Valiant

From your Lucas alternator?

Mint truck. I want to see something being crushed with that PTO winch, they're awesomely powerful. Before you Newtech fill the rust holes with the mesh from a fly screen door and/or pop rivet some roof flashing over the holes. That's the approved method as far as I can tell.

Oh No! did you put those bearings in Josh?

Burn't out ballast resistor?

Thanks mate. No that's the best part. I love hearing shit yarns about someone who had one back in the day "it was exactly the same, same wheels and everything" You know it can't have been but it's still great to hear the stories.

Yeah you're not wrong there, maybe we could drop the instigator off out the back of Hanmer next time.

Build Thread - //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/28699-valiants-big-block-ap5

Hopefully it won't say guard rub anymore, then we can skip straight to the argument about 190e Cosworths.

Wow, this will drive so much better when it's put back together. Have a look at the spring eye and shackle bushes too, I bet they are in a poor state too.

Yeah mate it only took 5 years but I've done it. @yetchh, lowered your Zephyr yet?

OK so love it or hate it here it is. The whole thing went a bit more OCD than I first intended... What it is. 1964 Valiant AP5. I draged it out of a garage about 2002 it was push button auto, brush painted and had a seized 225. Now. 383 b series big block. comp xe268 cam 906 heads Performer rpm intake 780 holley etc 727 Torqueflight 9inch ford diff with 3.0/1 open diff. Some other stuff too. I need to do a few things before its fully finished Mainly a better rear ratio with a spool/LSD It gets a bit warm in traffic Bit of panel work needs sorting. I'm sick of spending money on it at the moment so it will have to wait. Discuss here //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/28698-valiants-big-block-ap5/

Woah 5 years no update. But... I have done some things to this over the last year or so. Converting to LPG wasn't one of them as it turns out, but anyway. I took this to Hanmer last year and in the run up to that I took the opportunity to make a couple of upgrades. First and most important was to fit an LSD for increased hektikness. The car has a Ford 9 inch so finding a center wasn't a problem I wasn't sure about the True Track centers like this one. But I took the plunge and brought one, had it set up with my 3/1 Crown Wheel and Pinion and popped it in. In all honesty it's awesome, it reduced hektikness in all situations except for when required. The car is much nicer to drive in all situations, especially when it's raining. No more inside wheel spinning and twitching about, nice to park and do tight turns etc. Cost a bit to do but well worth it. Next up was to swap the little bucket seats out, it was time for them to move on. When you need new seats, there is no option other than tatty Recaros is there? Ultimately I'll get them recovered in maroon vinyl to match the rear seats etc but for now they are a huge comfort and ease of in/egress upgrade. I also got the sill trims vapour blasted, put the radio delete plate back in the dash, fixed the demister and connected the tubes etc etc. I think most importantly the SS Cragars are a thing of the past. It's now sporting a set of 15/7 steel rims from TWL with AU Falcon centers, I made a jig and welded some threaded lugs onto the centers to hold AP5 hub caps. Anyway pics. I'm very pleased with them to be honest. I'll clean the hub caps up and repaint the Valiant emblems on them. I have plenty to do yet before I'm happy with it. The exhaust needs to be raised, I want to paint the roof maroon to match the wheels, and a bunch of other things. Look forward to another update around 2022ad. Spin some sharns about it here.

There's some classy rust repairs being done here, nice work keep it up. It looks like there are some other interesting projects in the shed with your wagon? This makes me happy TBH, one of my first cars was an Escort wagon. I had the guards and front panel off, made a new radiator support etc too.

Front end rebuild will be the *perfect* opportunity to back those torsion bars off a bit.

Get a good wheel alignment afterward and it'll be so much nicer to drive.

Result! Do the other side while you're at it, do the whole front end even. I bet the lower arm bushes and ball joints are manky too.

I have a home made socket that "Goes hard for what it is" I find it is easier to do them with the arm on the car stil.l It's very hard / impossible to hold the arm in a vice without wrecking the arm. Could post it up to you if you pay post.

Nice work Josh. You should buy this too, you'd own the full set then.

You're a more patient man than I. Mine took a number of sledge hammer blows and went to the big slant six factory in the sky.

Nice to see another AP5 here, oddly mine had a cracked block when I got it.

Finally, a good sunny morning for some photos. The first two are my bike with a 16" Cub that the kids ride from time to time.

I'm not convinced by this "Safety Cletus" Can we have "Do some skids Cletus" back?

Travels around the world. Still wearing work boots and shorts. Good cunt!

Yeah mate I will, there is a Cub the same colour in the garage, I'll take a photo of the two in the weekend. This is sitting in the corner of the lounge now, it looks like Christmas morning circa 1985, but for adult piners.

So nearly four years after mentioning it and well over four years after coming up with the idea. Here it is! FINISHED! I took it for a quick ride up the road, it feels awesome, taught, light, and responsive. I'll take some better photos of it in the sun over the weekend. *Pine*