(first posted 2/24/2013) I know there are some serious Valiant (and Dart) lovers here who can probably spout endless factoids about this car. Have at it, boys – let the comments be a veritable symposium of Mopar memories. I’ll watch from the sidelines, for I’m not one of the A-body cognoscenti. All I know is that when I came upon this example with an abysmal paint job but many of its chrome bits intact, I managed to recognize it as a ’68. I can’t recall the last time I saw a Valiant on the road, but I’m positive I haven’t seen one from before 1970 for two, maybe three, decades. Salted midwestern winter roads are not kind to such cars.
Chrysler’s A body has been a popular topic here at Curbside Classic. We’ve shared third-gen Valiants many times before, including this ’71 and this ’76. We’ve also briefly discussed the ’68 Valiant Signet here.
This Valiant is a Two Hundred, which offers a little nicer trim over the entry-level 100 but isn’t as luxurious as the top-line Signet. And yes, it’s Two Hundred and 100; that’s how the cars were badged.
This car’s enigmatic cosmetic condition left me scratching my head. “Charcoal Death” couldn’t have been a factory color. And aren’t those wheel covers from a later model year? The high bodyside trim strip that was unique to the Two Hundred is missing (see the clips?), but the front corner Valiant Two Hundred badges, the fender-mounted turn-signal indicators, and the entire grille are still here. Maybe the owner is slowly restoring his Valiant while it provides him daily transportation.
The interior is rough, especially the dashboard cover. (I’m still figuring out how to get decent interior shots with my iPhone. With my normal digital camera I can stick the lens barrel right up to the glass, which cuts way back on glare.)
After Chrysler learned its lesson from the oddly styled first-generation Valiant (CC here), subsequent Valiant styling defined conventionality. Is there any doubt what look Chrysler was going for here? It’s so upright, so crisp, so cribbed directly from the contemporary Mercedes sedan (at least in the greenhouse).
I like to imagine what kind of person owns each Curbside Classic I find. I’m guessing this one is driven by a twentysomething proto-hipster (we don’t have real hipsters in Indiana). What do you think?
Haven’t seen a Valiant for a while. On the other hand, yesterday, I happened to play a few holes of golf in 42 deg weather. Chilled to the bone, I was driving home, and low and behold, three guys in a old Reliant K car were tailgating me. It was an early model, with the single square headlights. The car must have been in better shape than it looked. The driver seemed to keep up with me with no problem.
I must have reached breakneck speeds exceeding 50 mph on the old two lane. (The road is posted 45, and is patrolled.)
These are what my Dad called honest cars,the workaday sedans with 6s and small block 2 barrel engines let’s see some more please.
I like this Valiant a lot. Gem Whitman is right, these are as honest as the day is long.
Your theory about the twenty-something owner is quite logical given the dinosaur sticker and the skeleton hanging from the rear view mirror; going a step further, from looking at the well aged NAPA bumper sticker, who owned it previously? Whoever gave this Valiant the rattle-can makeover did an decent job, as they avoided (most of?) the badges and chrome.
“Matte is the new Black.”
Since I seem to be on a car association thing lately – looking at this car who can forget the movie THE DUEL with Dennis Weaver. It was Steven Spielberg’s first feature movie and the premise of the movie was so simply it was genre-defining (as were so many of his movies).
Great film,I thought a Valiant would outrun a truck though.
The Valiant was hobbled because Dennis didn’t believe the old gas station attendant who told him a hose was about to blow. “Yeah, where have I heard that before?” was his response. I got a kick out of Lucille Benson as the snake lady.
What’s the difference between a “real” hipster and a “proto-hipster?” Do you have to live someplace like Eugene or Williamsburg, Brooklyn to be a true hipster?
Or is it because this person owns a car and not a fixie bicycle that the can never be a full-blown hipster?
With that rattle can paint job, maybe the owner’s more of a proto Murliee Martin?
It was really more a commentary on conservative Indiana and how the trends, when they do finally arrive, don’t happen with the full zest found in other parts of the country!
Pretty spot-on, too.
Which leads to my favorite Hipster joke:
How did the hipster burn his tongue?
He drank coffee before it was cool.
I am of course bucking the trend ,but I like the first gen Valiant styling better.
I like all models of the 67-76 vintage A-bodies although I am partial to the notchback coupes the most, especially if they look like this:
http://www.seriouswheels.com/1970-1979/1973-Dodge-Dart-Swinger.htm
Of course I am partial to GM (can’t bite the gift horse that feeds you…) but I like these light muscle cars in basic car trim. I am not old enough to have grown up under the glow of the whole late 60s muscle car boom so Challengers, GTOs, Bullitt Mustangs do less for me.
