At the end of the day, it’s family and friends that matter. Just ask Leighton Wright, whose gorgeous 1969 Chrysler Valiant hardtop you see today is the result of a 24-year project.

Leighton, from southeast Queensland, was born into a Chrysler family and began this journey thanks to a VF hardtop he bought from his uncle Terry Rafter all those years ago.

“We did a restoration on that car, but it didn’t all quite go to plan and it was sidelined,” said Leighton, the workshop supervisor at Browns Plains MG Service.

“My mother, Madonna Wright, sadly is in the late stage of Alzheimer’s and was also a Chrysler fan – she had a Charger at one stage. While she couldn’t remember my name, she could remember the car, so we decided about five years ago to get on and do a good restoration of the hardtop.”
The ‘we’ he refers to is partner Melissa and mates Daniel Wiese and Jack Van Der Lann. Throughout the process, these three, along with others in a variety of trades, were instrumental in keeping the project going with Leighton, despite many twists and turns that started when that car proved not to be practical for restoration.

The decision was made to find another Valiant.

“We found this one on the Gold Coast. It had been in a shed since 1982, had just 82,000 miles on it and a genuine 770,” he said.

“We towed it to G&L Motor Repairs & Performance at Rocklea where I was working at the time and the plan was to basically just get it going and get on with it for mum. However, the more we looked into it the more rust we found.

“With the help of Daniel, Ben and Reece it was stripped to the bare shell – every nut, bolt, washer and panel came off and it went on to a rotisserie to be sandblasted.

“It then went to father and son duo Gary and Craig Erickson of G and C Erickson Panel Repairs to be painted. And I can’t praise them enough; they did an incredible job.

“We turned all of that around pretty quickly too, it was just three months to have all that done.”

With the car back at G&L, the front end was put back in and it was taken home as a bare carcass – no interior, no wiring and no motor.

“We then started on the original motor, a 318, but soon found it was unsalvageable. It was well and truly seized and not worth rescuing,” said Leighton.

Likewise, a 360 from an old Chrysler that Leighton had sitting at home had bores corroded through to the water jacket.

“I went on the hunt and found Mick McDonald from Bundaberg had the block we were after – a 360 LA, bored to 70 thou with a four-inch-stroke crank, so it’s 416 cubes,” he said.

“Mick and I became mates through the build and he also did the transmission, a 904 Torqueflite. It’s still an auto but with a shift kit through it. It’s pretty lively.

“We got the engine back to the workshop at G&L, started assembling it and got it home around Christmas two years ago.

“Then we decided ‘why not have a Holley Terminator EFI in it’.

“I went through the entire factory wiring loom, stripped it back to nothing, repaired it, integrated the EFI into it, and we located the msd box under the dash and the battery to the boot. The ECU is behind the heater box. You would never know it was there.”

The big day came last Christmas when the engine was fired up for the first time.

“It didn’t miss a beat,” said Leighton.

“It was flawless and fired second pop.”

Now the team turned their attention to the rest of the car.

“We were just going to do car seat covers as mum was not well and we really wanted to get the car on the road. But the more we pushed, the more it pushed back,” said Leighton.

“One of the seats got torn going back in so we looked around for a good trimmer. Most guys don’t want to know about old cars, but Steve Oats from Extreme Hoodlinings & Motor Trimming took it on and was amazing.

“He was here over five hours doing the hoodlining. I wanted to pay him more for his time, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“When the time came to do the seats, I knew where to go. His work’s been flawless.

“We were only going to do the front seats but when they were done, they were so good we just had to have the rear done too.”

The team kept working away and solving problems – like locating the fuel pump at the rear of the car and fabricating a neat looking box to protect it – until about two months ago when the Valiant, after a wheel alignment at ProTrac Suspension at Hillcrest where they also set the rear springs, drove under its own power.

“That was the first time that car had turned a wheel on its own since 1982,” said Leighton.

Soon after, they decided to enter it in the AutoOne car show where, much to their surprise and delight, it won its class.

The very next day it was picked as runner-up in best engine bay at Mopar Sunday at Willowbank – no mean feat given the level of competition at Queensland’s premier Chrysler event.

While Leighton’s mum is yet to have a ride in the car – he is hopeful she will be well enough to do so soon – and there are still a few things they plan to do to the car, to say Leighton’s a happy man is a massive understatement.

“We haven’t put it on the dyno yet, but I reckon it will make about 400hp at the tyres” he said. “It’s a bit of an animal. It purrs like a kitten sitting on 100km/h but give it a squeeze and then hang on.

“We plan to run it at the drags at some stage and we’ll be aiming for high 11s. But it was never built to be a show car or a drag car – everything we did was to create a reliable cruiser for the family, and I think we’ve done that.”

As Leighton explained, the project hasn’t been smooth sailing.

“There have been so many times during the build I was ready to give up, ready to sell the car and move on,” he said. “But any time I felt like that, Mel, Daniel and Jack would push me on – and we got there.

“I don’t have a lot of money, and it’s as simple as this – without their support and skill, we’d never have got this car where it is today.

“It’s not been an easy build and we’ve all learnt so much along the way.

“Now, to be able to jump in it and drive it . . . it’s just magic.”

Original source: Motor Trader Magazine (September 2019)

10 Sept 2019