BODACIOUS BEATERS (and Road-going Derelicts): MO' VALIANT!
Looks like we’re going for a double-shot of Valiance, here at the home of the B/B! This time it appears to be a ’63 Convertible model, done up in early ‘80’s Sunset Strip Heavy-Metal Hair Band red and grey primer, no less!
As in it looks as if it was really done in the early ‘80’s and just left to its own devices! WAAYYY BODACIOUS!
Check out the “For Sale” sign. So sunbleached as to be illegible, it is.
If I’m interpreting the owner’s “statement of intent” correctly, this Valiant is more “on display” than “for sale”—which is just as well. Who’d want to let such a unique vehicle like this one suffer such a mundane fate as to be sold and then given a legitimate restoration?!
Not I, for one.
Also noteworthy in the owner’s trim preferences are the stub of “whip” antenna on top of the right front quarter panel, and the mismatched and undersized lower-than-stock profile tires. Nice touches, for sure!
I was always impressed that Plymouth designers executed such a styling about-face with this model, in the space of a couple of years. But for the emblem design, the earlier iteration (one model year previous—featured in the last Bodacious Beaters entry) and this one seem to have very little in common, in terms of exterior styling. In my opinion, they both have merit; but it certainly is a comparison of “apples and oranges”.
Speaking of “apples”, when I lived in the “Big Apple” back in the early ‘80’s, I frequently got out to Fire Island to enjoy the E. Coast beach scene during the summer. I had a ’67 Dodge Dart at my disposal for these excursions; but I would have much preferred cruising this sibling convertible predecessor, instead. It would have definitely made the scene for one of those infamous Oak Beach Inn (R.I.P.) hard rocking weekend concert/party nights.
Phil has written features and columns for a number of automotive periodicals and web-based information companies. He has run a successful Auto Repair Business in the past for many years (See “Memoirs of an Independent Repair Shop Owner” on this ttac site). He can be contacted through this very site, or http://www.linkedin.com/
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Try finding 80 series tires in your local tire store nowadays and you'll know why it has "low profile" tires on it.
Didn't one of the Magliozzi brothers (Click and Clack) joke about one of them owning a Valiant convertible? This might be the one that was abandoned on the street, when either Tom or Ray got a Fiat. I wonder if he'd like to have it back?