My '63 Valiant Signet Convertible Resto
I'm finally starting to make some progress on the Valiant so I figured now might be a good time to start one of these.
I've had a bunch of mopars over the years, including a '63 Dart GT Convertible, I sold that car to a friend back in 2002 and have missed it ever since.
I found this car thru a friend when one day we were talking mopars, I had a '63 Valiant 4-door at the time and said "after I get this thing done, I've love to find a '63-'65 Dart/Valiant Convertible". Lo and behold he happened to have a friend who had this one for sale, I talked to him about it, the price was right, I sold my 4-dr and this one came home a few months later.
The car is in decent shape for an early A convertible, but it has some oddball rust, mostly in the cowl area.
The previous owner did quite a bit to the car, it has:
The prevous owner also started replacing the rusty floor pans a few years back with '70's A-body pans. They're plenty functional but far from 100% correct in fit and looks, but it really was the only thing possible to save this thing from the crusher back then. It's a fun car to drive for me rather than an investment, so it doesn't really bother me too much. I plan on doing subframe connectors in the future anyhow.
When I got the car, the right rear floor pan wasn't in the car, just a 3ftX3ft hole. So far I've got that pan welded in and started to do some finish work on the rest of the floors. I still need to finish that up and POR-15 the floors.
I've got big plans for the Valiant, taking the resto mod route sort of; though keeping it stock looking other than some torqu thrusts maybe. I hope to make it reliable and comfortable enough to take it on long trips and daily drive it in the summer if I want.
I'll update this as I gather parts or do work on the car. I hope to have the floors finished up within the month and hopefully have at least the front seats redone so I can drive it a little more often.
I'm finally starting to make some progress on the Valiant so I figured now might be a good time to start one of these.
I've had a bunch of mopars over the years, including a '63 Dart GT Convertible, I sold that car to a friend back in 2002 and have missed it ever since.
I found this car thru a friend when one day we were talking mopars, I had a '63 Valiant 4-door at the time and said "after I get this thing done, I've love to find a '63-'65 Dart/Valiant Convertible". Lo and behold he happened to have a friend who had this one for sale, I talked to him about it, the price was right, I sold my 4-dr and this one came home a few months later.
The car is in decent shape for an early A convertible, but it has some oddball rust, mostly in the cowl area.
The previous owner did quite a bit to the car, it has:
- midly built 170 slant 6 with a healthy cam
- offenhauser dual 1-bbl intake with 2 holleys
- "dutra duals"
- MSD ignition
- newer mopar mini starter
- converted to large bolt pattern with a '73 8 1/4 rear and factory disc brakes up front, also has V8 torsion bars and leaf springs
- large bolt pattern rallyes
- rechromed bumpers
- car has factory power steering (works) and factory power top (doesn't work)
The prevous owner also started replacing the rusty floor pans a few years back with '70's A-body pans. They're plenty functional but far from 100% correct in fit and looks, but it really was the only thing possible to save this thing from the crusher back then. It's a fun car to drive for me rather than an investment, so it doesn't really bother me too much. I plan on doing subframe connectors in the future anyhow.
When I got the car, the right rear floor pan wasn't in the car, just a 3ftX3ft hole. So far I've got that pan welded in and started to do some finish work on the rest of the floors. I still need to finish that up and POR-15 the floors.
I've got big plans for the Valiant, taking the resto mod route sort of; though keeping it stock looking other than some torqu thrusts maybe. I hope to make it reliable and comfortable enough to take it on long trips and daily drive it in the summer if I want.
I'll update this as I gather parts or do work on the car. I hope to have the floors finished up within the month and hopefully have at least the front seats redone so I can drive it a little more often.