jackeo21

Not a super thrilling update, but I turned into a bit of a barry and decided to get all fussy with the details. I figured that since I like factory spec engine bays, and since my car is pretty close to stock standard, I'd go full circle and make the battery all og looking too. You can actually buy this style battery new from Mopar, but since my lotto win hasn't come quite yet, I've settled for the next best thing. I'll quickly detail how I disguised my battery to look old fashioned for anyone wanting to do the same (place I used does all different battery brands, quite neat). Anyway, I needed to make a "topper" to hide the modern style batteries handle etc etc, and it so happened I had some 3mm perspex laying around the shed. Once cut to size, I used a step drill to make holes for the battery posts to stick through (step drill gave the holes a nice looking chamfer to boot). A DA sander made quick work of the prep, some semi gloss black gave it that plastic look, and urethane was applied to stick it to the battery (but not too much, incase the battery needs to be replaced). Finally, my kit arrived. On it goes, a very satisfying job indeed. For the decal on the side, I decided that I should made a perspex backing should the battery shit itself, I'd be able to pull it off and adhere to a new battery. Oh, and if anyone was concerned about battery ventilation, these newer batteries vent through the sides of the top lid, so my battery topper isn't blocking anything off/causes no damage etc Overall stoked. The car is booked in for its vin in a months time or so. If drag day is still a go this year, you bet I'll be there, vin going smoothly in all. I have heard so much about putting American cars through a vin, so it will be interesting to see how it all goes. Cheers for reading about how I put stickers on my battery I promise more exciting updates will come in due course

Wow, engine is looking great! long live the 318. The Mr. Gasket breathers are 70s cool - dad has a pair on his 318 and I've been eyeing them up for a while haha

Cheers! Been following your build closely, what a sweet deal you got on that radiator! Looks like your car is really taking shape and its awesome to see. The originality stands out to me, just a personal preference to see everything "as it was" in a car, but with a twist. My goal is to go for performance engine/engine bay that looks like it was done back in the mid 70s.

Good info. I'm picking that my temps should stay low for the time being, but when the time comes for some go-fast bits, I'll assume that cooling might become an issue. I personally prefer the look and functionality of a mechanical fan, but had always been curious about the idea of running an electric fan in front of the radiator as a "helper" for worst case situations etc

It sure is the same, Mine is nearly identical, however I can't install it as I don't have the faceplate for the dash. I've seen those modified to have bluetooth etc in them and thought that was pretty wild. Unique looking radios with those thumb wheels.

As per project thread I made this fan shroud today. What is the general consensus on fans? My other cars use solid mounted fans, of the flexi plastic spec and steel spec. They do the trick but eventually get nice and hot if they sit and idle too long (as to probably be expected for old cars). I notice many turn to electric these days but for the sake of an "original period look" I think I'd like to hang on to my steel bladed wind maker.

Cheers, love the tip, I'll remember that next time I have my foot in it haha. It's not often it sees high speed driving, but loves the open road. Treats us really well. It's keeping the slant too!

Such a cool feeling driving the truck, the best part is looking out over the massive bonnet and looking down on cheap economy hatchbacks. It's unique for sure. Appreciate it! I'm aiming to keep it in basic trim, with a period set of oldschool mags to swap on for drag days and the like.

Spent the better part of my day today fabricating my own fan shroud. This car came from the factory with one of those meat cleaver spec 4 bladed fans of death, and at some point was changed to a Chrysler 18" clutch fan. It didn't draw much air, so I replaced the fan clutch with a brand new one, and had a bit of success but it wasn't to my liking. I decided it needed a fan shroud, and I sure as shit wasn't going to be forking out upwards of $500 for a new one. I just made it from panel steel, folded it up, and welded the corners to match the style of my truck one. Was a bit of mucking around involved, but I'm happy with how it came out. Now when holding my hand in front of the rad, you can feel it draw air through every inch of the core, instead of roughly just in the middle. Win. Spray painted it and mounted it this evening. It won't be hard finding some Auckland traffic to test out my revamped cooling system. The factory looking "22" sprayed on there is only there because I keep forgetting what size my radiator is The start, I made it 100mm too tall so I had to cut it down from this Welding it together the same way as a basic Chrysler one After some work on the sandbag with a mallet, the top had nice clearance and I was ready to make some mount brackets All painted, with the "22" as a half ass attempt at factory ink markings Installed and functional! Fingers crossed this keeps me cool at Beach Hop and cruise events. I haven't had years of metal fab experience but it's a satisfying result - I think the Valiant needs one now! Next time I'll have a go at putting some swages into one for a bit of detail.

That's a super tidy VF. Very nice! I inherited this one off pop back in 2008. All original slant 6, March 1970 car. Has been the family cruiser for years, going in for a WOF recheck after lockdown. Pop bought it second hand in 1971, it spent its life down in Palmerston North for the better part of 37 years. Column auto BW35, all standard spec with a stainless exhaust. Double bench for max cruiser. A car I will keep forever. Excuse the govt. issue plates

Cheers! The truck is a recent purchase, although there is a possibility that I'll sell it within the space of a year, so I didn't want to create a short lived project log. Here's a photo!