The Plymouth Scamp and Dart Swinger and all Dart sedans were on the longer 111 inch wb. This Valiant was the shorter 108 inch wb. This version of the sedan body went away after 1973, and all 74-76 Valiant sedans were on the longer Dart body. I believe that the 2 door post sedan bit the dust after 1969, replaced by the Duster. The Duster/Demon/Dart Sport kept the shorter 108 inch wb alive through the end.
Yea the rounded Dusters/Demons do not really do anything for me although I acknowledge their seminal value in Chrysler history. I especially like the concave rear window glass on the notchback coupes as well as the general basic-ness of the design.
While the 340 and 360 were available in the A-bodies at different times, even a non-smog choked 318 tuned right with power steering and power disc brakes makes for a really fun vehicle that is considerably cheaper than the E-cars.
One of my college roommate’s 3 Dusters was a brown 73 Gold Duster with a 318 and a 3 speed floor shift. That thing was quite fast for the time, when it would start. There was some carb problem – if you could get the engine to catch on that first burst of flame in the cylinders, you were fine. If it coughed and died, you had to either come back in an hour or grab the starting fluid. The LA 318 was very underrated as a performance motor.
A Dart in my neighborhood
The first gen styling has grown on me. A friend had the Dodge Lancer version in high school and I hated it then. Earl Scheib Metallic purple with a red interior is not a very attractive combo and black primer was not “hip” around 1970. As with the Corvair, the ultra-conservative Falcon not only outsold them both, but probably cost a lot less to build. Even putting quad headlights on a compact was an unnecessary expense, but made the cars look better. Six window sedans also look more premium, but costly to build. The decklid “toilet seat” is a feature the could have saved a few bucks on and would not have been missed.
These boxy third gen A-bodes strongly reflect Elwood Engle influence. My favorite A-body is the first generation Dart, but not the companion Valiant. At least they were distinct from each other that one time.
The toilet seat thing I am sure came from its popularity with the New Yorkers and Imperials. Many dealers did a brisk business selling lids for cars to retrofit them. So they probably cribbed the design and thought they could sell a few downmarket.
Perhaps you are talking about the third-generation Dart that was from 1963-1966? The ones with the prominent round headlight front ends? The very first Darts were actually full size models then aquired their compact status in 1963.
Yes. 63-66, but I did say A-body. Im aware of the ealier Dart. This was marketing confusion. Lancer name was recycled from the 1950’s big Dodge first, then using the Dart name of the 60-61 not-quite-as-big-as-a- Polara for a compact car later.
I’m sure our hipster has never seen Duel, but he knows how tough these cars can be. Spielberg used the basic idea of Duel in the move Jaws, with the shark in pursuit of the fishing boat.
My interest in cars was just budding when this movie came out, I did learn an important lesson watching this, though, don’t let your car overheat!!!
That and…get the bigger engine option!
From what I understand there were two different cars used in making Duel. One was Slant six equipped and the other was a 318.
I would like to think that most hipster film buffs have at least a passing aquaintance with “Duel.”
It is sort of a textbook example of a well-done low-budget film that is often considered one of the best TV movies ever made. It won several film awards and has been referenced numerous times in other films and TV shows, in books, in music and in computer games.
As someone who could not afford anything better and thus lived with (and around) multiple versions of these in the late 70s-early 80s, I guess I am among the cognoscenti. Cool.
Yes, the wheelcovers are for a later version. Those hit the wheels with the 72 models and stayed there through the final 76 models. I will echo Jim, these early A bodies are very rare around here. My experience was that the anchor point where the torsion bars attached to the body would rust, and eventually let go of the torsion bar, sending one front corner dropping to rest on the rubber suspension stop. Most of the time, the rest of the car was rusted as hell anyway, and while the issue was fixable, the fix wasn’t cheap or easy, and the car was fairly worthless anyway. I don’t know this to be true, but have always suspected that the later models were a bit better against the rust.
I never much liked the split grille on the 67 and 68. I thought that the 1969 was the sweet spot for these early models. My mother had a good friend with a 69 Valiant 100. She claimed that the only options were the 225 cid engine and backup lights. I always harbored ideas of buying the car from her, but by the time it was 10 years old, it was rusted everywhere and one of the torsion bar mounts gave way. The car had maybe 45K miles on it. In Eugene, it would probably still be on the road.
This car almost looks too straight and rust free to have undergone the BarBQ Black spray can treatment. Oh well, at least it is still on the road. slowly forming one more member of the A body illuminati.
Well, now I finally know what did these otherwise hardy cars in.
