1966 Plymouth Valiant
I'm sure you'll get there soon!
For the restoration, here are some pics I posted in the Funny Stuff forum. Definition of insanity
We did the interior for the trip, so we were looking at a freshly painted interior with no working gauges rather than just a crappy interior with no working gauges. Mechanically I went through the entire car and drivetrain the best I could, new belt, oil, and coolant, kept the old water pump and fuel pump; they worked fine, but I have replacements already on hand. I pulled the distributor to do a rebuild of it and rebuilt the carb, twice. I had to dial that in using the small adjustment notches until it didn't bog anymore on a quick hit.
The biggest issue mechanically was the "sticky" clutch. Worked fine, but I had to do the old toe flick to bring it back up to the top. After staring at it for far too long, I realized it wasn't out of adjustment but that the Z bar was slightly off angle when pressed. So I found the trans side pivot was separated off the press weld and kinda dangly on the mounting bracket. The bushings were shot also. I welded the pivot, replaced the bushings, grease, etc. and it was like I installed a new clutch!
All this while driving it here and there, taking it to my office on nice days, etc.
Before planning the road trip, I had to fix some trunk rot. I went to Eastwood, and of course, they were out of their Rust Encapsulator black, so I bought the silver stuff, and it worked out. Much brighter and cleaner looking, I think!
Road trip update: 0 breakdowns, only 1 self-inflicted wound. I miscalculated the 18 or so MPG, and we ran out of gas about a mile outside of Port Clinton, OH. After figuring out that genius of a move, we put in half a gallon of lawnmower gas I tossed into the trunk on a whim, and we went back to the gas station where I should have filled up. Other than that, not a single issue, not even one stall.
I'm sure you'll get there soon!
For the restoration, here are some pics I posted in the Funny Stuff forum. Definition of insanity
We did the interior for the trip, so we were looking at a freshly painted interior with no working gauges rather than just a crappy interior with no working gauges. Mechanically I went through the entire car and drivetrain the best I could, new belt, oil, and coolant, kept the old water pump and fuel pump; they worked fine, but I have replacements already on hand. I pulled the distributor to do a rebuild of it and rebuilt the carb, twice. I had to dial that in using the small adjustment notches until it didn't bog anymore on a quick hit.
The biggest issue mechanically was the "sticky" clutch. Worked fine, but I had to do the old toe flick to bring it back up to the top. After staring at it for far too long, I realized it wasn't out of adjustment but that the Z bar was slightly off angle when pressed. So I found the trans side pivot was separated off the press weld and kinda dangly on the mounting bracket. The bushings were shot also. I welded the pivot, replaced the bushings, grease, etc. and it was like I installed a new clutch!
All this while driving it here and there, taking it to my office on nice days, etc.
Before planning the road trip, I had to fix some trunk rot. I went to Eastwood, and of course, they were out of their Rust Encapsulator black, so I bought the silver stuff, and it worked out. Much brighter and cleaner looking, I think!
Road trip update: 0 breakdowns, only 1 self-inflicted wound. I miscalculated the 18 or so MPG, and we ran out of gas about a mile outside of Port Clinton, OH. After figuring out that genius of a move, we put in half a gallon of lawnmower gas I tossed into the trunk on a whim, and we went back to the gas station where I should have filled up. Other than that, not a single issue, not even one stall.
