Father, Son, and Grand Father project. 1963 Valiant

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prorac1

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This is the beginning of what I hope is a great learning, and bonding experience for me, my father, and my son.

Me and my dad originally restored MY 63 valiant in the same barn, using the same tools that were going to do a lot of the work on my sons 63 Valiant.

Heres some pics of my 63 and how its set up today. Its been a 22 year journey going through about 5 different incarnations.

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We found a great deal on a roller set up for a 318/727, but like all good stories this one has a little history.

We originally started this process over 2 years ago when we bought a 1965 Valiant V100. The price was right, but the car was ROUGH. Floors were junk, quarters were junk, trunk floors were junk, it was just.................junk. But for the price, we could afford to do the metal fabrication to make it solid again, and still have less into it than what I could find a solid car for.

My son was only 10 when we bought the 65 so it was no big hurry to get going on it. We tinkered with it, and had it running and driving shortly. It has a later model 225 and a 3 spd manual and runs really good.

I had some work to finish on my 63, and my 97 Camaro SS, (yeah, I know, a Shivvy, but it really is a cream puff, low millage 12 sec daily driver.) So the 65 went on the back burner. Heres some pics of the 65.

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Upon searching, we found a completely rust free Arizona roller cheap. The car was cleaner than anything I had ever seen. For what we paid we couldn't afford to do the metal work on the 65, and, this car was the TWIN to my car. They are both Signet 200 2 door hardtop coupes. Heres some pics of how the car sits as of now.

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The previous owner was really excited to see it go to a family that was going to do something with it.

The car came with
66 formula s radiator
66 formula s exhaust manifolds
later model 727 and 318 converter
Schumacher conversion mounts for the 318
318 electronic dist
2 MP electronic ignition boxes (gold, and stock)
and many other goodies.

I still have the stock hood and deck lid from my car (I had one off carbon fiber parts made for mine that are DZUS on), so that (IMHO) HIDEOUS hood scoop is GONE. Jason wants to keep the hood and put a HEMI Dart scoop over the hole...............I like that idea. Our first plan of attack is scuffing through the 4 or 5 layers of paint and getting down to bare metal, than priming it and bringing it back to my house to start modifying things for the engine swap. Thanks for reading. Eric and Jason.
 
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that will so cool.... 3 generations working on that car..... cherished memories for all!!!

Yes. Some of my best memories as a kid were working on stuff with my dad. Somewhere along the line I blinked my eyes and 25 years have come and gone, lol. Now I have a son of my own, and I have no idea where the time went, lol. Eric L
 
Went down and picked up some more parts from the guy I bought the silver 63 from yesterday. Heres what I got.

A set of black wrinkle finish MP valve covers, mint
complete SB hyd non adjustable rockers and shafts
round back 66 casting alternator
A HUGE starter, lol.
a holley mechanical fuel pump, 110 gph
7 blade aluminum blade fan.
cast iron drivers side outlet water pump
factory orange 340 timing cover. Same casting number as 273-318
A LOT of bolts all bagged
flexplate, balancer, and crank pulley
dipstick tube and handle
2 exhaust manifolds from a 68 barracuda 318, (but I don't think they will fit in the early a body chassis)

And 2 SMOKED pistons on floating early 273 rods, lol.

Pretty much just a bunch of crap, but the valve covers and fuel pump covered my gas, so it was a cool road trip.

He also threw in the motor mounts that were on the 318 that was in the car when he bought it. Ill post some pics in a min. Wondering if anybody can ID the brackets? Theyre deff not schumachers. Im thinking they are pickup truck/ramcharger SB maybe. Eric L
 
Nice, it feels good picking up parts even if all you do is stare at em..

Any plans for the 65?
 
Nice, it feels good picking up parts even if all you do is stare at em..

Any plans for the 65?

As of right now the 65 will probably be a parts car for the 63. The floors and quarters are WASTED in the 65. Were planning on using the

The dash board, (no pushbutton hole, and no hacked guage holes like the 63 has)
The firewall and wiper motor for the hump ectomy on the 63

The rest will probably be parted out to those that need it. Eric L
 
Looks like you have a fun project with alot of parts.

My son and I, he is 15 have been building a Duster for him for the last 5 years.

Those mounts are for a truck.
 
Thank you for the help on the mounts. We are having a lot of fun doing this project together. Eric L
 
It's nice to be out in the garage with your dad and your son isn't it?
 
Nice story on your family build,your father must be enjoying time spent wrenching with both you and grandson.I will be following your progress.:glasses7:
 
Nice story on your family build,your father must be enjoying time spent wrenching with both you and grandson.I will be following your progress.:glasses7:

Yeah, it is really cool doing this project with the two of them. Its kind of a time warp. MY 63 valiant was built originally in that SAME barn when I was 16 years old. I cant wait to really DIG into this project. So far we are still collecting parts and doing research on what fits and what dosent.