My family purchased a new 1971 Plymouth Scamp that was delivered with these wheel covers. I have photos of it somewhere when it was new. It still had them when it was handed down to me in 1986, but they went missing soon afterwards. Apparently the three previous drivers hadn’t been much into high speed cornering, as I’d have needed the crew from ‘Bullet’ to keep up with replacing them at the rate they flew off.
Interesting. Mine had the 1971-only flying saucer wheelcovers as shown in the brochure. Perhaps these made it onto some late 1971 cars, or a dealer swapped them for the dogdish hubcaps while the car was still on the lot. They certainly would have made your car look like a new 72. 🙂
After losing my original set, I got a set of those flying saucers off a friend’s ’71 Duster. I lost them too. The car spent its last months in our fleet without wheel covers. I’d have loved to have dog dish hubcaps, as I think they’d have been less prone to fly off in corners. I’m pretty sure all Scamps had full wheel covers originally though, as they were relatively fancy Valiants.
The newer wheel covers may be due to an upgrade from original 13″ wheels to 14″.
I did the same on my 1968 Signet…a loaded one, power steering and brakes, air conditioning…four door, with the formal “little limo” look.
The best spotting feature for 1968 was the round side marker lights.
Cribbed from a Mercedes? Really? Cause no one in America could ever design an upright roof…….
I can look at these without thinking about Dennis Weavers red 1970-71 Valiant in Duel.
Gee, are you sure that isn’t actually a Volare? 🙂
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
+1!
Haha, well played!
It’s obviously mis-badged.
+2, JPT and I can at least agree on this! 🙂
The irony of the 1967-76 Valiant is that it turned out to be one of Chrysler’s most successful cars of that era yet wasn’t taken very seriously at first.
The 1967 Valiant lost three body styles: wagon, hardtop and convertible. That pretty much explains why production dropped from almost 140,000 in 1966 to 110,000 in 1967. The convertible and hardtop were switched over to the Barracuda, which saw production jump from roughly 38,000 in 1966 to 62,000 in 1967. Alas, Barracuda sales drifted downward thereafter.
The Dart, in contrast, kept its hardtop and convertible. Production also fell in 1967, but less drastically (from 176,000 to 154,000). Then for 1968-69 Dart sales passed the Valiant/Barracuda — production almost reached 200,000 in 1969.
Meanwhile, when GM restyled the Chevy II for 1968 it also dumped the wagon, hardtop and convertible. However, instead of offering only a two-door sedan like the Valiant, Chevrolet came up with a distinctive two-door coupe. The inspiration for the 1970 Valiant Duster? Quite possibly, because the Chevy II’s 1968 production more than doubled to roughly 200,000.
My fishing buddy in university had a Valiant that looked exactly the same as this one. It had about 1.46 bazillion km on it before he got it for the princely sum of $75. It was a classic, “check the gas and fill it up with oil,” kind of car. I used to collect the oil I had drained out of my Jetta and VF500F in a 10 L gerry-can and use it to top up the Valiant.
One evening why coming back from the lake, we forgot to top it up (why I can’t say here as it is NOT PC). About half way home the oil light came on but it was so hot by this point that I knew turning it off would mean it never starting again.
I got it to our shop and when I shut it off there was a big ball of smoke and steam and yes, it never ran again. We got a whole summer off the fishmobile!
These things were all over Canada when I was a kid, very popular, because they were, in my opinion, the best buy of the era.
I really liked this generation of Valiant, out west they survived longer.
Never had one but our family had a 74 Dart Sport for a couple of years with the 318 V8. White vinyl over Red. Served us well until we got into a real family car. I would have kept it but the rear quarter panels were getting bad and there was rust here and there up front.
Pity poor Chrysler. Even when they had the most anvil solid, bread-and-butter, point A to point B car of the sixties, it was on the low end of the market with lower profit margins, never getting Chrysler above also-ran status of the Big 3.
Indeed, the sixties Valiant with a /6 and TorqueFlite was good enough to be mentioned in the same regard as the Model T and VW Beetle. The only thing that gets in the way of reaching such iconic status are the early and late model year Valiants. The original was too Exner ‘Forward Look’ in its styling, and the last years were strangled by all the emissions equipment.
But those late sixties/early seventies Valiants were the Toyota sedans of their day.
Duel always made me laugh you see we got Valiants here and slow they arent especially in 71 with the new 245cube hemi 6, get caught by an old Peterbuilt not in a million years, Spielberg lives up to his name an improbable liar. This car in best bogan black is wierd looking to me 67/68 brought the VE to the market here and they were very different in style and no 170 puddle jumpers here 225 or V8 only.
