(first posted 3/10/2018) When I was younger, being the practical and thrifty chap I was (or could be, some of the time), instead of daydreaming about exotic cars I would ponder what I would drive if I suddenly found myself in drastically less fortunate circumstances. Yes, I was doing this while behind the wheel of my new Mercedes 300E. It pays to have contingency plans, and a Valiant from more or less this vintage was part of mine.
I still have occasional thoughts like that. I used to roll by this very fine old converted classic PD-4104 in a warehouse parking lot right next to the Amazon creek bike path, and I’d think to myself: this is what I’d do; find an old bus, make it habitable, and pay someone a bit of rent to park it and a some electricity. Anything other than paying rent…says the landlord.
And when it came to the cheapest way to drive, my thoughts invariably went to an old Valiant, or comparable Dart. Almost indestructible, with a little bit of care and feeding.
There was a young single mom who was a family friend and who worked at the tv station in LA, and she really needed some cheap wheels. I helped her find an old White Valiant, and I dubbed it “The Kelvinator”, as it was about as simple, functional and reliable as an old refrigerator. She drove that thing for years, and it never let her down. A stripped sedan with the slant six, Torqueflite, and nothing else; fewer things to break. She didn’t even mind the armstrong steering, as she was a pretty feisty sort anyway.
Of course my thoughts about my Valiant were a wee bit more ambitious: a bit of warming up of the engine, with a two-barrel carb, and something other than the stock three-speed transmission, which had at least one gear to few. A four speed swap eventually gave way to a five speed, in my fervent MM’ing.
Veteran CC Cohort Mike Hayes, whose finds in the Seattle are have graced our pages for years, didn’t get a shot of the interior to let us know if this is an automatic or manual. But we know what’s under the hood: either the 170 or 225 cu.in slant six. From my long experience with these cars, if it’s a 170, it’s most likely a manual; if it’s a 225, the odds favor the Torqueflite. I think that’s how the dealers invariably ordered their stock of these. If you wanted a 170 automatic (you didn’t, really) or a 225 manual, you were going to have to order it.
Although efforts were made to disguise it some, there’s still a lot of Virgil Exner’s influence in these cars. As in just about all of it. He oversaw the complete re-design of the ’63s, and according to the lore, the only thing that Elwood Engel changed when he took over from Exner on the Valiant was to push up the end of the top edge of the rear fender some, to minimize the visual impact of the still-sloping (but not nearly as much) rear trunk lid.
It was a successful re-design that completely changed the visual impact of the goofy 1960-1962 Valiant, and turned it into a totally innocuous (visually) compact sedan that exuded thrift and practicality from every pore. Just the thing for a fallback-mobile. You never know…
It is funny that as much time as I spent in and around Mopar A bodies, virtually none of it was in this generation. The only one I can think of was the 66 Dart 2 door sedan that belonged to my Scoutmaster’s wife. When his much newer 69 Cortina wagon was not considered robust enough for a trip to Chicago the Dart was the go-to. Which makes your point perfectly.
I have mentioned before that back in the 80s I had the chance to buy a very nice driver-quality 64 Valiant convertible for a really reasonable price. A lawyer I knew had picked it up for a fun car and was looking for a good home for it, having bought something else. It was even black with red interior. At that time I was tired of the slant 6 (from having spent several years driving them) and wanted something with a V8. I have been kicking myself ever since.
When I was a kid a girl one year behind me in high school had a 66 Valiant convertible. That one was equipped with a V8 and bucket seats with a floor shifter. As good looking as I thought that car was, for the life of me I can’t remember what colors it was.
Myself? I had a 69 Valiant Signet 2 door with the “classic” slant six and automatic combo and with Air Temp underdash A/C. That car was bought as cheap wheels when my Audi Fox was sidelined indefinitely with a failed clutch.
Not a great car to drive, but incredibly tough.
When I commented on another thread about learning the history of any older car you might be interested in buying…these old MoPar “A” bodies came to mind as an example of something well designed and well built.
Properly maintained, these could still be driven and enjoyed today.
With a Wildwood disk brake conversion, that is.
