'66 Valiant Resto

[SlotCarWon]

I finally obtained my ’66 Plymouth Valiant Signet Convertible just before New Years Eve after months of discussions with the seller. I had contacted the owner on Sept 8 and it took forever to finally complete the whole deal. The owner agreed to have his father who is a retired body guy repair the little bit of rust this car had. There was corrosion in the usual A-body locations, the rear quarter panels around the wheel and a little bit on top of the front fenders. The rust was cut out, new metal was welded in and a minimum of body filler was used. Having this already done before I received the car was a huge help to me.

Before

After

I had the car shipped from Virginia. Blue Line Transport arranged shipping for me. I highly recommend them as they are very affordable and have been excellent to deal with.

As received:

I know this is an old car with a lot of miles so I expected it to show a lot of use. Plus the car had been in indoor storage for over ten years and had not been used so I also expected it to have many needs. Before this car arrived I had purchased a parts car, it was one of those things that I couldn’t pass up, so I’ve got a few parts and misc. extra bits. This car does start and run, with an old reliable 225 slant six and auto trans I guess it’s not really a surprise. The seller even drove it about ten miles to meet the transporter I hired to ship the car. I have only driven this car 100 feet down the driveway and into the garage. I did notice that it does not feel anything like today’s new cars and that the fuel gauge does not work.

It has a lot of potential to be fun car to drive around in with the top down and most of the hard work has been done. I didn’t want and don’t expect it to ever be a “show quality” car but it can be made into a unique & presentable Mopar drop-top runner. The car is pretty much complete and it is very solid; the rockers are sound as are the floors, frame rails and trunk. I’m no light-weight and I can stand in the back seat floor (this is often an area that exhibits serious rust issues). The rust repairs do need a little bit of finish work to look really good. The lower portion of the body has been painted silver, only the ’66 Signets had this two tone paint scheme. There are a few bubbles on the drivers door down low where it is painted silver, I plan on repairing this area at a later date (that means when it’s warmer), I can repair it without the whole car needing to be totally prepped and repainted because I do have the silver paint in a spray can (Dupli-color T275 Light Charcoal). The top is marginal at best and will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

The car really needs a new finish to look presentable. I wanted to take advantage of Maaco’s 50% off winter specials here, I already discussed doing this car and since they are so slow have given me a GREAT price. I’ve been prepping the car by removing the trim, neutralizing some small spots of corrosion and priming where needed. Most of the small spots of corrosion were underneath the trim, but they still need to be sanded, then neutralized and painted with some self etching primer. The real issue is that the car was repainted and the repaint is not sticking to the original finish. There are a number of small spots on the car where the paint comes off, they look like stone chips but aren’t. This paint and primer need to be sanded off so I’ve been doing A LOT of sanding but I’m not sure I can get it ready in time to take advantage of the winter discount. Also, I’d really like to replace the hood before I get it painted because there’s some body filler on it that looks like it’s coming loose, it’s a very thin layer on the front edge. I was supposed to pick-up a hood at the Walter P. Chrysler car show yesterday after making arrangments with a vendor who said he had one, but it turns out he didn’t have it. So I still need to find a hood.

It is now de-trimmed and the red paint is being slowly sanded off.

The exterior trim is in the shape than I would expect for a forty year old car, it’s not awful but it isn’t really great either. The tail lights are probably the most notable as they are pitted, some of the other trim is aluminum and I can see that it is dinged up in places. The bumpers are also pitted a bit and have a little chrome peeling off but at least they are relatively straight. The trim that is stainless steel of course has held up pretty well.

The interior needed a really good cleaning when I got it. Cleaning it revealed some wear & tear on the soft interior parts, like the door panels, but nothing that is really distracting to me. Somebody did a nice job recovering the arm rests on the door, I painted them black with “Mopaint” and they ended up looking surprisingly nice. The steering wheel is cracked and I need to order a $30 repair kit from Eastwood. The dash pad has two splits near the center, otherwise it looks ok, these splits didn’t bother me, I might try to glue the splits back together. The car came with bucket seats but they are trashed, the drivers seat was worn down so much all of the foam was gone. I have a bench seat from a parts car and a new vinyl seat cover for it. I also have a rear seat cover that needs to be installed since the rear seat cover has a number of splits.

It looks like someone tried to repaint the top portion of the passenger side door, the interior portion that is metal. This new paint cracked and it really looks bad, this needs to be removed and re-painted to look good. There’s a lot to do to the interior but I have almost everything I need and it should look good when finished.

