My 66 Valiant wagon......

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ndeconte

ndeconte

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So I have found a few minutes to finally post some decent photos of my 66 Valiant 200 wagon. I purchased her a few months ago and she has now became my main means of daily transportation.

Pretty much all original when I purchased her and have the cert card under the hood and the original owners manual and build sheet. Have a bunch of documentation from the previous 2 owners and she has 144k on her now. The original owner had a minor restoration done to her (lower section of body repaired and repainted, inserts in seats re-done) in 91. He passed away soon after and she was in storage for 10-12 years, until the second owner found her and purchased her for his wife to drive, which she did for 2 years. She has the 225 motor, power rear gate window, dual mirrors, and the roof rack which were the only options she came with I believe.

I've done some cleaning on her already and some long overdue maintenance which consisted of a tune up, rear axle bearings and seals and fuel tank sending unit and grommet. She has new tires, 13's in front and 14's in the rear. Next up are new leaf springs, and a front end rebuild. she got some rot coming through on the rear quarter, but I'm not worrying about that this year, just want to get the rest of the mechanical's straightened out and enjoy it this year!

One question tho......The plywood spare tire cover, wagon floor, does that look original to you wagon enthusiasts? It looks to be a piece of 3/4" plywood, I'd be very surprised that it came with that from the factory.

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a couple other photos......
 

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Oh My !! I love this wagon :cheers: Very nice 66 :glasses7: Victoria would be proud to park next to it one day :coffee2:
Keeping an eye on this build, Congratulations :supz:

Hope its ok for me to post my 66 here :coffee2:
Not sure about the plywood but I would think so, the back is made to carry heavy stuff even another slant 6 if need be
 

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My Dart has the plywood piece, but I have no idea if it's original. It looks like we bought similar wagons in similar shape!
 
I had a 65 coronet wagon and the spare tire well cover was just plywood with a metal band around the edge
 
memike: nice Valiant! No worries on posting the photos, always love to see other rides! Had a 66 Signet with a 273 4 speed in high school, one of the cars I kicked myself for getting rid of!

Thanks for all the input on the wheel cover. Makes sense being such a heavy duty material, just never saw one like this and this being my first Mopar wagon, wasn't sure. It's painted with grey speckle paint also.

Love this car and the wife likes it! Something that doesn't usually happen. ;) It's been a while since I had an old one I could drive and tinker with. If your in New England, you'll be seeing her around here and there.
 
I like your wagon, I let a Signet slip away years ago too and would sure like to have one now.
 
So I finally found some time to do some work on the wagon......Been wanting to tackle the rear leaf springs for a while now, yesterday seemed like a good day! ;)

Purchased The Mopar Performance springs some time ago through Jegs I believe and purchased U bolts and shackles at the same time on Ebay.

I laid the original drivers side leaf spring over the replacement to see if there was any difference in the arch, some but not much.

Went in without a hitch, everything unbolted easy enough, actually used the original U bolts for the install.....New ones were a larger diameter and longer.....if anything, I'll use these if and when I decide to install lowering blocks.

The rear is up higher than I'd like, I'll give it a month or two to settle in, then I'll see what I'm going to do.

What a difference in the ride, it's like night and day!!
 

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Congratulations on the install, I have a set waiting on my Sedan and I bet it feels a bunch better to drive and as less sway for sure, I believe they will settal some for you, looks great
 
Soooooo much better! I only notice now the bounce on the front end, time for some front shocks. I kept the fairly new air shocks that were on it when I purchased it, in case I ever have some weight in her.
 
I can say from experience that it will feel and handle the road better if you remove the air shocks and put some good gas shocks on the back, 100% better ride with the air shocks off :thumbup:
 
The 66 is my favorite Valiant. I had a 63 and then a 66 with a 273 but sold it. I still have my 66 red convertible Valiant. Great wagon you haver there. I had a chance to buy a couple of rust free ones when I lived in California. I dilly dallied and never got around to it. Big mistake
 
^^^^ LOL, awesome.... I am kind of surprised, A body wagons haven't caught on more. A /6 wagon, beats a minivan ,in my book.
 
What a beautiful Valiant wagon you have found. Complete, in good shape and all there. Hats off to the Catch of the year!:cheers:
 
I can add an 'Export' - 66' Wagon - built in Hamtramck for Europe - and shipped in 1966 to Vienna, Austria. It was a special order car with a lot of 'performance' options (...for a wagon):

273 c.i. with 4-on-the-floor (!!!)
front disc brakes
sure grip rear axle
HD Shocks
Fast Manual Steering
Hi-Capacity Radiator
kph - speedometer
H4 - headlights
 

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So the time has come, 2 years and 40K miles later it's time for some pampering for my girl!

The engine is getting a lot of oil blow by out of the oil breather, so I think it's time to pull the motor for a rebuild. I was also forced to use her for a partial winter vehicle and it really show me some soft areas on the car.
So I'm doing this in segments right now since I hate not having her to drive! We're tackling the engine compartment/nose first. With this my sons and I will be doing the engine rebuild, maintenance on the transmission and prep and paint and detail.

Past couple of weekends, we got the motor, tranny, K member/front suspension pulled, engine compartment stripped out and started the metal prep........ slowly but surely it's getting there.

We were planning on going with a gunmetal metallic paint with a maroon interior, but since seeing the white epoxy primer on her, I think we'll be going with a bright white. I'm a sucker for white vehicles, have had a few.
 
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