Very nice find. Is that the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle? Looks a lot like where I AirBnB’d with the rental Volvo this past summer.
I’m loving how the bicyclist just nonchalantly parks the bike using a normal street spot in picture #4. And how more cars are parked the wrong way around than with the traffic direction.
That would by photographer Mike Hayes’ bike. I’ve done the same thing on a few occasion, and my bike has photobombed some of my CCs.
“And how more cars are parked the wrong way around than with the traffic direction.”
That unfortunately is rampant in the city of Seattle. In the residential areas off of arterial the Police don’t bother ticketing those people even though they could. They are too busy doing I don’t know what because they aren’t doing anything about the homeless relieving themselves in public, they won’t send out anyone for many property crimes just telling you to report it online, and they don’t do anything about people shooting up in parks and school yards then leaving the needles where ever they may fall.
Maybe they’ve all been busy investigating the (now former) mayor… 🙂 It’s still one of the best cities in the country (in my opinion), sadly the rest of the word has figured that out over the last decade or two as well and the problems, while not excusable, seem to be on par with many other cities of its size and scope (where they aren’t at all excusable either). You live in an absolutely wonderful city.
You think it’s different in any other city on the West Coast (or many other places) with its rampant housing crisis and opiate epidemic? Same here in Eugene. Welcome to the 21st century.
Jim Klein: That street is sort of on the border between the Wallingford and Fremont neighborhoods. Everybody parks on the street or in their driveways, since garages are either nonexistent or designed for Model T Fords. Great for carspotting. And ;yeah, like Paul said, that’s my bike. The only bicycles you see parked that casually are the ones that you rent by the hour, which BTW are everywhere these days (a good thing if you ask me, but your mileage may vary).
I mentally choose cars from specific eras all the time. For the 1960s, I would have definitely chosen the Valiant, with 225 Slant Six and Torqueflight.
There was simply nothing better available at the time. The Valiant seemed to survive the ravages of rust better than say, a Chevy II. They were reliable and pleasant to drive.
Now my go to brand is Honda, for the same reason. Honda makes a reliable car that’s nice to drive. Works for me!
+1, although my “go to” brand has become Toyota.
Fallbacks can never be over-rated. I took an unexpected and unwanted medical retirement several years ago at the age of 45. I now have two Toyotas, a Sequoia and a Scion xB, that will have to last indefinitely…
As I was reading this piece, I was thinking there needs to be a new series – cars after retirement. I’m done working in June and we’re in the process of selling our Volvo C30 (fun ride but not retirement grade reliability). The replacement is my brother’s 2011 Toyota Highlander.
I’ve owned many Mopars and several of them were A-bodies. I currently own the Mopar in my avatar.
I also own the equivalent of a Kelvinator.
Saturday Night Live did a skit many years ago that featured a Norge. Funny stuff. I’m sure it’s on YouTube. Isn’t everything?
Is it really appropriate to nickname a Mopar “The Kelvinator”? Now a Rambler, that would be a whole ‘nother matter….
Chrysler’s Airtemp, while they made home air conditioners and water heaters, never made refrigerators. Unlike GM, Ford, AMC, and even Studebaker and International Harvester.
Beat me to it about Kelvinator being an AMC product. While GM cars has Fridgidaire air conditioning compressors, our Kelvinator had a Rambler dome light lens over the bulb inside.
My fallbacks are what I drive now. Can’t get much more “poverty spec” than a 70 Maverick I own and still use occasionally. I least I get a few “thumbs up”.
You speak about the 170 or 225, but wasn’t there also a 198 during this era? Or did that come later?
The 198 Slant Six came several years later, and an A-body generation later.
’64 … was first year of the V8 in the A body. But this is way to stripped down to likely contain one. A V8 would more likely have been in a Signet model with all that extra chrome weighing it down.
My ’64 Dart 4-door was with the 170 auto. Still, on takeoff, it was slightly faster than my ’63 Dart 225 Convertible, also auto. That was most likely from the difference in weight, perhaps.
I’ve never felt the need for disc brake conversion on my A-body cars. I still drive my ’63 Valiant convertible every weekend in the summer, and in the DC area, but I do think I should install a two-circuit master cylinder.