I'll take a new picture of them when they are clean.

Overall I’m a bit disappointed that the whole car needs to have the old re-paint sanded off because the primer and paint are not sticking to the original finish, this very time consuming and I did NOT expect it. This will make me miss my opportunity to get a really good job at Maaco for a great price. I might try the roller paint method on this car. Other than that it looks like a lot of work but I have a couple of months and if I can just keep making progress I’ll have it on the road this spring. For now I’ll just keep sanding.

I did find a 273 two barrel engine and auto trans from a ’67 Barracuda for $150 that would be a nice to install but that needs to wait for a bit.

 

[73dart360]

that car will be sweet when done -love it

 

[65s]

There's always the "unexpected", and these old cars always take more time and money than we think. If you're doing it for the love of the car, you'll come out ahead and enjoy the car. If you're just doing it for money, you won't (unless you've got a high dollar rare car).

I think your '66 vert is great! Clean it up and drive it, enjoy it....then slowly do the work. Always keep it driveable, that's my motto! My Barracuda was down most of last summer while I fiddled with engine problems. In the end a new engine was transplanted in and I'm back up and running. I hope I never have it down that long again unless I'm getting a complete rebuild!

 

[Cerwin]

shes puuurdy!

im curently hiding the where abouts of a 64 vert 273 auto.

ill be purchasing that when i magically find the funds.. i check up on the guy once a month to let him know if he sells.. and its NOT to me..

he better lock his doors.. muuahahahhaahah

not but seriously cool car.

Cerwin

 

[moparlee]

I'm not able to see the pictures, but I bet it's sweet.

Lee

 

[Keith Mopar]

That car will be a real looker when its done. There nothing like an eary A body convertible.
Good luck with your car.

 

[OldVart]

That's a great looking rag top you have there. DON"T get rid of your bucket seats, get some new foam and covers and redo them. Is the bench seat from a 2-door car, because if not, it doesn't have a folding back and it will be impossible to get into the back seat. Good luck.

 

[moparlee]

That's a great looking rag top you have there. DON"T get rid of your bucket seats, get some new foam and covers and redo them. Is the bench seat from a 2-door car, because if not, it doesn't have a folding back and it will be impossible to get into the back seat. Good luck.

Well, if the tops down you could just jump in. I'm kidding.

Lee

 

[SlotCarWon]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.
I knew it would be a lot of work and not econmically lucrative but I hope to have a cool Mopar drop top this spring.
I'll keep everyone posted on progress.
Tuesdays are the days I've plan on working on it, but today it's way too cold!

 

[sweatybetty]

[QUOTE








Overall I’m a bit disappointed that the whole car needs to have the old re-paint sanded off because the primer and paint are not sticking to the original finish, this very time consuming and I did NOT expect it. This will make me miss my opportunity to get a really good job at Maaco for a great price. I might try the roller paint method on this car.
QUOTE]

you gotta be kidding

 

[SlotCarWon]

I assume you mean I'm kidding about the roller, but no I'm not kidding. One of the other Mopar web boards has a big & long (over a year) post about a cheapo paint job using a roller and Rustoleum paint. It makes sense as the paint is self leveling (like future floor wax which is really just clear acrylic paint). The process outlined uses a series coats with the paint thinned so that it "self levels", it is then wet sanded with progressively finer grades of sand paper. Then a lot of work goes into polishing the finish. It seems like alot of work, like any paint job, and it's the prep and finishing that makes the difference. I don't think it's intended to be a show quality paint job just a good tough everyday finish and this car would be perfect for it.

I haven't made any more progress, it's been way too cold to work in the garage. But I did get my seat covers. I think I can do this indoors and will try to install them in the next week. Don't worry about the bench seat, it is from a two door so I'll be able to use the back seat.

 

[SlotCarWon]

It has been really cold here, with a high of 5 to 10 degree F the last week it's much too cold to work in the garage. I try to go work on the car every Tuesday because my wife works late, but with it sooo cold I figured I could stay inside and try installing my new vinyl seat covers. Seat covers are a huge expense but I thought it was worth it, it's really what was needed to make the interior look good. I would have liked to keep the original bucket seats but they were pretty well shot, the foam is gone from the drivers side plus some of the trim is broken on both the drivers and passenger sides. So I decided to use a bench seat from a parts car, yes it is from a two door so the front seat backs fold out of the way. I do like the vintage look of a bench seat, I don't see too many cars with bench seats anymore. It was a lot of work just removing the original seat covers, those things are on tight, I undid most of the hog rings and I still had to cut the old seat covers to get them off. If you're going to try this you'll need to wear some leather work gloves and these old cars will have a lot of dust so a surgical face mask is also a good idea. While the seat was apart I figured I could paint the visible parts black as they are a bit dis-colored. I painted the lower portions of the front seat frame, seat tracks and seat back hinges with Rustoleum black paint. There's only two pieces of plastic trim on the bench seats but I did paint them with black Mopaint so they would match the other trim. For installing the covers I did purchase a cheapo pair of hog ring pliers with the seat covers and I'll see how that goes. I'm going to get some help putting the seat covers on, a friend volunteered because he has done it before. So far this has been difficult, this is dirty, dusty and hard work and I haven't even tried to put any of the covers on. If I had to do it again I would probably pay someone to do this.

