Junkyard Find: 1967 Plymouth Valiant
The march of the Chrysler A-bodies into The Crusher’s jaws continues in Colorado; in this series prior to today, we’ve seen this ’75 Duster, this ’75 Dart, this ’64 Valiant wagon, this ’68 Valiant Signet, this ’66 Dart, this ’73 Valiant, and this ’61 Valiant. Most of these cars’ contemporary competitors— Chevy Novas, Ford Falcons and Mavericks, AMC Gremlins— were crushed decades ago, but plenty of the old 318- and Slant 6-powered Chrysler commuters managed to hang on in everyday service for nearly half a century. This ’67 sedan still looks pretty solid, but these days only the Dart coupes are worth fixing up.
Chrysler made the Slant-6 engine from 1959 through 2000, if you count Mexican crate-motor production, and you could still buy US-built trucks with this engine in the late 1980s. With such a junkyard glut, not many Slant-6 engines will be saved once they get to this point.
Plymouth Transaudio AM radio, with none of the CONELRAD frequency markers you’ll see in most car radios of this era.
The owner of this car must have been an AM radio audiophile, what with this aftermarket fader control. No doubt Bobby Goldsboro sounded a lot better this way.
Hey, an aftermarket Libby Light!
Do you really need more interior than this?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Sigh ... very fond memories ... I had a 67 Dart with a 170ci I6 and auto tranny that would cruise at 90mph all day, and a 1969 225ci Valiant with auto tranny that would break loose the tires from a standing stop. Great cars for their era, and I loved both of mine.
Mid-late 70's I learned to drive stick on my dad’s 68 Valiant yellow 4 dr 225-6 3 on the tree, rubber floor mats and a very effective vacuum floor pump windshield washer. Also learned how to do a valve job on it. He got well over 150k out of it with normal maintenance, tune ups, brakes and a clutch. until the a front torsion bar separated from the subframe. He did not want to bother with having it welded so sold it and bought a blue 704 dr with A/C. At the time I wished he bought a Duster because they seemed less pedestrian. The 68 was the 1st year of the side markers, the round style and optional head restraints on a entry level Chrysler product. It also had the cool uniquely styled radio with the vertical tuning knobs. It’s a shame there was never a wagon version of the 67-76 A-Body.