My daily driver for the last couple of months has been this 1964 Plymouth Valiant. My great-grandfather bought the car new in 1964 and drove it until he died in the early ‘70s. My grandmother inherited it and drove it daily until about 5 years ago. She had trouble working the painfully heavy manual steering and regretfully drove it only occasionally until this July, when she gave it to me. It has 165,000 miles on the original engine - even the head has never been off. At some point it sprouted electronic ignition and electronic voltage regulation from a later-model Valiant. I haven’t done much other than find a NOS distributor and NOS carburetor to help it run better. All maintenance records from the first dealership visits came with it. It has been painted twice and re-upholstered twice. It looks better in pictures than in person, but it is a clean, reliable daily driver. I intend to continue driving it as long as practical - that’s what my great-grandfather and grandmother would have wanted. I will swap to disc brakes and 14- or 15-inch wheels on at some point, along with a full suspension rebuild.

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