1969 Valiant Slicing

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This is the last of the rust and I screwed it up. Ground the weld down too far and broke through. Added another line of weld to thicken it, which caused it to warp. Had to beat it back into submission.

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Very cool project, great work!
Will there be any problems registering it/making it road legal? Don't know how it works in the US.
 
purplehazenils said:
Very cool project, great work!
Will there be any problems registering it/making it road legal? Don't know how it works in the US.
Click to expand...
The short answer is I am expecting problems. Registration is handled by the state governments and each state law has their differences. I live in the state of North Carolina (NC) and I bought the car from someone in South Carolina. NC law says that the vin of a out of state car has to be verified because it is an antique car. It has something to do with preventing fraud. When the law officer came to my house for the verification, I had the car taken apart, so the government issued a non operatable title for the car. To get a normal title, an officer has to come back and verify that the car is operable.

I am going to give the Department of Motor Vehicles a call and figure out what I need to do to get a title. They may say that I have to go through the process of getting a hand built car title. Wish me luck.
 
I called the DMV about registration and they said that I can use the original title. The only thing that I have to do is get an DMV inspection to prove that the car is operable.

Got a little bit done. Finished mounting the seats and installing the seat belts. Got the hood and trunk ready for final blocking and some flat black on the back side.

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Man! That first shot of the buckets looks cool! I can see you blasting around in that lil bomb...good thing you have headrests! Don't want to hit your head on the back window.
 
Here is something I have never seen before. I was deleting the fresh air passage from the cowl to the heater, look up and there was the name of the steel supplier.

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Back when US cars were made in the US with US steel. That practice sadly is long gone.
 
All of the major body work is completed and the interior, undercarriage, and engine compartment has been painted flat black.

I have decided to paint the body purple and am undecided if I am going paint the chrome with some flake or pearl. My paint tests did not produce anything that tripped my trigger. The top row uses a black base paint and the second row uses my choice of purple. From left to right is copper pearl, silver pearl, red pearl, chameleon pearl, purple flake and silver flake. The camera doesn't capture the sparkle verry well, but if you zoom in, you will see a little.

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Sharon Steel,Sharon Pennsylvania sheet metal plant.
My old neck of the woods. Lots of steel mills in the 60's.
By the end of the 70's epa was fast shutting mills down.
My home town of Monessen Pa was one of them. All gone by the end of the 80's early 90's.
KUDO'S to you sir. Wow, just wow you are a better man than me. I have no body work skills.
 
I started work on the dash and decided to remover all of the aluminum trim because it was not salvageable. My surprise was that the glove box door did not have a steel skin behind the aluminum. So this is the first time I have skinned a panel. It turned out good enough. A little Bondo will hide the dents I put in the skin. Next time I will be a little more careful when hammering the flanges down.

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Prototyping my console using some round rod.. Figuring out the location for the shifter and arm rest. Haven't decided if I will fab it out of steel or wood.

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After the carboard mockup, I cut the console wood parts out of 1/4" MDF on my CNC machine. For the rounded corners, the shifter cover, and gauge cluster, I used my 3D printer. Then I fiberglassed it all together.

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This car is screaming for a wild 70's paint job.
 
Been working on the head liner. Put 1/4" insulation down and some thin plastic to bridge hollows.. Next add 1/8" plywood and the piece of donor headliner for the shape of the of the dome light. Smoothed out other humps and bumps with drywall compound. Sprayed painted the drywall compound so that tape would stick. Covered everything in packing tape and then three layers of 1.5 oz mat fiberglass. Let it dry, popped it loose, and did the initial trim. Waiting on the pinch weld molding before doing the final trim.

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I am 3d printing the indicator lights for the dash. Had to take the lighted pic with it behind sunglasses because the phone cam was washing out the shot.

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