66 Valiant Convertible

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twotone64

twotone64

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Atwater, Ca
My wife and I purchased our Conv. Valiant 8 years ago. I immediately had my students rebuilt the engine, had a new top installed, had the seats recovered, put new carpet into it and a new exhaust on it. We drove it off and on for a couple of years and put it on non op planning to do a restoration. Due to a job loss in the family, we put the restoration on hold.

A few months ago the representative from Universal Technical Institute offered me a deal of a lifetime. He said that their body and paint department would repair what little cancer it has, remove the poorly painted sections of paint, and repaint it any color of our choice. All I have to do is strip the trim, seals, lights, electrical, drive train and interior. They are going to do the rest.

Last week, my buddies son came over and we stripped the car completely of trim and weather stripping and pulled the front windshield. Today we pulled the engine and transmission, front wiring harness, removed the seats and carpet, and began pulling the dash and interior wiring harness.

I have been taking many many pictures of EVERYTHING. I learned with my Chevelle to document everything as much as possible. I havent been surprised with any unknown cancer yet and so far I am happy with our purchase that long ago.

I am currently searching for a pair of bumpers, the "PLYMOUTH" rear deck lid trim that goes all the way across the lid, as well as a drivers door armest.

I will try to get some pictures of the process up soon.
 
Wow, thats awesome news!!! Do they need another 66 Valiant convertible to "practice" on by chance???LOL!!! Good luck with the project, and good luck finding that trunk trim!! The bumpers you can get from Tri-City Plating out of Tennessee and the armrest bases are available through Vans Auto. You'll have to look in the secondhand market for the pad though!! I'll check with a gent I sold a trunk lid to in my area to see if he ever used the trim piece. If he still has it and is willing to deal it out, I'll message back here. Welcome to FABO by the way!! Geof
 
Hi,

Good story. Our 66 Valiant Convertible has a similar history. We hope to begin work on it this coming year. Hope you will post pictures.

Regards,
John
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Cosgig, there is a gentleman that PMed me said he may be able to help me with that trim. However if you would be willing to ask that would be good. Also thank you for the leads on that armrest and bumpers. Vans Auto is an Awesome website. I would really like to do this right the first time, but dont want to go into a HUGE budget. I am very aware how far you can get with it, but luckily the larg portion of the resto is being done by UTI.
 
Here is a link to my photo album of some of the pictures. I will upload more to the album later. I have also included a couple of images here as teasers.

http://photobucket.com/twotone64-66valiant

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make sure you don't paint the engine bay like a chevy. :)
 
Looking forward to this 66 build :blob:, welcome and enjoy the great folks and tec's here.:colors:

Mine is not topless:toothy10: but she is a great ol 66 sedan I drive daily, Victoria ( my Valiant) was not blest with a V8. But blest with a great low deck 170/ .
So glad to see another great restoration thread to enjoy :cheers:
 
Memike,

Hope you enjoy the thread. Not sure how fast it will move while it is in the body/paint shop. I THINK we are going to go with a Factory maroon color. We werent big on the Original color for the car but liked some of the other colors that were available in 66 for the Valiant.

The engine is a little beefy, it is a 318, it came with a 273 but when we got it, it had some sort of late 70's smog engine in it with all kinds of vaccum lines and temp sensors and was leaking and burning oil, so I had my students rebuild a 318 I had at the shop. It is now .030 over, a 260H Compcam with fully rebuilt heads (new valves, springs, keepers, guides and seals) true roller timing chain, a Performer RPM manifold with a 650cfm Edelbrock carb, it has an Accel electronic distributor and a Summit brand CDI box to assit that distributor.

While the engine and dash are out of the car, I will be replaceing the heater core, and cuting ports for the vintage under dash a/c unit I acquired when I first purchased my Chevelle. I will be using a later model accessory setup so that I dont have to use that mostrousity of a compressor that they used in the 60's.

I still need to either rebiuld or purchase a rebuilt covertible top pump, ours leaks like a siv, and ruined the new carpet we put in it 5 years ago.

I am pretty pumped about this project, I am going through a HUGE learning curve after doing a Camaro, Chevelle, 57 Chevy, two 65 Mustangs and now a Mopar. MUCH MUCH different with regards to the mechanicals. The Camaro was mine in high school, the Chevelle is my pride and joy, the 57 is for a buddy of mine, and the first Mustang was for my brother when I was in college, the second was for his memory as he was KIA in Iraq in 2005. It is a tribute car and was given back to his highschool (at the time) aged girls and his wife. I will post a link to the Mustang later for your reading enjoyment. That was very emotional and moving all in one with all the help and such that we got from strangers to finish it.
 
