60 Valiant Wagon. Or, I really need another project!

Yes I did add a fixer upper to the fleet. This should be a long term keeper.
A 1960 Valiant Suburban wagon. This little wagon does run and drive. Needs some body work, but should be an easy fix. Slant six, automatic, and overall in quite good shape.
Not going to get quite the number of upgrades that the 66 is getting, but we will see. Going to be made into a daily driver, and we certainly wont lose it in a parking lot.

70 Challenger

Tempted to add to the title “Dumbest sale I ever made.”

To those who where wondering if this car ever did exist, yes it did.  Maybe it still does, if so, if I ever hit a powerball lottery win, it’s first on my list to find.

This photo, the only one I could find as yet,and was probably taken back in about 1974. Yes I know it’s cracked and faded. Maybe I’ll find some better as I go through my old junk.

For the car folk, it’s a 1970 Challenger 340 with a factory 4 spd.  Many people think it’s a R/T, but while it had the R/T hood and dashboard (150 mph speedo, and tach) R/Ts had big block engines.

Interestingly this Challenger, while it could top 145 mph, came frome the factory with non power drum brakes on all four wheels.

Over the years, it got a rear sway bar, an option I highly recommend, and as you can see, hood pins. It doesn’t show up in this photo, but the hood has two small creases near the center. That was from a run down highway 26 that forced enough air under the hood to bend it slightly. A trip to the Dodge dealer and a set of factory hood pins, set things pretty much back right.

Sold the Challenger about nine years ago to raise the funds for my first Freightliner. Probably a good move, but to this day I wish there had been some other way to do that.

66 Valiant

A couple people have asked about the Valiant, so here it is.

Still in need of some work, there are a couple bad spots on the rear floor area, and it’s kind of trapped behind Robert’s 66 Charger at this point. But as time permits, I think we’re going to try to modify the fuel injection from a mid 70s Volvo to fit the slant six.

Also considering:

Seats from a Chrysler Sebring Convertible, get good seats and shoulder straps that way.

Super Six (2 barrel carb) set from a 76 Aspen, also has a much larger exhaust.

Going to have 100/1000ths cut from the head. Big boost in compression.

Electronic ignition. This ones easy from a wrecking yard, we have done this before.

Front and rear anti sway bars. These are on the shelf, just got to bolt them on.

Power disc brakes. Anybody that has worked with an older car knows how important this is.

Battery is being moved to the trunk, and a cold air intake goes in the old battery location.

Finally, since this is going to be a daily driver, air conditioning.

We will see how it all goes, but my intention is to keep this a budget project. Also we’re going to take notes and photos of the progress.  Much of what we’re going to do is Valiant/Dart specific, but might be of note to those thinking about the same idea with a Nova/Falcon or any other 60s compact.

My feeling is that in an age of $100,000 plus Challengers,  Mustangs,  and  Camaros, those of us that have to stick to some kind of a budget will be turning to the Dart,  Nova,  Falcon class of car.

This particular Valiant was purchased from the Kidney Car people, and cost $300. Hope to keep the project to under $2,000 including the car.  OK maybe when I’m done, I let a good paint job take me over that, but the idea is to do as much from U-Pull-It wrecking yards, as is possible.

Comments and ideas are most welcome, we all have a lot to learn.

Why the auto industry bailout shouldn’t happen, but must.

Really I’m very much apposed to spending taxpayer money on mismanaged ventures, but to the extent that the government has caused some of Detroit’s problems, it is fair that that same government help out.

Rewind to the  70s and the first of the C.A.F.E. standards.  At the time the “Big Three” wanted a 1 or 2 mile per gallon break for Station Wagons.  The then popular family car had form drag problems, and got a little worse mileage than its sedan counterpart.  Well the Feds sort of said “No”, and the Station Wagon pretty much went away.  Of course people still needed to carry kids, dogs, and groceries around.  This led to two wonderful trends: The Mini Van, and the SUV.

