While the 1960-62 Valiant was (and is) controversial because of its styling, almost everybody agrees that the bones underneath were beyond reproach. Therefore, when the squared-off 1963 model showed up, there were plenty of people who thought that the Valiant was exactly what they wanted in the first place. Sales surged from 157,294 in 1962 to 225,156 in 1963, and plenty of them were similar to this basic Medium Brown Metallic V-200 Sedan (with only 53,815 miles!), which is for sale on Hagerty Marketplace in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.
One of the reasons why people then and now like the idea of a Valiant as basic transportation was its engine lineup. Although the new “LA” 273 V8 would show up during the 1964 model year, the 1963 Valiant buyer could choose one of two Slant Sixes: 170 and 225 cubic inches. The standard 170 made 101 horsepower, but the “big car” 225 was ordered in this V-200, and its one-inch-longer stroke increased its punch to 145 horsepower. Few Valiants today will have an engine compartment this tidy, and the Hagerty ad mentions that the following maintenance has been done:
Service under current ownership is reported to have included rebuilding the carburetor and replacing the battery, tires, radiator, water pump, heater core, thermostat, brake master cylinder, spark plugs, ignition wires, and starter.
The 225 is backed by a pushbutton Torqueflite transmission, and as the owner of a Slant Six Dart with a three-speed on the column, I feel that the automatic is the better option of the two.
The 1963 Valiant seems like what it is, a gateway between the avant-garde 1960-62 Valiant and the car that would eventually become a compact mainstay for years. The dashboard is perhaps the Valiant at its most interesting, especially the instrument cluster. The triad of gauges, asymmetrically balancing the speedometer, could have been right at home on a 1960s speedboat, hot rod, or Studebaker GT Hawk.
The door panels have a Chrysler flair that I can’t quite verbalize, but perhaps the coolest part is the radio blanking plate. I’m loath to call it a “radio delete” plate because the radio was an option in the first place, but if you’re going to see a car without a radio, an inexpensive compact might be it. But why not a V-100 in that case?
For those who are interested in making a bid on the Valiant, the interior is apparently original.
A one-year-only feature of the 1963 Valiant was this underdash climate control cluster, which makes almost no sense when there is a huge open space above the “radio” for the knobs themselves (and indeed, that’s where they ended up in 1964). Still, the 1963 controls are so weird that I prefer them.
Two things I don’t like: LED headlights and these eyeball-frying blue LED instrument cluster bulbs. They would have to go immediately.
But these door panels can stay; they are in amazing original condition, and the bottom of the door tells you that this Valiant (which has had one older repaint) has never suffered the ignominies of severe rust, unlike so many of its Midwest-based brethren.
The undercarriage is clean, too, and for better or for worse, the driveshaft is still using Chrysler’s “ball-and-trunnion” front joint. They’re reliable, but in my experience, it’s tough to keep the rubber boot in one piece (and it will sound like end times when it lets go and starts slapping the transmission tunnel).
But all-in-all, there’s a lot to recommend with this beige, few-frills 1963 compact. The only changes I might suggest? The tires look like P185/70R13s, which are shorter than stock (80-series tires are tougher to find, but I would try). Also, the Plymouth inexplicably has 1963 Michigan license plates, which in itself is interesting because 1963 was a “tab” year, where owners added a metal “63” tab to the green-on-white 1962 plate.
Regardless, this may be the nicest 1963 Plymouth Valiant V-200 Sedan left in the world, so if you’ve always wanted an almost-new example of the car that many fans think the Valiant should have been in the first place, now’s your chance.
Related Reading
1963 Plymouth Valiant V-200 Sedan: A Snowblind Mopar, Dyin’ Slow (by me)
CC For Sale: 1963 Plymouth Valiant Sedan–Plain Brown Wrapper (by Stephen Pellegrino)
Curbside Musings: 1963 Plymouth Valiant Signet 200 – Bravery (by Joseph Dennis)
Daniel Stern, how quickly are you going to jump on this? 🙂
I’ll get right on posting a link to this article on slantsix.org and forabodiesonly.com .
Some of the IPO errors will be easy to fix. Those blue LED bulbs will need removed from the dashboard but quick, along with any/all other LED bulbs that have been misinstalled elsewhere. And those trinkets in the headlight mounts with “LED bulbs” crammed in will need to be replaced by a pair of actual, real headlamps. Easy.
