I found a 63 Valiant for sale near my home. It has a slant six the runs and drives. It is a Carolina car and has a few small holes one over each fender, but the unibody is solid as well as the floors and trunk. I would like to buy this car and sell my caprice so it would be my daily. are these cars reliable? Are they hard to get parts for? It needs rear brakes. Would these be expensive and hard to find? Also, what would this car be worth. The guys is askin 1850, but i think 1500 would be fair, but i dunno. O also, it is a two door. Thanks Lil Joe
yes he said it has the push putton trans. I was told these are cool while they work, but they are a real pain if they break. Lil Joe
A body Mopars are rock solid dependable, easy to work on and the parts are fairly inexpensive. The down side? The brakes are no better than other early 60s cars, they need sway bars BAD and people will bug you to sell it to them. Check around, that price doesn't sound too out of line.
Hi Lil' Joe! I'll very strongly second what Hillbilly Hotrodder said, "YOU BETCHA' A SLANT SIX IS RELIABLE!!!". Those engines are virtually indestructible! I had a '66 and my Dad owned a '62 Signet 2 door hardtop from '77 till just before he p***ed away in '98. Worst thing Chrysler ever did was to quit building them (a fact which Lee Iacocca stated in his book!). The cars did suffer from rear spring sag but helper springs are available. Don't know what it's like for parts in your neck of the woods but we still have a bunch of them floating around up here in Canada. I don't imagine brake shoes would be a problem for your local NAPA store. I BELIEVE there is a Valiant on-line club somewhere. Perhaps someone closer to you knows the URL and as far as the price goes, offer him the $1500 - all he can say is "no"! Valiants ROCK! Good luck! Regards, Dave.
check the torsion bar mounts at the ****** crossmember, and the rear shackle mounts. these tend to rust and when they go, the car isn't worth fixing. but an a-body eary 60s mopar for a daily driver, it doesn't get much better. most important parts are available at napa. if you are going to keep it for a while, put on upper control arms and spindles from a 73-74 a-body. the ball joints on the early cars are a bit small to be safe, so this is a bit of insurance. and you get disk brakes as well. go for it. four-thirteen
Other than the ******, those cars are damn near bulletproof! (Unless rust gets to the torsion bar mounts!) Test drive the car and get it HOT (up to operating temperature for at least 15-20 minutes) and be sure that third gear and reverse still work after making a few full throttle acceleration runs up to about 45-50mph. Most of those ******s give you three forward gears when cold, and only two when hot! If the ****** is good, offer the guy $1100...he may take it, or work you up to about $1400...meet him somewhere between his price and yours...closer to yours if you can! Should be a cool, reliable ride for you.
hay those slant 6s are reliable as hell and u can make deacent power. ive got one in my 69 dart that does mid 14s with a 2.73 gear and a warmed up 904 trany
I had one that was my mothers car. It had the small 6 and a 3spd manual trans. I drove the **** out of that car, you just couldn't kill it. After it had over 100,000 miles on it I sold it to a wrecking yard. The yard sold the motor to some guy for his work car and it went for another 3 yrs and was still running when he sold it. Frank
The ol six is about as dependable as a hammer. You can run the guts out of it and then run it somemore. I had a 64' Dodge slant 6 and push****on with gawd knows how many miles. The odometer said 13000 when I got it in '77 and I was the 5th owner. It said 80,000 when I gave ti to my mom in '82 and she rolled it over before she sold it for what I gave for it. Enough said. Brakes for it are nuthin' over the counter at NAPA. Is the rust something that you can repair? The last valient I saw sold was last year, 1,200. an arizona car. So you're close on the price.
GV Gordan - hahaha I was thinking the same thing!! As far as the six goes - they dont call them the "LEANING TOWER OF POWER" for nothing Back in HS my girlfriend and her family were mopar freaks, dad and her brother both had early mid 60's swb trucks the boy had a built 225 -6 and it would stay right with pops 360. He used the Clifford intake, a small 4bbl and headers with a nice bump stick. HotRod mag did some right up in the past on those, the guy named Steve?? had that Duster with a LTP & matic in it.
[ QUOTE ] HotRod mag did some right up in the past on those, the guy named Steve?? had that Duster with a LTP & matic in it. [/ QUOTE ] Steve Magnete I believe
Ya, i followed that slant six build up and have wanted to mess around with one ever since. I guess i would have to change my name, Valiant Prince does have a nice ring to it GV haha thanks. Lil Joe
The best source for info about A-bodies and Slants is www.slantsix.org it's a message bored and tere is a whole bunch of very knoledgable people on there. Doug Dutra, the guy that built the SlantSickness motor is on there and damn doeshe know his ****. I love early A-bodies, I got my 62 Signet hardtop for $1800. If it's a Signet(same thing as a GT)you may pay a lil' more than if it was just a Regular Valient. Does it have a 170 or a 225? A 170 will revv higher(short stroke)but it's easier to make power out of the longer stroke 225. The Offy 2x1 manifold is a good choice for power and economy, but you can build the hyper pack slantsickness motor and have lots of fun. The trannies are the same internally as the later 904s, just check the band adjustment and the kickdown linkage. -Jesse
the slant 6 is a lot tuffer than people think. we raised holy hell at last years demo derby with a slant six. if you take care of them they hold up good.www.kanter.com has a lot of stuff i think as far as brake stuff..try www.moparts.com for stuff .they are a lot of links there to keep it going
My winter rusty but trusty is a 1966 valiant w/ a slant six. It rocks!!! Got it from my neighbour for 600 bones. Between him, his dad, and brother, they probably have close to 50 Dodges, etc. If you have any serious questions or need parts, he's selling and works at their shop. The shop is awesome. I would trust them with anything....super good guys. PM me if you want the shop's or his number, he'd be more than happy to help or answer questions. Ginger
thanks everyone, i am gonna go look at it either Thursday or Friday. I would go sooner, but i have finals this week. School gets in the way of cars way to much. I really should be studying haha. I will keep you informed. Lil Joe
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