Preparing an Imported 1964 US Valiant Racer to be a Street Legal Car in Canada

-
Lots of money was spent by the previous owner on the chassis and motor but they lost interest in the car and now I am getting it ready for street use. One area of neglect was the trunk area of the car. So I did a little refresh this weekend.

Here is what it looked like when I started. Corroded double batteries.







Removed the batteries to make sure all was well underneath.





Started the clean up with some rust converter for floors, sealed up the holes, and some basic degreaser cleanser.







The battery tray was nasty.



So I dumped it in this and worked like a charm.





A little paint and a new powerful battery and voila!

 
Next up I painted the trunk floor with POR 15. Never worked with this before but it is great stuff. Almost like an enamel. Looking much better.

Prep


POR15


Guy at the store gave me a great tip on working with POR 15. He said never open the lid just put two screws to pour so air never gets in. Makes it last much longer.



Next I decided to Dynamat the entire car so I started with the trunk. Left an area uncovered in case I ever have to remove the fuel cell.



Thought it looked cool leaving it with the dynamatt but decided to play with $20 of fake leather vinyl. Decided to cut and tape in two pieces so it is easy to remove. I guess I could tape it to the floor to get it smoother but I like I can take it on and off. Was kind of tricky to cut and measure but it turned out ok.



Oppps. Painted the tray wrong colour! :banghead: Would look better in Hemi orange.



Back to paint....




And finish...





BEFORE



AFTER



That is a little better. On to the interior next....
 
Looks good, BUT before you get too far along, do you have a metal firewall behind the back seat? Review the NHRA rules. You can Google and download an earlier rulebook

Even if you never race it, you would do well to adhere to those requirements, for several reasons...............

Now that you have a fuel tank in the trunk, without a firewall, there is nothing separating a fire / explosion from YOU

Batteries normally need to be vented to the outside world, and installed in outside vented boxes.

If you EVER expect to race this at any track, you'll need a battery disconnect in the hot battery lead which will also kill the alternator / ignition to kill the engine.
 
67Dart273 said:
Looks good, BUT before you get too far along, do you have a metal firewall behind the back seat? Review the NHRA rules. You can Google and download an earlier rulebook

Even if you never race it, you would do well to adhere to those requirements, for several reasons...............

Now that you have a fuel tank in the trunk, without a firewall, there is nothing separating a fire / explosion from YOU

Batteries normally need to be vented to the outside world, and installed in outside vented boxes.

If you EVER expect to race this at any track, you'll need a battery disconnect in the hot battery lead which will also kill the alternator / ignition to kill the engine.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words. Yes. It does have a metal firewall behind the backseat and the fuel tank is vented to the outside. It also has a battery disconnect. All set if I ever decide to go back to the track.
 
wasn't this car purchased from a FABO member ? I remember seeing that cut-out in the hood and the fire starter air filter in a thread about cutting it bigger here before , maybe the previous owner will chip in with some info on the motor .
PS not sure about Quebec but most places won't safety a car with fenderwell headers , you're probably going to have to pull those and patch the holes .
 
cannucky said:
wasn't this car purchased from a FABO member ? I remember seeing that cut-out in the hood and the fire starter air filter in a thread about cutting it bigger here before , maybe the previous owner will chip in with some info on the motor .
PS not sure about Quebec but most places won't safety a car with fenderwell headers , you're probably going to have to pull those and patch the holes .
Click to expand...

That was me that wrote the post about the air filter and cutting a bigger hole. I purchased the car on FABO but the seller just joined to place the ad. He was helping a friend to sell it. I bought it in West Virginia.

I have never heard about the issue of passing an inspection with fenderwell headers. Side pipes won't pass for sure so I am changing the exhaust. I wil check out the header issue. Thanks. Passing the inspection in Quebec seems to be a crap shoot depending who you get as an inspector.
 
Onterrible used to have a rule saying you couldn't have any holes in the stock body panels that weren't put there by the factory , this was geared to rust holes but opening up the inner fender especially on a uni-body car was also a no no . It almost looks like they altered the firewall as well , I would borrow a pair of stock cast exhaust manifolds , buy the cheapest clamp together exhaust I could find and patch the inner fenders , drill out the existing patch , glue a piece underneath , cheese the patch then paint the whole inner fender so the guy looking at it doesn't see it's been patched or even cut . You can then just knock the glued in piece back out and re-rivet the custom patch back around the headers when you put them back on . The most important thing when going for safety is the appearance of the car never being hacked or alterded in any way , this prevents them from thinking they should look closer and thats how you slide by , tell them it's been raced or altered and they are going to do colonoscopy on it .
 
