This car got its northeast Ohio notorious name from my mother, "Pappy" was my grandfather's nickname from his co-workers, and "Pedaler" was from what my dad and uncle said they always had to to do to keep from "breaking out" of their dial in. From what we have been told this car was an AZ state trooper car in its early life, came to Ohio around 1966-7 and was made into a drag car, the owners before us called the car "Thumper" although they weren't very successful with the car. My grandfather bought the car for my dad and uncle, the first couple of years my uncle drove and my dad and grandfather worked on the car, they ran many "local" drag strips, from eastern NY to central Ohio. The car actually paid for itself in those early days making $100-$600 a week (big money in those days). After the first season they rebuilt the tired 383, punched it out .030 more, new Pistons, better heads, dual point ign, they built a set of super stock springs, and cleaned off the "Thumper" name and had "Pappy's Pedaler" painted in cursive on the side in petty blue paint. That motor ran for 8 years, sometimes running 4 nights a week from April thru Sept, until the crankshaft broke going through the lights at Thompson in July 1978, nothing came out of the pan or block. We actually saved 5 of the pistons and rods.
The current paint was done in 1976, black imeron paint with 1mmX1mm metal flake and 9 coats of clear to get it smooth-ish, and then JJ Torma put the lettering on the side in gold metal flake.
The new 440 gave us headaches, a "cackle" out the headers under load at about 2500-2700 rpm, after a few people's advice which didn't solve our problem, we figured the heads had been decked too much and this caused the intake to not seat to the heads and we were sucking air from the underside of the intake gasket. By this time about 1981 the payouts at the strip had dried up and the car was competitive but it wasn't cost effective to race it the way we did before so it was parked.
Many people had asked about the "Pedaler" over the years, and my dad and uncle did try to sell it at one point, but everyone wants to give less than you think things are worth, I am very thankful it was never sold!!
After my grandparents passed my dad got the car in 2008, and he restored the interior, we tied the frame rails together, cleaned the fuel tank, replaced wheel cylinders and if you have a key-wayed 8 3/4 you know that's not fun. Last year we finally got it out to a few shows, it's loud and obnoxious and fun as hell to drive!!!!
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She ran consistent 11.70's at 115ish, remember this is not Today's racetrack prep, no VHT, no rosin. The car ran E/PA or E weight class Production (stock) Automatic, with the 383 she weighted 3480 with a full gas tank, the 440 3625. Back in the day you had to run your dial in for the whole day, you could not change your dial in between rounds like many tracks do now.
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Your Valiant looks awesome, and fast as hell!!!! Nice job on keeping it all these years. The early under the hood shots remind me of my 66 barracuda, although I had a lot more room to work, I had a /6.
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