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Reminiscing About Being Young, Automobiles, and Such


V.T. Eric Layton

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V.T. Eric Layton

EDIT NOTES: This thread was split off from a thread in Bruno's ATL due to the fact that we kinda' went astray with the topic of the original thread. This one turned out to be interesting, so I've given it its own place here at Scot's. ~Eric

 

Hmm... wish I was 26 again (in '87... or even '77).* :)

 

*This comment was in reply to the Linux 26th birthday in the original thread.

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the only way I'd want to be 26 again is if I could also know what I know now. I could endorse that one! But to be young and dumb again just for the sake of being young, just sounds like swapping handicaps. LOL!

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After thought I can truly say I would not want to be 26 again unless I could roll things back to the early 1970s when I originally was 26. Today's world is not one I would want to face for the next 60+ years.

Edited by ebrke
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When I was 26 Nixon was in the white house, I drove a 1969 Valiant, the biggest hit on the radio was "American Pie." I used a slide rule or wrote BASIC programs for use on a mainframe time share system. I had just gotten married and my wife looked like this:

 

MariaampRay_0018_zpswrkuvajp.png

 

Not a bad time to be honest.

Edited by raymac46
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V.T. Eric Layton

HA! My first "official" car was a 19 and 69 Plymouth Valiant. Wish I still had that thing. It was an awesome little machine.

 

You can just catch a glimpse of it in the background of this pic, which also shows my mom's '59 Chevy Belair and my '69 Mustang Mach I.

 

fQPV5Tt.jpg

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Could be lots of places in Australia. My parents had a 68 VF Valiant like this:

1969-chrysler-vf-valiant.jpg

 

Did you have a 62 Valiant like this in USA? Called S series here and now highly sought after.

s3869a.jpg

Both these were built in Australia.

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In Canada the early Valiants and Dodge Darts looked like the S series. There was a redesign in 1968 and both the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart continued to be sold until the K-Car designs replaced them in the early 80s.

The best feature of the Valiant was the 225 CID Slant-6. Otherwise it was a crashbox - RWD, manual steering and brakes, vinyl benches, solid rear axle with lots of "axle hop," 3 speed auto, no A/C. AM radio.

 

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

Edited by raymac46
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V.T. Eric Layton

That Mopar 225 CI slant six was one of the most reliable, efficient, and easy-to-work-on engines to ever come out of Detroit. Also, the Chrysler Air-Temp AC installed in my Valiant was ICE COLD!

 

And yes, we had those early 60s Valiants. They became more "boxy" looking in the late 60s - early 70s, though.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Valiant

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V.T. Eric Layton

HA! They always did sound like sewing machines. ;)

 

The simplest engine I've ever worked on. I rebuilt the 225 slant six in my Valiant when I was 13 years old. It was my first automotive engine rebuild without any help from dad or older friends. Ran like a champ afterwards. Of course, it didn't really need the rebuild. I just wanted to do it. The Valiant was an "extra" car around my home back then because dad had his '69 Pontiac Catalina, my mother had her '59 Chevy and her '63 Pontiac Safari station wagon (business vehicle). The little Valiant had been my mom's but she never drove it anymore, so I claimed it as mine.

 

I was actually driving it at 13 (illegally). I had to sneak it out, though. Fortunately, mom didn't pay much attention and dad worked 2nd shift, so I got quite a bit of drive time before I actually got my license 3 years later. ;) I got my first ticket (for sliding across and intersection in the rain) in that Valiant when I was 15 (only had a restricted license). Fortunately for me, the cop was the father of a girl I went to school with. He did not mark down that it was just a learner's permit on the ticket. It was $26.50. I had to fess up to mom, who by that time knew that I was driving quite a bit, so she could go with me to the clerk's office downtown and pay the fine.

 

Ah... those were the daze!

 

I got my '69 Mach I when I was 16 and we gave the little Valiant to my uncle (mom's brother). Sadly, someone T-boned him at an intersection a few months later and totaled the little Plymouth. I was very sad. :(

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I had the '69 until 1975 when I replaced it with another Valiant. No where near as good a car. Although it had the venerable Slant-6 all the pollution control crap was added on. There was a particularly bad exhaust recirculation system that crippled the engine before it fully warmed up.

I switched to Toyota for 15 years after that but I'm back to Chrysler now. My current Pentastar V6 is smoother quieter and more powerful than the old Slant-6 and gives far better fuel economy.

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V.T. Eric Layton

The pic in the above post with my Valiant, mom's Chevy, and my Mach I was taken in '77. Below is a pic of me from that year and a recent pic side by side to demonstrate what 40 years of hard living and gravity will eventually do to you...

 

bVbC5Xo.png

 

:hysterical:

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the only way I'd want to be 26 again is if I could also know what I know now. I could endorse that one! But to be young and dumb again just for the sake of being young, just sounds like swapping handicaps. LOL!

 

I'd swap my handicaps for being young and dumb any day :whistling:

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You young uns and yer four wheeled buggys. Now this is a proper car circa 1962 it had 70,000 n the clock when I owned her in the 80's and had never had the cylinder head off let alone a rebuild.

Still did over 100 mph with nine people on board and had hydraulic jacks which you operated from a switch under the drivers feet to lift the car up if you ever had a puncture. I believe it is still being used today as a wedding car.

 

Xxi7rGB.jpg

 

I called her Betty after the fabulous french movie Betty Blue and she gave me loads of stories to tell. Ah them were days. :Laie_95:

Edited by abarbarian
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V.T. Eric Layton

Hey! I see autos like that one on all those Brit mysteries that I like to watch... Father Brown, Morse, Endeavour, Miss Marple, etc. :yes:

 

And they're always being driven on the wrong side of the road. ;)

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