2/19/24:

Everything I can remove, clean or easily upgrade on the firewall / engine bay is getting that process done. Including the master cylinder, steering column, the associated mounting plate and brackets etc.
Included in that list is the voltage regulator, ballast resistor, horn relay, bottle cap windshield pump check valve assembly, bulkhead connector, battery feed and alternator charging wires which were burnt to a crisp. (I am not sure how the car did not burn itself to the ground before I owned it, and prior to myself rebuilding the main engine bay harness that housed these 2 severely over heated at one time wires)

I have already rebuilt, cleaned, and rejuvenated the heater box, heater valve and horns last year if you have been following along you knew that.. If you haven't that's okay, I am sure there are more ridiculous things that I will put here.
(I may need to visit those horns again because only one works, but they look fantastic.)

The previous owner had a body shop cut in the paint work under the engine bay, but the shop did a 1/3ass job and painted all of the wiring and connections seemingly everywhere, so that bothered me a bit, I had to make it right.
I cleaned and abrasive blasted the wiring connectors, yes I glass beaded the plastic and the brass connectors along with re taping/ re wrapping the 2 engine bay harnesses. One is the main wiring going from the bulkhead to the engine, horns, and everything starter/charging related.
The other is a small harness that runs the entire front end lighting. I suspect I had high resistance on some of the circuits due to the cruddy connections (green brass) that I uncovered. The abrasive blast cabinet solved that in a hurry.

I also got the front parking / turn signal lights rejuvenated.
They were not totally trashed, but can always be improved on. I broke one connector that was really corroded when I tried to disassemble it, so I have that to fix, but the lenses need replacing, so I found some new ones and the gaskets, well were 62 year old parking light gaskets so I ordered new ones along with some other supplies from DMT.

Firewall trinkets that got redone.
Many should be done with cadmium or zinc plating processes, but I do not have the kits for those yet, so abrasive blasting and painting will do for now.


Yuck, I hope to get this sorted out.


Bottle cap before blasting and respraying:


Firewall trinkets ready to be reattached:


Ruh Rough.... These wires got a little steamy.
Just the 3 high current wires needed replaced - all of the lower current wires appeared to be unaffected.




A good, solid parking light/turn signal indicator housing is somewhere under all of that undercoating / sound deadening material. Nothing a bit of chiseling can't solve.


It felt a bit like archaeology at the Roman Forum, but I uncovered some relics:





Blue over spray on the indicator wiring and and marginally argent galvanized semi-reflective housing interior? This can be improved..





Electrons do not flow well through the green terminals.


Cabinet time:


Blasted, ready for a respray:


Sprayed:


Also began a bit of battery tray repair:

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It's going to be nice.
It's in pretty good shape considering youins weather I think.

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Hyper_pak

Man, you are all in! Can't wait to get a ride in that. Maybe I can drive my 62 up to the Countryside tour and we can run in (almost) matching cars...

Lou

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Thanks Stan, There is more going on under that shiny paint than I would have liked, but that is part of the fun and mystery of old cars.


Greg

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Thanks Lou, You are welcome for rides anytime!

Yeah, that would be something - Not sure if I will be ready for that by then with this car. I am having holdups with putting the head together, so I have been futzing with other things for now.

A countryside tour would be fantastic in 2 '62 Vlaints or 2 '64 Darts. The Euro Guys heads would spin seeing those 2 cars on the tour!
I am not sure that I will have the time to devote to getting the 5-speed in there by then.... maybe, we shall see. I can run with the horrible unsynchronised 903, but I sure will not like it.

That would be a fantastic goal, however!

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OK, maybe in 2025. I really hope I can get my 64 Dart back together by summer 2025.

Lou

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Those aren't actually reflectors, just housings. All the light gathering and distribution is done by the fresnel optics in the lens—the bullseye aligned with the bulb, and the concentric prism rings around it. It doesn't really matter whether the interior of the housing is black, white, silver or whatever; the lamp will work about the same. It does look a lot nicer the way you've done it up, and that's certainly sufficient to increase the smiles per gallon even if it's of no functional effect.

Some exterior lights do use actual reflectors behind the bulb, and some lamps with fresnel lenses also use reflectors. Neither applies to any of the lights on a '62 Valiant, but this applies (for example) to the brake lights on your '63 Dart.

The best paint for an actual reflector in a signal lamp is usually Ceiling White paint, specifically. Not just any old white paint; you go to a paint store and get Ceiling White), which is practically ideal for the task, even if the original material on the reflector bowls was more of a silvery stuff. An example is 'Ceiling Bright White' from Sherwin-Williams; they'll mix it up for you as a polyurethane-based paint on request. It's water-based, so it won't stink up the place and it's easy to apply and clean up. Don't worry about the surface gloss (or not-gloss) of the ceiling white paint; surface gloss isn't the thing here. "Chrome" spray paint is a fairly decent second preference, but the white works better; it has 90-some-odd-percent reflectivity of incident light with broad diffusion. You might take a look at this movie for a demonstration; he takes awhile to get to the point, but he eventually (3:24) starts to get around to it, and the difference is pretty obvious even with a low-quality camera. And he just used regular white, not ceiling white; regular white looks dishwater-grey next to ceiling white.

