My First Car '65 Valiant Slant Six

 

 

In 1976 I moved to CA for a new job. First thing I did was open a bank account and set out looking for a nice car which would be required for my position. Unfortunately, Bank of America put a 14 day hold on my account which essentially forced me to purchase a car with very limited funds. Stressed and desperate, I quickly settled on a mid 1960’s Plymouth Valient with a slant six complete with a high tech chrome Hearst slap shifter and astroturf carpet. Clearly this was a young teen’s car with all sorts of add ons and “improvements”. The Valiant ran fine except for one tiny problem. The dip stick had been removed and the opening welded shut to make room for a super charged all chrome air filter. Thus there was no way to check the oil level. Oddly it never occurred to me to check for a dip stick when check out the car. Who would after all? 

I knew this was only a temporary ride until my money cleared the bank but I spent the entire time worrying about having too little or too much oil. The only way to know for sure was to do an oil change. Fortunately that system worked and I changed oil monthly. The Valiant proved to be quite reliable but I still traded it in after BOA released my funds. As I recall the salesman offered me the same price if I agreed to keep the Valiant and sell it myself. I wanted no part of that. He begrudgingly took it off my hands. In hindsight, that Valiant was way more reliable than my brand new, bottom of the line, Chevy. Who would have thunk it.