1961 Valiant Wagon
Once the wagon was painted and moved back to the warehouse, I slowly started putting a couple of things together on it. I want to drop it off the rotisserie so I have started on the front suspension. Keeping in mind I want to option out the wagon as much as possible... And keep that daytona valiant feel about it... I have put the following on. Firstly the Load levelers shockies. I have a set for the front and rear. Then the sway bar as used by the daytona Valiants. More times than I remember people told me they the sway bar won't fit on a 60/61 Valiant with the 60/61 lower control arms.. So I put them on. They seem to fit pretty nicely if you ask me.
Where I can I have been putting factory stamping and marks back on the parts. While their is a fair bit of information for mid 60s - mid 70s cars... On factory markings... Their is pretty much nothing for early valiants and lancers. So crawling around in wrecking yards and U-pull-it's in the 90s helped a lot find those markings. I have tried to match the font where possible as well.
The red brake pedal is a nice touch. Years ago when I found one and did the research behind it, I found out it was a dealer display item only. To show a potential new car buyers that a car had power brakes. They had red brake pedals. Once the car was sold, the dealer removed the red power brake pedal and replaced it with a common black rubber pedal. But in some cases the new car buyer still had the red pedal in their car cause the dealer didn't remove it.
Once the wagon was painted and moved back to the warehouse, I slowly started putting a couple of things together on it. I want to drop it off the rotisserie so I have started on the front suspension. Keeping in mind I want to option out the wagon as much as possible... And keep that daytona valiant feel about it... I have put the following on. Firstly the Load levelers shockies. I have a set for the front and rear. Then the sway bar as used by the daytona Valiants. More times than I remember people told me they the sway bar won't fit on a 60/61 Valiant with the 60/61 lower control arms.. So I put them on. They seem to fit pretty nicely if you ask me.
Where I can I have been putting factory stamping and marks back on the parts. While their is a fair bit of information for mid 60s - mid 70s cars... On factory markings... Their is pretty much nothing for early valiants and lancers. So crawling around in wrecking yards and U-pull-it's in the 90s helped a lot find those markings. I have tried to match the font where possible as well.
The red brake pedal is a nice touch. Years ago when I found one and did the research behind it, I found out it was a dealer display item only. To show a potential new car buyers that a car had power brakes. They had red brake pedals. Once the car was sold, the dealer removed the red power brake pedal and replaced it with a common black rubber pedal. But in some cases the new car buyer still had the red pedal in their car cause the dealer didn't remove it.