Thoughtful bulb and turn signal flasher selection will bring these and the brake lights up closer to modern-car performance. LEDs aren't the thing.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks, Dan, I knew you would have something educational and worthwhile to offer.

I will look at the class materials later. I never even thought of getting anywhere near an LED with this car.

Greg

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Next question...

Who or what if anything is/ was VALAB?

The housings and the Fresnel lens both have this stamped or molded into the parts.

Is it a vendor that made these pieces for MoPar /DPCID or some other production Lighting code?

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Good to know about the ceiling white and the Fresnel-dominated optics on the 62s. Thanks, Dan.

Lou

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Got a picture, sent to your email address.

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¡ Whoo Hoo!

I replied.

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MUWAAAAAAAhahahahahaaaAAAAAaaaaaaa! (sorry, I'm working on my eeeeeeeeeeevillll villain's cackle; it's not quite right yet)

I don't recall, did you buy a copy of the UK MIRA report on their mindbendingly complete dissection and analysis of a 1961 Valiant, back when I offered those for sale in '19ish? If so, you'd've found a reference confidently asserting this what you've just asked; the report makes a breezy reference to the car having "a Valab indicator at each side on the front" in the same manner as they describe it having "an Auto-Lite starter". It's one of the few errors in the report.

In fact, that marking breaks out like this:

VAL: the lamp was designed for the Valiant. This was an arbitrary designation Chrysler chose; the ones for a Lancer have LAN instead; there are also ones with PLY and DOD and DES and CHR and IMP, etc.

A: the device meets the requirements for SAE Class A turn signals.

B: the device meets the requirements for SAE Class B turn signals.

This doesn't mean a VAL-marked lamp could only be used on a Valiant or anything like that; there's no type-approval or certification aspect to any of this, it's purely in-house identification. Those very same '60-'62 Valiant front turn signals, with the same lens markings, were also used on the '62 Plymouth. And on the '64-'65 Valiant, with the lens made out of amber rather than clear plastic and with additional new markings.

…I'm glad you asked! The 1957 SAE Ground Vehicles Standards Manual sez:

______________________________________________________________________________
A turn-signal unit is that part of the signal system by which is indicated the direction in which the turn will be made. Turn-signal units are divided into two groups, Class A and Class B.

Class A turn-signal units may be used on any vehicle [and] should have at least 12 sq in. of effective projected illuminated area.

Class B turn-signal units may be used on any passenger car; and on any other vehicle where the distance from the center of the steering wheel to the extreme left side of the vehicle is less than 24 in. and where the distance from the center of the steering wheel to the extreme rear end of the vehicle or combination
of vehicles is less than 14 ft; except that Class B units should not be used on truck tractors, house trailers, semi-trailers, and trailers with four or more wheels.
______________________________________________________________________________

No word on lit-area requirements for Class B turn(-!) signal units; apparently there weren't any.

Around '63, Chrysler stopped using 3-letter designators like VAL and LAN and switched to using the same model codes as found in the parts cattledogs: V for Valiant, L for Dart (left over from Lancer), D for Dodge, P for Plymouth, C for Chrysler, Y for Imperial (Impyrial? Ymperial? Impiryal?), etc. Add in considered-but-never-taken options, and keep in mind that none of these markings was a legal requirement or testament to certification or anything, and you wind up with the lens marking on a '61-'62 Lancer park/turn lamp: LANRB. That decodes as Lancer, meets requirements for reversing lamps (back-up lights) and for Class B turn signals. The lack of an A is probably correct; the diameter is about what, 2 inches, maybe? Can't get 12 square inches of lit area from that. But what's that R doing there? Pretty good odds this lamp does meet the reversing light requirements, so Chrysler could've chosen to use it as such—but didn't, at least not on any A-body Maybe it showed up on the back of some other model.

The SAE function codes were changing, too, which is why the clear '61-'62 Lancer front turn signal lens and the amber '63 Valiant + '63-'64 Dart front turn signal lens at the lens at the top of this story both bear the markings SAE DP 63L. That decodes as "This lamp meets the requirements for the directional signal and parking light functions current as of 1963. Oh, and it was designed it for the L-line of cars". Original production '61-'62 lenses didn't have this marking, but replacement lenses made after late '62 did.

If you peer at the markings on other exterior lamps, you might find some interesting ones.

DPCD: Dodge-Plymouth-Chrysler-DeSoto. Some people think the stem of the P is also an I for Imperial. I don't agree unless we can also say the left 7/8 of the P is also an F for Fargo.

And now…you know the resssssssssssst of the story.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Mind blown.

Dang, I was hoping VALAB for for Valiant Laboratory. Maybe VALAB can be a new nickname for my garage??

Lou

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Awwwhh yes!

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