Well The Duel was not really a car chase movie but rather a fear/suspense movie. its hard to make accurate comparisons of cars in secondary markets especially from years ago because these cars were designed for the US market and then adapted to the secondary market and sometimes it did not go so well.
The adaptation consisted of fitting 14inch wheels only, Valiants were a popular car here and unlike the brittle Falcon stood up to the conditions here and in Australia very well, My problem with spielberg is the complete unreality of thinking a Peterbilt can run down a 100mph capable sedan like most suspense films very poorly thought out and directed.
That movie wasn’t about the capability of the vehicles, it was about the capability and nerve of David Mann and the truck driver. The truck driver was willing to push his rig to the ragged edge and Mann was clearly uncomfortable with driving fast. There was even a dialogue in it(though it might have been omitted in the 90 minute version) where he knew that if he did get ahead he’d just back off to 55 out of habbit, or something like that.
And that movie was a made for TV movie on a shoestring budget. Give it a break!
And sharks dont normally attack fishing boats, its a movie, suspend reality for a little while and enjoy it.
Poorly directed?…yeah, the Spielberg guy went nowhere….
Apparently you do not understand the movie Duel or never watched the whole thing!
Never drove an Aussie Valiant but I slept in a 66 Valiant Regal wagon a few times in 1979.Quite a few made it to the UK in the late 60s/early 70s.I’ve memories of being in a RHD Valiant in the 60s which must surely be an Aussie version.
Aussie Valiants were exported to the UK.
Spielberg addressed that, the car was overheating and running with a possibly blown gasket. That is not implausible, and certainly doesn’t make him a “liar”.
That looks Rat Rod-ish but I doubt that’s what the owner intends. Would make an interesting example of the genre though.
Yes indeed, the Toyota of the sixties.
I owned about 30 of these over the years, mostly 63-66. I am partial to the original Valiant style. But they rusted much quicker than the 63 and later.
I’ve got just one left.
A V200 ’64 parked in my side yard.
Next year it will be 50. I’m going to have a party.
Yup, rusty, poor handling, soft riding sedans going slowly and holding up traffic everywhere. Sounds just like most current Toyota drivers today.
Every time I see one of these cars I’m reminded of my red 1969 Signet coupe, which was a factory 318 4-speed car. It was not slow, and I surprised quite a few people with it. I sold it to a collector in Wausau, Wisconsin, where I’m sure it’s found a home in which he won’t ever have to worry about the suspension rusting apart.
What Boomer doesn’t have a Valiant or Dart story…… Mine was a ’68 Signet with the 225 and Torqueflight, B5 Blue with Navy Blue Top (non-vinyl).
The body was good but the interior was ratty – went to the nearest junkyard and ripped the interior out of a ’73 Duster and fitted it over the seat frames, didn’t fit perfectly but it was good enough.
It had over 150K and ran perfectly, well I think one of the cylinders was dead, but that didn’t seem to matter.
With a set of $10 used snow tires on the back it got me through the Blizzard of ’78 when other newer cars were snow-locked.
I still admire and respect that car……..
I had a 1968 4-door, blue with white vinyl top and air conditioned, 318 cubic inches, 8 cylinders, tintes windows and very comfortable, with the feeling of a bigger, heavier car. I can’t compare it with that of the 1972 Dart, I think that 8 cylinders make the difference.
I had the “sport” version, a Barracuda, just like this, but with a white interior, around 1973
Barracudas of 67/69 look great but are overlooked in favour of E bodies.Why?Can’t remember when i last saw a 67/69 in a magazine.
In many ways you could call this the greatest US car of all time the same way the Model T or Beetle like others mentioned.
I used to picture the ’67-70 Valiants in white with a bar code on the door. 🙂 C-A-R, plane and simple, with quality…respectable.
I sooner drive push it’s brocken, ratty carcaas than drive anything modern. It needs dog dishes though, or plain black steelies. Always hated those hub caps.
The things that make this great will never be seen again.
Like for instance…you can WORK ON IT!!!
I have 3 at my house. a 68-4 door, a 69-4 door, and a 69-2 door. one 68 and 69 are my daily driver, and thats by choice. they get about 20 mpg to boot, and its great driving a car that you dont see another on the road for a year at a time. mine cost me 50 bucks a month to own. (40 bucks for insurance and 10 for registration)
here are 2 of them
I have a 68 4door made it look like a ratrod has the original green paint. 225 slant six
I have a wonderful daily driver. She is a 67 Valiant Signet with the original green blue paint. I have had it for over 5 years and love her.
