1967 Plymouth Valiant - A Tale Of Four Rookies

When you have family, who needs money? With the help of his three sons, Todd Hughes built a sweet Valiant for peanuts

Teams full of rookies are so unpredictable. They're either winning championships or languishing in last place. Usually it's the latter. Playing in front of more empty seats than a David Hasselhoff concert only adds to the humiliation. Considering that Todd Hughes and his three teenage sons had a combined zero years of hot rodding experience among the four of them, their 1967 Plymouth Valiant project seemed destined to crumble into a smoldering pile of misery. But that's not what happened. Through sheer grit and determination, the four rookies taught themselves how to weld, assemble engines, and perform basic bodywork en route to building a sweet street machine for less than $20,000. Against the odds, the intrepid quartet makes you wonder if experience really is all it's cracked up to be.

It certainly doesn't appear that way, at least not all the time. With his three sons approaching their teenage years, Todd needed a way to bond with his boys. "They're part of the video game generation, and all they used to do before we got the Valiant was sit behind a computer in their rooms. I was quickly losing ground when it came to having something in common with them, so building this car was something I could do with them to keep them at home in the garage with me," he explains. Interestingly, Todd didn't have much experience himself as far as turning wrenches is concerned. "Being a man, it should be in your DNA to want to build cars. My dad had muscle cars growing up, but he didn't really work on them. My father-in-law Gary Silvers is a Mopar fanatic, so he made sure to lead us down the path to building a Mopar."

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"This is more than a car. It's a reason for me and my boys to hang out together." —Todd Hughes

Although Todd and his sons didn't hone in on one particular Mopar model to shop for, the right opportunity came knocking at the right time. "I first saw the Valiant tucked behind a shed while driving back and forth to work. Guys from my generation wanted 'Cudas and Challengers, and since you didn't see Valiants very often I didn't recognize what kind of car it was from the side of the road," Todd recalls. "A few months later, the owner pulled it up to the front of the yard and put a for sale sign on it, so I had to pull the trigger. The car was very dusty and the interior was gone, but once we swapped out the battery and put air in the tires, it fired right up and we drove it home. Coincidentally, I later found out that my painter Micky Buchanan bought the Valiant from the original owner in Tennessee, and sold it to the gentleman I bought the car from."

Once the Valiant arrived at the Hughes complex, the quartet pondered the possibilities of their new project. "My boys really liked the look of the old Super Stock Darts, so we wondered what a Valiant would look like with a similar stance and a fiberglass hood. We wanted to emulate that same look but with a Valiant instead of a Dart," Todd explains. Although the car's body was in great shape, needing nothing more than a pea-sized patch panel on the passenger side fender, the Hughes had to rebuild just about everything in order to accomplish their goals. "My father-in-law figured we needed some guidance, so he dropped off three boxes full of old Mopar Muscle magazines and said ‘you're going to need these.' We got most of our ideas by reading those past issues, and followed the tech articles to the letter as we rebuilt the suspension and got the most out of our smog 360 small-block cylinder heads. Gary kindly donated lots of spare parts for the car, and my sons started scouring eBay to find some deals."

3/21 The flat black hood and Hemi hoodscoop hearken back to Super Stock A-Bodies of yore. What looks like paint on the hood is actually a vinyl wrap.

Since a fancy aftermarket suspension wasn't in the budget, the Hughes had to get creative. To swap the Slant Six out for a 360 small-block as economically as possible, they pulled the K-member from a Barracuda, then had it sandblasted and powdercoated. Since the stock chassis needed some extra heft to prep it for V-8 power, the Hughes matched the factory front lower control arms with an RMS tubular upper control arm to achieve the desired camber gain. They were then paired up with PST torsion bars, KYB shocks, and Performance Online spindles and disc brakes. Out back, Mopar Performance Super Stock leaf springs and shocks replaced the sagging stock hardware. The finished chassis rolls on 15-inch Rocket Racing Strike wheels wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber.

Next on the checklist was fortifying the driveline. The stock rearend certainly wasn't going to hold up to the extra power, but spending several thousands of dollars on an upgrade wasn't an option. The Hughes rearend of choice may be a bit controversial, but their determination to find an outside-the-box solution was pure genius. "After doing some research online I found out that the '97-02 Ford Explorers had very stout 8.8-inch rearends in them, and since they were produced in such high volume there are millions of them in junkyards. They came with huge 3.5-inch axletubes, 31-spline axles, 4.10:1 gears, a limited-slip differential, and disc brakes," Todd explains. "From the factory, the pumpkin is offset to accommodate the four-wheel-drive system, so the axles are two different lengths. What we did was narrow the longer axletube 3 inches, pull a short side axle off of another stock 8.8-inch rearend, then assembled it all together. Even with new bearings and seals, we only spent $210 on the entire setup. It worked out perfectly and made it possible to fit 275mm-wide tires without mini-tubbing the car. My boys had to learn how to MIG weld to finish that part of the project."

