68 Valiant project
 

Well I guess I should start a thread about this little project that I've got. As some of you know, I've picked up a 1968 Plymouth Valiant, 225 slant 6, 904 tranny (I've got to double check and make sure), 7 1/4 rear axle, 2 door hard top coupe.

The reason that I buoght this car is that it is something my father and I can work on, restore, and build together. Since we hardly ever spend time togehter, I thought this would be a great way to spend more time together, doing something we love.

The plans for the car are to keep it looking stock with the stock drivetrain. So far we have just done some small repairs and cleaned it up to see what we really have ahead of us. We will be tearing out the blue carpet for a black carpet kit and the dash pads will be either replaced or covered with a black kit. We will leave the rest of it the blue that it is. We will be looking for, or making our own carpet kit for the truck area (black to match the interior.

As for the drivetrain, we will leave the Slant 6 and tranny in there. We are trying to work out a deal for a 4 barrel intake and header for it, along with an 8 3/4 to replace the little tooth pick called a 7 1/4.

I'll keep you guys and gals posted on whats going on as we do things to the car.

if the header deal falls through, lemme know - i have a set of dual long tubes for a slant 6 abody...

good luck:D

Well my father and I got some things done this weekend. We got it all cleaned out, flushed the cooling system, thermostat, some new hoses, ground cable for the battery, spark plugs, air filter, tightened up the belts, replaced the driver's side mirror, got two of the wheels pulled and found new brakes and hardware all around. We'll be replacing the tires next weekend as long as we can get the other two wheels off. Someone overtightned the nuts and stretched the threads making it imposible to remove them. I'll be trying my 1/2 impact gun later on this week, if that doesn't work then we'll be breaking the studs.

Still waiting to hear back from the seller about a 4 barrel intake and header that a friend of his has. If not, then I may get the one from jtg.

We may also start paint some pieces to help it stand out in a little. ;)

can't wait to see how it turns out
its great working with your dad huh?
i love doing it

68 Valiant...sweet...I used to have one back in 1988.:p B7 blue and i think it had a 198 /6.

If they are already that stretched, they may break under driving conditions anyway. just break them off, and replace them. Easiest way is to put the impact on tighten and have a ball! Or use the breaker bar and pull them tighter and "SNAP" off they come. It will be easier to pop them out afterward that way also.

Oh yeah, definitely Crazy. I wouldn't want to run the risk. We will be replacing them.

It sure is nice being able to do anything with my dad, especially doing something weboth love doing.

If I can ask, how old are you, and how old is Dad?

I'm 26 for now. My dad is 59.

working with my dad is one of may favorite things to do - no progress is made unless we are yelling at each other. we have the american chopper thing down to a science :)

Well I got new wheel studs to install all the way around the car. I also got in the front seat hinge covers, dash pad cover and new carpet kit..... all black. I've just got to get some floor pans for the front for when I do the carpet and the interior will be that much closer to being done.

Once I unpack things, I'll take some pics.

So I see your dad has stopped having birthdays?

Thats one thing I missed when my dad moved away, was working on cars together. But good thing he is only 2 hrs away so we still get to do some work together. But mostly we just do the swapmeets and cruises now. Hey OmahaMopar what's your buddy's shop , my dad lives in Omaha. he might need some work done someday.

Sounds Like a cool project. Can't wait to see the pics.

Yes, yes he has. Lol

Well, we found out something VERY interesting tonight and I am VERY disappointed in you guys and gals for not warning me about this before!:mad:

The left front and right rear wheel studs are right hand thread. The right front and left rear wheel studs were giving me problems and wouldn't come off. I even broke three studs. I then looked very closely at the studs and found out that they were LEFT HAND THREAD!

For not telling me about this before and warning me, NO PICS! For that reason and the fact that the battery in the camera was dead. Lol.

So we got all new studs that are all right hand thread installed in the front hubs. Once we repack the bearings and get new inner seals, we'll turn the car around and tear into the rear axle.

When my dad saw the dash cover and carpet, he was as happy as a five year old on Christmas day. Lol.

Its called R/T Auto Body {its in the phone book}, 72 RDRNR.
Call Joel, he likes talkin MOPARS obviously.

sorry dude, i didnt even think of warning you about the right and left hand studs - assumed it was assumed in the mopar circles...

Hey, now that you mention it...... oh how could I have forgotten that myself? Oh well I never liked 'em anyway!!!!

........the left hand lug nuts that is.............

hey, that sounds like one of those....Top ten indications that you might be a MOPAR addict....lets try it out.

IF YOU'VE EVER HAD A SERIOUS DISCUSSION WITH LUG NUTS....YOU MIGHT BE A MOPAR ADDICT!!

I was more like yelling at them instead of having a serious discussion with them.

haha
i converted my car, i got ride of the opposite lug nuts

!http://home.freeuk.com/jrknight/smileys/postpics.gif

I actually broke the lugs on my 70 Challenger because I didn't know about that.

j

It doesn't look like that.:mad:

Mine is the Valiant 100 model.

The more I look at that pic, the more I think that I know where that is. :confused:

Post your pictures a little bigger they can't quite see them from space. (ha)