JUNE 7, 2009: CANADIAN IRON 1964 VALIANT WAGON-BRINGING THE FAMILY TRUCKSTER BACK

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Bob Just is a very practical man so when he had an opportunity to buy a used ’64 Valiant station wagon the choice was easy.

What flies in the face of the “practical” side of this car story is that Bob never sold the trusty little Canadian Plymouth.

‘In its first few years the little warrior was invited along on every family vacation simply because it could pull a tent trailer-at 25 miles per gallon.’

Like most family men, Bob upgraded to a full-sized holiday trailer so the tough little mule was replaced by a Clydesdale-a car that could handle the rigors of a heavier load. After that demotion, the Valiant went into full time family duties.

Things like grocery hauling and kid’s sports. Nothing glamorous but in reality that’s why they built Valiant wagons-this wasn’t a Mustang family, this was a real family. In 1981 the Valiant was literally put out to pasture under a spruce tree.

Since then Bob has become a first class car appraiser and he knows the risky nature inherent in this kind of “outdoor garage” storage. Storage like that isn’t really storage in the truest sense-it’s lot more like cruel and unusual punishment. Bob knows that now but in a rare act of loyalty he fought the logical switch in his mind and kept the car for a future date with restoration.

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1964 Canadian Valiant wagons are incredibly rare and yet not exactly at the top of the collector car world but Bob found things like NOS (new old stock) interior material and repair panels and in a mere several years he has one of the nicest Mopar wagons on the planet. This car earned awards from Day 1 and when Bob pulls into an all-Chrysler product car show everybody turns away from the rows of multi-colored ‘Cudas and Challengers to look at this little blue wagon that was built for practical reasons.

Thanks to Bob, the world still has this rare, stock icon of the mid-1960s.As for practical, Bob still has the original dog dish hubcaps in storage to keep it original.

His practical car appraiser side told him to.

Jerry Sutherland

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