225 Slant 6 Cylinder/Original Interior/Exterior Respray/New Inspection

1971 Plymouth Valiant

Chrysler A-bodies... Poor Darts and Valiants, the wallflowers of their era, slogging along tirelessly for decades with their super-indestructo slant sixes yet constantly overlooked in favor of flashier iron. Used by grandmothers going to church on Sundays, and young families on a budget, The Valiant actually gave birth to the more sportier Barracuda and Duster.

The coolest thing about the '71 Valiant is that it's the car Spielberg used in The Greatest Valiant Movie of All Time, DUEL. The only problem with the '71 was that Chrysler had axed the pushbutton shifter by that time. One of 229,138 examples of Valiants and Dusters produced that year, it is neither rare nor sexy, but certainly holds its charm.

Exterior
With a respray over the original born with Bahama Yellow, now in Turquoise, paint still shines, however there are several areas of rust bubbling, invasive edge rust, rocker rust, and fender surround rust. Gaps are fairly even, and steel has some waviness to it. Chrome has areas of dulling and pitting, and front bumper has a few dents. Standard wheel covers have thin white sidewalls wrapped around them.

Interior
Door panels greet us in brown metal paint, and vertical ribbed cream vinyl. Original seats have turquoise plaid and smooth seat covers, and we did not remove them to note what condition the actual seats are in. Faded gold carpet covers the floors and the original dash in brown is behind the original steering wheel. A crack can be seen on the padded dash top, and headliner has numerous areas of packing tape covering the tears.

Drivetrain
A leaning tower of power is found under the hood in an unrestored engine bay. The engine is in the form of a 225ci slant 6-cylinder. A 1-barrel carburetor feeds this known to be indestructible mill, and a 904 – 3-speed automatic is attached to the back of the car. The rear measures 7.25 inches and is geared with 3.23 gears.

Undercarriage
Some areas of surface rust, on body hangers, rockers, and frame. A few repairs have been performed on the frame.