68' Valiant 4 door

[kursplat]

Earlier this year i bought this Valiant out of Nevada from Darter6, a very nice gentleman who found himself with too many great cars and, lucky for me, decided to thin his herd. Funny thing is, based on the paperwork i got with the car, the original owner was about 15 miles from where i live. Darter6's original thread. He did a lot of work on this before i got it, but nothing to the body. He liked the patina, and so did i.

But thinking about it, i'm going to drive this thing, and it's going to be out in the weather, and the surface rust that looks pretty cool was going to gnaw away at it...so off for paint and body it went.

i pulled the bumpers, side markers and few other things i figured i didn't need for the drive to the body shop.

From the factory the rockers were painted Argent and it had a cool (dealer installed?) pinstripe down the side. Decided they both needed to go back on

 

[kursplat]

Freekin' weather...was 117' yesterday. only got to 106' today
but hey, got the car back...

wanted to be there to talk to the pinstriper when he did the car. , but work screwed that up...
will be getting the windows back in monday and going to start on replacing the radiator soon.

 

[Alaskan_TA]

I love my 1970 Valiant 4-door, welcome to the club!

 

[Alaskan_TA]

Bucket seat car?

 

[kursplat]

Bucket seat car?

yup. still had the vinyl slip covers when Darter6 got it. must have been fun sitting on those after it had been in the sun for awhile

 

[Alaskan_TA]

Cool! The bucket seat cars came with the accent stripes, see the first listing on the page at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/DealershipDataBook/1968/68_Valiant0016.jpg

 

[67autocross]

Great car! I would love a green or brown 4 door valiant....even better if it was a 318 4 speed car. Funny thing is I haven’t come across a nice 4 door around here in over 10 years of looking, every one has been rusted out.

 

[kursplat]

Cool! The bucket seat cars came with the accent stripes, see the first listing on the page at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/DealershipDataBook/1968/68_Valiant0016.jpg

thanks for the info. glad i put it back on.

Great car! I would love a green or brown 4 door valiant....

ya, i love the color. this and the 69' medium metallic green are the best looking on these years.

also got the bumpers re-chromed. need to do some other stuff before they go on

hanging out with the family

 

[kursplat]

forgot to post the info for the gentleman who did the front and rear glass. if your in the los angeles area, call Moses. if you've ever tried reading about how to install the glass in your mopar and gone nuts with everyone's tips, and the worry about cracking the glass, you need to see this guy work. he's done a lot of mopars and knew what to look for with the gaskets and clips. does new cars too, so your brother in laws Camry is covered too

 

[halfafish]

Nice score on your car. I was watching this for quite a while, and I thank you for buying it. Otherwise it would have very easily wound up at my house. I'm still looking for a clean 67-69 Valiant.

 

[kursplat]

Nice score on your car. I was watching this for quite a while, and I thank you for buying it. Otherwise it would have very easily wound up at my house. I'm still looking for a clean 67-69 Valiant.

thanks, but if your going to buy one anyway, i don't know how much help i was

also picked up a Marshall water temp gauge. wanted a full sweep gauge that isn't mechanical.

 

[kursplat]

finally got a day off work and had time to open a few things that showed up from Dr Diff...

11.75 front disk caliper brackets, set of 3.73 gears with a sure-trac and the 10.7 rear disk brake kit

Hotchkis sways arrived too

i have a couple other projects to get to first, but i'm hoping to get the rear end assembled in the next week or so

 

[Darter6]

Glad to see you having so much fun with the 'ol girl. The rear & gears will make it get up & go.

 

[kursplat]

Glad to see you having so much fun with the 'ol girl. The rear & gears will make it get up & go.

yes i am...maybe too much decided i'm just going to plow ahead with all the stuff i was going to do to the other 2 cars, and just do it to this one. have you had a chance to get that hemi out to play? been way too humid here to be out in the shop, usually means rain thereabouts, where you are.

coincidentally some more parts showed up today...

PST 16:1 chuck and QA1 strut rods.

also got

 

[kursplat]

also got the US car tools lower core support fitted up. was planning on just capping the stock one with this. after seeing how much tweaking it was going to take to get a snug fit on the whole thing, i decided to cut out the stocker and weld in this one. the thing i don't like about the car tool one is where it sits as it wraps around the sides of the factory core support. the first and third pics shows how low it rides on the sides. everything from the new one to the frame is just the old, thin metal. the new one can be as stiff as a **** but it's still going to hanging from the wimpy stock steel.

decided to add some plates between the car tool support and the frame. i'll weld those all the way around and to the new one.

also started to test fit the champ radiator i had laying around. i was getting ready to tack the new support when i realized i better make sure it won't be sitting too high

back to work tomorow, so i probably won't get this welded up until next week

 

[Darter6]

Nice ! Man you sure are going all out with this one. Hemi car has allot of little things to do.Getting to them one at a time. Pulled the cross ram to re-torque the heads now fitting a single 4 bbl intake.

 

[kursplat]

Nice ! Man you sure are going all out with this one. Hemi car has allot of little things to do.Getting to them one at a time. Pulled the cross ram to re-torque the heads now fitting a single 4 bbl intake.

not driveability over cool factor i hope.

 

[Darter6]

Yes and no. I really plan on driving it more. I just can't keep my foot off the floor !!!!

 

[kursplat]

Yes and no. I really plan on driving it more. I just can't keep my foot off the floor !!!!

.
Thought that was the point.

 

[Darter6]

Well let's just say it drinks gallons per mile. It sure don't get miles per gallon.

 

[kursplat]

was able to get the new radiator support welded in. fabricated a couple of drops to tie the new piece to the body and stitched it all together. since i needed to add the side pieces anyway, i decided to lower the support about a 1/2in to give me a little more room to hang the new 26in radiator.

 

[kursplat]

finished the core support and got things painted despite work calling me to come in 3 times on my days off. i'd say , but it happens all the time.

A/C condenser is supposed to be here tomorrow so i should be able to get it and the trans cooler hung and the radiator installed.

 

[itchy666]

Lookin good with the NEW PAINT, love it mate!

 

[kursplat]

thanks. a little lip stick on the pig never hurts
A/C condenser showed up today. shout out to Arizona Mobile Air. i've used them before and they're a great place for info or parts. looks like the trans cooler and condenser are going to fit just fine

 

[kursplat]

made some progress today. this was originally an A/C car with P/S. the previous owner had removed all of it, including everything in the cabin. he had also converted the engine pulleys to no A/C, no P/S with good reason. everything leaked. no big deal for a fair weather driver but i'm going to drive this in the winter and summer so it's going to need heat and air again. i did get most of the original stuff for the cabin but have no desire to rebuild it. i had used the Boushillon bracket for a sandon compressor in my 74', and it worked great, but you need all the 70' and later pulleys and brackets to use it. the more i went back and forth on sourcing a complete factory setup, the more i just wanted to get a serpentine system and loose the v-belts all together. either way though, i end up with a water pump upgrade...

for you kids that have never done this to a 69' or older small block, moving the water pump and leaving the old timing cover, means moving the timing marks

i had used the MP timing tape before, and just used a stiff piece of wire for a pointer, but decided to mod the stock one this time

monkey welds

had to grind a little off the intake for the new alternator bracket

March pulley setup