Critique my purchase: 1962 Dodge Lancer

A quality glass pack exhaust sounds great on a slant six. Absolutely wonderful. There are some superb modern glass pack mufflers that will work perfectly. Dynomax ultra flow comes to mind.

Also, a true dual exhaust on a six sounds great!
 
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That is AWESOME!! And I'm just a dumb college student, but I love the styling. So cool.

Are we allowed to call cars cute on this forum? In my opinion this looks like a car that needs named
smile.gif
 
Cool car!
Brings back memories of my first car, given to me by my grandmother. I was a junior in college and the car was already 10 years old.
1963 Plymouth Valiant V200 light blue with two tone blue vinyl interior. Torque Flite transmission. 170 cubic inch slant six Car never let me down. Sold it with 165k miles on it. Wish I never did.

Enjoy!
 
That is a sweet Dodge and a steal!
Impressive that it still has its original hubcaps.
The lug nuts on the driver's side are a LH thread.
Earlier Torqueflites had two pumps in the transmission which would allow push starting. Not sure if it covers the '62s
Also, it has a separate drain plug in the torque converter to allow more complete draining than the usual pan drop.
Thanks for posting and enjoy your ride.
 
Originally Posted by Kira
Missing heater core, or what?
Love the original color
Front bench!
The radiator has a tag
FACTORY AIR, hot darn
LOVE the PCV orifice line
WOW, dual headlights
Push button trannie on the left?
What is the array on the right?
Custom center panel
Watch your left leg on that gauge
Single circuit POWER brakes!
My money's on it being a 198 but maybe the AC got it a 225. Did the 225 exist in '62?
Here's the BIG ONE......this was my first model car! I swear.

198 didn't come out till the late '60s. 170 or 225. Though if it was replaced over the past 58 years it could be a 198
 
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Love this. I've had a '63 Valiant Signet 2 door hardtop since 1982. This is more fun for the least money you'll ever have ! Mine's three speed on the column, power boosted nothing and an aftermarket AC system that works.
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by spasm3
Engine bay looks too small for a hemi swap.

It is...that's an early "narrow" A-body. Even a small-block is tight.


Yeah I'm digging the mish-mosh of square and swoopy. It's like the side windows can only be flat, or they didn't have the budget or tech to make them bubbly like the front and back glass.

Curved side glass was a feature of luxury cars at the time but Rambler brought it out on the Classic & Ambassador for 63. It wasn't common like it is today
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by atikovi
OMG, how did people before the mid 60's survive?


That's like the punch line to a ghost story. They didn't, they're ghosts.

Basically the fatality rate has gone down by almost half since the 1960's. All those fancy systems of today only does about half...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor...ear#Motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

And half the deaths are from people still not using their seat belts
 
Originally Posted by Rhymingmechanic
Cool car for a driver.

I had a slant-six Duster that once was In Violet (Plymouth's name for Plum Crazy) but looked ugly as homemade sin by the time I got it. I drove it all over the country, adding 120,000 miles before the odometer broke. It had a dual master cylinder but manual everything and no A/C.

--Assuming it has manual drums, you might be able to improve the brake feel by adjusting the star wheels.

--I also found a little more highway power by swapping a bigger jet into the Holley 1-barrel. Mine came from a dealer in Colorado Springs, so I think it might have been a little lean.

--If you ever buy another carb, don't get rid of the old one. I got at least one rebuild that ran like junk.

--I never had problems with mine, but a lot of Mopar guys say to carry a spare ballast resistor for the ignition. I did carry points and a feeler gauge.

Originally Posted by Convert

As a side note one thing you should check and keep a couple extra in your car is the nylon gear that goes on the end of the distributor that also works off the camshaft it's sacrificial if it's a problem with the distributor the nylon gear will shear if it's been in there long enough it's probably cracked and was held in with a drive pin

TOMB


Good advice. I found out about the plastic gear after dropping a points or condensor screw down into the distributor. I even remember seeing spare gears on those "Help" cards at one time.

Have fun with the car!

I switched my 63 Valiant to a Pertronix electronic ignition. It almost starts as well as my two FI cars. Instant on.
 
This is really awesome ready through each and every response here...the nostalgic memories shared, the advice, people giving a virtual smile of sorts or nod of approval, people sharing information on their own cars, etc. All this and more is part of the joy I've found in owning older cars, and it's all on display here in this thread. Thank you all. And, it just goes to show that the classic car experience doesn't need to be a high-dollar affair.
 
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Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by ArtDecoWorld
Originally Posted by Chris142
I do not know how to tell if it is a 170,198 or 225. Lose the single piston master cyl asap.


Is it a safety issue?

Yes, an extreme one! Any leak at all and YOU HAVE NO BRAKES!

You need the April 2004 issue of Mopar Action magazine to do this. Article is "Dual-ing Brakes".

Also, be aware: base A/bodies had 9" drum brakes. (Yours may have 10" drums, being a reasonably high-option car.) Check the ball joints carefully, because they can fail! Disc swap is not especially difficult, and the time to do it is when you are pitching the single-bowl master cylinder.

Do exactly what Rick Ehrenberg says and you will never go wrong.


Thanks for this, looking into it.
 
Originally Posted by ArtDecoWorld
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by ArtDecoWorld
Originally Posted by Chris142
I do not know how to tell if it is a 170,198 or 225. Lose the single piston master cyl asap.


Is it a safety issue?

Yes, an extreme one! Any leak at all and YOU HAVE NO BRAKES!

You need the April 2004 issue of Mopar Action magazine to do this. Article is "Dual-ing Brakes".

Also, be aware: base A/bodies had 9" drum brakes. (Yours may have 10" drums, being a reasonably high-option car.) Check the ball joints carefully, because they can fail! Disc swap is not especially difficult, and the time to do it is when you are pitching the single-bowl master cylinder.

Do exactly what Rick Ehrenberg says and you will never go wrong.


Thanks for this, looking into it.

BTW, while it may not be true of the 62, the 63 Valiant I discovered used 4 leaf springs with the 170 and 5 with the 225. I had assumed my Signet came with the 225 since it was the "top of the line", so when I replaced the engine with a rebuilt one that's what went in it.

It was only many years later the information about the rear springs came up.

I guess it's consistent with the total lack of options that were on my car:[ radio, heater and probably white walls ] that it would have had the 170. Wish I'd known then, I would have kept the 170.

Your car is fantastic. So baroque and unmistakable for what they are. The early ones used to be called Road Toads, at least the Valiant version was.
 
Not a criticism but an observation. If you look at the side profile of this automobile it gives the impression that one designer was in charge of the car except for the rear. Someone else designed that.

Everything changed after the rear doors.

Still, a remarkable vehicle to see these days.
 
I got only a couple of rides in those back in the day. All I remember is that road noise was conspicuously louder than in most cars.
 
Originally Posted by DweezilAZ

Curved side glass was a feature of luxury cars at the time but Rambler brought it out on the Classic & Ambassador for 63. It wasn't common like it is today

I've read that AMC chief designer Edmund Anderson had to fight the bean counters tooth and nail for that one. In an industry that tried to save a fraction of a cent wherever possible, at the time curved side glass added $3 to AMC's cost of manufacturing each car. Rambler also made dual-circuit brakes standard starting in 1962. Still undersized drums, but at least you wouldn't lose it all if a hose or wheel cylinder popped.
 
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