4/21 Todd says many people see the monster axletubes on the Ford 8.8-inch rearend and mistake it for a Dana 60. He doesn’t have the heart to tell them the truth.

"Not many people built Valiants as hot rods when I was a kid, so that makes this car stand out." —Todd Hughes

With the chassis work complete, it was time to throw some fresh paint on the Valiant. Like most people who don't have a paint booth at their house, the Hughes needed to hire a painter to lay down some color, however, they did pool their manpower together to perform all the prep work themselves. "My boys and I disassembled the car, sanded it, patched the fender, and primered it ourselves. We then sent the car off to my friend Micky Buchanan for paint," Todd recalls. Finding trim pieces for any Mopar can be challenging, and building a not-so-common body style only adds to the frustration. "None of the pot metal pieces are reproduced, so we sanded and filled them in, then powdercoated them in chrome. We couldn't find any reproduction bumpers either, but we noticed that the Valiant bumpers looked a lot like the bumpers on my father-in-law's '70 Duster. After measuring them, we realized they were the same, so I called AMD to order some new Duster bumpers. They said to call them back after I received the bumpers to confirm that the Duster and Valiant bumpers are indeed the same. Using that info, they added '67 Valiant bumpers to their catalog."

While the car was at the paint shop, the Hughes focused on building a new engine and transmission combo. To add some much-needed horsepower to the A-Body, they started with a stock mid-'70s–era 360 small-block and sent it off to Thomas Wilson for machine work. Once the parts were back at home, Todd and his sons assembled the engine in their garage. The frugal-yet-effective combo uses a .020-over block matched with a stock crank and rods, and JE 9.5:1 pistons. Airflow comes courtesy of ported factory iron cylinder heads, an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, and a Holley 750cfm carburetor. Managing the valve events is a COMP 224/241-at-.050 hydraulic roller camshaft that provides just the right amount of thump. Todd thinks the motor puts out between 350 and 375 hp, which seems reasonable given the car's 8.60-second eighth-mile e.t. Coupling the budget small-block to the rearend is a Cooks Racing TorqueFlite 727 automatic matched with a 2,850-stall converter.

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After putting the wraps on the Valiant, Todd and his sons love taking it to the dragstrip and to car shows. Future plans call for installing a 408ci stroker motor, an RMS suspension, and maybe even a real Mopar rearend. Todd sees it as yet another opportunity to keep the family bonding experience going, and that was the true purpose of the build in the first place. "The time I've spent with my kids working on this car, and the love they now have for the hobby means the world to me. Lots of people say they can't afford to build a car, but all you need is time and the willingness to learn how to do it yourself," he opines. "Before this project, all they wanted to do was play video games. Now they want their own project cars to build."

So while it's true that teams full of rookies are very unpredictable, every once in a while they'll surprise you by winning a championship. Just ask the Hughes. Maybe experience isn't all it's cracked up to be after all.

Fast Facts
1967 Plymouth Valiant
Car owner: Todd Hughes • Green Mountain, NC
Engine
Type: Chrysler 363ci small-block
Block: factory iron, bored to 4.020 inches
Oiling: Melling oil pump, Milodon pan
Rotating assembly: stock crank and rods; JE 9.5:1 pistons
Cylinder heads: ported factory iron castings with 2.02-/1.60-inch valves
Camshaft: COMP Cams 227/241-at-.050 hydraulic roller; .513/.498-inch lift; 107-degree LSA
Valvetrain: COMP Cams valvesprings, retainers, pushrods, and timing set
Induction: Edelbrock Performer dual-plane intake manifold, Holley 750cfm carburetor
Ignition: Mopar Performance distributor; MSD coil and 6A ignition box
Fuel system: Holley pump and pressure regulator; stock tank
Exhaust: TTI long-tube headers, dual 3-inch Flowmaster mufflers
Cooling system: Flow Cooler water pump, Champion radiator, Be Cool electric fan

Drivetrain
Transmission: Cooks Racing 727 automatic trans and 2,850-stall converter; B&M shifter
Rear axle: Ford 8.8-inch rearend with 31-spline axles, 4.10:1 gears, and limited-slip differential

Chassis
Front suspension: RMS tubular control arms, PST torsion bar, KYB shocks
Rear suspension: Mopar Performance Super Stock leaf springs and shocks
Brakes: POL front discs and stock Ford Explorer rear discs
Wheels & Tires
Wheels: Rocket Racing Strike 15x6, front; 15x8, rear
Tires: BFGoodrich 225/65R15, front; 275/60R15, rear

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