The Mini Van not a totally bad idea, usually based on a front drive passenger car chassis, they did a fare job of filling in for the now rare Wagon. Problem was that people were used to being able to hook an Airstream trailer to the wagon, and heading for the hills, once in a while.  Here the Mini Van fell short.

Enter the SUV.  In the 50s these would have been: The Dodge Power Wagon, and the Chevrolet Carry All.  Both great vehicles at what they did.  But what they did was carry loggers to work.  I guess somebody was at their Dodge or Chevy dealer looking for something to carry his family, and tow the boat, looked in the back lot at the line of phone company trucks, and thus was born the SUV.  In those days anything with a gross weight of over 6,100 pounds had a different set of rules, so it was easy to built a family “car” on a Pickup truck  chassis.  Course now your talking 9 miles per gallon instead of the 18 the old Chrysler Town and Country got, but it will get the job done.

Fast forward to the present:  So here we sit, while gas prices are down, for the time being. A perfect storm of bad calls, frozen credit, and regulation has brought G.M. , Ford, and Chrysler to their knees.

Our wonderful government caused much of this, and they need to step up and help fix it.  The “Big Three” and their unions need to take a step back as well.  Paying some guy three times the national average to play cards, on the chance that a position might open on the line, is ridiculous.

Here I will speak about Chrysler, since I now their products better than those of the other two companies.

Dumb mistake #1. Dropping the Magnum Wagon, come on guys, you owned that market. A good driving, roomy car that was close to 30 MPG on the hi-way. Oh lets not forget that you made them for Europe with a Turbo-Diesel, and over there they get 44 MPG hi-way. Hopefully the sheet metal molds for the Magnum are sitting around somewhere, and with the right management we can see this great car again.

Dumb mistake #2. Never brought out the Sedan Delivery version of the PT Cruiser.  I saw the prototype once and it was a neat little car, and was much looked forward to.  Never happened.

Dumb mistake #3. OK the Feds helped on this one.  We build in this country Sebring Convertibles with a 2 liter Turbo-Diesel, and 6 speed manual transmission.  They get 51 MPG hi-way, but we cant have them here. Seems they don’t meet the California standards by 3% on a parts per million base.  Never mind that the little 2 liter motor puts out half the total exhaust of most cars.

Oh yes and as a note: In the U.K. you can buy a four door Jeep SUV that gets 34 MPG.  Don’t know a lot about this one but like the Magnum Wagon, and the Sebring convert, the Jeep is built here and shipped over there.

Also, while in England last time, I rented a Vauxhall Vectra Wagon.  About the size on a Volvo 145 Wagon from the 70s. The little wagon did a very good job for us, and we got about 40 MPG the two weeks we had it.  I could be wrong on this, but I think Vauxhall is G.M. in the U.K.  It would be nice if they could bring that neat little wagon over here.

So.  Well I guess the Feds need to step in and prevent the full meltdown of the economy that will happen if the Big Three close their doors.  But they also need to step back and let Chrysler, Ford, and G.M. bring some of the great European platforms here.

One can’t help but wonder: A 290 horse V-6 Turbo-Diesel in a base model Challenger.  With the Challenger being 5 to 6 hundred pounds lighter than the Magnum, and having better aerodynamics, we could see a Challenger Coupe getting hi-way mileage in the high 40s, and I for one would line up for that.

Sometimes good luck happens.

The other day while checking one of my regular web sites, I happen to see a post about a Dodge Van for sale in Salem, Oregon.  Mind you I already have an old one ton “Maxi-Van” that we use for towing.  The van in Salem was newer, an 84 as opposed to my 71, and a slant six engine.

Well a few phone calls to confirm the price, $175 seemed too low, but that was the price.  My brother and I took a quick trip to look it over.  I was is pretty good shape, but was in need of a radiator, due to a freak accedent involving a tent pole.  Found a radiator $75, bringing the total to $250.

