jtolbert
Well-Known Member
Hello FABO! I found your site through some Googling after having some questions about the project I acquired last summer. I purchased a '67 Plymouth Valiant Signet 2dr from Arizona and had it shipped to Illinois...Only to find it vandalized in the cheap storage I had the car in before buying my house...Yes, I bought a car and then bought a house with a garage to work on the car in.
I'm an IT goon for a Federal research location. I've been in to cars as long as I can remember and my father steered me right (towards MOPARs). I've always had a soft spot for the a-bodies in particular...I was originally looking for a '67 Barracuda notchback, but I ended up with the '67 Valiant.
The car itself led a rough life before I got it. It was originally a very high-option car but nothing original is left. It's a Signet, a/c car, original 273 car, disc brakes, vinyl top...The only real "missing" option is it's a manual instead of an auto, but I prefer it that way. The car is mostly rust free, but there's some rot behind the right rear wheel and the front floor pans are shot. There's also a tear in the firewall above the left-side valve cover and the panel gaps are bigger on the left side, so I think it was beat on pretty severely at some point. It doesn't look to have ever been hit. Someone really bubba'd the car up pretty badly...There's a metal monstrosity screwed on to the transmission hump to mount the auto shifter and the front carpet was held in with wood screws. The car has a 318/904 in it now, but that will all get tossed.
When I got the car it had most of the hard-to-find exterior parts, including good trim and such, but the vandals decided to break all the glass, grills, headlights/tail lights, grill surrounds, grill emblem, smash the decklid, bash up some of the window trim, put a dent in the cowl, put a small dent in the roof, smash up the trunk trim, bash up the hood---no big loss, as it came with one of the ugliest hood scoops known to man---and rip up some stuff inside the car. Luckily, the car had a '70s-custom interior that was gonna get pitched anyway. I managed to find a bunch of parts to get the car back to where it was and a bit nicer (hood, decklid, doors, glass, '68-style window trim, '68 Signet interior panels since I like them better than the '67s, grills, grill extensions, grill surround, center emblem, etc.) but I still have a long road ahead of me.
Currently I'm starting to tear the car down. I have the seats, seatbelt hardware, carpet and (later, automatic) column out. I'm taking stock as I go, and so far the car's gonna need a ton of stuff. Next up is the dash.
My goal is to build a nice, fun driver that looks good and goes fast. Handling decently would be nice, too. I'm not looking to build a world-beater, just something I can drive and enjoy.
If anyone wants to see pics of the car before it was vandalized, I have some. Don't laugh too hard, please. I don't have any post-vandalization pics cause for a long time I didn't even want to look at the car...But I decided to stick with it instead of sending it on to a new home or the junkyard.
I'm an IT goon for a Federal research location. I've been in to cars as long as I can remember and my father steered me right (towards MOPARs). I've always had a soft spot for the a-bodies in particular...I was originally looking for a '67 Barracuda notchback, but I ended up with the '67 Valiant.
The car itself led a rough life before I got it. It was originally a very high-option car but nothing original is left. It's a Signet, a/c car, original 273 car, disc brakes, vinyl top...The only real "missing" option is it's a manual instead of an auto, but I prefer it that way. The car is mostly rust free, but there's some rot behind the right rear wheel and the front floor pans are shot. There's also a tear in the firewall above the left-side valve cover and the panel gaps are bigger on the left side, so I think it was beat on pretty severely at some point. It doesn't look to have ever been hit. Someone really bubba'd the car up pretty badly...There's a metal monstrosity screwed on to the transmission hump to mount the auto shifter and the front carpet was held in with wood screws. The car has a 318/904 in it now, but that will all get tossed.
When I got the car it had most of the hard-to-find exterior parts, including good trim and such, but the vandals decided to break all the glass, grills, headlights/tail lights, grill surrounds, grill emblem, smash the decklid, bash up some of the window trim, put a dent in the cowl, put a small dent in the roof, smash up the trunk trim, bash up the hood---no big loss, as it came with one of the ugliest hood scoops known to man---and rip up some stuff inside the car. Luckily, the car had a '70s-custom interior that was gonna get pitched anyway. I managed to find a bunch of parts to get the car back to where it was and a bit nicer (hood, decklid, doors, glass, '68-style window trim, '68 Signet interior panels since I like them better than the '67s, grills, grill extensions, grill surround, center emblem, etc.) but I still have a long road ahead of me.
Currently I'm starting to tear the car down. I have the seats, seatbelt hardware, carpet and (later, automatic) column out. I'm taking stock as I go, and so far the car's gonna need a ton of stuff. Next up is the dash.
My goal is to build a nice, fun driver that looks good and goes fast. Handling decently would be nice, too. I'm not looking to build a world-beater, just something I can drive and enjoy.
If anyone wants to see pics of the car before it was vandalized, I have some. Don't laugh too hard, please. I don't have any post-vandalization pics cause for a long time I didn't even want to look at the car...But I decided to stick with it instead of sending it on to a new home or the junkyard.