But I’m dismayed to see the starter’s been replaced. It almost certainly didn’t need it, and the replacement – whether a “remanufactured” Chrysler item, a Nippondenso mini starter, or a Chinese copy of a Denso mini starter, will sound gratingly inappropriate.
Someone needs to “start” a Chrysler reduction gear starter preservation society, I notice this trend a lot when looking at cars on YouTube.
I’m in!
Nice car, but I would prefer a ’64 convertible with the 273. Back in ’96 I worked on a ’57 Chev Bel-Air whose owner’s Grandma bought new. It came with the optional Wonderbar radio (maybe the dealer ordered it that way?) Granny had the dealer remove it and install the cover plate, She felt music had no place in a car. You could call that a “radio delete” Right?
It’s hard to imagine that this Valiant looked much better 63 years ago than it does now. As I so often say with these “nicest one left” cars, there’s got to be a story as to how this one got saved (particularly in Wisconsin/Michigan).
I also agree that the tires and especially the led cluster lights will have to go…quickly. That latter bit I would think would unfortunately factor negatively into whatever is offered for the car.
I would guess the heater was still an optional extra for 1963 (or maybe “heater delete” was an option?) so mounting the controls underneath the dash meant that if the buyer didn’t specify a heater, there weren’t more holes in the dash that needed to be filled with blanking plates.
Yup, I’ll never forget the day in early fall when, with a taste of weather to come in the air, a young service member pulled into our shop at a Dodge dealer in Erie, Pennsylvania, desperately asking if we could retrofit a heater into his ‘72 Dart that he’d brought back with him from his recent posting in Honolulu…
Since when did 72 Darts not come with heaters??
I don’t say you’re telling porkies or anything; if you say it happened, then it probably did. But it’s still a little weird, because Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard № 103 (windshield defogging and defrosting) came into effect for 1968, requiring that all cars come equipped and setting forth performance requirements, and there were no exemptions for cars delivered in Hawai’i or anywhere else.
Was my stream of thought.
Heaters were still extra-cost options on 1963 Chrysler products.
That doesn’t jibe with how heater/no-heater was treated in ’60, ’61, or ’62 on the A-bodies, nor in ’63 on the B- and C-bodies. All of those cars had the controls integrated into the dashboard, with a blankoff plate on no-heater units.
So I file those tacky, thrown-on-as-an-afterthought ’63 Dart/Valiant heater controls in the same category as the tacky, thrown-on-as-an-afterthought park/turn lamps on the Volvo 164, to wit: Crap! We forgot! Everything’s already tooled up!
1963 and 64 were the years that almost all of the weird leaked out of almost the whole Mopar lineup. I have always preferred the 64, but this 63 carries more, er, flavor.
Given that a heater was very much still an option in some markets (and, into the ‘70s, a “delete” option) the under dash heater controls kinda make sense.
I will never forget the service member who pulled into our Dodge dealer service department in Erie, Pennsylvania; It was fall of 1976 and, with a distinct taste of weather to come in the air, frantically wanted to know if we could retrofit a heater into the ‘72 Dart he’d brought home with him from his previous deployment in Honolulu…
Again, ALL 72 Darts came with a heater/defroster standard.
What has never been brought up before (to my memory) is the similarity of the ’63 Valiant’s front end styling to the ’61 Rambler American. It does not strike me as a mere coincidence. There’s a bit too much similarity for that.
Now that you mention it…
Interesting to note then the 1963 Aussie Valiant have a different frond end Down Under.
https://www.oldcarbrochures.org/Australia/Chrysler/Chrysler/1963%20Chrysler%20AP5%20Valiant%20-%20Australia/slides/1963%20Valiant%20AP5%20%28Aus%29_2.html
Oups! I forgot to mention the CC article about the first Aussie Valiants, so we see more differences between the American and Australian Valiant. Sorry for the inconvenience. ^_^;
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-valiant-in-australia-part-1/
The Australian version came out in March of 1963, so it was clearly restyled to reflect the look of the coming ’64 US Valiant. Chrysler was done with that grille shape.
Yes, the rear quarter view of this car looks decidedly peculiar, to one brought on the Aussie design.
