Little $250 69 Valiant

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4mulaSvaliant

4mulaSvaliant

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Joined
Oct 26, 2006
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Location
Virginia Beach Va.
Well Ill start with the story of buying it.
I was in high school,(95 or so) I had just gotten back from working a summer job in Alaskaand had accrued some cash. The whole point of me going up was to get cash for a project car. My good friend at the time had gotten me interested in Mopars with his 74 Dart which he had gotten for a bag of marbles! So I was looking in the paper and seen a very short listing for a 69 Plymouth Valiant in a small town about 30 min away.
So as I am looking around the car that is half way under a lean-to (type of shed) I ask the lady if it runs. At this point I had only walked around it an had not seen under the hood, and didnt know what was in it. She threw me the keys I pumped it twice and hit the key, it fired right up, I said I dont care whats under the hood Ill take it. She wanted 350 I told her I had 250 and she said her husband would be mad but she took it any way. I drove the 30 min. backk without a hick up.
I drove the car for about a year with the slant six, which had 3 burnt valves and still ran its A$$ off! Well the valves that were burnt made the car die at lights pretty often. That annoyed me pretty bad, so after many nuetral drops I sand the heck with it and took it home and started pulling the 170 /6 without having another motor to put back in.
After dealing with a cracked 318 I found a 360 short block and with a HS budget I had to put the 318 heads and eddie intake on the 360.
LOTSA TORQUE THOUGH!
So to fast forward this story I joined the military and left the car at my dads in Oregon until March of 06.
Ok Ill post a few pics and some notes to go with them.

2006-03-18 Donnie's Car leaving 010.jpg


2006-03-18 Neighbor's House 001.jpg


2006-03-18 Neighbor's House 013.jpg
 
Ok sorry guys this is the first time I have put pics with my posts.
So as for the pics the first is obviously the valiant leaving from Or coming to Va last year.
The othere 2 photos have a story that has a lesson. Those two pics have to do with my dad getting the car ready to move onto the delivery trailer. He was trying to get it to start on a regular basis and couldnt figure out that the nuetral safety switch had a bad connection. Well what had happened is,, I have a B&M shifter that he wasnt used to and it was in gear when he jumped the starter relay. Well being a chrysler it fired right up and almost ran him over. His quick thinking made him reach to disconnect the coil wire. While he reached for the coil with his right hand, he managed to get his finger on his left hand punctured and cought on the throttle return spring. At this point he is being dragged across the driveway, over the road and got free just before the car hit the nieghbors house. He called me very upset about the car being smashed but of course I was happy he was OK.
 
So here are some pics of the car in the condtion I got it in aside from the fenders I scored to replace the badly damaged front.
A shot of the rear and the cragars that are currently being powder coated because of the rust that they acquired.
And also the old engine bay. I say old because just today I have finished the paint in the bay. I am pretty happy with the end result. TAKE YOUR TIME! lol I hate not having it on the road yet though!!!!!!!!!
Here is the new bay and the inner fender replacement.

valiant frt bad fender.jpg


rear valiant.jpg


dirty 360 bay.jpg


new bay.jpg


Inner fender repair.jpg


lil body fenderwell.jpg
 
So here is the motor and trans.
360: All stock crank, rods and bore. I dont remember the specs on the cam But I do remember it wasnt stock! lol thats some pertinant info Im missing there!!!!! This poor 360 still has the budget build 318 topend on it. I picked up some J heads a while back that were supposedly a fresh rebuild, further inspection told me I was had! They look Ok but glass beads holding a valve open makes me a little leary. Gonna have em' checked out and mean while Ill get the new intake and do it all at once. Until then Ill enjoy all the torque I have that will eat up all the tuners around here.
The trans is a 904, that was from a low mile car. I installed a TF 2 kit from transgo, and a new B&M flexplate and Hughes converter. All that has been transfered to the rear through the recently shortened drive shaft. This is because I got the deal of the century it seems. A good friend gave me a hell of a deal on an A Body 8 3/4 suregrip with 323s. $350 is all! man was I happy!

Fresh motor and trans.jpg
 
Well I got the motor in the car today and man was it a headache! And I now have a huge headache from straining my neck while under the car.
I recently picked up a nicer exaust system and it has Heddman Headers that fit a little differently than my last ones. Well After muchO fighting with the left bank header I finally got it in and man is it a better fit than the last ones.
Not only that, it bolts up to a 2 1/2" H pipe exaust rather than the 1 7/8" straits I was running. (they were a much appreciated gift though).
I am extrremely happy with what I have turned out. Although its gonna look a little odd for a while though. Im not going to get to paint it for a good few months, so it wiil look pretty sad on the outside but under the hood looks better than new! Ha Ha thats the way I think it should be built if you have a strict budget. well later guys hope you find some of this interesting or helpful. If you are waiting to see some custom stuff you'll have to wait til' I get to the interior! and then this winter I want to do something similar to XV Engineerings Rear susp. check em out guys they have a great system!
http://www.xvmotorsports.com/faq/index.cfm

new engine in bay.jpg
 
Well, I appologize for the un-organization here But Ill straiten it all out soon. I thought I would post a few of the projects I have gotten side tracked on while waiting for parts to arrive.

