1966 Valiant Signet Convertible Resto

[autoxcuda]

Even if you don't get it driving by Fall Fling, please still bring it to Fall Fling. You've got a trailer. Unload it in a show spot, just show/tell them it's not running.

I think it's great to show you work like this. People appreciate what YOU'VE done to the car. And when they see it at Spring Fling finished next year, they know the hard work you personally put into it.

And I'll bet you get all kinds of offers for help/leads/parts.

I think there's a lot of FABO member that will be there too that want to see it.

 

[daves66valiant]

Even if you don't get it driving by Fall Fling, please still bring it to Fall Fling. You've got a trailer. Unload it in a show spot, just show/tell them it's not running.

I think it's great to show you work like this. People appreciate what YOU'VE done to the car. And when they see it at Spring Fling finished next year, they know the hard work you personally put into it.

And I'll bet you get all kinds of offers for help/leads/parts.

I think there's a lot of FABO member that will be there too that want to see it.

I didn't think about that but I may get my painter to trailor up my car Friday and we can bring it to the show on Saturday or Sunday and then he can take it back to the shop to do some more finish work on the paint. Work in progress showing I like that idea.

 

[autoxcuda]

I didn't think about that but I may get my painter to trailor up my car Friday and we can bring it to the show on Saturday or Sunday and then he can take it back to the shop to do some more finish work on the paint. Work in progress showing I like that idea.

Fall Fling is ONE day only, Saturday. Need to be at the park by 10am to get in to show or swap.

 

[Longgone]

Dave, how `bout some pictures of the entire car now as she sits?

 

[daves66valiant]

Dave, how `bout some pictures of the entire car now as she sits?

I'll be there Saturday with the trailor. :headbang: I might have it running at this pace but not street legal.

She's still a shell at the moment and I don't have the front suspension hooked up yet. Waiting to get the engine bay all cleaned up and totally finished. I have the next four days off work so I planned on putting the engine and tranny back in with out the headers and putting on the front suspension on so I can set my pinion angle , weld the spring perches, run the fuel lines and check the driveshaft fitment. My painter is going to redo the engine bay Sunday. I'll have some pictures of that this weekend hopefully. She's still pretty rough. Everything is all wetsanded right now. I found a couple of low spots so it will get some more clear and touch up in a couple spots where he burned throught the clear with the buffer.

I feel like things are really starting to come together now that I have the rear-end in and brake lines and the motor install dialed. takes me 10 minutes to get the lung in and bolted at the k-frame with the headers in without scrapping anything.

Should be a good weekend

 

[OneOfMany]

Ok.. I'll wait longer for pics. Glad to here the drivetrain is going a "bit" better now :thumbup:

 

[fstfish66]

DAVE comming together real well,,,do you know what the clutch pedal pivot ratio is yet?? will you be posting pics when you mount the slave cylinder linkage to the clutch pedal?

 

[daves66valiant]

DAVE comming together real well,,,do you know what the clutch pedal pivot ratio is yet?? will you be posting pics when you mount the slave cylinder linkage to the clutch pedal?

I'll post some pictures of that when I mount it. I don't really know what the ratio would be yet. Or how to measure that. I'm guessing it is a ratio between the length of travel of the hydraulic clutch rod and the clutch pedal travel.

 

[memike]

My hat is off to you Dave!!:thumbup:
You are doing a great build and this thread is going
to help allot of folks out here.
Keep up the great engineering and work.
This is going to be a grade A mopar.
Thanks for a good read and taking the time to do this thread.:coffee2:

 

[fstfish66]

DAVE im sure keislier should be able to tell you the ratio,,,or you can call the tech dept at Mc leod,,,that is who made them for keislier at that time,,,
tech number is( 714 )630-3668 fred taylor,tell him what you have beware they hate keislier,,they say they have no clue what they want,,,i think we already know that,,,

the way to measure it is,,,the length of the clutch pedal from the top where it pivots to the bottom where your foot goes,,they will give you the figures to divide that length by,,thats where you mount it linkage to the slave cylinder,,

on the unit i have a tilton,,master cyl is is very important,,not to have more then 1 inch of travel in to the master cyl,,,hope this helps

 

[daves66valiant]

Well I have been busy doing lots of little things lately because we had some strong winds, bad fires and ash was all over the place. I had to keep the car in the garage covered so the acid in the ash didn't etch into the paint. I had to wait until everything settled down to repaint the engine bay. We got that finished on Friday. It turned out much better this time around with the EXTRA work I put into it myself. Some things you just gotta do yourself if you want it done right. Now, I'll actually be proud to open the hood and be able to look into the paint and see my reflection. I'm letting everything cure nice and hard before color sanding and buffing. Once that is done I'll get the motor in for the final time.

I got the pinion angle setup on the car and welded the new spring perches on and detailed the 8 3/4. Bolted on a MP adj. pinion snubber too. Wish my welds looked better but I think it'll hold just fine. I made double passes for extra insurance:toothy9:

I also welded on the brackets for the hood spring modification and painted it. I think it looks really clean.

That's all I've got for now. More to come in the next few weeks. Just trying to keep this blog going so I can look back on the progress I've made over the last year or so. Thanks again for all the kind and encouraging words.

 

[fstfish66]

DAVE,, looks great

 

[FASTBACK340]

Sorry I haven't been following this more closely as I've been too self-involved with my projects (a fault I battled with all my life...) From what you've posted the car looks sweet! But the hassles with the Keisler and TTI's are scarey.... Sorry to hear the NO HACK installation is turning into a hack-fest. Take your time and tackle each problem on it's own. That's why it's taking me forever to build mine. Nibble it off a bit at a time.

