Gregs 64 Ap5 Valiant

[64valiant]

Hey guys Names Greg and this is my Ap5 Valiant and a story to go with it.

 

This all started in maybe 2003 when my dad decided to buy a one owner ap5 for the two of us to work on and do up. he passed away in 2005 and it then became mine. i drove it around for a while and then became a ordainment in my mums garage as i became engulfed in the modern car scene and road bikes. it got pulled apart maybe late 2007 for a full rebuild. ended up staying there for a long time and recently started putting it back together on the 21st of April 2013 (last month) so i could maybe have some garage space and enjoy it instead of it wasting away. here is a photo of what it looked like in 2005 at beach hop 

this is what it looked like once we cleaned the shit off it thanks to Evan for the massive help

 

 

 and these are all the missing parts that where just chilling in the garden shed out the back


 

with in the 1st day we had bonnet and boot back on and wasn't to much loner the doors followed, had a few missing bolts and manged to lose a door hing that was easily replaced (aussie spears hamilton)

 

 

in the mean time i had the dash sent away to get big head unit hole filled and dash painted up to look new again. also found a few old cool things while i was there cleaning it out.

 

as notice this car has been a Hamilton car from brand new. no more head unit hole now and time for some paint.

 

 

had also realized i needed one of my mags to be welded up

 

 

so hit up a few mates over face book and ended up heading to George at advanced chroming on Ellis st. wasn't to long before i had it back and back on the tyre

 

thought it would be a good idea to maybe change the oils and oil filter, so away with the old.

 

 

 thats gear box and next is engine oils

 

 

 went for a walk around to auto trail got me some new oils

 

 

also got some spark plugs while i was at it.

quickly chucked the dash in and came across this

 

 

 check the original low miles on this puppy. manged to sneak a photo of my helper having a sleep on some rags the lil bugger.

 

 

thought i should get a mate over help out with the sparkie stuff, ended up new fuse box and wabam i could turn the key. wasn't long before i was poring fuel down the carbie and getting my partner to turn it over. WAHHOOOOO it goes!!!! the next day was out of the garage for the 1st time in meany years

 

 

 and yea we went but no brakes.... so rung a mate and turn out a rebuild was due for this lil guy

 

 

was a lil bit of rust to do around the windows to clean up so got Evan around again and i found myself having a laugh at him so took a few photos

and thats that.

ny way hope u enjoy the read. 

 

here is the project discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/38243-64valiants-ideal-ap5/

[64valiant]

so my trucks on trade me for sale now if any one is after a nice surf. its all so i can make the valiant a hole lot better and go faster. here are some picks of the engine that's been sitting in my garage for a little while and other parts. think they are pretty self explanatory.





have a bit of lift on this bright cam

 



any one notice the top of these pistons yet?







im glad my dad had done most of this for me. will be happy to peace it all together and see what he had in mind.



all new gaskets ready to go.



nice offenhouser cover



i also got some finger painting done around the body before the windows go back in. 

got the bottom coat on. nice black paint



final coating was in some white. it will do for now till full rebuild happens



got the brake master cylinder back together and in the car. bleed the brakes and they are working now. so i think i might go for a drive up the street tomorrow. 

also checked the tail lights and well they work  



and that's that for now. will get some info on the engine this week, as you can see its pretty much there. hopefully wont need to much and will come together rather quickly 

[64valiant]

excuse my spelling. im not the best

It wasn't long before i had someone traveling up the North Island to come pick my truck up, so window rubbers were ordered.

Meanwhile a few more things had to be done. Headlining was hanging from rust repairs around the windows so brought the glue gun home from work and glued it up. The sound deadening had managed to fall down as well.

 

so glued it all back up

 

and started to put all the side windows in



what a mission trying to get that one back in. by the 4th window i would consider myself a pro now

wasn't to much longer and the guys from hamilton windscreens were putting the front and rear windows in for me. had to leave them to it so i could get back to work.

 

 

got home from work and the windows were done so thought I'd pop out say hi to John at World Of Tyres Pukete. Persuaded with some bourbon, the valiant was up on the hoist getting a wheel alignment in minutes.

 

 

wheels were also balanced. while the front wheels were off i grabbed this photo.

 

 

 

not many ap5 valiants floating around with the latter vc disk brake set up on the front. I'm glad my dad knew what he was doing when i was young.

 

the next day i shot back to help out and go get him some parts for his car, i came back to one shinny guard that he decided he would polish for me while i was out in his van

 

 

quite the difference. im wondering if i left it with him for a day if it would be all shinny for me when i got back.....

 

went on its 1st out of town drive to visit a mate see if he had a exhaust manifold because mines got a huge hole in it. just pulling into his driveway and realized temp was getting warm. popped the bonnet and top water hose has a nice crack in it. so scavenging through his parts trying to find a manifold i also found a nice hose as well. problem fixed.

 

later that day had to go pick up a engine crane for a mate. got this nice photo while i was hooking up the trailer.

