'60 Valiant

[Kit Basher]

This one is for a buddy for Christmas. His story is that he took a date to the drag races in this car. As he was getting ready to leave after the races, the shifter broke off. Fortunately, he had some buddies who were racing, and one loaned him some vise grips so he could get home. He says he never dated that girl again. He also said the chrome lug nuts made him really cool in Iowa in the early '60s.

Many thanks to "MisterNNL" who provided the vise grips. Thanks, Tom! Is this a great forum or what?

P.S. Sorry about the six lug wheels, they were the only ones I had that fit the tires. They came from the Revell '64 Fairlane kit. What's up with that?

Edited September 18, 2022 by Kit Basher

[Kah puts]

Kowabunga Shazam and push button automatics, fantastic. I did see the the hybrid floor shift, neat-oh. 

[Scott8950]

I like these cars, nice job

[Kit Basher]

7 hours ago, Kah puts said:

Kowabunga Shazam and push button automatics, fantastic. I did see the the hybrid floor shift, neat-oh. 

Thanks Glen, you've got the early '60s lingo down.?

 

7 hours ago, Scott8950 said:

I like these cars, nice job

Thanks, Scott!

[ChrisR]

COOL!!

[espo]

Great looking Valiant. This is a kit that I would like to see come back. I had a friend who had a red 1960 with the three-speed floor shift way back when. The chrome lug nuts would only last one winter I would think. 

[Kit Basher]

10 hours ago, ChrisR said:

COOL!!

Thanks, Chris!

 

8 hours ago, espo said:

Great looking Valiant. This is a kit that I would like to see come back. I had a friend who had a red 1960 with the three-speed floor shift way back when. The chrome lug nuts would only last one winter I would think. 

Thanks, David! This is just a basic screw bottom kit, but I think it came out OK. Your friend and my buddy, are you sure we're not talking about the same guy? How many can there be??

[XYHARRY]

23 hours ago, espo said:

Great looking Valiant. This is a kit that I would like to see come back. I had a friend who had a red 1960 with the three-speed floor shift way back when. The chrome lug nuts would only last one winter I would think. 

G'day David. The valiant R series is available as a curbside kit from an Australian business called The Parts Box. The price in the screenshot is in Australian dollars. 

Cheers, David.

[XYHARRY]

Nice valiant, we got this model in Australia in 1962, two years after you guys. We raced them in the touring series. 

Cheers, David. ??

[espo]

15 hours ago, Kit Basher said:

Thanks, Chris!

 

Thanks, David! This is just a basic screw bottom kit, but I think it came out OK. Your friend and my buddy, are you sure we're not talking about the same guy? How many can there be??

I think the guy's last name was Tolerton or something that sounded like that. We were spending summers in northern Wisconsin, but he was from somewhere in the south, but I just don't remember where since this was the summer of 1960. 

[espo]

21 minutes ago, XYHARRY said:

G'day David. The valiant R series is available as a curbside kit from an Australian business called The Parts Box. The price in the screenshot is in Australian dollars. 

Cheers, David.

Thank you for the info. I have no idea what the rate of exchange is, but $99.99 seems really high. I had a kit that looked just like this back when this was a new car. Your picture looks just like the kit I had and that was the style that AMT was selling at the time. I tried to rebuild it a few years ago since it was painted with a brush, and maybe not the best paint job ever, and wanted to redo it in red. The paint stripper I used works fine on our plastic of today. The problem is that the plastic used at that time became very brittle and would just start breaking up when handling the body. 

[Kit Basher]

4 hours ago, espo said:

I think the guy's last name was Tolerton or something that sounded like that. We were spending summers in northern Wisconsin, but he was from somewhere in the south, but I just don't remember where since this was the summer of 1960. 

Wow! Two different guys with red '60 Valiant 3 speeds. That resin kit looks exactly like the one I built, except for the RHD, and mine was plastic. FWIW, I found it on the 'bay for way less than 100 bucks, in pretty good shape. Never painted, glass in pretty good shape, no parts missing. It did need re-chroming (SpazStix). If you keep looking, there may be another one.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Kit Basher

[rsmodels]

Hugh, nice job on the Valiant. That shift lever is great! I love unusual looking cars and 4 doors so you got me on this one!

[satterwhite78]

That pair of Vice Grips might have been the first car theft prevention device Invention, only second to removing the ignition key...lol!  Great build, Love it!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Really cool. Love the shifter, and the story behind it.  

[bbowser]

Buddy of mine had one of those in high school he painted with a brush, looked great!  Nice model.

[XYHARRY]

8 hours ago, espo said:

Thank you for the info. I have no idea what the rate of exchange is, but $99.99 seems really high. I had a kit that looked just like this back when this was a new car. Your picture looks just like the kit I had and that was the style that AMT was selling at the time. I tried to rebuild it a few years ago since it was painted with a brush, and maybe not the best paint job ever, and wanted to redo it in red. The paint stripper I used works fine on our plastic of today. The problem is that the plastic used at that time became very brittle and would just start breaking up when handling the body. 

Yeah, they are expensive. Around us$70 + freight. 

[Kit Basher]

12 hours ago, rsmodels said:

Hugh, nice job on the Valiant. That shift lever is great! I love unusual looking cars and 4 doors so you got me on this one!

Thanks, Rich!

 

10 hours ago, satterwhite78 said:

That pair of Vice Grips might have been the first car theft prevention device Invention, only second to removing the ignition key...lol!  Great build, Love it!

Thanks, Chuck! I'm not sure a lot of folks would want to steal this car anyway, it's not exactly Eleanor.?

 

10 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Really cool. Love the shifter, and the story behind it.  

Thanks, Bill!

 

9 hours ago, bbowser said:

Buddy of mine had one of those in high school he painted with a brush, looked great!  Nice model.

Thanks, Bruce!

[slusher]

Beautiful classic!

[Kit Basher]

5 hours ago, slusher said:

Beautiful classic!

Thanks, Carl!

[ewetwo]

I dated a girl who had a black one with red interior. She named it Esmeralda. LOL