Valiant Posted December 5, 2010 Share Posted December 5, 2010 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/ 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valiant Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 This has been sitting in my shed since August 2011, it's time to get it useable. First off I want it to run on LPG. Second is to sort out it's overheating issues. Third if I can afford it is a LSD centre. So this is what I have: 425 Impco gas carb, model E converter and the throttle plates off a 600 cfm Holley carb. The Gas carb bolts straight onto the Holley throttle plates. It all clears the under side of the bonnet too which I am very pleased about. I have this tank too, It's good and big it has separate valve locations which is good for flow. The garage got full of smoke at one stage too. Discuss viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25095 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted July 1, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 1, 2017 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. 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted May 9, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 9, 2020 Well. What am I doing with this thing. Not much to be honest. Like a lot of people around the country I've had plenty of time to think about things over the last couple of months. One of the things that I've decided is that I want to have the AP5 going and usable when ever I want to drive it. I've got the VG close to where I want it to be with a couple of jobs to do yet but hopefully (touch wood) there is light at the end of the tunnel. As such I've started chipping away at the AP5, doing basic, low cost things that I need to do. There are a number of things that bug me with the AP. When I did most of the work on this I was in my mid 20s, and basically the things I thought were cool then I think are a bit dumb now. I've resolved some of the issues, ie the tiny front seats, but there are other items still to sort out. The Battery got mounted in the boot, I didn't think there was room for it under the bonnet, there still may not be enough room for it but I'm going to give it a try. good bye stuff. Luckily had the foresight to keep the original battery tray which is away getting blasted and painted. /Quick sharn : When I first got this car going the bolts holding the battery box to the floor sat proud of of the tray so the battery sat directly on the bolt heads. I never thought anything of it. The car had a veracious appetite for batteries, I'd fit a new battery, drive somewhere and it would be flat, never dead just flat. I'd check the charge rate, check for current draw, never a problem, keep an eye on the ammeter, nothing. Finally in desperation I made a rectangle of plywood to sit in the bottom of the battery box to cover the bolt heads. Problem solved. I think the weight of the battery sitting on the bolts was enough to knock the plates off the end and stuff the battery. Frustrating, expensive lesson learned. Offending bolts. Next up the exhaust on this was a bit of a fuck up. I was a bit young and keen and chose sizes that are a bit large, It has twin 2 1/4" pipes into a single 3" muffler and pipe going over the diff. It was loud, droned, and hung down too far, I welded a resonator in behind the diff which calmed the sound down a lot but got away with the height due to the big wheels. Now they're gone the exhaust was way too low. I CBF redoing the whole thing so I cut the middle section and raised it up as far as I could without reworking the whole thing, it's picked up about 40mm I'm happy with that. Not the best picture but you get the gist. Lastly I took painted the emblems on the hubcaps with some trusty Tamiya paint. I'll try and keep the updates coming as I chip away at more issues. 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted May 10, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 10, 2020 Pretty determined to get this done now. So. as I mentioned in the previous posts dating back to 2010 this overheats at speeds under about 50 kmh which is a huge pain in the ass. For what ever reason I never addressed this, maybe I thought if I ignored it the problem would go away. It hasn't. When I first built the car I spent a lot of money on a 5 core radiator soldered to the AP top and bottom tanks. Made a fan shroud and went to the effort of making the factory fan fit the 383. There just isn't room to fit an electric fan. Anyway because it's automatic I put a big trans cooler in front of the radiator , called it good, and never gave it another thought. Recently I started thinking of things that I could do to solve the issue without spending lots, I had a look at the cooler and decided to move it away from the radiator incase it's causing a restriction. I got it off today and it must flow almost zero air through. So I've cut the mount up and started mounting it inside the L.H inner guard just behind the headlight. Possibly not the best place for a trans cooler but I have a trick up my sleeve on that front that I will share with you later. I'll make a basic shield out of ACM to stop the cooler getting dirty/damaged by crap thrown off the wheel' Just out of curiosity I did the maths to work out how much radiator core the cooler was covering. Lots as it turns out. Just over 1/3 of the radiator core right in the center in ftont of the fan too, it makes me hopeful that I've found the problem. Anyway, that's enough about that. Who wants to hear a sharn? Yeah I thought you might. So here's the story about how I came to own this car. When I moved to Christchurch from Auckland circa 2003 the thing that was foremost in my mind was buying a Valiant, I