So here's what followed me home from the Des Moines Police impound auction last week. It's fairly clean little '64 Plymouth Valiant 4dr, 225 slant 6, push button automatic. Decent (albeit filthy) interior, small amounts of rust on the lower fenders, solid floors etc. The car was parked in the wrong place for too long & they never came to pick it up after it got towed.... The plan for now is to get it running / driving without (hopefully) too much work & have a fun little back & forth to work car. Then maybe a set of 14" small bolt pattern rally wheels - has 13" steel wheels now. It's got'a be cooler than the current ride (late 80's minivan) right?
Damn right. It's cooler than 95% of what you see driving down the road nowadays. What's up with that funky valve cover?
Might think about changing ignition sw.A friend years ago bought at an impound yard and previous owner tried to re-po it.But he got jail instead.
It's prob. going to get a new set of locks / keys all-around just to make sure. Going to throw the battery on the charger tonight & hopefully will get it running before too long. Then I get to find out what other "surprises" await...
So the cops said.... Some years ago the Boston police auctioned off some abandoned cars... turns out a few of them were stolen cars, abandoned by the thief -- and the cops never bothered to check the VIN and notify the owner... The auction buyers got screwed (can't give good title to stolen property).
Man , that car is cooler than a handle on a bucket. The slant 6 is a great engine. Drive it til the wheels fall off and get new wheels!
Great find. Just made Huxley a much cooler place. I have a set of 14 inch rallys if your interested. Small bolt pattern. Let me know if our interested . Have fun!
Well....there is that 64 new yorker w/a 413 4-bbl sitting in the garage.... Must keep repeating "practical daily driver" - "practical daily driver" - "practical daily driver"
There's a guy here in the Ct/Mass area that has a well built slant six in his ride, he may have a 4 spd in it too... Damn thing is certainly different
Made a little progress today when I swung home over my lunch break - I'm happy to report after a night on the ol'battery charger, the might slant-six roared (ok spluttered) back to life. Seems to drive ok, steers just fine & even stops when you want it to. Did find a few new gremlins to add to the list o'problems but nothing too major yet. At this point, I'm just happy it runs!
When I was living in Ca. in the early 90s a guy had one of these with something like 2 million miles on it. I figure he must have also had some major callouses (however it's spelled) on his butt.
I have been personally acquainted with slant 6's that went over 300,000. Hard to kill them unless you run them with no oil. You eventually have to take them out and shoot them or they will run forever.
The longevity of that engine is legendary. My dad had a new one in 1961, he drove it (and serviced it regularly), my sister used it to go to college and work, then my younger brother took it on and commuted on weekends from Ellensburg, WA to Richland, WA while in school, then it came home after the sis and the bro went on with lives of their own and my dad started driving it again. I think he finally sold it to a golfing buddy whose kid had just come of driving age and they wanted a reliable car that was simple to work on. It was still running strong with well over 400k on it about ten years ago. Bulletproof engine if you give it proper care.
As my oft quoted Uncle would say "it'll run fer as long as you can stand to drive it" Love the ol slantys. Gregcon- cracked me up
My dad had the Dodge Lancer version ... the engine was so quiet that you could hardly tell it was running. He was a locomotive engineer (Burlington Northern RR) based in Missoula, MT and left the Dodge in Helena, MT so that he would have transportation when he laid over. A couple of guys he worked with had keys for it and shared the expenses. He sold it to another railroader when he retired in the early 80's ... it still may be running around Helena !!
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