Now, I'll bust your ball-joints like everyone else: PICTURES !!!!!!!!!!! ;)

 

[daves66valiant]

I have some progress to update. The car is still pretty much a shell but will be on all fours soon. I ran into a snag with the aluminum strut rods I ordered from mancini racing. Apparently they packed the wrong strut rods in my A-body box. They sent me B/E body rods. So now I switched to the steel adjustable strut rods which should be here by the times I get back from visiting my folks this weekend. Since I couldn't finish the front suspension I wired up most of the engine bay and started on the dash wiring. I tried to make everything look clean and tidy. There is a lot of stuff around the master cylinder and hydraulic slave cylinder. I managed to find the perfect spot for the MaxiFuse box on the back driver's inner fender well.

The other cool thing was getting the Flaming River steering coupler milled down by another FABO member who is a machinist and who happens to be just about finished with the same modifications I've done except his is a 65 Dart. Milling the coupler allows extra space in between the headers for the steering shaft. The stock pot coupler works but I really didn't want to bother with that piece of sh*t. The other this I did was install the fuel tank. I used the Hammered Rustoleum ( Thanks John aka fastback340 for that little nugget) which turned out awesome. I also got the ADDCO rear sway bar installed. That was a ***** because my rear end was moved back 1" and the XHD leaf springs raised the rear end. Luckily I had some extra front sway bar end-links that were long enough. This car is really stiff compared to how it used to be. It should stop and go on rails now. Sent out my wheels to get widenend to 15x7.5 with 5.5" BS. Decided 255/60/15 will be best. No sense in trying to fit 275s without mini-tubbing.

Mechanical things left to do ......... Forget it.....too many other things to list primarily for my own sake.

Next will be getting the car back down to LA to get the final color sand and fitting of all the body parts. Need to get rolling on that pronto when I get back.

Here are some recent uninspiring pictures.

closer up. I used the same hole as the plastic wire hold down for the maxi-fuse mount. was cool.

Shaved Flaming River Steering Coupler by Ken.

Rear sway bar in with new gas tank

Progress in small steps at a time.

 

[memike]

Little steps are working out great.:salute:
Looking good Dave!!:blob:

 

[moparkid340]

wow that cars gonna be one of a kind!

 

[fstfish66]

DAVE looking great,,,love the gas tank look,,whats the maxi fuse?? takes place of a fusable link ?? are you using orignal wiring harness???

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I have been following this thread for months, and am getting excited for you. It will certainly be a stunner when you are through with things.

Hopefully I can see it at Spring Fling in person.

Good luck and keep up the great work.

 

['64 Cuda]

Were there any clearance issues with the gas tank after moving the rear axle back an inch? I know things look like they'll get a bit tight there on my car.

 

[daves66valiant]

DAVE looking great,,,love the gas tank look,,whats the maxi fuse?? takes place of a fusable link ?? are you using orignal wiring harness???

The Maxi-Fuse replaces the fusible links and takes care of the ammeter bypass issue. I ran wires from the alternator, battery, and bulkhead (hot wire slot Z) to the maxi-fuse with one 8ga wire going to the starter relay. I plan to run a kill switch also but don't know where I want to put that yet. I'm not finished with the wiring just yet. I still need to double check everything and run the gauges. I've got a pirated Hella unit off a BMW with the thick 1 ga cables.

Were there any clearance issues with the gas tank after moving the rear axle back an inch? I know things look like they'll get a bit tight there on my car.

I did not have any isues at all with the gas tank. The rear shock get close to the gas tank but you can roll the metal lip on the tank if yu wanted. I didn't need to. The offset springs did not cause any issues with the 2.5" tti exhaust either. With the 3" system you might have to dimple the tail pipe.

I know that one guy with 65 Dart had to dimple the passenger side near the spring. The tti X-pipe system bolted up perfectly. I was very impressed.

BTW the car looks 100% better with the wheels set back. I looked kinda stupid with the wheels closer to the front wheel lip

 

[blown340]

Wow,love the blog and all the helpfull stuff that you and other's have posted.

Keep up the good work

 

[fstfish66]

DAVE the maxi fuse sounds intresting,,, i never heard of that,,when i dedid my dash all auto meter gauges thats when i discoverd the entire car is powered thru the anmeter gauge,,which i deleted,,and put avolt gauge in, i had to tie the leads together to get power,, the car is done now ,,trying to get to some up grades,,,,ron francis wiring,,,lots of other stuff,,,but have ya ever heaqrd of this thing called myrphys law,,,,stuff just keeps holding me up,,,,

 

[daves66valiant]

It's basically a modified version of the madelectrical.com setup. I like the idea of being able to replace the fuses instead of splicing new fusible links if something were to fail. I think it would also become a sort of kill switch if you pull the maxi-fuse out. I'm not sure though but it would make sense to me.

 

[Dodgenut64]

Commin along great.

 

[daves66valiant]

Been busy. I hate wiring. It is not my forte at all but it turned out pretty good though. I still need to figure out where to splice in my backup light for the 5-speed. I have an issue with the neutral safety switch wiring from the automatic. I no longer need it now but my ignition switch won't turn the motor over. I was able to bypass the starter relay to get the motor to bump over. I'm sure it has something to do with switching to the 5-speed and changing steering columns. I'll hopefully get the gremlin figured out. I replaced the ignition switch for the heck of it.

She's on all fours now. The 440 to the left looks tempting :shaking2:

Powdercoated suspension parts and SSBC disc brake conversion.

Here are some pictures of the motor installed and ready to fire hopefully this weekend if all goes well but no hurry

The dash is coming along great too. The instrument bezel was re-chromed and needs to be painted black but I kinda like it all chromed. What do you guys think?