Popular Post cletus Posted February 25, 2017 Popular Post Posted February 25, 2017 discussion Brought this home today, it's the reason for selling the hardtop. It's a 68 Plymouth Valiant, has a 'leaning tower of power' 225, auto, has power steer, 13" wheels hah, drums all round. Most of the paint is original, it has a couple of bits where it's been repaired that need touching up. I'll probably get it repainted in the same colour at some point. It belonged to a mate of mine that died in 2015. It's a bit special to me because of that, I went with him to have a look at it, had one of the sketchiest rides I've ever experienced when we went for a drive after he got out of hospital and was still on something. He always wanted to put a V8 etc in it but he ran out of time. His family kept it since but decided to sell it, and his mum rang me to give me first option on buying it. They are keen to see it get an 8 so it will get the turbo 318, 727 and 9" I was going to put in the hardtop. I'll drive it for a while till I've got everything ready then bolt it all in. Obviously this one will need a brake upgrade as well and I'll put some 15" wheels of some sort on it 51 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted February 25, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted February 25, 2017 Also, look how tiny the carb is 18 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted March 13, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted March 13, 2017 Brown car left on a trailer headed to dunedin on saturday, so spent the rest of the weekend cleaning out the garage and went and got the white one back from storage, so i could start getting this one ready for Nats. Had the radiator fixed, it had a couple of small leaks, I think the 16 pound cap probably didn't help, put a 7pound one on instead. Have ordered some new seatbelts from www.classicseatbelts.co.nz so just waiting for those to arrive. gave the brakes a once over, greased and checked the front end, and for now have borrowed the wheels off the vg, I didnt trust the tyres on a long trip. Also I thought it would be rude to not remove some of the height out of the front while it was jacked up, so I did. 32 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted March 18, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted March 18, 2017 safety cletus says new seat belts are much better. In the front it had a diagonal belt, plus a lap belt so you had to put both on which was te dumb. It had no belts in the back, so I put the laps in the back, someone had cut off all the original old belts and left them bolted in for some reason. Put new lap and diagonal belts in the front, they have old style chrome leg burner buckles which look better than new plastic ones 19 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted March 23, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted March 23, 2017 Decided I didn't like it all jacked up in the bum, so got some 1.5" blocks to level it out. Much betterer 26 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted March 25, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted March 25, 2017 Some better pics. 39 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted May 9, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted May 9, 2017 Ordered some wheels, 2 turned up today. 15x8 for the rear, 15x6 for the front. Probably paint them either a pale gold, body colour, or cream/white 12 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted May 9, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted May 9, 2017 Aiming for something similar to these except not sure about hubcaps, probably get some push in caps spun up 14 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted May 13, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted May 13, 2017 Safety cletus says drum brakes are dumb. Fortunately I had hoarded some spare disc spindles off a car I wrecked. I took a disc and spindle to zebra, because I'd heard that surf brakes are an easy upgrade and I figured there would be heaps of surfs there but there was none. I mucked around with some other things, found mazda axela disc and caliper would nearly bolt straight on, but having 4 pot calipers sounds better. went to pick a part in Avondale cause they were the only place that had a surf. There were some dudes pulling the front of the surf apart and had already removed the calipers so that was easy. I think my arms are a bit longer now after carrying a pair of cast iron calipers, disc, spindle, plus all my tools around. Anyway, I'd bought CL -CM discs cause they were thicker slightly, but the hat height is different. So I'll get some new VH-VJ discs, need to machine 3or 4 mm off the od, machine the disc slot in the caliper slightly, and they will bolt on, and fit inside the wheels. Yay 21 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted May 27, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted May 27, 2017 Went to hamilton today to pick up this fine specimen. It's a 8.8 ford diff out of a 91-99 explorer. There are a few reasons for using this. They are cheap ish, have discs and a decent handbrake setup , lsd, 31 spline axles, same diff as a mustang so plenty of aftermarket parts available, and if you narrow one axle tube 3" and use 2 short axles it makes it just the right width and pinion offset for a valiant. I do have a 9" that I was going to use, but it has already been narrowed but not enough. New housing and axles was going to be 2k, plus rebuild the diff and get a lsd center, plus brake conversion, was probably the best part of 3.5- 4k. And yay, wheels fit over the brakes. 34 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted September 2, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted September 2, 2017 Have been sidetracked with some other stuff but have now got all the bits I need for the diff. Rebuild kit, new 3.23 gears, carbon lsd clutch pack (mustang parts there, look out pedestrians ), another short axle, robbed the center out of a low km explorer to get better spider gears -the ones in the diff I got originally were not great and new ones are surprisingly expensive-and a fancy pants alloy diff cover with a brace Went and got a wof today and here's a pic of its undersides for no real reason 19 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted September 23, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted September 23, 2017 Diff housing, with spring pads and other assorted unwanted giblets removed 21 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted October 7, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted October 7, 2017 Bunged in a spare engine and trans to figure out where everything is going to fit. It's going to be a bit of a challenge to get it all packed in, the steering box is hooge and gets in the way of the exhaust, a manual box is smaller but quite pricey to get, and you need a manual steer column or an adapter to make it work. Plus I like how it drives as it is, apart from wandering at speed, which I think should be ok with a heap more caster in it. This, after much standing around looking , seems to be the best place to put the turbo, it makes the intercooler piping look very easy. Exhaust will have to go across the front and down the rh side . Haven't decided what I'll do for manifolds yet. No factory ones fit, aftermarket truck headers would be close but need work to fit around the steering, log manifolds would be easiest but would be giving some power away. So I'll probably have to make something myself 29 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted October 26, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted October 26, 2017 After much mucking around looking at how and where to mount the power steer pump and then reading they aren't much good and then looking into fitting an electric ps pump instead but reading about how many ergs they need then I'd need an expensive alternator bla bla bla I decided fuck it and ordered a manual box instead. Rock auto is awesome. I ordered it on Saturday and it was here when I got home today. They are available in two different ratios so I got the quicker one Header flanges are cut so I can pick those up tomorrow And drop the trans off for rebuild on saturday . Progress 13 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted November 4, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted November 4, 2017 Bugger off you big heavy complicated oaf 14 1 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted December 2, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted December 2, 2017 found this joker on the internet running in the 9s with a 360 with reversed cast iron truck manifolds so I took a punt and ordered some off rock auto, and they fit ok. 21 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted December 3, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted December 3, 2017 spent half a day faffing around with mounts and steering and stuff. shortened the column body a bit, cut the steering shaft joiner bits, made some solid mounts to get rid of the rubber ones, now I can have steering and an exhaust at the same time which is nice. just have to weld in some nuts into the mounts then I can cap the open ends 21 Quote
Popular Post cletus Posted December 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted December 30, 2017 Spent half a day removing the rear end and poking the new one into the diffhole And try on wheels, all looks like it fits , will put some 2" blocks, it appears that it needs lowering blocks otherwise the caliper might foul the springs. Pinion offset is pretty good. I got another set of (15x8 & 15x7) wheels cause I wanted to have a couple of options for this car, I bought these about 6 months ago ... but I'm not 100% sure I like them. Too shiny for how the car looks at the moment I like the steel ones better 18 1 Quote
cletus Posted January 5, 2018 Author Posted January 5, 2018 Cobbled together a thing for removing rust. Neighbor poked his head in the door and was a bit wtf until I explained what I was up to Seems to work pretty well . I put an old brake disc in to test it 6 Quote
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