I had a 1973 Valiant with a 198, and my dad had a 1973 Duster with a 198. The 198 replaced the 170 in 1970.
With a mild restyle and bigger 14 inch wheels these were tough enough for down under conditions only with the 225 though and auto in NZ was quite rare survivors are prized.
I learned to drive on a 65 V100 two door, 225, 3-speed manual (the poster above was right — we had to order it!). I would love to have it now. The poster who mentioned the “armstrong” steering was exaggerating a bit — as I recall it was pretty easy to steer, and I was just a skinny teenager. We later had a 72 4-door sedan, stripper, with V8, Torqueflite and AC. My mom loved to hear that V8 rev!
Agree with Paul, PS on the steering effort.
I had the opportunity to drive several 1963/64 Valiant and Dart cars; all slant six/push button Torqueflite models, with manual steering.
I do recall having to “wind the wheel” due to the steering gear ratio (5 or 6 turns lock to lock?); but recall the effort needed to crank the steering wheel as being low. MUCH lower than the full sized, V8 cars of that time period.
As with all non-power steering assisted cars; correct tire pressure was a “must have” for easy steering.
Dad’s ’74 Duster (225 3 on tree) steered quite easily with it’s armstrong steering, the skinny 6.45 X 14 tires were a big reason why along with it’s light weight. Did take a lot of spins lock to lock, though.
Can’t edit. 6.95 X 14 was the tire size.
My 70 Maverick steers pretty easily too. 5.2 turns lock to lock.
A Valiant like this will run practically forever as long as you’re in an area where road salt is not a factor. In the Northeast though the bodies on these melted back into the ground ages ago while the drivetrains were still going strong. (I used to have a ’64 Valiant with three-on-the-tree, manual steering and brakes.)
To me, the ’64 is the quintessential Valiant. It’s too bad they weren’t able to pump as many out as the far less engineered Ford Falcon of the same era; with the indestructible slant-six/Torqueflite combination, the Valiant would make a much better hipster ride, today (especially a station wagon). And then there’s that distinctive Highland Park hummingbird starter which is music to any Moparphile.
Something I haven’t yet seen mentioned in any of the A-body CCs is the clever hood release location on these earlier Valiants: there’s actually a small lever hidden beneath the ‘PLYMOUTH’ hood emblem.
For a moment, I thought wow, that greenhouse carried over to the ’67 – ’73 Valiant. Close, but not quite.
They certainly held on to a lot of hard points.
The A-body didn’t fall victim to the long hood/short deck craze of the late ’60s/early ’70s that killed space utilization just in time for the gas crisis; that may have held the ’67-69 Barracuda back but it did nothing but good things for the rest of the line.
This was my first car. I paid $200 for it. It was a trade in. No reverse band. Spent first month being taught by Dad how to drop the automatic, clean a carborator, and scrap away fender rust.
It was a greenish aqua. Ended up repainting it Navy. Mom loved driving it. Push button automatic. Slant six. 14 mpg.
Loved it. Drove it across the Great Plains from Chicago to Denver. Got lost every weekend in the Rockies, tooling through pine forests, over mountain passes, across crystal clean mountain streams and camped under the stars. Nicknamed it the Blue Max.
It finally threw a rod outside an empty crossroads near Tinmuth. Got towed back to the rented dump I paid $100 a month to flop in between classes. Unable to fix it. Watched it slowly rust away parked on a back street. Finally called a wrecker and was paid $50.
Watched it towed away with a broken heart and a lump in my throat.
I can’t remember who the comedian was but years ago they did a funny bit about being told the only thing that would survive nuclear war was cockroaches.
He then went on to talk about his first visit to Florida and all the seniors and how he had a nightmare about millions of cockroaches driving past him, all in Panama hats and pants held up at chest height by suspenders. They were all driving Dodge Darts with one blinker on because that was the only car that would survive a nuclear war with the cockroaches!
I am not ashamed to admit that I have no Valiant/Dart experience. But I do identify with the concept of a fallback-mobile. Not knowing Chryslers, I would not have picked one of the pair.