I had to get back on the road with the Freightliner, so Robert made the trip back to Salem to drop in the new radiator, and bring the van back to Portland.  Reports are that it runs very well, and seems to be in good condition.

Seems like a silly thing to add to our growing fleet, really it doesn’t do anything that the Maxi can’t, but it is easier to drive around town, and while the Maxi gets about 12 MPG, the 1/2 ton van is closer to 20 MPG.

All things considered, it fits with my new view on vehicles.  I had a run of bad luck with the newer computer controled cars, and am beginning to think about going back to well maintained older cars.

Sure we’ll keep the Intrepid, I’ve replaced just about every part on it by now, and it seems to have settled into old age well.  The 66 Valiant stays, the little slant six in that will probably run forever, and there is not one part on it I can’t repair in a weekend.  The M.G. Midget, that’s Junes baby, and it couldn’t be simpler to work with.

I just like the idea of lifting the hood, and recognising every part.

Cars like the Sebring, which needs an engine. Well….I read through the manual on it, something I should have done before buying the car.  Simple repairs on the Sebring are major jobs.  The engine dosen’t even pull through the hood, you unbolt the motor then lift the car off the motor.  Yes it can be done, but not my cup of tea.

Let us buy these cars.

Was looking for some information for the Intrepid web site, and stumbled across a UK car finder site. They list technical data for the cars for sale in the U.K.

I was looking for information the the Dodge Magnum Wagon, and Chrysler 300 sedan. Turns out they are built here, shipped to the U.K. with a 3.0 liter diesel engine. The big Dodge Magnum, called a Chrysler 300 Touring in England gets almost 43 mpg hi-way. I was making the point that this car should be available here. BUT.

While looking at the Magnum, I saw that they listed the Sebring Convertible as well. Clicked into the listing and found a built in the U.S.A. turbo diesel, six speed convertible that gets over 50 mpg hi-way.

This is a nice car with A/C , AM/FM CD player and all the bells and whistles.

Oh, and as if that’s not enough, they get an SUV, the Dodge Nitro that gets 38 mpg on the open road.

We really need these cars here.

Finally a quick thanks to Chrysler for getting one thing right, the 3.5 V-6 Challengers are at some dealers now, and it looks like once the first rush of sales dies down, it will be possible to buy a $22,000 Challenger.

Intrepid update: Check your shops work.

 Well, June did make it home with the Intrepid. For those of you that don’t know, it’s a 1993 Dodge Intrepid E/S, that lives on only because of a large amount of work put into the car in the last few years. To be fair, at 190,000 miles, some wear is to be expected.

To go back to the start. Several months ago, on the way to Arizona, with some items for our daughter; the Intrepid had a head gasket fail. Left the car with a shop in Susanville, California, rented a U-Haul truck and went on our way.

Fast forward, the car is “ready” but I’m on a trip to Ohio, so June gets to Susanville and picks the car up. She makes it home OK, but there is a check engine light on. Also an occasional fuel smell.

Well I got to looking things over, and one of the O2 sensors was not plugged in, and one of the fuel lines was being bumped by the steering. The other fuel line didn’t look right, so I had my brother look while I ran the steering full left then right. The line was being pulled on a hard left turn, enough to cause fuel to spray out on the engine. I disconnected the lines and ran them along the back of the motor, in the brackets that are there for them. End of problem.

Still, you have to wonder. If we pay people good money to do technical repairs for us, don’t we have the expectation that the job will be done better than we could do ourselves.

I’m not a mechanic, but over the years, well really decades, I’ve replaced engines, transmissions, done brake work, updated older cars with newer parts, and modified several vehicles. Always with less follow up correction than this head gasket replacement.

Just a word to you. When that shop is done with your car, take a good look at what they did. You don’t need to be trained, just look for sloppy work, if they missed a little thing, like a mounting bracket, they might have missed something bigger.