wanted a VF or a VG most of all (which is another sharn in its self). I'd gone to the bank and organised a loan and was all set to buy a project starter. Anyway every Thursday on the way to work I stopped and brought a copy of the Buy Sell Exchange and went straight to the C for Chrysler then the V for Valiant section, I looked at a few VF/VGs but they were all heavily boganised, I remember one guy with a flat black VG with a 245 hemi doing a hektik neutral drop and then overshooting his driveway because the brakes were fucked on the road test. I wasn't too keen on that one. I saw the AP5 for $500 In the paper one Thursday and ignored it, it wasn't the shape I wanted. It was re advertised the next week for the same price it was a bit of an odd add, not much information etc. My friend Steve saw the AP5 add and went straight to %100 pine. Steve was about 15 years older than me, was a full blown foamer when it came to old Aussie cars. On his insistence I called the number and arranged to go have a look. the old lady who answered the phone was a bit vague about it but I got her address and went for a look. When I got to the house the AP was nowhere to be seen, It was in a garage behind the house, the shrubs had overgrown the driveway making it about as wide as a foot path. The AP was sitting by its self in the middle of a concrete block double garage with almost nothing else in it. The car had been brushpainted with white house paint and was sitting on four flat crossplys. It was in pretty good condition, was totally original, and had been embalmed in white house paint. I knew straight away that I wanted to own it. I told the old lady that yep I'd take it, could she hold on while I went up to the cash machine and got some money out for her. She looked very disappointed and told me that four young men wearing black jerseys had come and looked at it that morning, had said they wanted it because it would make a good street stock and had told her they would be back later that day. Looking back, it was probably Bart and his mates. Anyway I started to panic a bit, no way I was going to miss out and let it become a street stock so I offered her $600 which she declined, so I offered $750, she looked shocked but still declined. I said I'd make it $1000 and get the money to her that day. She said I'd better talk to her husband who was inside. The car had been her husbands mothers car and he'd held on to it after she had died in the mid 80s? He was very attached to the car as I could only imagine. He wasn't coping well with the sale and was basically hiding inside. When he was told that someone was offering double the asking price who didn't want to wreck the car he was as pleased as punch and we sealed the deal. It was then I found out that his mum had owned the car since new, and that he had every document and receipt relating to it from the initial purchase to the present time. I went to the cash machine, got out $500 (all the machine would give out LOL) and told them both I'd be back tomorrow to get the car. Before I left the old fella said "if I liked Valiants I'd really like what they had in the garage attached to the house. He opened the door and there was a Subaru Vortex , I very quickly resisted the urge to say I'd rather drink a warm fish milkshake than look at the vortex, luckily it wasn't the draw card he was referring to. Next to the Vortex was a mint orange and black VH770 charger. I pined so hard it was perfect unrestored about 50,000 miles from new. Dam I pined so hard! It absolutely wasn't for sale, if it was it would have been far more than I could muster. i often wonder what happened to that car. I really hope it's still safely tucked up in a nice garage safe and sound somewhere in Christchurch Anyway Steve and I went back the next day pumped the tyres up, jacked the car up because the old tyres had glued them selves to the concrete floor, and pushed it as fast as we could through the overgrown hedge down the drive. I did have a photo of the day I got it home, it's pretty shitty and double exposed. Anyway that's my sharn about the day I brought an AP5. Heres some pics of all the old documents that I stashed away in a safe place. They make for amusing reading. 28 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted May 24, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 24, 2020 Well, hell. Who would have thought that blocking a third of your radiator would make your car overheat? I obviously didn't think it would. Moved the cooler into the inner guard and made a cover for it up. I didn't take a picture ,you can use your imagination. I dropped the battery tray off to my friends at the truck painters who sand blasted and painted it for me. I bolted it to the inner guard as far forward as I could fit it, re did the battery leads, made a clamp and called it good. Its pretty close to the exhaust manifold but it doesn't seem to be a problem, much neater having the Battery under the bonnet. I pulled all the old battery box out, welded up the holes for the "P" clamps holding the lead and called it good. Cleaned the plugs, put some gas in the tank, primed the carb and got it going. Nice. Went for a very slow drive around the neighborhood, (slow speed driving was when it used to overheat). Result! the temp never went over 180 deg F. I'm so pleased with this! I spent about half an hour creeping around and not a problem at any stage. So that's phase one of the project refresh this out of the way. On to phase two. So to recap. Why did it fuck batteries? Because I crushed them into the bolts in the battery tray. Why did it run out of fuel to the carb? Because I put the one way valve in the fuel pump in back to front. Why did it overheat? Because I blocked the radiator core with a trans cooler. Lessons learned. Here's a couple of pics of some shit Aussie cars. Edit. The exhaust seems to be good, not hitting the floor, the front pipes are pretty close to the ground, I'll see how it goes. Also the smaller wheels and tyres are a great poor mans diff ratio change, it's much better off the mark, a bit shit at motorway speed but I have something to sort that out. . . 