Need your opinions on this 64 Valiant

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MileHighDart

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Hey guys, I'm checking out this 64 valiant on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151130926900

Just wondered what you guys think of it, and how high should I go on it.
I'm currently the high bidder, and a little over 24 hours left on the auction.
I know value is hard to judge, I don't have a lot of cash right now so hoping it doesn't go much higher. Thinking I'd pay a little more for this one, cause it's local and I wont have to ship it home. Intended use for this car would be just a nice daily driver.
I do have a call into the seller to see if I can go look at it in person.

A little on the car,
64 Valiant 200
/6 out of an 80 dodge
pushbutton 904
2 year old Macco paint job
Ad does say that before they bought it, the car was sitting in a field for a few years.

Your thoughts ?
Hopefully I didn't blow my chances by showing you guys this car, don't want to be bidding against my fabo peeps...lol
 
I think it looks like a nice little car, and for the money it's right now you can't go wrong!! I would venture to guess that it won't go much higher, but it would still be a nice deal at about $3800! Don't know what your budget is, but it looks like a pretty clean little car!! Closer inspection will probably reveal the same!! Good luck getting it, I hope you do!! Geof
 
i wouldn't go to 4k without seeing it in person..

sitting in a field. gotta wonder what the floors and trunk look like. have to wonder what is under the cheap *** paint job. seats are not re don in the correct signet 200 design.


The car was painted 2 1/2 years at Maaco. It is a good 20 foot paint job.
Click to expand...

this would scare me most...

guess it all depends what you want the car for.. daily driver or more of a shoiw type of car..
 
Just looking at it for a driver. I've already fixed up my dart to the point that I'm afraid to drive it and park it anywhere ... this would be something cool to drive more often and not worry about it so much

And I wont go over 4K for the valiant, hope to get it for less than that.

Hopefully they'll let me come down and look it over.
 
Wondering if they used that crank adapter for a late motor to early converter that Charrlie_S sells?
 
I was wondering about that, I thought there was some adapter needed to mate a later model /6 to the early pushbutton trans. But I have no experience with that swap.
 
OK, well I drove down to Littleton this morning to have a closer look at the valiant.

It's not horrible, but its not nearly as nice as it looks in the pictures.
It truly is a Macco paint job. Meaning the owners didn't do any prep, all macco did was sand off the surface rust from the hood, and roof, maybe sanded the rest of the car just enough to rough it up, and then they sprayed it.

It's a 20 footer, it looks nice from across the street, but up close there are many chips, scratches, dings and sanding marks in the old paint, that Macco just painted right over. It's far from a nice paint job.
Now that in itself is not the end of the world. I'm looking for a cool car to drive and not worry to much if it gets a door ding or a scratch, so in that sense its the perfect combo of cool car, but not so nice that you cant drive it.

The car does fire right up and runs good, no smoke. Not a lot of power, but that's to be expected with a /6 car.
But this is a car that runs really well, and the current owners are not afraid to drive it anywhere. In fact the reason I couldn't look at it yesterday is because they were driving back from a car show in Goodland Kansas. They have had the car to that and many other car shows several times.
I drove the car, drives pretty good, could maybe use a front end rebuild, a steering box adjustment, and a good alignment. And the 9"drum brakes are a little scary.
A disk upgrade would be the first thing on the list.
Interior is decent, redone front seats and repaired back seat. They look nice and are comfortable enough. Radio is the only thing that doesn't work.

Here's the bad part, both rear quarters, behind the wheels were rusted through, just right at the bottom. Macco, put in some wire mesh and filled it with bondo.
Not a bad looking job, you cant really notice it, but you have to figure that its going to rust through again, its just a matter of time.

In conclusion, I'd be happy enough with the car, given the intended use of daily, or almost daily driver, and not going to make a show car out of it.

But my current high bid of $3550, is as high as I'll go. I've had the high bid for almost 3 days, and if I don't get out bid at the last minute, I'll be the cars new owner.
If someone bumps it to $3600, they can have it.
 
Just remember when it comes to putting another paint job on it, it will take just as much as you bought it for to redo it as it must be stripped...

And after reading your experience upon visiting the vehicle, you'll probably have a good 4 times the cost by the time you're happy...
 
Hotlines, You may be right, but if another bidder doesn't jump on the band wagon in the next two hours, I own it.

Probably should have gone to get a better look before I started bidding. But I really didn't think the bidding would stall at $3550 for 3 days.

We'll know in a couple hours.
 
Wow! That thing looks incredible in the pics!! Too bad it doesn't look that nice up close! Good luck with the buy!
 
Well, I just got outbid by $50 bucks and I think I'm just gonna let it go. Really been trying to find a 66 anyway.
 
Glad you had a chance to look it over. The rust is a big red flag for me. You can get floorboards and interior trunk sheet metal in repo. I'm not so sure about the lower fender edges. Since that is a MAACO paint job, there's not much of a chance of matching the color after the fenders are fixed.

Otherwise, it's a nice looking car. Good luck if you're the high bid, and good luck to the other guy. At least he didn't have the smarts to consult FABO. He'll need all the luck he can get. :glasses7:
 
The auction just ended, someone ended up paying $4050 for it. Hope they aren't too disappointed when they see it up close.

Anyway, the search continues
 
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