 

 

and today i thought i better give the engine and radiator a flush out after seeing what lovely water i was running. here is a pic of what was in it

 

 

isn't that beautiful. also gave the windows a good clean. now i have to remind myself i have them and i can't just throw things on to the drivers seat

 

 

and that's that for now. im still trying to find a dash ash tray for it as ours had a oil pressure gauge in it and ive moved it.

[64valiant]

so been a a wile driving around knowing i needed to fix my exhaust leak in the valiant. had a mate over and got thinking and thought we could swap my buggered one with a replacement one. it ended going like this.....

unbolted factory one to find it was in close to three peaces, here is half of it and my mate pointing at the 2nd huge crack

 

here is the other half

 

 

then we tried unbolting the flange to my existing exhaust. and that didn't work, even with a rattle gun. so out with the grinder and chop chop it was.

 

walked out to the garden shed and grabbed this lovely purple thing

 

 

had a nice flange on the back so shoot down to scrape palace grabbed so pipe to make some kinda tapered mechanism. ended up something like this.

 

bit of welding latter and wabam... looking good enough for me.

 

 

new gasket was brought from auto trail earlier in the week and slapped that on and put the extractors on. turned out the 2 1/2 inch pipe that was welded on was hitting the floor so a quick cut and bend and weld up problem solved.

 

 

also just to make extra clearance i took a little bit off the flange as when the engine torques the exhaust will become closer to the floor again.

 

 

welded the existing exhaust up to the tapered pipe i made earlier and started to put on the intake manifold. came across another problem. the intake manifold was 14mm and the exhaust manifold was 12mm so my washers where not going to pull equally. so out with the grinder yet again!!!!

 

on that went and gave it a quick turn over so i could hear what it sounded like sounds bloody nice!!! thought i better put a new fan belt on as well. managed to get one to short from been an amature.  so walked out to the garden shed again had a quick look and came across this 

 

 

my dad had thought of everything!! bloody lucky i had him around to find all these things before he passed away. 

 

that's all for now. hopefully i get to fix my own interior soon and give it a good buff. 

 

[64valiant]

so thought i better take the valiant for a wof. this here is the result.

 

i didn't think its such a bad list since its last wof was due in July 2006 and it was my 1st time welding. but on another note does any one have or know of two falken tyres sized 14/60/235. 

[64valiant]

nothing has really happened since the wof other than i found out it does roughly 380kms to a tank of gas at the cost of $130. turns out it isnt cheap to run. but its also running like a sack of potatoes at the moment. any one recommend some one good at tuning a car in the waikato? here a few pics a mate took last night while we were out and about.
 

also check out the photo street machine shared on there face book page

[64valiant]

so its been a frustrating couple of weeks since my last up date. as i was towing my mates car i felt a bit of a shutter as i was letting the clutch out. so thought better get under there rip it out put the one i had in the back shed my dad sorted out years ago for me. here a a few pictures of the old one.

 

 

and here is where the rest of the clutch was

 

very lucky i had a spear one that was half complete cause check out this

 

 

i also put a lightened fly wheel on while it was all apart. this is what dad had organised for the valiant.  

 

but i was missing the friction plate. i thought i had found one in the back garage but it was broken as well so i ordered one. thought it was correct so put it back together. turned out it wasn't correct. so shot out to a mates place and had a look threw what my mate called a mini horopito motors for mopar parts. turned out he had one will all the million parts he had out there. so back home and chucked it in. here is the friction plate i got off my mate 

 

me and my mates were becoming very good and replacing the clutch so didn't take long and it was running and all going again. so one happy man now. but if u need a hand doing a clutch on a slant 6 let me know. will have it all apart in about 20mins. i have also created a group on face book "mopar or no car" if you are a mopar owner please join. https://www.facebook.com/groups/174947822683565/?bookmark_t=group.  would love to get more people on it and go for a good cruise.  

[64valiant]

so my wof run out time is next week so have to get a move on and fix my lil problems. managed to fix one of them tonight, got two new hankook tyres for the front.

 

 

just by driving it home it felt so much nicer to drive. i now have to fix one bolt and about 5 exhaust leaks.

 

i also thought i would see what the valiant would look like with the mesh visor i had in the back shed for it. here is the photo i took late that night. 



i think it will be staying on there from now on. just need to find a way to fasten it on now.

[64valiant]

well i have some good news. GOT A WOF TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

its also the 1st time driving it with a fixed exhaust manifold. goes a bloody treat!

i also got busy and painted my floor in the weekend. if u remember my garage looked like this before hand

 

its now looking like this 



all stripped out ready to build a sewing bench so i can fix my upholstery in my valiant. i used a acid and a water blaster to clean the floor up before painting. i could have done with maybe 2 more letters of acid and about 8 more letters of water. this is the acid i used and this is how it came up.

 





stuff worked a treat. my mate and partner got rather high on the paint fums and it stunk the hole house out for a couple of nights. but thats that for now. off to drive my now legal valiant!! chow. 
 