On a big ticket item, like transmission replacement, it might be worth paying a second shop to inspect the repair.

Diesel Mini Cooper, Euro Volkswagen Polo.

Got to wonder why we can’t have these cars here. Yes I do know some of the reasons, but they’re not good enough.

For those of you that have driven a Mini, you know that they’re a kick to drive. Lot of room for a car that small, and the handling is great. OK now take that car, put a turbo diesel in it, what you end up with is a car that get 60+ MPG in the combined city/highway test. The little Mini will net you close to 70 on a road trip. Another option with the Mini line is the new Mini Traveler update called the Mini Clubman (think station wagon but cute) this slightly stretched Mini holds four comfortably and has room for their bags. I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that the Wagon may drop a mile or two per gallon, but would still be well over 60 highway. Neat little wagon and the double doors are easier to work with than the standard hatch, or tailgate.

The Volkswagen Polo, while not as well known in the US, is basically an evolution of the Rabbit. Like the Mini room is good for a small car, and handling, a little softer than the Mini, might be the better commuter car, but personally, not my cup of tea. The 1.4 liter turbo diesel giving a combined MPG in the mid 60s, and highway over 70 is worth a look.

For those of you that are serious about mileage, there’s the Volkswagen Lupo, a little smaller than the Polo, but an outstanding 78 MPG City/Highway. Not a car you would want to take cross the country, although I did once drive a Honda 600 Sedan from Portland, Oregon to the Chicago area, and I’m still fine.
All three of these cars fall a few percent short of meeting the US emission standards. Mind you these are the standards established for the 1 ton Dodge, Ford, and Chevy pickup trucks. In some cases these regs didn’t make sense when you were replacing a gas guzzling 440/460/454 with a diesel getting nearly double the mileage. They really don’t make sense when we would have the option of have cars that can cut in half our use of oil.

Check my logic on this one. If I can keep warm with a fire that’s half the size of my last one, but the new fire pollutes 2% more by volume, isn’t the half sized fire, though a little dirtier a net gain ? This is a perfect example of the saying ” Perfect is the enemy of good”.

Washington (DC not the State) needs to open the flood gate for these fuel saving options from Europe. I’ve been there, seen them, driven some, and they’re a good way to get us off imported oil. The technology can make a quick transition to our own small cars. The Big Three all have platforms that would accept a small turbo diesel with no problems.

Wake up Washington, and let’s not forget California. What a nightmare that state has created for business. I just wish that one of these times when some idiot in the Cal State House brings up a total diesel ban for the state, they voted it in. Bringing their entire state to it’s knees might wake them up.

Intrepid is back

  Well,  I had to make a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, so June went to Susanville to pick up the Intrepid.  Had to be a fun trip, get down there on the bus, then drive an untested car home. The guys had done a pretty good job.  It seems a few connections are not quite right, but can be fixed.  One fuel fitting loosened up, and my brother was able to repair that.

Nice to have the Intrepid back, of course now I’ll have to figure out what to do with the Sebring we picked up for something to drive.  Probably keep them both around, the Sebring being a convertible, could be good fun this summer. The Sebring is a nice enough car, but really the M.G. is more fun to drive.

The Intrepid gets good mileage, is big by todays standards, and has a good road feel.  Also it has had so much work done in the last few years, that it’s pretty much a new car.  That and it now has a trailer hitch and  that make it useful for those times I don’t need to get the Maxi-Van and the car trailer out.  That and we just like the old car, and we are not the sort of people that  trade every couple years.  Come to think of it, I’ve had the Van since 1973.

In any case, looks like the Intrepid is back for a while, maybe this year it will make a visit to a paint shop. The finish is showing early signs of the paint wearing out.  I’ll have them leave the color the same, take a few little dents out, should look pretty good.

Cars I’ve owned over the years

For some of us, our cars have a special place in our lives. I’m one of those people. For better or worse I like cars.

