1966 Plymouth Valiant Signet Convertible

Well, there she is. Under the hood there's a 273 V8 from the factory, with a two barrel and an 904 automatic with console shift. Bucket seats and hydraulic top.  In-Violet paintjob, black roof, white with black trim interior, white tonneau cover. All chrome is present, although some of it is on the "to be replaced" list. No rust except on the back bumper and a spot or two on the right rear wheel arch. In this picture the tires are reproduction Coker Classic Redlines, bias ply tires from hell. In the dry, it's like driving on a pile of squirming weasles, in the snow like driving on a set of steel washers.

She hasn't always looked this way...

Here she is in the Alberta woods, the day after I bought her. Notice the 13" rims with original hubcaps, the black tonneau cover and the ever-so-lovely rust-and-primer paintjob.

Nearly everything but the motor has been fixed since then...

First off was the bodywork, the roof and some of the interior. The car was sanded down to bare metal (frame-on), where it proved to have no bondo and no dents. There were a few bits missing due to rust, but the car was, after all, 30 years old and originally a west-coast Vancouver vehicle. Body straightness was also checked on the jig, and proved to require no adjustment.

Welding was required to replace missing metal. The car proved to have rust in all the places unibody Chrsylers of the '60s are prone to it: under the hood along the join between inner and outer fenders, along the lower rear quarter panels where they join the trunk extensions, and behind the front wheel well openings. A bit of rust also showed up on the driver side floor panels so they were reinforced. Welding was done by a very smooth operator who did such a good job on the body panels that almost no bondo was required to fill in imperfections.

The car then went over to Theo DeGreeve's for a new roof and new skins on the seats. You can see the body has been primed with a high-solids primer here. The roof was put on before the final paintjob to minimise scratching of the finish while the paint was still soft. The car got a new black roof, a new backlight, new bowpads, and the chrome surrounding all these pieces was given a good going over by hand to remove any developing rust on the rails.

The front seats were taken out for recovering, and the driver side frame welded where it had cracked. The driver side also got inflatable lumbar support and an electric seat heater (does that ever make a difference in the winter!). It turned out from the date on the backside of the vinyl that the seats had last been recovered in 1979 or 1980. It looks like I can expect about a dozen years of life out of this recovering.

Since then I've also converted the front brakes from drums to disks. This necessitated putting parts from a 1972 Dart under the car, since I couldn't find a Valiant or Barracuda from 1966 to cannabalise. The Signet, Dart  and Barracuda for 1966 were available with front disks from Chrysler as a factory option. The woman who bought this car new had opted just to go for regular drums though, which is a bit funny since she also ordered the V8.

So I've made a few changes to the old girl since I bought her. An improved stereo, the tranny has been rebuilt, the battery replaced with a reproduction '60's Mopar model, new drums in the back, new disks up front, the radiator has been rebuilt with a  high performance core using the old cap so that it looks original, high-output 100-amp alternator,  new roof, backlight, tonneau, upholstery front and back, new carpets and paint, the 13" rims were replaced with 14 inchers with Coker Classics, and those in turn replaced by Cragar S/S 14x6 mags shod with Goodyear Eagle STs.

Left to do: wear out the motor enough to make a rebuild worth it (it's a Valiant - that might take a while...), then up the specs to Commando status with a four-barrel and a warm cam. Put in an 8 3/4" positrack rear with faster gears and maybe put disks in the back too. I heard there's a mod where ABS can be added without too much trouble if there are disks all 'round. I'm still looking into that. Finish the interior: the doors need recovering, and a previous owner cut speaker holes into the doors. Those need to be covered over and speakers repositioned somewhere less invasive. I'm looking into folded horns with separate midranges. Ideally I'd like to replace the dash and put in the original AM radio, but then I'd have to reposition the tape deck and CD player somewhere innocuous and safe. I understand old radios can be rebuilt with modern hardware to look authentic but still kick. And finally, I need to detail the trunk, with new trunk liners and some information on how  the jack is supposed to be stored.

Finally, you may ask yourself just what I do with the car now that I've put all this time and effort into it? Well, just to prove it is a daily driver...

But the real payoff is driving it, so here are a few shots from the drivers seat. I hope you've enjoyed this little trip around my car. Wave if you see me driving it around. There is probably no other '66 Valiant this colour in the world. Just make sure you're not waving at a '69 'Cuda though, the driver might not understand...

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