1968 Valiant Help

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dylantman8

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Joined
Jan 27, 2023
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Location
Thousand Oaks, California
Hello all, I'm looking at a guy selling his 1968 plymouth valiant and i'm hoping to get some insight on value as well as if the project is even worth it. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. I was told it has a built up transmission and has reverse manual valve bodies. The motor in the car is a 440 from what i've been told is out of a motorhome. The car does not drive as the owner has subframe connectors that have yet to be installed and cut fuel and brake lines in prep. He did start up the motor for me, but the headers have to finish being welded, gauges have to be wired in. Also, the body has been cut to accommodate 31.5x13.5 new hoosiers on new BelaK 15x10 rear wheels, in the front there is also new belaK 15x3.5 with newer front runner tires too. I've also been told the car has 4.56 sure grip gears which I feel are too tall for a 440, but the bigger tires might make up for it, any comments on gearing is appreciated. Another thing about the car is the front end has been completely rebuilt. The big thing with the car is parts that he has with it.

The extra parts the guy has included (not installed):
Hughes whiplash cam
comp cam "pro mag rocker kit" part number 1621 - 16
Winters side winder shifter
Full MSD ignition system with 6AL-2 box
complete Single plate nitrous system NOS brand - has jets, plate, controller and bottle
Holley 750 double pumper.
The guy also has another bare block outside of the car that has been sonic tested and passed (has report) and the number it is: 7 - 11 - 67 /; 2536430 - 9

The number on the block is:
11- 17 - 74
4006630 - 440 - 9
D - N

The number on transmission:
2C 100716

The stamping on third member is:
2881469

The guy wants 10k for the car and everything, let me know what car is worth or if it is a project worth finishing. Like I said above, any thoughts or comments are appreciated. I have seen car in person and might be able to answer questions you have about it.

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Are you looking to buy a real race car? That is where this build is heading. I would want the input of current racers as to the cage work, is it currently correct? These rules are always changing. This cage design is correct for what class? If I didn't like the answers, I wouldn't buy. Maybe too much to change.
 
Murray said:
Are you looking to buy a real race car? That is where this build is heading. I would want the input of current racers as to the cage work, is it currently correct? These rules are always changing. This cage design is correct for what class? If I didn't like the answers, I wouldn't buy. Maybe too much to change.
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I’m looking for a street strip car. So yes and no to the question of real race car.
 
What kind of car do you want in the end is the question you need to ask yourself.

That car could be a street/strip car if your okay/want a car with a cage. You maybe able to install a backseat, but you'd never realistically be able to use it.

After looking at photos the car it is a good start, but needs alot of work. Looking at how dirty and greasy things are like the engine and rear, personally I'd have to tear them apart to atleast inspect and clean up. Cage needs finished welded. A project at this stage has alot of little loose ends that would need finished and those little ends add up quick. As far as the value, look at the project as a sum of parts. Figure what the value of the parts are and that should put you in the ballpark of what the car is really worth.
 
The cage won't pass any cert at all. The door bar appears too low for even 11.49 or faster.
 
The car looks like a bit of nightmare really. I wouldn’t pay very much for that at all. Having to undo then redo everything is a PITA. And unless the sum of all parts equals something I would want it has no value to me really. Easier to start from scratch, then you know you have all the clips, nuts, bolts, bells, and whistles etc included For reassembly, and you’ll be able to choose every component that goes in the car.

the rear tires are massive and goofy looking, they don’t really appear to fit all that well either.

there are better choices of cars for probably less money. Start fresh

just my 2 cents
 
Some of those bars aren't even required. For a street/strip car, I'd take out the knee breaker, rocker bars, main hoop X-brace (redo the harness bar/seat brace), and redo the door bars so they're where they're supposed to be.

That's a big project for $10k. You should be able to find something much further along for that in my opinion. It's got a lot of good parts though, so who knows.
 
****, there's like close to $8,000 in wheels and tires there. The car isn't exactly easy to find , it's got the big block conversion done already, it's tubbed, thats alot of hard work already done, you can finish it up the way you'd like, I personally if I had $10,000 would buy that car.
The engine is probably a semi turd but fun for street.
It's your money and if you can envision a finished product to your like it, well....go for it.
Especially if he'll finish up the stuff to get it drivable.
 
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mopowers said:
Some of those bars aren't even required. For a street/strip car, I'd take out the knee breaker, rocker bars, main hoop X-brace (redo the harness bar/seat brace), and redo the door bars so they're where they're supposed to be.

That's a big project for $10k. You should be able to find something much further along for that in my opinion. It's got a lot of good parts though, so who knows.
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I know you said "in my opinion" but "Much further along" for $10,000. No way !
If someone had to pay for the labor just to tub the car it's over a couple thousand dollars, the wheels and tires are probably close to 8k, the 68 valiant itself in my area are scarce at best and never cheap.
 
