Projects When "Ugly" Becomes "Quaint"

I love those cars! I bought my first car in 1972, an ugly beat to **** '62 Dart 2 door post, 313 poly with push ****on auto. Man I had a lot of fun in that car.

Thanks for refreshing some great memories.

 

You were spoilt for choice. These were the hot ticket down under. We only got the Valiant sedans, made right here, in my home town, Adelaide.
Old boy around here used to blow my Ford V8 doors off with a 225 '62 Valiant. He had torque & roadholding.

Super- popular down under. Hundreds still around, lots of parts/ clubs.

 

KOOL car and Unique ! I always look at the "Different" cars, makes it interesting and always appreciate the time and effort of fellow car crazies.

 

Yeah those Valiants were ugly but we also thought station wagons were ugly and look where they are right now hot as a two dollar pistol. Sold my 62 Impala wagon at the NSRA Nats and could have sold 5 more if I had them.

Gary

 

When I first saw the ***le of this thread the first thing I thought of was my '62 Lancer 4dr! What a surprise to find out those are what this is about! My car was built by my brother in 1974 and later. My Dad had bought the car in Nampa or Caldwell Idaho from the original owners who got T-boned on the drivers side. Dad worked at the local Mopar dealership as a mechanic. They bought another new Mopar and Dad bought the wrecked Lancer for $200. He straightened it out just enough to put on a pair of VALIANT drivers side doors he got at All Hours (Ours) auto wrecking on Nampa-Caldwell Blvd. Reason being, they were the same original tan color. Eventually he traded it to my brother for his '66 Dart GT with 273 HiPo and 4 speed. My brother, Wayne, and I finished straightening the car in the alley behind my house. We welded tabs on the rocker panel and hooked chains from those tabs to me '61 Chevy bubble top circle track car and used the Chevy as a giant slide hammer! Over the years Wayne built a killer slant 6 and 4 spd as one of many combos he did in it. 35 years ago my brother Wayne got hit and killed while jogging. I inherited the car. Ran it for years with the Slant 6, at the drags and on the street. Car truly ran a top speed of 140 on the road. Ported and polished, .125 off the head, steel shim head gasket, cam, windage tray, double roller timing tray, 4 bbl, bigger valves, etc. It had a ton of compression. Finally started breaking ring lands. So I did what my brother wanted to do. I put a '70 340 and 904 ****** w/ 8 3/4 posi in an A body rear end. All that stuff bolts in with stock parts.

The poor ugly duckling is sitting outside doing nothing now for way too many years. Since I have owned it I have been waiting for it to turn into a Swan! Some day......

I will post a pic of it later, for now I better quit hi-jacking the OP's thread! This story goes on for quite a while yet!

Thanks for posting this cool thread Sir. It brought back a lot of good memories.

Dave

 

That was a good read, Dwollam.
I hope you do continue the story and looking forward to some pictures.

 

This was a "late model" 67 Valiant I had about 3 years ago . looked like a real sleeper except for the hood scoop which should have been color coded to the car color.
Looked stock inside except for the tachometer, even had the rubber floor mat and original trunk mat and about 90 % original paint.
Under the hood was a 392 HEMI with Hot Heads stuff = "FUN CAR"

 

the "quaint" line at a show today