Once again I apologize for the quality of the photos. These images were not much bigger than thumbnail size, but this 1963 Plymouth Valiant Signet looked too good to pass up. This one is listed on Hemmings with a $3,600 or best offer asking price. Not bad, eh? It’s located in Rockville, Maryland.
There’s nothing like a decades-old car in original condition. Or, in this case, original in appearance. A few things have been done to this one-family-owned Valiant, such as “New tires, brakes, exhaust, paint & floorboards in 2009.” According to Hemmings, “Despite having Chrysler’s “Seven Soak Rustproofing” protection, Valiants had severe rust issues, especially along the lower edges of the quarter panels.”
I don’t see any rust but they say that there is “Some rust due to outside storage.” It’s tough to see any detail from these tiny photos and it’s even worse when they’re enlarged like this. It sure looks clean and straight to me, though. 1963 was the first year for the second-generation Valiant and they came in the base V100, the mid-level V200, and top of the line Signet, which this car appears to be with its bucket seats and two-door hardtop configuration.
Again, details are impossible to see in the interior but things look nice inside, in a pixelated way. This car has a push-button automatic transmission and supposedly it “Runs and drives well. Recent Inspection.”
The engine needs a couple of weekends of detailing work to bring it up a bit, but supposedly this 225 cubic-inch slant-six which the seller says has 101 hp, runs well. The base engine, the 170 slant-six, had 101 hp and the 225 had 145 hp so either they’re a bit confused on which engine it is or they read something incorrectly. Boy do I know that feeling… This looks like a really nice car, have any of you owned a ’63 Valiant?
Slant sixes were strong engines and ran forever if cared for with oil changes !
This looks nice and I could see a all orig or a 426 transplant kicking it on the streets 👍😎
It could be a nice car at a fair price. An in-person-inspection would be necessary to determine that.
My daily driver was a ’64 Valiant 2Dr. sedan around ’75~76. It was the small slant six with the three speed on the column. It got me there and brought me back. That’s all I wanted from it and it delivered.
Looks like the engine is painted red from what I can see of it. 225’s were painted red and 170’s blue this and a lot of other years. Nice looking car but it really needs more and better pictures to evaluate it’s true condition especially of the underside since the floors have been replaced. On a unibody car the floors are critical to the overall body strength and rigidity.
Looks a lot like the next door neighbor’s car when I was a little kid in the 70s, only hers was a 4 door. I was fascinated by the push buttons instead of a shifter.
~ I loved my old ’66 Valiant. It was one of the most reliable cars ever! It was an off-fleet Consolidated Edison car with 300,000 miles. Couldn’t kill that son of a gun. I bought it in Chicago for $10! Put a water pump on it and drove it for 2 years. When I gave it to a friend in DesMoines he drove to Florida, lived in it for 4 months on the beach, and sold it for $50.
Love this series of A-bodied Darts and Valiants. They will rust down below on salted roads. Here’s a crazy story….
In 1990, my wife had one as a daily driver, and we took it up to Milwaukee to see her folks. The leaf springs were getting weak, so I put some “helper springs” on it before we took off. I told her that as long as we didn’t hit any bad “undulating” roads, we’d be fine. That undulating road came on the Skyway in Chicago. Up and down we went until the back half of the left leaf spring broke loose of the axle. So, there we were, on the Skyway, with the leaf spring hanging down, dragging into the pavement, and the left side of the body was sitting on the axle. . My wife was 7 months pregnant. So I crept to the nearest exit, found a muffler shop on the “South Side of Chicago”, and the guy burned off the dangling spring (no charge).
Along Lakeshore drive we crept until we got up to Evanston, where I realized that if the front half of that spring let go, the axle was gonna come off the car. We pulled over at some restaurant/bar on 41, and I ordered a drink straightaway. The only shop nearby was a guy who specialized in the Citroen SM. He was nice enough to take the car, and sourced some new springs for it, and we returned about a week later to get the car. My wife’s Mother came down from Milwaukee in her ’73 2002 Roundie to get us. All this before cell phones and GPS. Ah good times.
I had a 1963 Valiant Signet 200, 170 ci, 2dr, ht, pb auto. Red ext, red/white interior. I loved that car, I abused that car, I wore it out. When I was done with it in 1972 it went to the car crusher. One of lifes regrets. Mine was the Canadian edition, it had different tail lights.
