Like many teenagers, David Patterson drove a hand-me-down car to high school. When his friends joked that the '64 Plymouth Valiant wagon looked like "an old lady's car," he just had to suck it up because, well, it was. The car had belonged to his Great Aunt Betty, and became his for $150 upon her passing.
The Torrance, California, teen took his friends' ribbing in stride, though, because he could see the car's potential. Growing up riding in his father's chopped '56 F-100 had given him a taste for modified cars. When David's father, Michael, suggested the Valiant would be a fun fixer-upper, David quickly steered it from a resto to a '60s-style mild custom.
David and Michael began by tackling mechanical tasks. They rebuilt the brakes and suspension and pulled the 273ci V-8 engine to install new valve seals and gaskets (the bottom end had already been rebuilt). An Edelbrock intake and carb and Pertronix ignition added more pep, while fresh paint and Mopar Performance dress-up parts got it looking sharp.
Years of outdoor storage had been hard on the body. "The more rust we repaired, the more we found," David says. "Dad showed me a bunch of ways to cut out rust, neutralize rust, and repair rust holes. He made me do the dirty work, like grinding welds and acid etching the metal before primer."
They found a donor roofskin at Memory Lane auto salvage to repair the rusty original, as well as a different tailgate, which they shaved. The duo also shaved the door handles and emblems, frenched an antenna, and spliced in an '85 Cadillac fuel door. After months of prep work, Michael sprayed the PPG Hyundai silver paint, House of Kolor metalflake top, and candy red scallops with plastic wrap texturing, burying them all in multiple clearcoats. The car was reassembled with rechromed bumpers, Bellflower exhaust tips, and a custom tube grille from Glory Grills, and David had the original 13-inch wheel centers (with their odd 5-on-4-inch bolt pattern) welded into 15-inch rims so he could run Moon Starburst hubcaps inside Kumho pinstripe whitewalls.
Inside, all metal parts were painted red before Amadeus Auto Upholstery recovered the seats and soft parts in two-tone red vinyl with silver piping. A white headliner with red piping provided contrast, while a Sony stereo and Pioneer speakers piped in tunes.
David was 14 when he got the Valiant; he's 21 now, and it's not quite "finished" yet. There's still pinstriping to be done by Bruce "The Brush" Bansen, plus a new carb and disc brakes to add. Still, the project has been a great learning and bonding experience, not to mention a fun, reliable driver. If only David's high school friends could see it now.