Sometimes it’s not about the horsepower. It’s about maintaining a classic car’s uniqueness, making it fun to drive and making memories. So it goes with Ray and Ceila Marks 1964 Plymouth Valiant V100 station wagon. Ray was already a devout MOPAR and Valiant enthusiast, so when an add in the local Nickel Saver was spotted for a non-running 1966 there was no resisting the temptation to go check it out. Yes we said 1966.
“We have had several 1966 Plymouths over the years, but imagine our surprise when we got there and it turned out to be a 1964 Valiant station wagon, making it a rare vehicle,” explains Ray. “Then I spotted the V8 badges and saw it was a super rare factory 273 V8 wagon (only 282 made). Well, there was no way I could pass on buying it, especially for the meager asking price of $300!”
There were 10,759 Valiant four-door station wagons built for the 1964 model year, and only 282 of them came with the 273 V8 option. The 273 was an all-new engine for 1964 (also the first year for a V8 option in the Valiant), designed to fit in small vehicles like the Valiant. It was the first of the famous LA-series of Chrysler V8s that would be used in cars and trucks for 40 years. According to Ray, out of those 273 V8 equipped wagons, only 17 were Ruby Red exterior/red interior, and only one of those was a V8/three-on-the-tree drivetrain.
This is the one. There was never any temptation to replace the car’s original 273 and three-speed manual transmission. Ray knew the Valiant’s rarity needed to be preserved, not modified. To the best of his knowledge, it is the only tagged and driving car left of the original 17 red-on-red wagons built.
Ray and Celia spent a year and a half fixing up their little red wagon to make it into a reliable, fun cruiser for road trips and adventures. Once the Valiant was in its new home, disassembly and examination started. While the car was mostly solid, the floors were a mess with cancerous corrosion. A call to Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona was made, and a clean rust-free replacement original floor was obtained. Other work unique to restoring the wagon was finding a set of original V100 chrome badges that were clean and didn’t need rechroming. The originals on the wagon were decent, but after having them rechromed it proved impossible to correctly re-do the gold color on the silver background to make he emblems look original. Thanks to a friend, a pair of excellent condition originals were sourced from Washington state off a car in a wrecking yard. The other hurdle in restoration was the rear side-window seals. At the time new replacements were cost prohibitive, so Ray started hunting down donor side windows he could reuse the seals from. After some experimenting with different soaking methods and materials, Ray was able to salvage a set of original seals that he could use on his wagon.