In life I’ve needed one, just one time. It ended up being a ’66 Chevelle four door sedan – six cylinder, three speed on the column. It worked fine for the six months or so of ownership. The car (and my life) was in Denver so rust was not a problem and the car started in the winter.
If presented with the concept of needing a fallback-mobile decades ago but knowing what I do now after years of car exposure, I guess my choice would have to be a manual transmission Falcon or Fairlane from the ’60s.
Consumer Reports magazine, which in the 1960s was stuffy and conservative to a degree that’ll make you laugh out loud if you go to the library and read an old issue (they complained about an ornamental squiggle-line stamped into the side of a chrome toaster, saying it was a needless frill that offered no benefit to the buyer, for example) said of the Dart and Valiant, “The sturdy Chrysler Corporation compacts have long been our favorite”, and they were right—they were unusually good cars at that time, and that difference was accentuated (or exaggerated) because just about every direct competitor on the market was substantially inferior.
Thinking further on it, when I was in high school in ’90-’94 in Denver, there were three of these amongst the student body. My metallic-mudpuddle Canadian ’65 4-door 225/auto (a Dart badged up as a Valiant with no Plymouth, Dodge, or Chrysler nameplate anywhere) was easily the nicest of them, for I was a complete Slant-6/A-body freak at the time. There was a red ’63 convertible with a white top and 225/auto. It belonged to a redheaded girl who was fundamentally ineligible for me to have a crush on. But I would’ve had a hopeless crush, if it hadn’t been completely dangerous, on the owner (redhead yes, girl no) of the American ’65 2-door painted early-’70s Plum Crazy/Inviolet purple. It had a 170 engine, don’t remember if it was automatic or 3-on-the-tree.
After many years buying and selling 10+ year old Darts and Valiants (about 30 of them) I found a ’64 Valiant station wagon, 225, 3 on the tree, V-200, white with the ubiquitous aqua interior. This was to be my ultimate keeper, my favorite year, my favorite model. After forking over the $200 I stiff hitched it home.
I had fully restored a ’66 Valiant Signet hardtop many years earlier than this and had an enormous supply of extra parts and all the know how. But for the next TWENTY years, despite sporadic interventions and partial rebuilds I never actually achieved a road worthy daily driver! In fact its condition steadily deteriorated, testament to its outdoor storage.
We all have stories like this. Even if they are embarrassing to tell.
It was trucked away last year.
this may be my first car- same color, missing the side trim, but someone would have stolen the gorgeous trunk badge. i did bump into a small tree on the pass side near my first job by The Crest. 1964 push-button Valiant – i believe my dad said it was a Slant6. they discontinued selling leaded gas at 85cents/gal during our time together when i switched over to unleaded, around 1994/5? i would have to have help with a push down the exit ramp from my high school parking lot to compression start -as per my 12 yr old cousin’s advice- if i couldn’t manually get the choke to work. i started going for my mom’s 67 cougar to race me to school in the mornings as it didn’t take as long to warm up and it had a great tape player. if this isnt her (used to have tape on side over trim holes, spray painted to match car- exterior had some bondo behind one side headlight but the interior was gorgeous!), i used to see one driving through wallingford when i worked there 2005-2012 and couldn’t tell. my parents had brought it home for me for 500$, sold it for that in 1996, i thought to a girl in west seattle. thanks for the trip down Memory LN.
I’m past the “fallback-mobile: stage in my life, though with three good late-model vehicles in my life now, i really shouldn’t need to ever buy another one so I guess I’m in the “status quo-mobile stage”. But in fact when I was about 3-4 years into my professional career, with one or two cars (the Vega and the Fiesta I think, so not exactly any thing fancy) and at least one motorcycle, but no home or marriage or kids, I went through a period where I wanted to simplify things. And of course top of my list was the car – my choice was to get a 5 or 6 year old Pinto wagon.
A 2-door sedan version of the feature vehicle was my family’s very first new car. It was the 225/three-on-the-tree combo and kept chugging through indifferent maintenance (mostly infrequent oil changes with the cheapest oil).
Sadly, the salted northern Indiana winter roads did the typical major damage to the sheetmetal and floorboards over the years, and its final hours were getting creamed at a demolition derby.