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted June 6, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 6, 2020 Well that all worked out well, better than I hoped it would to be honest. On to phase two of this project. As I said previously I want to get this running on LPG. I love LPG, and here's why. It's frugal, clean, and old engines love running on it. Sadly the filling network is slowly shrinking but I'm going to take the chance and convert anyway. So here's what I have. One 80 liter tank I picked up off trade me. it's a good volume and an OK size for the boot. It takes up a bit of room but this isn't a car I'd use for boot space. I've had the tank re tested and it's good to go for another ten years. I've clocked the fittings round to where I want them and put 20l in it at the local LPG pump. I want to do the filler like the VG filler. The original filler cap grafted onto the LPG filler cap mounted in the factory spot. Next I'll use this Impco L model regulator in the engine bay, it's the one I had on the VG first off so I know it works. And on the motor an Impco 425 gas carb. These are cool, basically a very large one barrel CV carb that meters LPG vapor. they are designed to fit a Holley 4bbl air cleaner and to bolt straight to the throttle plate of a Holley 4bbl carb. I have the throttle plate from an old 600 Vacuum secondary. Someone has drilled the throttle butterflies in the past but I've soldered the holes up and it's ready to use. I've cleaned the rust off the throttle butterflies since this photo. So there we go, all the elements of a half decent LPG conversion. I have a few odds and ends coming from Australia to tie it all together. So join me as I convert my car to run on a fuel that died with the 80s! Edit: Head over here for a sharn, and a cup of tea. I'll put the jug on now. 24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted August 12, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2020 Phase two continues. Things on the LPG front are going well but slowly. Fuel tank is mounted it has to be on a 30 degree angle to fill properly which is a bit of a pain but it's done and I can still close the boot. Filler made up and sorted. Regulator mounted and partly plumbed up. I have some steel bends ordered to make a vapor line from the regulator to the carb, that's the next thing to make. Gas carb is all fitted up, kick down and throttle connected all ready to go. I found I could fit an old Valiant air cleaner to it which is great, it looks nice and stock, seals well and with a bit of work it can have a nice cold air duct like I made for the 6 cylinder one. I'll give the air cleaner a coat of paint before I use it. So that's that. Except. . . At the beginning of lock down I was thinking how cool it would be to have a manual gearbox with an overdrive top gear in this car. I looked around at various solutions, thought quite Seriously about a Toyota R150 but was advised the ratios were no good for a car. I was looking into the R150 ratios when @sheepers made me an offer I couldn't refuse for a R154. As luck would have it someone in Te Awamutu makes R154 to big Chrysler bell housings so I blew all the money and brought one. It looks really good, looking forward to using it. The car is going to take a lot of cutting and welding to fit the big box but I'm confident it will be worth it. Thanks to every involved in getting the gearbox from Auckland to Christchurch! 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted August 12, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2020 I really like the two tone paint on this VC, I'm thinking of getting my roof repainted the same burgundy as my wheels are painted. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted August 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 29, 2020 Great news everybody! Things are going swimmingly. Air cleaner modified and painted. Cold air duct fitted. Vapour line made out of inch tube, painted and fitted. Liquid line run as neatly as I could. Tidied up the boot, fitted the tank, splashed some black paint about. everything ducted up. Fuel cap is done. Best of all. It's a runner! Fired up straight away. I'm super pleased! It only took a three months/A decade. 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted September 13, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 13, 2020 This weekend the safety switch got wired up. I took the fuel pump off, made a blank plate to cover the hole, and found the original battery clamp. All went well so I took it off the stands and around the block for a quick drive. Awesome! so smooth, goes great, makes nice LPG smells. I'll see about getting it legal ASAP. 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valiant Posted August 24, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 24, 2021 Slackness on my part. This is all signed off now, runs really nicely on gas, goes great, better and smoother than it did with the Holley fitted previously. I've wanted a sunvisor for some time so about 4 months ago I splashed out and brought one X Australia. What a scene. Anyway I finally got it fitted today and I think it was worth the wait. 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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