 

[Cerwin]

So would have I.

 

[SlotCarWon]

It's been way too cold to do much in the garage but I finally visited the garage and got a few things done. I'll post some pics after dinner.

 

[SlotCarWon]

Since it has been sooo cold I worked inside on re-covering the front seat. A friend helped me and I suggest having someone who really knows what they are doing do this work.

Today I did get a few things done at the storage garage before I got too cold. I was able to remove the front seats, the're trashed. But not the back seat, what a pain! I also sorted out the side trim I had and I was happy to find I do have the ten pieces I need. I have the parts from this car, a parts car and some misc. pieces I bought from eBay.

Just before I left I wanted to start it up and it fired immediately and run smooth - gotta love a slant six. Next time I'll install front seat and take it out of the garage for some better pictures.

 

[SlotCarWon]

I apologize, forgot to take pics, I'll take some on Tuesday.

I finally got the rear seat removed so that I can recover it. Once all the seats were out I could really vacuum the carpet and the area under the seats. There was some critter under the rear seat at one time but nothing looks damaged, they just left a few empty shells. With all of the seats out I can see that the floor is really really solid. The rest of the interior was really dirty and dusty, like a car that has sat for ten years, but it does cleans up well. I also removed the rear side panels, one had a piece broken off which I epoxied back together. The other side had a crack which I epoxied on the inside of the crack to keep it from getting bigger. Surprisingly these rear panels had been out before, it was pretty obvious as there was duct tape on the inside to attempt a repair, it didn't work at all.


I also used some Dupli-Color spray paint to see how it would look on one of the rear 1/4 panels... let's just say I still have a lot more sanding to do to get a good finish.

It'll be great when the weather gets decent out and I'll be able to drive it around, at least the interior will be nice even if the finish doesn't look good.

 

[Johnny Dart]

Here is a pic of my 65 Dart rag-top.When I bought it it was in pretty close to the same shape as your car.I bought it to throw my surfboard in and cruise through the canyon and surf.One year I started cleaning it up.Once you start you wont be able to stop.The car is now a winner of a very prestigious car show in Southern Cal.Needless to say the cruises through the canyon with the board dont happen anymore. :sad1:

The sky is the limit with your car.

Have fun.

 

[SlotCarWon]

Awesome Dart! If I can get mine to look half as good I'll be very happy. Thanks for the encouragement, I need some right now, it's winter and the ground is covered with snow, plus I know my car has a lot of needs but it is a solid foundation to make a really cool top-down cruizer and it's a Mopar!
I wanted a convertible so I could take my water ski along with me (otherwise I need a MiniVan or SUV).

 

[Dodgenut64]

Convertibles are awsome. I never ouned one until a few years ago, i bought a 91 labaron convert. It gave me lots of trouble and i decided to get ride of it, because i was tired of dumping money into it. So later down the road i was actually looking for a Sweptline dodge struck, when i got curious and went the the dart section on ebay. I was looking for a dart at all, just was curious. then i saw a gold 64 hardtop up for bid. Had no idea the Early As looked so nice. I then wondered if they made these early as in a convertible, after some research i found that they did indeed. So i found someone who was selling one in my price range that needed to be restored, but had a real solid body so i bought it. i have never driven this car, but i dream of the day/night that im driving it with the top down,wind in my hair, and the radio playing some cruizen tunes.
I was never into convertibles until i drove that labaron, but i just thought it was sooo cool to be cruizen along with that top down. In the past i thought of convertibles as dangerous (no top) but that didnt seem to bother me while in the convert labaron.
Yeah, your cars gonna be cool when your done.

 

[SlotCarWon]

I'll try to post more photos.

Here's the repaired rear side panels. Of course the bottom is cracked on one and the other had a piece broken off. I used super glue to attach the broken piece and some drips ran down the side that is visible. I then used epoxy on the inside of the cracks to keep everything together.

