Built from 1959 to 1976, the Plymouth Valiant isn't the most desirable Mopar classic out there. It probably has something to do with its compact size and the fact that it was overshadowed by icons like the Barracuda, Road Runner, and GTX, but it's also one of those Mopars that didn't benefit from the large V8 engines of the muscle car era. Many of them spend their retirement years abandoned in junkyards, but this 1968 example got a second chance at life.
The Valiant debuted in 1960 with a slant-six engine lineup, and it was far from fast. Plymouth introduced a 273-cubic-inch (4.5-liter) V8 for the second-gen model, but things didn't get interesting until 1967, when the third-gen compact saw the light of day. That's when the 273 was joined by the 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8.
But even though the third-generation Valiant was produced alongside Mopar's most iconic muscle cars, it never got a larger mill, despite Plymouth having access to high-performance power plants. The Valiant was quite popular back in the day, but many of them were ordered with six-cylinder engines.
This forgotten two-door sedan is one of those cars. Sadly, this unwanted classic spent around 40 years off the road. The car was still running when it was parked, as its retirement came following a crash that destroyed the sheet metal below its left-side quarter window. The owner never got around to fixing it, so the Valiant ended up spending four decades on a Texas farm.
The good news is that the Plymouth was parked in a half-closed barn, so it wasn't completely exposed to the elements. The car is rusty, but it looks impressively nice for a vehicle that's been sitting for so long. If you ignore the dirt, that is. However, the old six-cylinder engine was no longer running.
But that didn't stop the folks over at YouTube's "Restored," who usually save classic cars from junkyards, to buy it and get it running again. Not only that, but they also took on the challenge of driving it back to the shop, which is a 50-mile (80-km) drive. It might not sound like a lot, but it's a massive distance when you're man-handling a vehicle with a fussy carburetor and a cooling system that doesn't work quite well.
Yet, they manage to do it. Sure, it took a few hours to fix it, drive it, then fix it again by the side of the road, but the old gal made it to the shop, where it should get the TLC it deserves. Don't you love it when that happens? Check it all out in the video below.
Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Full profile
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