Man these cars are so cool, i was thinking of getting one to drift/race around my local mountains (socal has a few) just to piss off those 240 and Corolla kids, ive always had a soft spot for square body cars like these MOPAR OR NO CAR
I’ve always preferred the 1967 through 1972 Plymouth Valiant over anything before it or after it.
I love 3rd Gen Valiants and indeed they were the Civorollas of the 60s and 70s. My Dad had a blue 68 sedan when I was little, my Aunt and Uncle had a 73 and 74 sedan at the same time and at any given time there would be a half dozen (or more) Darts and Valiants in any shopping center or grocery store parking lot.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned was that many Valiants went on to subsequent owners to live second lives as street/strip cars and can still be found at racetracks and car shows all over the country. Thanks to their light weight, the fact that they were all post cars, and they were smaller than Darts, they became the ideal candidate for the strip. Factory 318 Valiants were already pretty quick cars; a 340 swap made a Valiant a serious competitor and a big block swap made them downright brutal and almost impossible to drive on the street. Guys didn’t buy them to look cool cruising, they bought them to be serious race cars.
Several years ago, I restored and hot rodded a 68 Valiant with a mild 360 from a 90s truck, TorqueFlight, 8 3/4 rear end and disc brakes and hurt a lot of late model Mustang owners’ feelings. That was one of the most fun cars I have ever had and I miss it.
An update-I wound up buying it back about 6 months ago!
Actually, your “male hipster” turns out to be me; a 24-year-old (at the time) female. I bought this car for $1,300 off of a guy on craigslist. It was my first true purchase and I think I did a pretty great job. It had the original motor and lasted me years. I drove it all the way from Indiana to New Orleans and back without batting an eyelash. It was my daily driver and only vehicle for years. I wasn’t a fan of the dark blue it was and didn’t have any money left so I sprayed it while being very mindful of the chrome. It was later then vandalized by some jack ass so I had to cover the content up, hence, the mismatched blacks. Before that, though, it looked better. The dinosaur sticker is awesome. This car was my life even though it wasn’t pretty. I love it. Still have it sitting around.
I am delighted you found this article and I wish I had seen your comment when you wrote it a couple years ago! After I published this I saw you driving your Valiant down some street here in town so I knew I’d guessed wrong about the pro-hipster! I’m happy to know that your Valiant still lives. And the dinosaur sticker was the crowning touch.
BTW, I was in the neighborhood because I was having my 1973 Schwinn Collegiate 5-speed bicycle mechanically restored at the bike shop near where you were parked this day.
Oh! And your truck is lovely! I recognize that intersection. I’m over there from time to time as the nearby Meijer is the closest one to my house.
Also, this is what I decided to invest $$$ in:
This is my new neighborhood! There’s some interesting old cars hiding in the woodwork in Broad Ripple. Off the top of my head in my immediate vicinity there’s an old flatnose Econoline, and a an early-50s Chevy pickup in non-restored condition. Our climate and Midwestern-sensibility precludes quite the density of cool old stuff like Paul’s bungalow-‘hood, but there’s a bit of the same vibe as far as overall neighborhood aesthetics go.
It is a pretty reasonable hunting ground., I found a 1961 Ford Falcon there just this past Saturday! This was on a street north and west of Binkley’s bar.
Jim a few years back I passed up an opportunity to buy an unrestored ’63 Chevy II in daily driver condition (older respray, not rotten) for $3500 near Herron Morton, you would have had another cool car to photograph in Broad Ripple! Sadly I don’t have the space to garage such a magnificent beast, and I’d feel bad just letting it rot outside in the elements all of the time.
It doesn’t look much different from the 1972 Valiant that I had in the mid-80’s. Yellow-beige exterior with green vinyl interior, Slant Six, Torqueflite, power steering and (very) manual drum brakes. It had a 150,000-plus miles on it. Very reliable and never stranded me, but did have issues with hot starting. The brakes gave new meaning to the term “panic stop”!
One for sale here in Austria but it’s on the other side of the country and I’m scheduled for an op next week. And it’s 4sp with a 273 which may indicate an original import from the Swiss assembly plant. Hmmm.
I still cannot get past how the front of the 67-68 Valiant looked like a copy of the back of the 66 Fury.
The automotive equivalent to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Not too big, not too small, but just right. I had a 70 and a 72 Valiant and a 73 Duster. I still miss them.
I will always miss my 74 Dart Sport…
My buddy has a 75 Dart Sport with a 340 for drag racing, but it has not been driven for a few years due to medical issues (him not the car).
My 69
Beautiful 68′. For sale? Thanks, Tim Gilbreath