Blue 170’s…..nope never happened….and check that engine bay photo….most makes would show rust in that area if driven on them northern roads much. At $3500 that’s a good little car and price.
My second car after a 1961 Falcon was a 1964 Valiant 225 6cyl. sedan. so that was close.
Here’s a blast from the past, my 2nd car in HS (1st was the ’58 Volvo 444) 2 door, a bit lighter blue, 170, 3 speed on column,,,NO OPTIONS, unless sunvisors were an option.( you could get some bare bones cars then) In typical young punk fashion, had a part time job, and sunk all the money into the Valiant. 2 barrel carb, 1 into 2 exhaust, shifter on the floor, cranked up the torsion bars, coil over shocks and longer shackle bars, mags on front, chrome reverse on back, “all show and no go”.
My 3rd car, for no particular reason, was a ’64 Valiant, same thing, 2 door, no options, except it had the 273. I put a 4 barrel from a 340 and put the shifter on the floor, THAT was a fun little car.
Thanks for the memories, what Barn Finds, for me, is all about!
Here’s my ’63. First car I ever owned (although it was free. Just needed a radiator, which I sourced from a local junk yard). Me and a friend did the flame job which included “Hellfire” across the trunk in deference to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown tune.
“I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE, AND I BRING YOU….
FIRE!”
Now THERE’S a blast from the past. My dad used to blast that on the record player when I was little and mom was away!
You wouldn’t think that Arthur Brown was a drop out from Reading Uni, my hometown in Berkshire,UK, who appeared on the BBC ‘s “Top Of The Pops” in 1968 hitting the big time, wearing a lit crown of naked flame on stage. So much for ‘elf n safety’ in those days. You can’t have baked beans on toast snack on stage now a days without undergoing ‘elf n safety’ assessment first lest there is a break out wind. Alas drop outs these days are just that, bums.
Must be the kind of thing for 63 Valiants. My friend John had a 63 two door sedan strippo. Powder blue. He took care of that by cutting the top off, but leaving the door frames as well as the rear frames for the rear side windows. Painted it Camouflage like an Army tank and called it Swamp Thing. Perfect name and such a fun car. Wish I still had the one photo that I took back in 1983. Didn’t always have film in the camera. This is one of the moments where only a photo can get you to really appreciate how hilarious this car was. My aunt who is a very serious person who rarely finds anything funny was laughing so hard when we pulled up in it that she was teary eyed afterwards.
It must have looked like the ’63 Valiant version of this car minus the camouflage paint.
I really like it. Wish I had the extra 3600 to get it but just used up a big hunk of savings to pick up a newer everyday car to use. But still have my 85 LTD Crown Vic 2 door with just 92k on it when I bought it it had just 88k on it in 2010.
phochman, that’s a ’64 Valiant–at least the front clip is a ’64.
A few years ago I restored a ’64 Valiant 100 (in photo above) with the 225 six, 3-speed stick on the column, and no options whatsoever–bare bones but a great runner and surprisingly quick with that drive train.
My first car was a 66 Valiant w/ the 225 slant six column shift auto. I paid $25 and towed it home. I drove the wheels off of that little car – it’s probably still out there somewhere. I loved that car. One day, I’ll have another MOPAR of that era. Kinda leaning towards a Barracuda, but we’ll see.
I have had many 225 and 170 slant sixes. Never had a blue one yet. The only blue ones that I have ever seen were 198s. I also think the later 225s in Aspens and Volares were blue.
Not a 63 but close enough, I think, is my 65 Valiant 100. Restoration done to a 66,000 mile car.
Nice little car! My second car was a 1963 slant-six Valiant that only had 28,000 mi. on it when my parents gave it to me for Christmas in 1965. I drove the car until it had well in excess of 100K on it. In Oct. of 1972 I had driven the car from Lubbock (where I attended Texas Tech) back home to Midland for my great aunt’s funeral. On the way back to Lubbock the engine threw three rods just outside Lamesa, TX (halfway between Midland and Lubbock). My parents came up and drove me the rest of the way to Lubbock, and then Dad rented a tow bar and took the car back to Midland, where he found an engine from a ’62 Doge Dart and had it put in for me. I drove it for a couple of more years thereafter and sold it to a friend who promptly wrecked it only days later. Not a nice end for what had been such a sweet little car. Every time I see one advertised some where I want to grab it. But I’m still in the Chrysler “family”, driving a ’95 Grand Caravan that has mega-miles on it!