MOPARMAGA said:
I know you said "in my opinion" but "Much further along" for $10,000. No way !
If someone had to pay for the labor just to tub the car it's over a couple thousand dollars, the wheels and tires are probably close to 8k, the 68 valiant itself in my area are scarce at best and never cheap.
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I hear you, but like the vast majority of cars out there, it's worth far less than the sum of it's parts. Again, just my opinion. We've all seen the ads where someone will state "couldn't build it for that.". To me, that's only relevant if a potential buyer would've bought the same combination of parts.
 
cool car for sure, but a lot of work to do still. Really depends on what you are able to do by yourself - would be a money pit if you need others for everything. The whole drivetrain / electrical / mechanical stuff must be gone trough in every case, it just seems to be cobbled together.

the cage seems tacked only, so changing out some bars should be no problem. Really depends on the price i think.

Michael
 
It appears to be a very solid car and definitely isn't junk. The door bars are an easy fix, unless it's changed the bar has to run between the drivers shoulder and elbow in normal seating position. Something close to that anyway. The only other thing I see is the front mounts for the rear spring. I can't tell from the photos, but it appears to be just hung on the side of the frame rail. With the car on the ground check for front tire clearance on the headers when turned lock to lock. If it's close just sitting, there's a good chance they'll hit as the suspension moves while driving and turning. Been there done that.
 
You can spend a ton of money making it your car. My project/Krusty was bought as a roller and very similar. If you like the wheels, cool. But it you want it and don't need/like the sum of it's parts. Negotiate for a roller. That's what I did.
 
Is that deal in the middle of the seat/shoulderharness support bar legal? Been out of the loop for a while
 
I can't find anywhere in the NHRA rulebook that specifically prohibits crossbars like that. I'm only seeing that it must be fully welded (i.e., not a bolt-in deal). All those monkey bars are a bit much for a street car though IMO. Like an off-road shop built it or something.
 
the point i saw brought up a few times, and one that i'll bring up again is do you want a racecar or do you want a street car that might see some time at the strip?

this project is tilted more toward racecar and not a street/strip car unless you like 'em a little rough and tumble or are feelin' like throwing gobs of cash at it.

the body looks solid, how's the tags/title situation? if you're not in love with that rim/tire combo the possible deal you might get on them is a moot point.

i think 10K is a little rich for basically a roller that you'll more than likely have to go back thru on some stuff. it's got some good stuff going on, but that's a mountain of work behind a bunch of question marks.
 
Another thing to add is the rear fenders have been rolled and cut in order to get the rear wheels to fit and even then it needs more cut out if i were to keep them. Previous owner took a cut off wheel and sectioned out some of the rear quarter panel wheel well and then welded it back. I dont know if it will show in photos. A bit annoyed by that because if owner wanted big tires he could have just got 28s instead of 31.5 and have no clearance issues. And Yes, i do want a race car like people mention and the aesthetics of a cage seem cool to me in addition to the safety, but a certified door bar would be needed.
 
dylantman8 said:
Another thing to add is the rear fenders have been rolled and cut in order to get the rear wheels to fit and even then it needs more cut out if i were to keep them. Previous owner took a cut off wheel and sectioned out some of the rear quarter panel wheel well and then welded it back. I dont know if it will show in photos. A bit annoyed by that because if owner wanted big tires he could have just got 28s instead of 31.5 and have no clearance issues. And Yes, i do want a race car like people mention and the aesthetics of a cage seem cool to me in addition to the safety, but a certified door bar would be needed.
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Yeah but 31.5 is way cooler.
(My opinion).
I can see the bodywork in the top picture, yeah it does need some finishing up.
 
I like that car. Aside from the door bars needing to be redone, I think bars from the A-pillar to the front of the frame through the firewall need to be added. Cutting out that portion of the inner fenders really weakens the front end considerably.

I’m not a big block guy, so I’d offer less for the car sans engine and trans.
 
the more i thought about this, the less i think that's a good deal. i frequently tell my clients that if you want a race car, buy one that's already done. it's a bigger upfront outlay but you'll wind up spending less money-- especially if you want to use it right now and not stretch the build out over years.

just as a quick example, if you were to pick that up and get it going-- and here we're talking about just make it a nice, fun car, not full on motor work and competitive race car-- you're probably talking about dropping another 10K into the project.

