´71 Plymouth Valiant

[Stuntman Mike]

Hey dudes

I´ve started posting pics of this build in the WIP of my Duel truck and since it has caught quite some attention, I thought it´d be better to post it here instead of spamming a truck WIP with car stuff. Some information on this conversion can be found here: The Duel Project. Everything else will be posted in here from now. I´ve also found a few more pics of the earlier stages of this build.

As mentioned in the other thread, this Valiant will be made from a Dart body that was mated with a Duster front end. While the Dart body is totally inappropriate to resemble a Valiant, it´s still a useful foundation for extensive bodywork. It actually helps a lot to have more than a chassis plate and two fenders with a hood to work with. I could already write a book about what has been done yet. But I´ll just add some minor information to the picture as the whole process is kinda self explanatory. If questions come up, don´t hesitate to ask and in case you find major inaccuracies, sport a pointer and provide some helpful critics, please. I don´t care when this will be finished. If I need to change something, I´ll gladly do it for the sake of self-flaggeration and accuracy...

Well then...here´s all the pics I could find on my hard drive. I´ve marked what needed to be removed from the Dart´s c-pillars

 

The trailing edge of the hood needed just some minor trimming to fit to the contours of the "thing" (whatever it is called...) between the hood and the windscreen.

 

This is how the engine bay looks after the Duster´s and Dart´s parts were mated.

 

After the body pieces were mated, this view made my toenails fold up. This was when I realized that I loaded myself with tons of work.

 

This was when someone made me realize that the roof height was incorrect for a sedan. It looked kinda weird, just like a top chop.

 

The roof was then cut off of the body and the roof height was adjusted. It also forced me to completely re-do the side window trim that I already did earlier.

 

After the anti-top-chop was done, I´ve had an extremely fragile body to work with. The side window trim brings back a lot of the strength. I simply glued a full sheet of styrene into the hole and drew the trim with a pencil onto the sheet. Then I cut the windows out with an x-acto knife. The result is a lot stronger than just some posts out of strip styrene. And as a benefit there´s no messing around with alignment. There´s now a nice even surface for adding clear sheet for the windows.

 

And that´s where I´m at right now.

 

 

Still lots of unpredictable work. I´m actually curious which stick will be thrown between my legs next. I´m sure the Valiant has already planned something to make me curse the day I was born...

As mentioned, critics are very welcome and most appreciated. Maybe I can get this body good enough to be casted in resin. But be patient, I´m not rushing this and slow progress is to be expected.

 

Cheers Kevin

 

Edited December 15, 2015 by Stuntman Mike

[GTJUNIOR]

Rome wasn't built in a day. Slowly does it. A freind's dad used to drive a 66 or 67 valiant. Your body mods are looking spot on so far.

[72 Charger]

Fantastic work so far Kevin (Slow and steady wins the race) keep at it

[Greg K]

lookin good Kevin. are you going to be using the /6 or the  318 engine for it?

Edited December 15, 2015 by Greg K

[Erik Smith]

Wow. I don't venture into the trucks section too much, so haven't seen this. Great work so far - especially on scribing work. 

[rickcaps55]

Awesome you really need to do one in a 2 door hard top and get it to a good resin guy I would love one of those.!!!

[Ron Hamilton]

Kevin,

 

It looks to me as you are doing a pretty good job on this one. There is not a lot of information on the 1967-73 Plymouth Valiant 4 door sedans, but I found this site that can help you with some of things Bill Geary mentioned about the rear window area.

http://www.valiant.org/chron.html

Your work is great so far. 

[disabled modeler]

I like it...a lot...very cool car.

[vintagercr]

Kevin, that is awesome work.  I love that movie and have it on DVD

[ChrisBcritter]

Very good idea with the window frames; that would be a big help for anyone converting a hardtop to a pillared sedan or coupe (on cars that used the same roof stamping, like the '53 Studebaker coupe, '57 Fairlane, '58 Edsel, '63 notchback Galaxie, etc.). Looking forward to more!

[Crusader101]

Awesome you really need to do one in a 2 door hard top and get it to a good resin guy I would love one of those.!!!

+1

I'd be happy with the 4-door version.

Really nice work, true craftsmanship and modeling skill on display. Look forward to the completed combo, one of my favorite movies back in the day.

[1972coronet]

I am in love with this Valiant , Kevin ! The work you are performing is incredible !  Not to put the carriage before the horse here , but when the time comes to paint the car body , the colour code is "FE5" .

Now , here is another great site for invaluable information in regard to any-thing Chrysler related : Hamtramck Historical http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/library.shtml

[Sledsel]

Very impressive work.

[charlie8575]

Excellent job. I second the request for a resin trans-kit. 

Charlie Larkin

[Stuntman Mike]

Hey! Thanks for all the nice comments and for the links guys. It´s motivating and made me go on with the bodywork. A strip of triangle styrene was glued to the vertical surface of the trunk lid. This will help me to bring this area into shape. The sheet below is just flat and follows the shape of the rear bumper. But there has to be an edge in the panel and this is where the triangular styrene strip comes into play. In 1:1 it´s a very subtle and barely noticable line, but it´s tricky to duplicate in scale.