I’m glad you posted that Peter, there is no doubt in my mind we got the best looking 2nd gen Vals, there is a lot of Exner strangeness on the US version with its bulbous back glass, that weird pressing continuing from the bumpers pointing to undersize 13″ wheels, and the flat glass on the Oz car helps hide the ugly window rubber.
The updated 1966 VC was better looking than its US equivalent as well.
Agree on all points.
The Rambler’s eyebrows are rather pissed off compared to the Valiant’s calm looking ones.
“Rambler” simply has a furrowed, brow.
Wasn’t the V200 the top-of-the-line Valiant for 1963? If so, it seems odd to see one missing a radio. At least it’s equipped with the larger 225 engine and the small 904 push-button automatic.
As a whole, seems like another unique, but affordable, car show special that would attract a lot of attention as opposed to the usual rides, not to mention reliable to get back and forth.
No, the [I]Signet[/i] 200 was the top model in ’63, and a radio was optional equipment even on the Signet.
I do not understand why people put led lights in old cars. They just look odd. Like a tuxedo and athletic shoes. Both have their place but perhaps not together.
As for the car itself it is amazing condition and would be an amazing time capsule. I think I would have a few concerns about using it and keeping it that way. There always seems to be someone willing to door ding it no matter where you park. For me the best looking Valiant is the 1964/1965 Canadian ones as they have much less prominent grille.
To be fair, LED lights on an old Mopar do have an appearance similar to the 1960-62 Chrysler AstroDome and 1966-67 Charger electroluminescent dash lights. My guess is this is what the installer is going for. Not to mention the much improved longevity of LEDs over OEM bulbs.
But, in the end, it’s essentially no better than changing the entire gauge cluster to some aftermarket, complete digital set-up, something I truly detest on an otherwise fine, original survivor car, along with stuff like aftermarket wheels and steering wheel.
If the dash can be dimmed, softened, a bit, I’d keep the blue. Can’t imagine whoever gets this would do much after dark, driving.
Need some white, stripe, tires though.
Boy, I surely wouldn’t. Blue light like this, even dimmed down significantly, absolutely torpedoes night vision.
This certainly brings back some childhood memories but for full nostalgia I need a 64 Valiant. I still have clear memories of the red interior and pushbutton automatic but not much else.
If this picture works, and there is a chance it won’t, that I saved from a Daniel Stern article, this is what the dash lights should look like, going from memory, when the cars were newer, they had a more greenish glow that was very attractive.
IIRC, the 1963 Valiant (and 1963 Dart) were the last car lines Virgil Exner had a hand in designing. They would’ve been way too far along in development for any major Engel-ization of the design (aside from the finlets on the rear fenders and lotsa long straight chrome strips). In the rear 3/4 view picture, some Exner cues are present: The “Exner Taper” of Valiant’s trunk lid (slightly disguised by the finlets), the rear window with a steeper-than-it-appears rake, the ‘hairpin’ on the front fender-a subtle reminder of the side-wings on the front fenders 1962 Dodge & Plymouth semi-full-size cars, the front fenders with the underbite, and still trying to keep some curves in the body. The grille is pure wide-open Exner, and the instrument cluster is a subtle nod to Exner’s desire for some form of asymmetry in or on the car.
I always wanted to see if there were any pics of the Gen 2 A-body development. How much did it change while being developed? Did they originally have fully open rear wheel openings on the coupe & sedan? Did they look like the ones used on the station wagon? These cars originally drawn with a T-square (although by 1966, they sure were trying to make it look that way…)
This is definitely the cleanest surviving 1963 Valiant I have seen in a long time.
See elsewhere in the comment thread for pics of the Australian AP5 (’63-’64) / AP6 (’65) Valiant, which does have the open rear wheel arches.
I’d sure like to see development pics, too. The only ones I’ve seen were in a Collectible Automobile article, a couple of background pics in the studio shots of the woulda-been-’63-Imperial-but-came-out-as-’63-Chrysler car — attached here. I see what looks like 4-headlamp versions of the ’63 Dart (middle row, middle pic) and Valiant (middle row, left pic):
Wow, what a stunning survivor, only bid to $4,200 as of 8.7, maybe someone will get the steal of a deal here, I hope it doesn’t wind up a museum car as these are nice drivers .
-Nate