[64valiant]

so i went to get some wood to build my bench tonight and caught this view of the valiant and had to take a quick picture

[64valiant]

few weeks ago i thought i would bleed my brakes again they were feeling funny. Turns out my front ones were kinda seized. here is what i found on my front pistons. 

 

 

we rebuilt them there and then at my mates work shop. but i got home and pulled the rear brakes apart to find this much on my shoes 

 

 

about sweet bugger all. got me some new ones put them on and thought i better get my drums skimmed and see if they were all mint. one was semi good and the other one was rubbish. wobbled every way possible. so had a quick look in the back shed found some and got them all skimmed up looking new. then realized the old ones had been drilled to a bigger stud pattern. after calling a wise old man he recommended me just doing it this way.

 

bolted my semi good one to my now new ones threw the small stud pattern and then proceeded to use the drill press to drill new holes. 

 

  

 

worked a treat 

 

took the bur off them threw them back on the valiant and away we went. valiant now stops.

that's that for now. hopefully nothing much more fails on me. 

 

[64valiant]

so ive been doing a bit of upholstery in my spare time lately and i think i need a ap5 wagon.

 

as you can see the sedan isn't quite big enough for transporting mates upholstery around.

so if you know of a ap5/6/vc wagon going for sale let me know

[64valiant]

Valiant got a buff in the weekend. looking sharp now! i will get a better picture when i get the time. 

 

also whats the thoughts on ride height like this



 

[64valiant]

nothing has been happening on the valiant front but i found a couple of photos of my brothers 318 ap5 and mine together. hope you guys like the pictures 

 

if you notice they are same cars but look again at the wipers. one is Australian assembled and one is New Zealand assembled.

[64valiant]

Last Monday i had a call from some one at the waikato motor times asking if it was ok for them to do a lil write up on me and the valiant, i agreed and on Tuesday they took some photos. Today i brought the times and WABAM!!!!!! heres this good looking fella and his ap5 in the back of the motor times. here is a picture i quickly took.

feel pretty chuffed about this

[64valiant]

so i went to the md dirt drags in the weekend and had a bloody ball!!!!! got a lil hot on its way home so stopped at karapiro took some quick photos while it cold down. here they are and heres the two videos i took on my go pro 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO9JsrNJLFE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c-BgjWJcUo 







mud got every where!!!!!!



also got this quick photo of me and my mates val gassing up heading out to the drags



i also dropped my triple carbs off at a mates to get some things made up to make them look all nice and should start putting this other engine together.

 

[64valiant]

after the dirt drags car was over heating a bit so before i put the new engine in i thought i better get the radiator made all pretty. here are some before and after photos.





looks like some one had been here before me. so a new cor was ordered from ozz. and a small fortune latter i had myself a new one.







wabam all in. and yes that is a 2L coke bottle as my over flow bottle. goes a dream now also took a photo while i was out at the farm





thats all for now. hope to get some parts from ozz for the engine next week. will keep you informed when they get here  

 

[64valiant]

big news!!!!! ive been driving past this falcon for a wee while now going man i need to just go in offer him money for his wheels. today i drove passed and it was for sale. so found some money and went to take it for a quick drive thinking im only buying this car for the wheels.  and well tonight i drove home in it. this will be my 2nd set of wheels for the valiant now.

[64valiant]

had this package arrive the other day got some goodies in it.

should make a difference to the old girl. also just brought some extractors. looking forward to them arriving. 

[64valiant]

finally got the internet back so time to update. got the electronic ignition in and wow! made a change straight away. then went and took it for a tune up and to see how much hp its pushing. 100.5hp at the rear wheel.

thought ild take it for a drive on thursday, see if i could feel the difference after the tune.driving along and time to change gears and bang!!! hold up i have no clutch!! whats going on here my peddle is on the floor and it kinda staying there :/

quick phone call to Evan (bevan) and he was on his way to help pull it apart see what was broken ect....

drive shaft out and about to undo the bow housing and WABAM found my problem. this pivot arm had made a HUGE crack and wasn't pivoting 



quick trip to visit a mate see if he had one. nope. on the phone to owner of aussie spares at 9 to see if he had any in his parts. he said he might have a couple but turns out they were wrong so off to get it welded.

end result
 


rushed home on friday so i could have it up and going for drag racing. had nothing but problems with it slipping of side ways till i realized at 930 what was going on. a little spring clip thingy wasnt on correctly allowing it to slide left. so chucked that on and went for a drive. all fixed!!!!! 

chucked it back in the garage for the night and shot off back to work to finish a job.

with 2 hours sleep i was back up again for work and trying to organize things for drag day.

what a bloody good day at the drags!!!! got 16 runs in and my fastest was 18.90 @ 115.5km. also managed to win dyo as well.

must thank the oldschool guys who put it on heaps!!! such a great day!!



oh i also had these arrive from ozz ready for my next engine