My first almost doesn’t count only had it for a few weeks before moving on, a 59 Ford Wagon. Bought from a friend that borrowed it back and blew out the trans while he was using it..

The rest, and I’ll add to this as others come to mind.

The 57 Plymouth 2 Door. Bought from my Hi-School bus driver Lee Coates. Great old car and way up on my list of cars I now kick myself for letting go. A blood red 2 dr hardtop with the early version of the 318 motor, and a small 4 barrel carb. While not a quarter mile machine, it would cover freeway miles with ease.

The 60 Plymouth Fury Wagon. This monster, nearly 3 tons of overpowered metal, could tow anything you hooked to the back bumper. With a 361 inch engine, air conditioning, and a back facing seat in the rear, it was possible to put a great number of teenagers in there on $3 a car night at the drive-in. Picked up the nickname Sherman, due to its size.

The Lancer. A 1962 Lancer Wagon. This little grey wagon, had an early aluminum slant six. Was a super highway car. Got well over 20 mpg, which in the 60s was about as go as it got. It was quiet, and smooth on the road, and very reliable. If I could find another like it I’d buy it today.

66 Valiants (note the plural) The first one lost in a hard roll over, did prove the strength of the car. Save for a door that came opened and was crushed, the body retained shape well enough that all the glass remained unbroken. Also learned a lot about the value of seat belts that day. Currently have one of these sitting in the garage, when time permits, it’s getting the trans from a 77 Aspen Wagon, overdrive 4 speed. And a bunch of other mods that reflect what I’ve learned over the years.

62 Valiant. This little black Valiant was found at a wrecking yard in Hillsboro, Oregon. In good shape but for a bad engine, the yard pulled the motor and we towed the car home. The first 66 Valiant having been in the above mentioned rollover, the motor from the 66 was transplanted to the 62. Always seemed heavier than the 66, but that could have been shocks or spring rates, I’m pretty sure they where close to the same weight.

66 Dodge Coronet. This 2 door hardtop was nice, but nothing special. Did have the big chrome center console, but with a 318 2 barrel was never a performer.

67 Coronet. This car originally a 318 car had a 383 installed. Ran like the wind, but the breaking was scary. Rear wheels would lock way before the front breaks were doing anything. This car like many of its day was actually dangerous. Still, when you stomped down on the 383, 4bbl breathing out through a set of headers, and glass pack mufflers, well you would just had to have been there.
1971 Barracuda. Owned for a very short time, traded for the Challenger, never really got to know this car. Nice enough 318 auto car, had the Grand Coupe option group. All I ever found different was a small overhead panel, with a few warning lights in it. OK car but really a Valiant with a fancy body.
The Challenger. Well what can I say. A 1970 Dodge Challenger 340 4 speed Convertible. This car was Fast, had it to a real 145 mph once. As I found out, at those speed there is enough air under the hood to bend it. Got hood pins the next week, but the hood always carried small marks of that night. This has to top the list of cars I wish I’d kept, really miss that one.
The Van. A 1971 Dodge Maxi-Van. Got this just after buying the Challenger, couldn’t afford it at the time but have kept it for all these years. Had a 318, then a 360 for about 10 years, back to a 318 due to freeze damage to the 360. But someday would like to take it back to a 360. This old van has been a super workhorse over the years. Did decide last year to cut some of the noise. Use an expanding foam around the top of the side wall, in the channel at the edge of the roof. May have been a big mistake as there is now rust where the foam was placed. Got a couple wrecking yards looking for a camper conversion roof, or an old ambulance roof.Always liked the extra headroom, and this looks like a good time to make the change.

Austin Mini. OK rally not owned, I rented this older mini while on vacation in the U.K. during 1980. Basic as a Go-Cart this little car got great milage , and was a total kick to drive. Haven’t driven one of the new Minis from BMW, I’m sure their great, but for pure driving fun, it would be hard to beat an old Mini.

