Little $250 69 Valiant

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Little closer.

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4mulaSvaliant said:
Here is a concept paint sceme I will probably do on my Cragars that I powder coated. I am pretty sure Ill be doing this. The "rim" of the wheel will be painted a gunmetal grey color while the center spokes will stay black. I made this concept wheel with Autodesk Inventor.
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my 2 cents..
i have never been a fan of cragar ss wheels,..
but i did like the way they looked when they were chrome
the black i hated..
but your last rendition looks awesome..:cheers:
 
Yeah they were never intended to stay all black. I orig. wanted them silver but where I worked we ran out of silver and it was going to be a long time til' we got more. So I went with the other color I intended to put on them, so I could get it done. They should look pretty good soon. I dont really care for the all black look either.
 
Well, I managed to get it all in. The trans is in, and everything is hooked up. Including my console shifter. I had a little trouble with the shifter arm at the trans. I was trying to use the one that came with a B&M Shifter I used to have in the car. It turned out that the "throw" was too short so I wasnt making it from Park to 1st at the shifter. Well, the other arm I had for the trans was an original for a colum shifter set up. Long story short I straitened the original one and then checked and re-checked several times before I drilled the hole in the appropriate place. I nailed it the first time and it shifts dead on in every gear.

After completeing all that stuff I am even more excited to keep working on it! Heck its near mid night and I just came in from the garage! After I sit on what I have left to do tomorrow, Ill button up any loose ends. However I think I am done, I am thinking it can finally come off of the jack stands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will be sweet!!!:cheers::toothy7::happy6::blob:
 
Off the jack stands and outta the garage! Too bad it was moved by the power of me! A friend has my guages and I havent been able to fire it up.
Actually that makes me wonder' Can you start it without the guage cluster in it? I havent looked at any of the electronics to see what passes through the cluster. Are there any circuits that wouldnt be closed? HMMMMMMM? Id love to fire it up and see if itll move under its own power again. IT BETTER!!!
 
Man between trying to help out MeMike with everyone buying him a car and my interior coming together Im wayyyyy siked!!! I really hope all this comes together for MeMike.
Aside from that I have been working on getting my dash sanded, prepped, painted. Then today I buffed the fresh paint out. WHOLLY SH_T it looks Awsome! I was getting very anxious to get it running and wanted the guages but I have realized its better I dont have them. I have ended up taking my time on the interior stuff rather than just jambing it back together so I can drive it. I have a multitude of very nice quality interior parts I have been gathering, and now I am finally seeing them put to good use! Man I love it!!! I wanna skip work and keep blasting away on my car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man Im sooooo siked! What a great night, we all are coming together to help a hell of a guy join in on the fun of building a fun little car and I see lots of other peoples projects coming together also! Just sweet!



Ill post a few new pics of the new dash tomorrow, incase anyones interested.
 
Hey guys. Well I have spoken to my friend thats doing my gauge faces and its gonna be a few more weeks til I get them back so I decided while I have it apart, I may as well do a mod I seen a LONG time ago from Mopar Action magazine.

In the August 2000 Issue there is a write up on how to make your gauge cluster have stable needles! I have a bunch of old Mopar mags from when I was in the Navy on cruise. I just kept gettin' em' and collecting a little knowledge along the way.
Anyhow I thought Id transfer and summerize the procedure for anyone who hasnt seen this yet.
Here we go!

So here is the list of items they say you need.

1. A new regulator known as the "7805" in electronics world. (its the 3 pronged item) Got it from Radio Shack for less than a buck!

2. A small electrolytic capacitor. (the little barrel thing) Any value from 5-100uF. It must have a voltage rating of atleast 15 volts (more is fine) Mine as was the one in the magazine was a 10uF @ 100V. "Not critical" they say!

3. You need a heat sink to cool down the new regulator. I couldnt find one at Radio Shack so I made one from a strip of aluminum. I know from experiance with other things that these little buggers get really warm!

4. You need 3 pieces of wire anywhere from 20-26 gauge to tie all the components together.

NOTE: I bought the compund that helps to transfer thermal energy (heat) so that my home made heat sink may perform a little better. They say nothing about it in the artical.

Here is how this works: the regulator lets only a steady 5 volts go out, and the capacitor keeps any spikes from getting to the guages, so its somewhat like double protection there. Anyhow with all of this being better more reliable technology, it makes our old Mopars have some reliable readings!

Well Ill leave you with the pictures at this point, they speak better than I anyhow! LOL

Oh and all of this stuf was less than 8.00

CAUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BE CAREFUL WHEN SOLDERING THESE COMPONENTS, THEY CANT TAKE PROLONGED HEAT FROM THE SOLDERING IRON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes it matters what wires go where, so copy them from the examples. The black and white pictures are directly from the mag!

Good luck guys!

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Hooked up the gauges, choked it, hit the key and 2nd time on the key she fired up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers: WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Look out Va Beach, Im gonna be rollin' the Little Valiant! Man I am lovin it!!! Damn she sounds great too!

HeHe------ I live in a quiet neighborhood and I have everyones attention now! LMAO
 
I know exactly how you are fealing. i started my duster for the first time a couple weeks ago. Almost can't put it into words huh.

Phil
 
I've always had a soft spot for a Valiant Sedan.

SWEET
 
mrtires24 said:
I know exactly how you are fealing. i started my duster for the first time a couple weeks ago. Almost can't put it into words huh.

Phil
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i saw your avatar pic ... do you run derbies?? or do you just like the look of those old toyotas...lol
i am running a 4cyl only derby this wednesday 6-11 at fallon nv..
 
I know what you are going through. I live in Hampton, might run into you someday when I get my cuda back on the road. I am in the process of changing the whole drivetrain out. Hope to have the new 408 running in a month or so. Tom

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Well I finally got the windshield back in it last night. MAN IS THAT A PITA! I had a friend come over and niether of us have ever installed one, we managed to get it in and didnt rip the seal or break the glass. I would definately say it would have been worth the 100.00 I was quoted for a glass shop to put it in. I just didnt have the cash to blow on that. Also I read the "Valiant Effort" artical and it didnt seem too bad. HAH!
So any way Ill post some pics of it later. Im just happy that I can drive it in a few weeks if I can get the rest of the stuff finished up.
 
Well I for a while there I hadnt been doing anything of real value on the Valiant. However with the beautiful weather we have had for a few weeks has had me out in the garage til the wee hours of the night. I flopped back and forth durring the "build" of my guage pod as to whether I liked it or not and came very close to scrapping it laast week. I figured I had so much into it already I may aswell finish it and if I didnt like it Id toss it. Still not 100% sold.
Other than that, several months ago I had drawn some circles on my bumper and tossed the idea around of mounting some "driving" lights in the bumper. Very similar to a Road Runner. Well after looking at the circles on the bumper for months I commited! I cut 2 good size holes in the bumper! Man am I glad I like it! Once I get the chin spoiler on it should tie it all together really nice.
So here it goes guys tell me whatcha' think.
And a few pics of the insulation install and the dash pretty well completed.
Man the insullation makes this thing soooo much nicer to ride in.

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I really like those driving lights in the bumper.
They really look slick, not something I ever would have thought of, but they really look great!
 
Thx Im diggin' them too. I plan to build a housing around them, so you dont se any light around them and they also wont light up the back of the bumper and look lame. I am pretty sure Ill be powder coating the bumpers with a "chrome" powder. It of course doesnt look crhome but I do like the look of it anyway. We'll see.
 
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