Two A-body prospects: help me choose one

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drpreposterous

drpreposterous

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Hey, guys! Still looking to heal the wound I got from unloading my '64 Dart GT last year.

Possibility 1

'64 Valiant four-door. 273 V-8 with mild cam, 4 bbl, aluminum intake, dual exhaust. Tiny amount of wheel well rust. Underneath is clean as are floors. Pinholes in trunk. Interior needs a little work: I have in mind putting in Scat Procar 1300 series and some aftermarket four-point harnesses or shoulder belts (would need to fab a mounts for the latter).

Already has electronic ignition/distributor and disc brakes/dual mc from a 70s Mopar. Also has electric choke and also an electric fan and aluminum shroud on the radiator. 14" steel wheels from a '76 Dart Sport.

Possiblity 2

'64 Dart 270 sedan. Rebuilt torqueflite. New brake lines, master cyl, fuel pump, lifters, and rebuilt carb. Flawless original seats still under plastic. New carpet, tires. Working original dealer installed AC.
Priced $1K less than no. 1 above, but no disc brakes or elec. ignition/distributor. I'd wanna add four-point harness or shoulder belts, plus the disc brake/dual MC conversion and elec. ignition.

I have about $3K in build money for after the purchase. What are your thoughts?
 
Witch body style,do you like better? You have to live with it.Seems,you have modifications already in mind on number one.Number one ,then.
 
Sorry! I lost part of my description cause of a bad copy/paste. Both are four-door sedans. The second one has a 225 Slant six. I slightly prefer Dart styling, but the Valiant has some hard work already done.
 
drpreposterous said:
Sorry! I lost part of my description cause of a bad copy/paste. Both are four-door sedans. The second one has a 225 Slant six. I slightly prefer Dart styling, but the Valiant has some hard work already done.
Click to expand...

if it must be a 4 door , then it must be a V8 IMO

but you are the only one that can really decide what you want
 
Thanks for your input! I guess I was really trying to find out whether you thought a nearly clean Valiant with mods done (mostly disc brakes and ignition), but needs seats and belts is better or worse than a pristine, no-rust Dart that needs all of those mods but is $1K less.
 
If it had to be one of the 4 doors I say the 2nd one and later you will be money up front after making it what you want. Just remember before you get into it even when it is done it will probably only bring 3 to 4 grand being a 4 door early A body.
 
If you are going to convert the Dart to a V8 car (or prefer a V8.) , you would be better off to go with the Valiant. The expense for the V8 conversion is worth it.

If you will keep the Dart as a /6, I would go with the Dart.

Any pics?
 
Go with the dart. The price for interior will kill you. Swapping to a v8 is much cheaper than interior.
 
All good grist...

From what I'm hearing from you, the Dart's better body and pristine interior make it a sounder buy than the Valiant (which already has the disc brakes, electronic ignition but needs some body and a lot of interior work).

Think that makes it academic. Thanx!
 
No such thing as "a tiny amount of rust".......not by the time you get rid of all of it.....
 
Paint and body work is the killer of most projects. Buy the best body you can. The rest of the parts are just nuts and bolts. I have seen soo many people buy a particular car because it already has a big block, or big brakes or whatever the eye candy, just to dump 3x what it would of cost them to just buy a straigh body and add the rest themselves. As for rust, if htere are just "pinholes" then your looking at replacing 2-4" of metal around that area. Plus if its in the frame rails, then your talking way more time and money.
 
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