M.G. Midget. A 73 Midget, bought from a wrecking yard, with a bad trans. Had the trans repaired a enjoyed the heck out of the little car. The memories of the 73 Midget, led to the purchase of one of the current fleet, a 78 Midget. This is a fun little car, although not quite as quick as the 73, it does seem to have more torque than the 73. This car a work in progress, should be very nice when we’re done.

The Hondas. Two Honda 600s on a Sedan looking much like an Austin Mini. The other a Coupe kind of a strange looking car. These where good runners, the 32 cubic inch engine a little small by U.S. standards. But they would run down a freeway at 70 all day, and would run over 300 miles on a 6 gallon gas tank, and still have a little in reserve. They where small and noisy, handled well, and in a strange way where great fun. Oh and you could always find a parking spot.

Fiat 124 4 door wagon. This unassuming little box on wheels was roomy and cornered like a go cart. Would have kept it longer, but a family member not knowing the difference between oil andATF , put transmission fluid in the crankcase. This was a nice enough little car that if I’d had access to a wrecked 124 Spider the little wagon would have got the engine and 5 speed from one of them. Actually that is what the Fiat repair shop we sold it to did. Made a nice parts runner for them.

The Volvos. Two in a row, the first a 73 142 was a really nice runner. Handled well was smooth, not American car fast, but held its own. With the Volvo I had one of those interesting moments. Having decided that I wanted a sunroof to open up the car a bit. I bought a high quality roof and yes it went in perfectly, but there was that moment, standing by the car power saw in hand, wondering if this is really a good idea. This car was traded for a 71 Wagon because the 73 didn’t have back doors. The wagon was tired and was always being worked on. Was never really happy with the wagon although to it’s credit, it did continue to run until it was sideswiped while parked on the street.

1976 Aspen Wagon. Although not a cool car, this Aspen did a great job for me while I had it. Slant six, automatic, it ran well, rode smooth, and had very few problems. Notably one day the power dropped off and it would just barely run. Turned out that the catalytic converter had plugged up. Being a week end, I just took the converter loose, and jambed a big screwdriver through the ceramic honeycomb. Put everything back together, and forgot about it, until it came time to relicense the car. Turned out it passed the smog test anyway. This was also the site of an interesting look into the mind of a child. While driving my oldest daughter, then 6, home, don’t actualy remember what we had been doing that day. We stopped at McDonalds for some Chicken Nuggets, a big favorite of hers at the time. Well honey being what it is, sort of ran out of the little dipping cup, and all over the front seat. I looked over and commented on this being a real problem, Avrila (my oldest) said while holding up the other cup of honey, “It’s OK daddy, I have another container.”

1993 Dodge Caravan. Pretty basic little mini-van. Notable only for its demise. Got a call at home one Sunday morning that June and the girls had been in an accident. Jumped in the big van, and went to the scene. Some guy, not paying attention had made a left turn, hitting them almost head on. Hard enough hit that the Caravan and the Chevy Caravan he was driving were both totaled. The girls where bruised , and it took some time to get June out of the Caravan, the dash board having been pushed back far enough to pin her to the seat. Several days later we went to look at a replacement vehicle, I’d found a nice all wheel drive Caravan with nice seating, the four bucket, and rear bench layout. June sat in the drivers seat, broke into a cold sweat, started shaking. We ended up buying anInterpid that the dealer had.

1993 Dodge Intrepid. The replacement for the above mini-van. This car is a great driver, but has had a checkered history, so far as reliability is concerned . The transmissions on these cars seem to be a weak point, not at 190,000 miles we think we have a handle on that. A local trans shop, put a first class overhaul, and upgrades on the trans. The car is in a shop in Susanville , California waiting for a head casket replacement. It is after all 14 years old, and approaching 200,000 miles. Getting close to serious work, or being traded for something. Newer or older? Good question. My feeling is that the new cars on the market, are great drivers, but may not age well. We will see what ends up in the next entry.