By the way Memike, My Dad was born in Holley Grove, directly West of West Memphis. Not sure if you know where it is but stil have family there.
 
here are some more pictures after today final teardown day. We finished pulling the dash out and the wiring harness. I found the harness to be in EXCELENT shape, no hacking or cut wires. I just need to trace down some issues with dash lights, and figuring out courtesey lights for the convertible. There were none on the car so I will have to add them. After getting it all town apart, we pushed it out of the shop and used degreaser to clean the interior where the hydraulic pump leaked, removed all the old, soft seam sealer, and washed all the old 45 year old dirt and dust off the inside. We found a little more cancer but not a big surprise. We also removed the convertible top just so we could make sure it all got painted correctly and make sure we didn't miss any other rust.

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The Valiant left for the U.T.I. garages and students today. They Rep. Told me MAYBE 6 months depending upon the students and their abilities. I told him that was fine, and that if they needed anything to give me a call. He was pretty impressed with the condition of the car and how far I stripped it. I just cant wait to get it back... Ill get pictures taken of it while it is being worked on at their shop.
 
I have been receiving cell phone pictures from a couple of my ex students that are attending U.T.I. I cant guarantee the quality at full size, but they are pictures of the sheetmetal replacement and panel work. ALL of the panel replacement has been done by hand made pieces as I was unable to find repop sheetmetal, not to mention it gives these students something to work on. I am by no means concerned with a concourse restoration, and as long as it looks good I am good with it. Body work and paint at a price of Free 99 can only be beat by some done at free 50. Here is my photobucket account with all of pictures I currently have of the Valiant from tear down till March 6, 2012.

http://photobucket.com/twotone64-66valiant
 
Here are some updated pictures of the restoration. ALL of the metal work is being done by students at UTI. They are hand forming the sheetmetal to replace the quarter panel/wheel well areas. These pictures are from some ex students who are attending UTI and are cell phone quality.

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latest update as of May 1, 2012. One of my ex students texted me these pictures. Color is going on today. The student spraying is not my ex student. Their color match system only dated back to 1990. So instead of the OEM color we wanted, we went with a "Crystal Red Tintcoat" which is a 2012 Corvette/Camaro red/maroon. Here are some pictures of the interior being sprayed:

Final sanding before priming and blocking
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Student posing for the camera:
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Interior paint
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Got a couple pictures from today. They were wrapping off the enterior to start spraying the exterior. Dont know if they actually started spraying today or not. I will wait to get some more paint pictures before posting those two.
 
The paint is pretty much done. Here is the latest picture. The spot on the drivers rear quarter is a reflection, it is not a flaw in the paint. Same as the drivers front fender. Now I just need to see if they are going to paint the tops of the inside of the doors, or if I am going to have to. I am going to paint the dash soon an have it ready for when we get the car back. Not sure when we get it back, as my representative from Universal Technical Institute passed away so I have a middle man-an ex student who is attending the school is supposed to get me contact information.

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Maybe someone can help me with this question. The interior was black. With that was black door tops, and dash. I found information for a the paint, John Deere Blitz Black as it is KINDA flat. However the tops of the doors, and just below the rear quarter windows what is that, semi gloss, gloss, satin etc? I know the original paint had a LOT more sheene to it than the dash. Im assuming the seat backs are what ever the tops of the doors are?
 
Took delivery yesterday of a 66 Valiant vert and a 2 door post car. Post was supposed to be for parts but it's too nice to break up. Friend has a built 225/ that may have just found a home. Can you spell SLEEPER!!! The vert came with 2 rustfree fenders and passenger door and it needs some quarter repair - interior is in great condition and the 273 engine has 800 miles on the rebuild - but I am just going to drive it as is until my Black Cuda and my wife's Signet hardtop are done. I was going to post a question on exterior parts, but I'll ask the rest of you vert owners. Can you recommend a vendor for a new black top, boot and rear window? Have found several on line - just looking for opinions. Thanks
 
2-66 Cudas said:
Took delivery yesterday of a 66 Valiant vert and a 2 door post car. Post was supposed to be for parts but it's too nice to break up. Friend has a built 225/ that may have just found a home. Can you spell SLEEPER!!! The vert came with 2 rustfree fenders and passenger door and it needs some quarter repair - interior is in great condition and the 273 engine has 800 miles on the rebuild - but I am just going to drive it as is until my Black Cuda and my wife's Signet hardtop are done. I was going to post a question on exterior parts, but I'll ask the rest of you vert owners. Can you recommend a vendor for a new black top, boot and rear window? Have found several on line - just looking for opinions. Thanks
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You dont happen to want to get rid of your rear trunk trim do you? I have been searching for good useable trunk trim that goes across from side to side. Mine is there, but bent to crap when they were either slightly rearended or backed into something.
 
Got word, for the second time, that the Valiant is done. I will be getting it back on the 29th or 30th of this month. I CAN'T WAIT to get the car back and get her back together.... She has only been gone for 6 months so its not been too long. I was hoping to get it back for my week of before Thanksgiving. I will post pictures of it being delivered
 
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