68' Valiant 4 door

-
Darter6 said:
Well it's been 4 months and no more posts. You OK ? Figure now that we are on global lock down you might be stuck at home.
Click to expand...
:) i'm still here. been working a lot and remodeled the bathroom, so that ate up a lot of time. the biggest issue now is it's too cold and windy on the patio. huge mess out there and now it's been raining every few days. got the garage cleaned up though, so once the weather turns next month, i should be back at it. i need to get a work space like yours and lock my self in there for a few days. hope everything is well with you. having any problems getting supplies? i went out sunday hunter/gathering and other than low on paper goods, i didn't have any trouble getting what i wanted.

74Dart318 said:
I do like this build as well. I would love to grab a 4door valiant like this some day. Your build looks great so far.

Looking forward to an update :)
Click to expand...
thanks. Darter6 had it before me and did a lot of work on it, making my job a whole lot easier
 
Gotta check in once in a while.Before all this B.S. going on,I've been house bound for 2 months now.Arthritis has taken my right hip to the point that I can barely walk with a cane.I'm scheduled for a replacement April 9th but who knows ?? Other than that all is well. Hope you can get back at it soon.I'm going a bit crazy not being able to work on my junk.It's a good thing that they will quietly wait for us to start working on them !
 
Darter6 said:
...I've been house bound for 2 months now.Arthritis has taken my right hip to the point that I can barely walk with a cane.I'm scheduled for a replacement April 9th but who knows ??
Click to expand...
that's no good. i know i'm going to have problems with that in a few years :mad:
my mom got her knee done at the end of january, apparently just in time. hurt pretty bad for a couple day, but she's doing fine now. the car might be quietly it's waiting, but me, not so much.
 
Got the call yesterday, surgery cancelled. Now it will be 3 months out. Oh well.....
 
sorry to hear that. hopefully a lot of this will start clearing up in a month or so and we can get back to normal. take care of yourself
 
mygasser said:
i'm afraid i've not touched it for a couple of months now, i've put my back out again so not up to much at all. still looking out for any parts i can use though, lol.
Click to expand...
my back is a mess too. i spend a good amount of time every day stretching trying to keep mine from taking me out.
 
nice weather today so i actually popped the hood and got something done.
background: as i'm putting A/C back in the car, and going with r134 and a Sanden pump, i had decided to go with March pulleys. their setup runs the A/C and the power steering pump off the same belt. that's fine but i have manual steering. what March does is substitute a pulley with sealed bearings to use as an idler pulley. two problems with that, the few posts i found with others using this setup complain that the bearings from march are POS and don't spin very easy. my kit, ordered though summit, didn't even have the pulley. no big deal, summit is great and took care of it ASAP. of course when it shows up the bearings were completely locked up. i wasn't happy, but one post had bearing numbers to replace them. i figured this being a know problem i'd just r+r them myself instead of doing who knows how many returns. using my 20T harbor freight press i was almost unable to get the bearings out. way too tight for this kind of press fit. and once the bearings are out they spin great, no problem. March is either using the wrong size bearing or not finishing the pulley to the right size :realcrazy: nice quality control. so i ended up honing the bore with emery cloth and pressed em' back in. works great now. the other issue: this is supposed to take the place of the power steering pump, but the pump has bolt holes that bolt to the brackets.
1.png

but the pulley is just a pulley, with bearings, and a hole thought the middle. no adapter brackets. no way to actually attach it to the power steering brackets. :BangHead:
so all that to say today i spent a couple hours and figured out how to hang this pulley and leave two of their brackets off.
2.JPG

3.JPG


now that that's sorted i was able to measure for the belt. once i get that i can work on getting everything lined up.
 
Last edited:
Just like Hot Rodding used to be ! Make it work,using your brain. Good job.
 
got a bit more done today. the longer bolts and belt showed up and i was able to do a mock up of everything. just need to cut some spacers so i can get rid of the washers...

DSC01407.JPG


DSC01409.JPG
 
a little more progress...i know, crazy right :realcrazy:
got the center cluster as done as it's going to get and most of the wiring for it in. i'm thinking someday i'll do v.3 of this because the angles still aren't how i originally wanted, but this will do for now

DSC01417.JPG

DSC01421.JPG


oh, and the other thing that ate up my time off this week. replacing the cracked filler hose on my 97' ranger. getting to it isn't actually very difficult. it's just that it's a common problem with them. awesome design there ford :mad:

DSC01414.JPG
 
been making some progress the last couple of weeks. other than a couple battery connections all the wiring is done. spent most of a day ringing out all the stuff i cut into the stock harness and making sure my notes were right.
hooked up the battery and started flipping switches. everything worked like it's supposed to :wtf:. i was amazed, no smoke.
also thought that for once i should right down all the changes so future me doesn't spend too much time cussing out the current me. lucky i had a lot of down time at work and managed to get everything drawn up.
DSC01433.JPG


also got the brackets made for the gauge cluster fuses and battery stuff. i've got the rest of the week off so i'm hoping i can get a lot of this done :rolleyes:
DSC01425.JPG


DSC01432.JPG
 
104' outside right now :mad:, was 70' two days ago :realcrazy:
a few months ago i bought a new fuel filler from Classic Industries that they list fitting 67'-69 Darts and Valiants that comes with a new vent tube.
FILLER.png

i also wanted to install a rollover valve in the fuel vent, as i'd like to do some track days at some point, so i picked one up from Tanks Inc.
after some mocking up i decided to just splice the valve into the vent line
DSC01434.JPG


first issue, the vent line from classic is probably just for a dart. after cussing at myself for not taking a picture of how the old one fit before i took it out, i decided to go find it to compare the two.

well no wonder...here's the loop portion that goes at the top of the 1/4 panel.
DSC01435.JPG


no freakin' wonder it wouldn't line up. so i cut up the stock one and did some test fitting

DSC01439.JPG


DSC01441.JPG


another piece of the puzzle done
 
IT'S ALIVE
got to the point it was ready to go, so i put some gas in the carb, and a few gallons in the tank and it lit off first hit of the key :steering:
not quite drive-able yet but getting close...
 
I know, never finished,really.Always something else that we want to do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top