Small block mockup in early, early skinny A-body!

I'm pretty sure that the '60-'62 Valiants and Lancers were the earliest A-bodies, Optik. They were just skinnier than the later A-bodies.

When I replaced my floor pans, I couldn't find one for a '60-'62 Valiant, so I bought one for a '63. It turned out to be virtually identical to the old floor pan, except that I had to trim roughly 2 inches off each side.

The '60 and '61 models used a different K-member and ball joints than the '62 did. The Valiant and Lancer got a minor redesign in '62, in which they got the same ball joints and K-member as the larger cars. So if you want to do this V8 swap, it's best to use a '62 K-member so the Schumacher mount will fit. (Even tho Schumacher only advertises their engine mount kit to fit models back to '63, it will also fit a '62.)

"either way their still incredibly ugly and super cool at the same time. chrysler really went overboard with the fins on those things. gotta love em tho"

Yes, I like mine because it looks like a toad. Chrysler would have sold many, many more Valiants and Lancers if they hadn't been styled so weird. Lots of potential customers were turned off by the styling. The car sold a lot better after it got more normal styling in 1963. Chrysler historians tend to think that if Ma Mopar had introduced the Valiant in 1960 with more "Falcon-like" styling, and if... well, to explain the rest, I gotta tell you a story..........

OK, remember how the 1961 full-sized Plymouth was a styling disaster, a kind of "Virgil Exner overkill", that sold abysmally? Chrysler really wanted to re-style the Plymouth in 1962 so it would sell better. The stylists had a car all ready to go that was quite handsome. However, in 1961 Chrysler V.P. William Newburg (who would later succeed L.L. "Tex" Colbert as President of Chrysler, only to be deposed a few months later due to charges of conflict-of-interest with Chrysler suppliers) was playing golf at the Oakland Hills Country Club north of Detroit with Ed Cole, President of Chevrolet. Cole mentioned to Newburg that Chevy was going to be introducing the Chevy II in 1962, only Newburg didn't hear him correctly, and thought Cole was saying that Chevy was going to downsize the regular Chevrolet, so he ran back to Chrysler headquarters and ordered the stylists to rush a downsize of the proposed 1962 Plymouth design, and it turned out ugly as hell because they couldn't downsize it that quickly and make it look good. So the '62 Plymouth sold lousy, too.

Anyway, a lot of people seem to think that if the Valiant's styling hadn't been so weird, and if Ma Mopar had introduced the '62 Plymouth as originally designed, Chrysler's sales would have been strong and it would have been in a much more competitive position in later years.