This is the backside of the crack with the epoxy on it, seems to work good:

Here's both sides, I think that the location of these cracks will not be too obvious:

The one on the right had the broken piece re-attached to it and you can see the runs of glue on it. The other on the left has a crack that should be covered by up mostly by the rear seat.

 

[Dodgenut64]

Very cool. Yeah i made a big mistake with my panels....i sold them. The mistake i made was selling them because Laysons said theyd have reproduction ones by "summer of 2004". Well i was so stupid assuming they actually had them without even calling to see if they actually had them, that i sold my other ones. I ordered reproduction ones from them, only to get an email saying theyre not making them yet, and that id be put on "the list". I dont want to talk about laysons right now, they still need to send me six more items that i ordered early last year. My only hope is that in the next few years they will actually make them and maybe itll be just in time for my car to be back on the road.

 

[SlotCarWon]

I'm sorry to hear that you sold your side panels and can't buy replacements. Hopefully you can get some by the time you really need them. I could have easily done the same as you and sold mine, I didn't know that these panels are typically damaged, either cracked and/or broken and I would have sold mine given the chance. But now that I know they are not easy to come by I'm happy that mine are still usable after being repaired.

I know it can be frustrating waiting for some items but I do appreciate the vendors that provide much need support of our A-bodies.

I usually work on my car Tuesday after work but it's supposed to be really cold tomorrow. I'll take some pics if I do go.

 

[SlotCarWon]

I didn't go work on my car tuesday as it was very cold, about 15 degrees F. But it's 50 today and I started it up, got it out of the garage and took some pictures. The car hasn't been out in the sun in a long time. Looks fairly straight to me. A decent paint finsh and this car would look GOOD!

I put some Dupli-color on the rear quater to see how it looks... I got more sanding and prep work to do. Note the '66 Signet silver paint along the bottom, there's trim that covers up the seam between the two colors of paint, this trim can be difficult to get but I've got all ten pieces for it.

The bumper has red paint dust on it so it's not THAT rusty! The trunk lid has some corrosion under the trim on the back edge, I've sanded it, nuetralized the rust and primer it with etching primer. Still needs some sanding and it didn't look too bad when I got the car.

The slant six starts right up and idles nicely.

The trunk is pretty solid and I even have the jack!

I've been putting the trim in the truck, I'm glad these cars have big trunks.

The interior is starting to look good. I have cleaned the door panels three times and each time more of the grim comes off. I don't want to put Armor-All on until I know all of the dirt is gone. But it's starting to look like it should. I need to find some of hte screws that hold the arm rest on.

The floor seem really solid, this can be seen under the drivers seat where the carpet can be pulled back to show a nice looking floor.

The drivers door has this one bubble on it.

This is the right (passenger) side rear wheel well that was repaired, note the silver paint along the bottom, this was only on the '66 Signets and I really like the look with the silver along the bottom.

I'm trying to make sure I've got the right trim peices, I have some extra from a parts car, note the extra center grill piece. I had to get rid of the parts car before I got this one, I would have liked to keep everything from the parts car but selling the parts financed getting this one.

I'll try to get this seats recovered and hopefully be showing a complete and clean interior next week. I might drive this as a "Rat" this summer, I'd be ok with that as long as the interior looks decent.

 

[SlotCarWon]

It was 74 degrees today, that's about 60 degrees warmer than last Tuesday.

Here's pictures of todays progress. It is a huge improvement to have the new seat covers on. The seat foam was good and with a little bit of burlap added they are much more comfortable that the other seats, it doesn't feel like I'm sitting in a hole now. I fastened the rear seat back but not the front seat or rear seat cushion, I need another set of hands to help me line-up the holes on the front seat and I need to clean-up the rear seat belts before I install the rear seat botom. I know everyone likes bucket seats but I do like the vintage appearance of a bench seat, I don't see them anymore and when I was young it seemed like every car had bench seats. I think the '66 Valiant Signet seat pattern is the best looking of the early mopar seats but the pattern is stitched into the covers and it always rips along these seams, even the back seat had a lot of tears and it looked almost unused. I got these new covers in a different pattern because they should be much more durable than original or reproduction covers.

The bad news is that I might be lossing my storage... I hope not, it's starting to get really fun and top down weather is coming.

 

[Dodgenut64]

nice progress. Im gonna be off next week and i think im gonna take out my front suspension. I got an altektion for it and want to remove the old k-member and start cleaning things up.