Nice little car. I would give a little attention where needed and keep it as is.
my brothers rust free valiant. got a 500 cid b1 eng. i think it came from colorado . it’s the same color blue in the inside. it’s a fun ride
took a 63 ragtop, black/red interior, to college. i remember begrudging it a set of plugs – i had no idea what cars actually can cost. would go 15 to 115 in third, with a light right foot. i still miss the car. thought it was good looking, then, and it only grows on me more with time – and pricier/less fun vehicles.
Great cars, especially at this price. I have no room. Buy it and give it what it needs.
That slant six was a good engine. Had a 65 Dodge p/u a few decades ago. It had the 225 with three on the tree standard. The truck was a rust bucket but it sure ran well.
A girl I went to High School had a ’63 Signet, Robin Egg blue, white interior, and white rag top. She LOVED that car, and cared for it, and it showed. I wouldn’t be surprised if she still has it. 225 and push button.
I’ve owned an identical 63 Valiant Signet for many years. 3 speed on the column
Had it out the other day to go to a Dr’s appt. and then a nice joy ride.
Knee knocker after market AC from the 70s, retrofit to the new refrigerant and works incredibly well. Came with heater and radio and probably whitewalls. No power steering or brakes.
New carpet a few months ago.
First sold at Town & Country Chrysler Plymouth in Phx. AZ and still has the dealer license plate frames on it.
It set the template for things I like in a car: simplicity, longevity and an honest product.
2nd car I ever bought as an adult out on my own.
My buddy in HS had a 61 Valiant, So one day we were out raising cane on a new by pass that wasn’t open to the public yet and got a flat tire. He was runnin may pops on his 100 dolla car. So we are trying to change the tire. Got it jacked up and went at it with the tire iron. Lefty loosy, righty tighty. Well he could get it to pop loose. So I stood on the tire iron and pop off comes the stud, I try the next one and pop it breaks off to. Then I looked at the threads on both sides of the car and they were reversed. WTH? So I changed direction of the turning and off come the other 3 nuts. WTH? So we changed the tire and he is all pissed because I snapped off two studs. Nevermind that he was trying to do the same thing I was but wasn’t strong enough. So I ended up buying him two studs for a buck and installing them. That was the strangest thing it having reverse threads on one side though.
As John Lithgow said to William Shatner in “Third Rock”, “The same thing happened to me once!!!”
I have a ’51 Dodge with the same situation. What I was told was that the theory at the time was that the lug nuts, if tightened the same direction on both sides of the car, would eventually loosen on one side, due to the direction of the rotation. So, resident geniuses decided to reverse the rotation of the lug nuts on one side of the car. Not sure what they’d been doing for the previous half a century, but there you have it. I’m pretty sure they don’t do that anymore! :-)
Yeah, the whole idea of using left-hand thread on the lug nuts was basically unnecessary. If I recall, the tip of those wheel studs were stamped with the letter “L”. Not that you’d have noticed that on the side of the road in the rain at night…or in the driveway after a few beverages.
Forgot to mention on my first post: my ’63 Valiant was a light green: the same green as the old Border Patrol cars.
At that time I worked as News Director for a small radio station here in Midland, and used the Valiant as the station’s news car.
One Sunday afternoons the station broadcast a Spanish language program. On this particular afternoon there had been a serious car wreck just west of town that resulted in one DOA and one serious injury. Both occupants of the Jeep that had rolled I had known for many years; so it was quite a shock when I got to the ER and realized that it was someone whom I knew. After getting permission from the J.P. who also served as coroner and from the two families, I called in the story live from the hospital. I then headed to the station to do a wrap-up story.
The station was out in the “boondocks”, so I had started down the dirt road. As I pulled up in front of the station I saw the backdoor fly open and several Hispanic males take off running on foot across the pasture. When I went inside the announcer, Rogelio, was laughing almost uncontrolled. I asked what was going on and he said, “Aw, you scared all of my buddies! They saw that little green car and thought it was the Border Patrol. They went out the door hollering, “The Federales are coming! The Federales are coming!” We both laughed at that one.
Never a dull moment in West Texas!
I had a 63 in high school. A classmate had it and I kept bugging him to sell it. He finally agreed and said he wanted $100.00. I reached into my wallet and I had exactly $75.00. He took the 75 .i drove it two years and only replaced a piece of brake line that corroded from ny salty road winters..
I ended up wrecking it and to this day I still miss my white and red baby with the push button auto…