 

I added a layer of putty after the strip was glued to the body. It looks kinda sloppy, but now there´s enough meat to sand this area into shape. When I´ll be done with sanding, the egde in the panel will be solid styrene instead of putty. It also will help during the sanding process as I can better see what I´m actually doing while approaching the desired result. Just gotta let this cure before I´ll start sanding.

 

As you can see, I tend to work rather careful with putty to reduce the sanding process to a minimum. It also helps to keep the surrounding surfaces clean and unharmed.

I have a ´72 Nova from AMT in progress that I´m turning into a Yenko Deuce. This kit has horrible side window trim and I´m redoing it with the same technique that I used on the Valiant. The refurbishment will include the drip rail trim aswell. It´s just a little work, but fairly easy and manageable by pretty much anyone who has already worked with sheet. I think I´m going to make a tutorial as there are a lot of kits out there that need a little improvement in this area.

Cheers Kevin

[72 Charger]

Very neat Kevin . I always mask up surrounding areas before I put filler on . This also reduces risk of getting filler where you don't want it . Im Watching with great interest keep at it

[426-Hemi]

Now theres a Mopar you don't hear of being modeled every day..... Whats ya plans for a power plant in it?

[Stuntman Mike]

Now theres a Mopar you don't hear of being modeled every day..... Whats ya plans for a power plant in it?

The Valiant will be underpowered by a Slant-6 from Lindberg's '64 Dodge 330 kit. It has a healthy amount of parts and crisp details. I think it's going to look cool in that engine bay. 

[426-Hemi]

The Valiant will be underpowered by a Slant-6 from Lindberg's '64 Dodge 330 kit. It has a healthy amount of parts and crisp details. I think it's going to look cool in that engine bay. 

NICE! Thats a great little detailed Slant 6 too! (I' have a few of them) so..... I plan to do something sort of the same with a slanty, and use it in a Coronet!

NIICE choice, that will look good!

[jeffb]

im watching!

[Mopar - D]

Kevin nice conversion on your Valiant and I would be interested in a resin body of this. My mom had a 74 Valiant it was silver with a red vinyl top. 

[MrObsessive]

 

 

 

The trailing edge of the hood needed just some minor trimming to fit to the contours of the "thing" (whatever it is called...) between the hood and the windscreen.

 

This is how the engine bay looks after the Duster´s and Dart´s parts were mated.

Still lots of unpredictable work. I´m actually curious which stick will be thrown between my legs next. I´m sure the Valiant has already planned something to make me curse the day I was born...

As mentioned, critics are very welcome and most appreciated. Maybe I can get this body good enough to be casted in resin. But be patient, I´m not rushing this and slow progress is to be expected.

 

Cheers Kevin

 

Kevin, as I mentioned in your other thread, this is super excellent work you're doing! I quoted your pics as you've done an excellent job so far in trying to mate up bodies of disparate proportions. I know that type of work all too well, as I'm a big fan of "if something's not quite right, fix it as best you can!" BTW, the panel between the hood and the windshield is the "cowl".

And yes, DON'T rush this one!  I know what you're making can be quite tedious, and certainly takes time! You're doing a kit in itself with all of the bodywork (I talked about this in another thread), so I look at it as just as much work as putting an entire kit together!

Thanks for keeping us posted, and as I mentioned before, I'm definitely following along!

[Tom Geiger]

The Valiant will be underpowered by a Slant-6 from Lindberg's '64 Dodge 330 kit. It has a healthy amount of parts and crisp details. I think it's going to look cool in that engine bay. 

"In the original TV version, Duel used two different Valiants: a 1970 model equipped with a 318 V-8 engine and a 1971 model with a 225 Slant Six. Then, when the director extended the film and needed additional scenes of the car, a 1972 model was used; continuity was preserved by all three cars having “Plymouth” in black letters emblazoned on the hood, and all three had the same Plymouth wheel covers."

I just checked because I know I saw V8 emblems on the car in the movie.  Here's an interesting page I just found:

http://www.moviefanfare.com/movie-list/due/

I also love this movie and have always loved all things Valiant, having owned a dozen of them and early Barracudas.  Add me to the list of folks who would buy several resin copies of your work.   You are doing a wonderful job!

 

 

[Jeepxj]

Great car,and great flick..The film was Steven Spielberg's very first shot at directing..Not too bad..

[Stuntman Mike]

Best things come in threes....

I´m doing the side window trim for the third time. I realized the b-pillar was too narrow and while I´m at it I´ve also improved the top of the door panels. I have also started work on the c-pillars by sanding my way into it to bring it into shape. I think the correction of the rear window will be less work than anticipated. I´m also building with more reference now to avoid such no-brainer mistakes like the too narrow pillars. I´m actually starting to count rivets. I also think that the rear end of the body may be a little bit too long. Looks like it could be five millimeters shorter. What do you guys think? Does anyone of you actually own a 4-door Valiant? It would be awesome to get some measurements of different parts of the body.

 

This is how the chassis plate of AMT´s ´71 Duster fits into the body. I just needed to do some minor trimming behind the rear inner fenders. It´s almost a drop-in.

 

And this is the result on the trunk lid after a few minutes of sanding.

 

That´s it for now. Next update will probably cover further work on the new pillar situation.

Wish you all a great christmas and at least one new kit. Cheers Kevin

Edited December 23, 2015 by Stuntman Mike