I picked up some 94 Dodge Ram 1500 318 exhaust manifolds for FREE. My uncle is parting out the truck and donated them to his favorite............(only, lol) great nephew, lol. He also sold us a super clean 83ish 318 out of a ram charger for $150. So far we are WAY AHEAD money wise. Being 13 years old im trying to stretch his dollar as far as I can. Hoping to post some progress pics soon. Thanks, Eric L
 
Me and Jason went over to Grandma and Grandpas today and got some more work done on Jasons valiant. We got both bumpers, front gravel pan, grill, headlight rings, rear bumpers, tail lights, reverse lights, quarter trim, signet 200 emblems, and corner fender trim taken off.

I have to admit, I was really surprised. He really busted his tail, and rolled his sleeves up and tore it up, lol. We had a lot of father, son, grand son time. A good time was had by all. And this car is CRAZY clean. Even the front splash shields came out with NO problem. Eric L

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And here is a picture of the motor that we are getting for it. Its in a 1983 ramcharger that my uncle has. Hes selling it to his great nephew for $150 and some hard labor, lol. Its a great running engine, it just needs a lot of clean up work. But its nothing we cant handle.

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Thanks for reading. Eric and Jason.
 
Nice! My son and I took the day off from our project today and went on an awesome bike trail with mom and our 3 other kids
 
Got some more work done on Jasons valiant this weekend. Jason got the rest of the interior pulled apart/out.

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Than, grandpa taught his grandson how to weld. Hes already better than me, but that dosent take much, lol.

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Than, we worked on the "humpectomy" by using the wiper motor and main drive arm from the 65 and spot welding it under the cowl. Than we stiched in the flat 65 firewall section to finish up the swap.

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A good time was had by all, lol. It turned out pretty good, a little bit of filler and you'll never know it happened.

Next we have some man made holes to weld up in the firewall and floorpan, and were going to grind off the pinch weld in the trans tunnel and weld it up to clear the 727 trans.

Than its onto widening the inner wheel houses. I guess were working our way from front to back.

We also are stitching in the 65 radiator saddle. The 63 saddle was pretty wrinkled from a long ago accident, and the 65 saddle has the bigger 22" radiator opening VS the 19" in the 63.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures and update. I know we enjoyed making them. Eric and Jason.
 
Keep at it, maybe some day you can help your son build a car for his kid.
 
Looking really good, it must feel good to work with your son!
Keep the pics coming, there great.
 
that's a cool project
when I get my transmission fixed I oughta stop and check it out
 
Thanks for the responses guys.

We got some more done yesterday. We picked up an explorer 8.8 with a 3.73 and a Trac-Lock. We started with the worlds ugliest rear axle



We ground, and ground, and ground, and ground on this rusty pile, and eventually cleaned it up a little. I have a little more sanding to do in the nooks and cranies, but its better than it was.



I have never seen a cast iron axle this rusty before.

The good news is that its the tightest used axle ive ever felt. It rolls and the back lash feels like new. I cant wait to bust it open and see whats inside.
 
Another project that we had a couple weeks ago was the E body disk brake set up we did some trading for. Heres Jason working, while I drink coffee and take pictures, lol. The calipers and pads and rotors are newish. Were planning on using the factory A arms with ball joint adapters with the E body spindles and brakes. This combined with the 8.8 rear axle will give us the large bolt pattern all the way around and 10" disk brakes all the way around.

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And heres the car when we bought it. My earlier pics got corrupted. Its super clean, and from Arizona, so its been a joy to work on. It has a lot of dings and filler. But is rust free, which being from Michigan is all that matters, lol.

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Today we worked on restoring the heater box. Because of neglect and age, the fiberglass on the box was extremely brittle and fragile. Because of this we ended making 1 good heater box from two different ones.

One is the original from the 63 valiant, and the other is from the 65 valiant we parted out. We used the front half of one box and the rear half of the other. Unfortunately mother mopar changed the location of the internal cold air trap door between 63 and 65. We ended up putting the 4 halfs together, (the two unbroken halfs and the two broken halfs) and one had 2 trap doors and the other had 4 trap doors, lol.

So we ended up removing the internal trap door closest to the pass side cold air door, (coal furnace, lol) from the junk box and transplanting it into the good half that was missing it.

The blower resistor was also different, so we ended up transplanting the 3 wire resistor into the 2 wire box. It was all very confusing at first but we worked through it and wrapped our heads around it.

We installed a new, cheap, ill fitting spectre heater core and bolted it all together after laying a coat of epoxy on the fiberglass to re laminate it. painted it up and set it off to the side.

Heres some pics of our agony, lol.

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Your heater box project looks like a success. I had my original and I bought one and Frankenstined 1 nice one out of the 2 for my 74 AC car...
Now you have another thing to cross off your list!
 
Yep, exactly. That's all were doing on this project, one small project at a time, lol. Keeps it easy and fun. Makes it easier to keep a 13 year old interested. Right now hes pretty excited about the mini tub project. I don't think it will be difficult, just tedious. Eric L
 
Found a set of wheels on Craigslist for Jason's car. We got 6 wheels total.

2 15 x 3.5
2 15 x 8 with 3.5 back space
2 15 x 10 with 4.5 back space

We're planing on selling off the 15 x 10 wheels to offset the cost.

I'm proud of him. He paid for them himself and polished his butt off after school yesterday. Here's the result of his hard work. Enjoy. Eric and Jason.

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