I used to work at a propeller shop and learned to polish stainless and aluminum pretty good. Well I tried it on the tired old valiant trim and it looks nearly new I think.

Aside from that I mentioned previously that I had picked up some better fenders. This drivers side fender looked Ok when I got it but my curiousity peakedd when I seen what I thought was bondo. Turnedd out it had been repaired, pretty decently too. Yet I am relly trying hard to do this stuff correctly and because I work with metal, I knew I could get it better than it was. I have about 20 hours in this fender and there is still a low spot in the upper body line. I hate body work! I need to get a few of the pro tricks under my belt so I can laod the filler on and then file it while its setting, that way I can lessen the amout of times I put more filler on.
Other than that I just thought I post a side view.


Like I say Ill organize this a little better soon!

resized chrome polishing.jpg


valiant 004 RS.jpg


valiant good driver fender RS.jpg
 
4mulaSvaliant said:
Well, I appologize for the un-organization here But Ill straiten it all out soon. I thought I would post a few of the projects I have gotten side tracked on while waiting for parts to arrive.

I used to work at a propeller shop and learned to polish stainless and aluminum pretty good. Well I tried it on the tired old valiant trim and it looks nearly new I think.

Aside from that I mentioned previously that I had picked up some better fenders. This drivers side fender looked Ok when I got it but my curiousity peakedd when I seen what I thought was bondo. Turnedd out it had been repaired, pretty decently too. Yet I am relly trying hard to do this stuff correctly and because I work with metal, I knew I could get it better than it was. I have about 20 hours in this fender and there is still a low spot in the upper body line. I hate body work! I need to get a few of the pro tricks under my belt so I can laod the filler on and then file it while its setting, that way I can lessen the amout of times I put more filler on.
Other than that I just thought I post a side view.


Like I say Ill organize this a little better soon!
Click to expand...

I do bodywork at my job and yes,its tiring and frustrating(I come home sneezing out bondo dust,even with a mask) and it does take LOTS of patience :-| just hang in there with it and take your time.youll be glad you did.What i hate are the callousis from holding the block.looks good so far
 
Boy it is hard to look at these car's everyone has picked up
when I am looking for one my self. That car is just what the DR ordered.
Nice car 4mulaSvaliant :thumbup:
 
I'm fixing one up right now, a 2 door post valiant 100, they are nifty little cars when they're done, light too! I drive 69 signet 4 door /6 as my daily driver hasn't let me down ever. it's faded and worn, but keeps on going........I paid 300 for the 2 door and 400 for the 4 door. both have hardly any rust.... I must be lucky I guess.
 
When I bought the car it had stock wheels, dog dish caps, a /6, busted up front bench seat, no scoop. Just a complete "grocery go getter". I scored the cragars at a tiny little tire shop back in Spokane when I was in HS. Its kinda funny and nostalgic to some degree. I stopped in and asked if they had anything to fit the small bolt pattern and he said I have these cragars but they arent in the best shape. I asked how much and he said $200.00 for all 4. Of course on a burger joint income I couldnt swing it. So naturally I checked with him every month or so to see if he had em' still. Finally about a year later, on one of my stops he said gimme' a $ 100.00 and you can have em'. Well I didnt have the cash but I did get a paycheck for a 147.00 the next day. I snatched em' up ignoring my gas and insurance bill! I say this is nostalgic to a point because Im sure that guy seen that I wantedd them sooooooo bad and finally just made it possible for me. You just dont see that kinda stuff too often anymore.
 
Ok so Ill "kind of" restart this with some stories of good and bad times had in this car. Ill post some pics along the way, and start some order to the resto part. Most likely Ill post pics starting with drivetrain then to the interior since I have most of those parts, and then on to the body.

Well as I mentioned I bought it cheap and drove it home. Being a kid wanting to do stuff that was kool, I tried a multitude of dumb things leading it to being less kool most likely. I think I started by cutting the exaust off and putting a cherry bomb on it, of course I didnt realize that just a muffler wasnt going to make that /6 sound like an 8. Then the rear sagged, so I got a pair of shackles given to me, well those went on to raise the rear and once again, in hindsight it looked really lame with those little stock rims and 70 series tires on em'. I did a few things to "clean up" the bay, like dare I say it------------------SPLATTER PAINT. Yep I thought it would be cool to jump on the wagon back then and accessorize some things like the air cleaner, heater motor trim ring. Yeah like I said I thought I was doing kool stuff! LMAO

So anyhow, after I shamed the valiant for a while, and drove the crap out of it, neutral drops at lights, running the poor drive train up to 100 mph while on the ice just because it would, and turning it into a redneck from hell racecar ( 102" whip CB antenna included), I decided after an incedent of needing more power desperately, that it was time to swap in a V8.

Now I have to tell the story of "DESPERATELY NEEDING MORE POWER".
Ok I have told this story in anothre thread but it is a factor in the build of this car so Ill retell here. Actually I think Ill copy and paste it.