I really appreciate your advice! I've currently accumulated 4 318's in various different states, and have a bunch of stock standard heads. I've actually recently sold a pair of 360 heads that the previous owner bought in anticipation of using on the 318, but my research leads me to believe that I can work wonders with some standard 318 heads, as you've stated above. My plan at this stage is to build a separate motor at some point in the coming year, and keeping this mint original motor aside as it runs really nice. Since I decided to use the 4bbl setup that was on my Dodge pickup I couldn't be too fussy with my carb selection for the time being, so it's running a near new 625cfm Carter AFB, and it seems to like it. Just sits on an Edelbrock performer 318/360 manifold. I'd have liked to do some port work and get fussy with it, but for what it is I decided to just slam it together so I can have the car operational and ready to go for a vin (else I'd get carried away and start puling more things apart ). It'll do for now. I'm the kind of foamer to want to use a Thermoquad for tiny primaries and big secondary's, and the quadrajet spec noise you get when you floor it. If I can find a fresh one on eBay I might even look at going down that road, 340's had them as standard too. I've been doing research on a Holley Street Demon, it was designed by a guy who worked at carter in the 60s and 70s, and combines aspects from the Thermoquad, Quadrajet, AFB, into an easily adjustable unit, and importantly is designed for modern fuels unlike its 50 year old counterparts. Seems interesting. I believe it to be the 904, trans pan is a different shape to my 727 in the pickup, and the fender tag reads "5" (5 is for 3 speed auto, 6 being 3 speed auto HD). I haven't actually been able to take the car on a nice long drive, so I'll do that before I jump on any kits, but the TF2 kit you mentioned seems a good route to go down so I'll definitely be looking into that. I'll definitely look to talk Mopar's with you in the near future. This is the only Chrysler oriented project thread I've created - I have a '70 VF valiant coupe too but seldom work on it so I hadn't bothered with a project log. Cheers!

maybe with this, I can drop down in to the 19 second bracket at OS drags... discussion thread

With my interior in much better shape, I decided to turn my attention to the engine over the lockdown period. Lockdown gave me a chance to really spend time working away at getting things cleaned up under the hood. The coronet is still equipped with its original 318 (5.2L) LA series Small Block V8. These motors had never been intended for performance use, and had not been thought of as much more than a replaceable, run of the mill American V8. Over the years, your typical performance part companies have developed parts to turn the 318 into a great street/strip performer. Most guys will always start with bigger cubes, the likes of the 360 come to mind when building a small block Mopar engine, however due to limited availability here in NZ, and with the 318 being a production engine for many Aussie Valiants, it makes more sense for me to work with these smaller engines and see what I can do with one. I don't want crazy power for this anyway, my aim is to keep it as a bit of an all-rounder. For now, I decided to clean up the motor in the car, with the addition of a 4 barrel intake and carb setup. I decided that my daily driver Dodge truck would be better off with an economically minded 2 barrel, so for me, it made sense to simply order some gaskets and swap the intakes over, seeing how the linkages and all that are identical. While I haven't been for a test drive, the Carter AFB carb has this running really nicely. I replaced all my typical service items (fan clutch, water pump, belts etc) and gave it a fresh coat of the correct red paint, instead of the orange that it was. Pretty happy with how it turned out overall, it'll definitely look the part until I start looking at more serious upgrades in future. As far as the auto goes, it moves and shifts nicely, but I feel it could be a bit tighter on shifts. I might look into a way to improve this, but am not super familiar with the tricks of getting an auto hopped up. The 318 as I bought the car, in full standard form bar the TTI headers. After some resto-work. The most satisfying part was making new HT leads to replace the tired old grey ones. And a super quick vid of how it sounds.

This style of B body Mopar, was new for 1968. With the coronet of this shape, came the Charger, Road Runner, Super Bee, with the Charger cemented into history and Hollywood fame with "The Dukes Of Hazzard". Whilst often overlooked, or at least they always used to be, most Coronet's never quite enjoyed the fame of its higher-horsepower counterparts, instead often being relegated to police or taxi service, or being grandmas run around car. My car lacks options, it's the lowest spec model (Deluxe), with only a few options installed at the factory. With Mopars of this era, the VIN number, and "Fender Tag" are a great way to find out exactly what options your car came with. A lot of die-hard enthusiasts obsess over detail and options, and since Chrysler offered so many different options, there's a million different combinations, making for limited production numbers for certain cars that have select factory options. This car keeps it simple. It came with an AM radio, chrome side trim, and fender mounted turn signal lights. That's it. And I think that's what makes this car perfect, it's very much a bare bones car that gives off a nice "street car" vibe. You'll notice it's a Post car, which means it has pop-open quarter windows and a solid B-pillar, as opposed to the "hardtop" variant displayed in the advertisement above. Part of the reason that it's a post car, is because it's a very early build car. It has a build date of Jan 22, 1968, with the dates on the engine, and the rest of the parts ranging from September to December 1967. I don't think that the hardtops had been put into production until a few months later. First order of business, was to start on the inside and work my way out. After 53 years, the interior had seen better days. I was the first to remove the carpet, marking the beginning of the revamp. The headliner had been ripped to shreds, so that needed replacement, too. I took it to my upholsterer who made quick work of the headliner, and bolstered the drivers seat back up for me (I'm 5 foot 9, and could hardly see over the dash for the sunken seat). With that done, I threw in my new ACC nylon loop black carpet. I'm quite happy with how my interior is shaping up. I'm thinking I'll install the factory thumb wheel radio, and detail the dash up next. I'm loosing the tach in favor of the factory style one. photos say it all really, so I'll stop typing and let them speak. The interior, with original white door cards, original carpet, and its '70 Charger R/T bench seat. Installing my rockauto carpet, excellent quality and I'd buy this again in a heartbeat. Really taking shape with the fresh headliner installed.