as far as brakes... i doubt wildwood (or ssbc) has a kit that is made to fit your car. i could be wrong. your A#1 best bet is to contact dr.diff. he's extremely helpful and prices are amazingly reasonable. you will pay a fraction of what those companies will charge you.

http://www.doctordiff.com/

he has his email posted on the site and he usually responds pretty fast in between working in the shop
 
you also might want to think about losing the battery relocation stuff until after the inspection , you can bs the fuel cell by saying the old tank leaked and the new chinese replacements are junk , put the battery back where it belongs and do the same concealment trick on the shut-off hole .
 
So to continue on the interior. Had to take everything out and had a hell of a time trying to remove the back seats. If I was a betting man I would say that they put in the back seats and then installed the roll cage after the seats were in place. Took a long time to get the bottom section out. The upper section....forget it.







Next prepared the floors and painted them with POR15. The floors are in great shape. Only problem is previous owner swapped out many different seats causing a sea of holes that they left open and unrepaired. I bought a plug set and decided to use a sealant and dynamatt on any holes I couldn't repair or plug properly.







Dynamatting begins...



Firewall was a little tricky due to space and not being able to move the back upright seat



Finally got the seat to budge and came out quite well..








 
Next came the carpet. I was going to buy a new one as I felt the old one was too far gone as it had dried cement all over it from some product that was used on the shifter area. A FABO member recommended I try a good carpet dye and a power washer first. Glad I listened. It turned out great and cost very little.

BEFORE



AFTER

 
Did a few other odd jobs as I was waiting for some more parts to ship.

When I purchased the car it had a triangle of death air cleaner.



When I removed it I found this!! ...hmmmm......does that look like detonation to anyone else? Crap!!





I replaced it with an Edelbrock. I can only fit a smaller cleaner in it for now due to engine height and hood cut out but I plan on fixing that shortly.



 
What brand of sound deadener did you use? I'm looking to buy some but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I'm planning to buy a butyl based deadener.

Riddler
 
Next I had a small leak coming from the valve covers. I think it was due to rubber insert over the manifold not being cut properly. I originally bought some cork gaskets but after research on FABO it seemed a popular choice was the grey rubber steel from Mopar Performance. So I decided to give them a try.

New Gaskets



Here are some shots of the old gaskets. You can see where they were leaking as the previous owner tried to cut them to size around the manifold. You can also see where they didn't cut the insert properly that was causing leakage. I think that was due to the fact they had to modify the valve covers slightly to size to fit the manifold. I cut the rubber insert to size so there were no more ridges or areas that would cause a leak. You can see all this on these next pictures.









Old gaskets cut where it was leaking and valve covers modified. Only thing that worries me now is if the new gaskets will seal well with the small mod that was done on the cover. Will have to check when I fire it up.





Cleaned up the valve covers while I was at it.



Sealed and covers back on. I tightened them by hand and tried not to over tighten. Some people torque the covers but I couldn't find an accurate spec to try it out.





I should probably mention at this time that I can't fire up the car as the shifter is being relocated and I am waiting for my neighbour who is helping me to come over to fab some brackets for the new seats and shifter.
 
Riddler said:
What brand of sound deadener did you use? I'm looking to buy some but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I'm planning to buy a butyl based deadener.

Riddler
Click to expand...

This is the second car I have done and I used a Canadian company and product called B-Quiet Ultimate. It is the same product as Dynamat but costs much less. Also, they are in Canada so shipping was cheaper and no customs issue. Here is the website. Really great product a number of members use it on here.

Here is the site

http://www.b-quiet.com/

Here is my old car they featured on the site

http://www.b-quiet.com/challenger.html
 
Riddler said:
What brand of sound deadener did you use? I'm looking to buy some but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I'm planning to buy a butyl based deadener.

Riddler
Click to expand...
Skip the Automotive branded stuff , you can get the exact same product branded as frost barrrier or weather seal from the roofing supply places , we use it here to seal windows and it is available with a foil back or without .
 
cannucky said:
Skip the Automotive branded stuff , you can get the exact same product branded as frost barrrier or weather seal from the roofing supply places , we use it here to seal windows and it is available with a foil back or without .
Click to expand...

Yes. Good advice too. I had already purchased the product but in a search into sound deadening threads I saw some of the guys are also doing this. I seem to remember the one thing to watch with the roofing material is choosing the correct thickness but the savings are certainly there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top