>right out of the gate you got the big one of paint and body. there's 3~5K easy.
>then add in all the little fiddly stuff like new badges, lenses, hood scoop, bright work. let's say 1000.
>from there, tackle the wiring and plumbing probably another 1K. (does it have a tank?)
> then work out the cage, rear fenderwells and whatever is going on with that spring relocation, the subframe connectors (if needed) additional bracing (needed), and tack on some front and rear shocks, get the headers and exhaust sorted. probably 1500
>then get to town on the interior. you're gonna need a shifter at least and some seats. let's say bare bones and you can make it happen for 1500

all this back of the napkin math is all assuming you don't touch the engine or transmission, and you're still in a conservative 8K

now let's run some comps!

on the project side you have these:

www.forabodiesonly.com

[FOR SALE] - 1974 Plymouth Scamp Project - Lots of good parts - $7,500

1974 Plymouth scamp project. Hate to sell but haven’t had any time to work on it. Solid car with lots of money spent on chassis and suspension work. Full cage, subframe has been connected and has new floor pan. Complete qa1 tubular front suspension- upper and lower control arms, strut bars...
www.forabodiesonly.com www.forabodiesonly.com

i think this is a fair price for where the project is at in terms of the parts that are involved and the work that's been done.

www.forabodiesonly.com

[FOR SALE] - 1973 Plymouth Duster

Listing this car for a friend. .30 over 440,Indy SR aluminum heads, 630 lift mechanical cam, aluminum roller liftersm super victor with 975 Holley, TTI headers to muffled exhaustNOS kit with progressive controller, Purge system. Tublar a arms with coil overs on front, 90/10 Shocks, TCS Shifter...
www.forabodiesonly.com www.forabodiesonly.com

this isn't my cup of tea, but it scratches that "let's go party" itch and the ad laid it out fairly that it's got good bones but just needs some love. price wise, i think it's slightly inflated but not by a bunch.

on done and ready to rock side of things:

[SOLD] - 69 Plymouth Valiant

at an ask of 26 i think this is a good score. you couldn't make the one you're looking at this nice for 15 on top of the 10 going in. granted it's sold, but i think this illustrates well what a comp could be.

and for a clean slate:
losangeles.craigslist.org

1969 Plymouth Valiant PROJECT - auto parts - by owner - vehicle...

This car came to me in a deal for services rendered, so I really don't know what all is included, therefore YOU NEED TO COME SEE THE VEHICLE FOR YOURSELF AND ANSWER YOUR OWN QUESTIONS. I don't have...
losangeles.craigslist.org

i think 5 is inflated, but if you could swing that down to 35 as a roller? it would be an excellent place to start.

also, spring fling is coming up. sit on your wallet a bit and you might scoop something there too. or get the c'list one and source the go fast bits on the cheap in the swap meet!
 
junkyardhero said:
the more i thought about this, the less i think that's a good deal. i frequently tell my clients that if you want a race car, buy one that's already done. it's a bigger upfront outlay but you'll wind up spending less money-- especially if you want to use it right now and not stretch the build out over years.

just as a quick example, if you were to pick that up and get it going-- and here we're talking about just make it a nice, fun car, not full on motor work and competitive race car-- you're probably talking about dropping another 10K into the project.

>right out of the gate you got the big one of paint and body. there's 3~5K easy.
>then add in all the little fiddly stuff like new badges, lenses, hood scoop, bright work. let's say 1000.
>from there, tackle the wiring and plumbing probably another 1K. (does it have a tank?)
> then work out the cage, rear fenderwells and whatever is going on with that spring relocation, the subframe connectors (if needed) additional bracing (needed), and tack on some front and rear shocks, get the headers and exhaust sorted. probably 1500
>then get to town on the interior. you're gonna need a shifter at least and some seats. let's say bare bones and you can make it happen for 1500

all this back of the napkin math is all assuming you don't touch the engine or transmission, and you're still in a conservative 8K

now let's run some comps!

on the project side you have these:

[/URL]

i think this is a fair price for where the project is at in terms of the parts that are involved and the work that's been done.

[/URL]

this isn't my cup of tea, but it scratches that "let's go party" itch and the ad laid it out fairly that it's got good bones but just needs some love. price wise, i think it's slightly inflated but not by a bunch.

on done and ready to rock side of things:

[SOLD] - 69 Plymouth Valiant

at an ask of 26 i think this is a good score. you couldn't make the one you're looking at this nice for 15 on top of the 10 going in. granted it's sold, but i think this illustrates well what a comp could be.

and for a clean slate:
[/URL]

i think 5 is inflated, but if you could swing that down to 35 as a roller? it would be an excellent place to start.

also, spring fling is coming up. sit on your wallet a bit and you might scoop something there too. or get the c'list one and source the go fast bits on the cheap in the swap meet!
Click to expand...
This was incredibly informative and helped me actually evaluate the car as opposed to looking at just sum of parts. And yes, car needs a lot of work. I just now need to figure out a way to let the owner of the valiant down easy because I was pretty serious about buying it but told him i’d do research and what not then we would talk about price. And you’re right, Spring Fling is coming and i’m 30 minutes away!
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