My father was getting married and so we had company for the weekend, well one of them was a kid my age, it was summer and a friend and I asked this other guy if he wanted to come hang out with us at the river. So we are all driving in the valiant down the river road, and my friend Lloyd is in the back and he picks up this bag of donuts that we had gotten the night before. These donuts looked like miniature tractor tires (you know the ones). Well being the DUMBA$$ I am, "I say gimme one of those" not so bad if it hadnt been followed by " WATCH THIS".

Well as we move down the road I get the inclination to throw it at an oncoming car (now in my miniscule lil' brain I have worked out that the car will keep on going the other way) THAWACK! POOF! all over the windshield of a fullsize chevy truck. Well, I naturally look in the rear view and to my dismay I see brake lights, then I notice the HUGE Harley decal across the back window, then I seen the side of the truck (he's turning around) then I see the grill of the truck! OHHHHHHHHH SH_____________T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I drop the 904 into the lowest gear it will catch and pin it to the floor on this winding river road. As you can imagine this isnt getting me moving very quickly, especially with 3 burnt valves. Well they catch up with us and start yelling to pull over (yeah thats gonna happen willingly). Well the first thing I noticed about these TWO guys is that they are covered in tats and look like they just got of work from there daily jobs as IRON WORKERS or something.
At this point they cut me off and I am ran towards the shoulder that has a built up dirt wall (damn nowhere to go). They are getting out of the truck meanwhile we sit praying that the good ol' slant six will fire back up. It had died when I was forced to bring the RPM's down (damn burnt valves). Well it didnt start by the time they got to the sides of the car.
So as the guy attempts to punch me while Im in the car, though I backed up enough to avoid his hits. He reaches in and grabs my WILLIE NELSON length hair and drags me toward the window and proceeds to punch the top of my head, realizing this doesnt affect my head as much as it hurts his hand he stops to grab the CRAGER SS in the back seat next to Lloyd. Meanwhile the visiting guy along for the ride takes a sucker punch through the window to the cheak.
So the guy on my side pulls the wheel from me, believe me I fought for that rim (Hey those are rare!!!!- sm bolt pat.) Then he proceeds to beat my poor little car with it. 1st the roof, then the fender, then the quarter glass, then throws it at me through the window. Well amazingly the quarter glass did not break. Though to this day the window still has a big scuff/scratch in a cresent shape.
But the door glass was hit right at the top as it was rolled down, it shattered!
I would like to say that I tried to be some big bad a$$ but I was scared sh_t less by 2 pissed off 40 year old guys, that probley just got of work and didnt feel like dealing with a bunch of dumbass kids!

To end this story I'll say this.
#1. I realize how incredibly STUPID this was, and did soon after I did it!
2. donuts are NOT projectiles!
3. Long hair makes a good handle!
4. slant 6's with 3 burnt valves CAN NOT out run a chevy 350!
5. If you dont know me too well dont "hang out" with me!
6. I find this funny now and did soon after I did it BUT, BUT, BUT, any of you younger guys that think this stuff is amusing to try, REALIZE what happened to me, and also REALIZE that people are much more volitile than they used to be! And that was only about 10 years ago! I just dont want to see anyone getting any dumb Ideas from this.
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Hope you all find this as amusing as I do!
PS I still have a dent in the roof from the wheel and recently replaced the window again (1st replacement was misaligned and broke).

Ok well that copied and pasted so. But there is one big story to contribute to the "needing power". It would have been nice to have had the 360 in there. There is no damn way they would have cought me!
Well Ill leave this for now, sorry but there arent too many pics from the early days of my car. Ill post a few pics soon though. Ill also continue with the stories soon.
 
Well the new exaust system went in today! But not without a hell of a fight! I purchase this system from a friend and he said it came off of a duster. Well when I first looked at it, I thought I seen clamp marks where I could take the "over the axel" sections loose. Turns out it was welded,, so the entire system had to go in at once.
After raising the car as high as I could get it (working in driveway) I still had to take the rear spring mounts loose so I could drop the rear enough to get the exaust over the axel! This took several hours of frustration and figureing, but she is done and I cant wait to hear it!
 
Enjoyed the story!!
How does you car sound know
 
Fortunately I am across the country at this point but it is funny you say that.
I was at my job about two years later and the guy came in. He didnt recognize me but I recognized him. I can honestly say I have never felt so much rage. I obviously couldnt do anything to him, not like I didnt deserve what I got anyway but still I would have loved to get him back some how. Atleast do something to his truck! LMAO WHAT A DUMBASS KID HUH!
 
nice story! i have been there a time or two as well! i live in northern Virginia, but will be in Virginia beach for the 4th of July. if you are interested in getting together with a fellow A-body Mopar guy let me know. email is zinnspeed@msn.com
Dave
 
wow thats quite the difference, reminds me of my engine bay before and after, thank god nobody was hurt when the car took off. good luck on her, keep us posted :thumbup:
 
Looking good :thumbup:

Your story cracked me up, I'm an old guy so no worries about me doing that, the donut part anyway, the mag lashing's a possibility though :toothy7:
 
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