Chrysler Valiant 1960

[palat]

Hi all,

I got some really good ref pics at EBay yesterday on this baby.
(From time to time i fish there for some good pictures on this car, it has been on my wishlist for years.)
It was the first compact by Chrysler, the 1960 Valiant. From the trio of 1960 low-priced new compacts (Falcon by Ford, Corvair by GM and this one) the Valiant was the most lavishly styled. Its characteristic features were the European-like grille and the fake spare tire on the trunk, besides the wings both fore and aft the body.
In its first year the car was simply the Valiant, but in 61 it was included in the Plymouth line.

My model will be the 4-door version. Maybe the entry-level V-100 economy model.

Here's the start, trunk wheel cover and pillars not done yet. There's still a good deal of tweaking to go on the bodyshell.
Thanks for looking!

[tiberius]

Nice Choice! will be watching this one to see the final results. sometimes E-bay can be a great source of high quality reference images.

[mpfive]

nice, another master piece coming to life

[Johnas]

Excellent choice of car! Loving the Valiants, especially early 70's.

As before already waiting for the final renders

[palat]

tiberius - thanks, in fact EBay is THE better source for refe pics. Barret-Jackson's site is also a good source.

mpfive and FlashG - thanks guys.

Here goes an update, detailed the body (fake wheel cover must be raised a bit), seams have not yet been cut.

[mpfive]

looks great already, make sure you render it with that new scene you made, where you rendered your last car

[Checkaa]

Again such a great model of you

[feral1]

looking great, keep up the good work.

[Tol@te]

Wow,man thats a really nice choice of car.
Dan you really need to do a render with all your best cars together.
Like a vehicle showroom with maybe the 57 Chevys or the Hudson.
All in a nice environment,that would be cool!

>by the way:do you remember giving me your 59 Impala?
I did my own model.Thanks for your help!
I know its offtopic but i don't wanna open a new thread,so some pics:

[palat]

Thanks for the replies people!

mpfive - as soon as it's complete it will deserve the "Press Show" render. Thanks for the suggestion.

Checkaa, feral1 - thanks guys.

Tol@te - well, my friend Bo Zolland from Sweden has grouped a few 56 Chevys into a scene and did some nice renders. But for me such work (merging, placing, grouping) takes long and my time is scarce.

That 59 Coupe is cool, off-topic fully accepted. I have done some heavy tweaking on my own model since, and although still a bit faulty it got cleaner. I might even do a pillar 4-door sedan out of the "flat-top" version someday.

Time for an update: cut the doors, did tires and hubcaps, tweaked the front and added the grille and lower intake plus parking lamps. Added door handles ans wipers. A long way to go still, though. Next week i will have to commercial jobs and won't have much time to play with this here Valiant. But it took so long to start it that the waiting will be worthy.

Just to add some info on the car, it was also built in Australia as the Chrysler Valiant following US restyling of the car. Dodge also had its version, named Lancer, but this lacked the Valiant's "Italian" front, relying instead on larger headlights and a 1960 Pontiac-like layout.
It deserves mentioning that while the Valiant was a well-resolved design, the 1960 Plymouth was gross. But all the "big" cars by Chrysler got overdone, which is sad considering the brilliant start of their design in 1957, much more considering that both Ford and GM quickly recovered and brought up taut and clean models.
(Off-topic but i could not resist: i read on the newspaper that DaimlerChrysler is seriously considering selling its American operations (namely Chrysler). GM has reportedly done a bid. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.