat and used the battery to get the Valiant started. It wasn't still running at that point, but it was running soon enough. It started like a champ. Stretch noted significant blowby but the car's been sitting for at least 5 years so it may just be stuck rings. The underside of the car is in excellent condition, with the only notable rust being the front floor pans (Reid already replaced the RH one) due to it being a vinyl-floor car, a now-patched LF fender, and a hole behind the RH rear wheel. There are a lot of dents but they're minor pop-out or minor hammer/dolly work. He'd already replaced the grilles in it with very nice used ones, replaced all the side-marker lights, and installed an NOS left-front parking lamp/turn signal. No attempt was made to move or drive the car; Reid says it drives OK and I trust him.
The interior is trashed. The dash pad is literally the worst I've ever seen; thank God it's one-year-only. The lower dash pad--another '68-only bit--is in excellent condition. The door/trim panels are gone and the seat's missing, replaced with the original bench from Reid's Duster. It's going to need a lot of junkyard love in the form of parts torn from dead A-bodies. There's a strong possibility it may get some E-body buckets, since I have an extra set along with all-new upholstery for them. The only real trick may be finding the seat brackets. I'm sure the E-body ones won't work, but I've only got one set anyhow if memory serves.
With everything I've done to Agnes I've become intimately familiar with everything about these cars so few service mysteries remain. Spare parts? I've got 'em in spades, including another complete small-bolt 8¾ axle and disc-brake setup. I have most, if not all, of the rebuild parts for the front suspension thanks to double-ordering everything for the '69 when doing that car (I didn't realize I'd already ordered, so I ordered more). I have 4-speeds out the wazoo, a couple of complete Hurst shifters (wrong handles--don't care), so only a bellhousing would be needed to install an overdrive transmission. The engine remains a question mark but other than the blowby it ran pretty well. If the rings free up and it stops smoking, great. If not, I could either freshen what's there or swap to an economy-minded V8 (273 or 318, though with a plethora of 340s on hand it's tempting to build a mild one). I've already swapped a V8 into a Valiant so that's a familiar process. I'd forego the $800 headers this time and simply run iron manifolds, though. Keeping the original engine sorta depends on two things: its overall condition and exactly how anemic the little 170 is... Reid said it's pretty weak even for puttering around town.
Considering all of the above, it just made sense as a driver. I handed Reid his $1,500 asking price without haggle--he's come through for me in the past, namely giving me the transmission crossmember for Agnes--and became the proud owner of Valiant #2. He came through for Stretch, too, selling him the needed pedals (with a good clutch safety switch!) and floor hump for the desired overdrive 4-speed conversion of his Dart at what I thought was a very reasonable number.
I'll post pictures once I've got some. I didn't take the camera with me and we've yet to bring the car home. My phone camera produces tiny photos with the image quality of Jungle Hunt on the Atari 2600 so I didn't bother taking any.
Ever since Stretch picked up his '73 Dart, I've been thinking that a "worthless classic" is really the way to go for a daily. Decent fuel economy, no real inherent value to worry about, and drive a cool old car on a regular basis. I've eyeballed a few since then, including an '80 Volare, '76 Colt (he wants way too much, but you never see 'em anymore), and a '72 Charger that I wouldn't be able to leave alone. The latter was also seven grand, more than I'd care to spend on such a rig.
Stretch has been looking for pedals, and last week one of his customers mentioned a car with a stick sitting a couple of miles from my house. Stretch mentioned wanting to go look at it, where it was and what it was. He thought he might buy it for the pedals. I knew which car we were discussing immediately. "That's Reid's car. I don't even know for sure if it's for sale. He's been on the fence about it for a long time. You definitely will not get it cheaply enough to scrap it for pedals, and it's too solid for that from what he's told me." I'd never actually seen it, but Reid and I had discussed it several times in the past.
We decided to go have a look after work unannounced. What we found was a 1968 Valiant 100 2-door sedan, an absolute bare stripper of a car, with a 170-cube Slant and a floor-shifted 3-speed, though the original bolt-action column was still present. Zero options. Manual drums, manual steering, etc. It has an AM radio, and that's about it. It's even generic white. Oh, one other thing it has is a Wyoming license plate. WY doesn't use salt. Stretch said he knew as soon as we saw it that I'd probably buy it. He was not wrong.
I called Reid the next day and started asking questions. Yes, it ran and drove when he parked it. "If you bring a battery when you come to look at it, it'll start." I mentioned to him about Stretch being told about it and wanting the pedals out of it, and he said, "You know, if you'd just call Reid you'd know Reid has pedals too. I've got a couple of sets. I'll sell him one." We talked a bit more about him originally wanting to build a 4-speed drag car from it, but he's already got an 11-second Duster with which to play, and another project doesn't appeal to him anymore. I asked if it was OK if we stopped by that night, and he said sure.
When we got there, the hood was open. He'd been working on his boat and used the battery to get the Valiant started. It wasn't still running at that point, but it was running soon enough. It started like a champ. Stretch noted significant blowby but the car's been sitting for at least 5 years so it may just be stuck rings. The underside of the car is in excellent condition, with the only notable rust being the front floor pans (Reid already replaced the RH one) due to it being a vinyl-floor car, a now-patched LF fender, and a hole behind the RH rear wheel. There are a lot of dents but they're minor pop-out or minor hammer/dolly work. He'd already replaced the grilles in it with very nice used ones, replaced all the side-marker lights, and installed an NOS left-front parking lamp/turn signal. No attempt was made to move or drive the car; Reid says it drives OK and I trust him.
The interior is trashed. The dash pad is literally the worst I've ever seen; thank God it's one-year-only. The lower dash pad--another '68-only bit--is in excellent condition. The door/trim panels are gone and the seat's missing, replaced with the original bench from Reid's Duster. It's going to need a lot of junkyard love in the form of parts torn from dead A-bodies. There's a strong possibility it may get some E-body buckets, since I have an extra set along with all-new upholstery for them. The only real trick may be finding the seat brackets. I'm sure the E-body ones won't work, but I've only got one set anyhow if memory serves.
With everything I've done to Agnes I've become intimately familiar with everything about these cars so few service mysteries remain. Spare parts? I've got 'em in spades, including another complete small-bolt 8¾ axle and disc-brake setup. I have most, if not all, of the rebuild parts for the front suspension thanks to double-ordering everything for the '69 when doing that car (I didn't realize I'd already ordered, so I ordered more). I have 4-speeds out the wazoo, a couple of complete Hurst shifters (wrong handles--don't care), so only a bellhousing would be needed to install an overdrive transmission. The engine remains a question mark but other than the blowby it ran pretty well. If the rings free up and it stops smoking, great. If not, I could either freshen what's there or swap to an economy-minded V8 (273 or 318, though with a plethora of 340s on hand it's tempting to build a mild one). I've already swapped a V8 into a Valiant so that's a familiar process. I'd forego the $800 headers this time and simply run iron manifolds, though. Keeping the original engine sorta depends on two things: its overall condition and exactly how anemic the little 170 is... Reid said it's pretty weak even for puttering around town.
Considering all of the above, it just made sense as a driver. I handed Reid his $1,500 asking price without haggle--he's come through for me in the past, namely giving me the transmission crossmember for Agnes--and became the proud owner of Valiant #2. He came through for Stretch, too, selling him the needed pedals (with a good clutch safety switch!) and floor hump for the desired overdrive 4-speed conversion of his Dart at what I thought was a very reasonable number.
I'll post pictures once I've got some. I didn't take the camera with me and we've yet to bring the car home. My phone camera produces tiny photos with the image quality of Jungle Hunt on the Atari 2600 so I didn't bother taking any.
