Starting as far back as I can remeber, my dad's parents (Grandpa and Grandma) had a beautiful 1948 Packard, straight 8. My mom's folks (Nana and Papa) had a Desoto. Papa was a salesman for Salt Lake City Hardware, and he had the whole state of Nevada as his territory. I remember going with him on a couple of trips, always a fishing pole and 12 Ga. shotgun in the trunk and a pistol under his seat. I remember going with my dad when he bought a used '52 Plymouth. Over the years he had a '64 Valiant, a couple of ramblers, and bought a '66 Plymouth Belvedere Wagon off the showroom floor. He bought me a '57 Ford 4 door for my first car when I turned 16 (I had to pay for the insurance, of course). What my dad didn't know was when I was 15 I bought a '56 Dodge with a little hemi in it for $10.00 from a friend that couldn't get it to run (Vacuum leak, easy deal).
After about a year with the '57 ford and converting it to a stick, I found another '57 ford 2 dr. post. I built up the 312 and put a Paxton on it with a top loader 4 speed. That didnt' last too long.
When I got out of the Navy in 1970, I went back to work for the phone company and bought a cherry 1967 Plymouth Belvedere 1 2 door post with a 273/904. It didn't take long to start building it up. At one time I had the Belvedere, a '67 Baracuda fastback, and a '63 Valiant 2 door post for street racing. It went 12.80 at Riverside with a redone 273/4 speed.
Since then I've had several Valiants, Darts, Dusters, another Baracuda, and a Cordoba. My '65 Valiant got T-boned by a '67 Mustang when my daughter was driving it in high school (I got it for her from my dad for $1.00), so I found my current '66 Valiant 2 door post shell for $500.00 up in Auburn, CA. I had it completely upholstered after I found some bitchen bucket seats for it, stuffed the 273 in it from the '65, had it painted and turned it over to my daughter. That lasted about two years. After sever scrapes and a minor fender bender, I took it back from her and bought her a little Ranger pickup. The Valiant has set in the garage at my other house for about 12 years. My youngest son talked me into dragging it out of retirement earlier this year. I've been driving it every since. Right now the heater box is on my workbench getting rebuilt.
The Valiant has the 273 from the '65 T-boned Valiant in it, which I rebuilt for my dad in 1985. It has a 904 with a Transgo ll kit in it, 8.75 with 3.23 Sure Grip and KH disc's up front. I don't know how to post pictures, but Leanna has a couple maybe she'll post some for me.
Anyway, I've always like the A bodies. I even worked for Chrysler and they sent me to some classes around 1972 or 1973 or so. I also worked for a while at Keith Black Racing Engines. My oldest son lives in New Mexico and is a mechanic and is looking at a '67 Baracuda he wants to buy, and my youngest son has been building the motors for Gary Densham's funny car for about 8 years or so now. Guess I kept the Mopar blood in the family.
This turned into a damn book, didn't mean to do that, sorrry. I didn't even cover all the bases.
Russ.