'63 valiant 4 door /6 cruiser questions.
Greg are you SURE is a 727??? Ill bet its a 904. If not you are leaving a whole lot of HP on the table.
I would get a factory service manual for it as it does a really good job of taking you thru working on the different systems ,etc.
Second set out your budget for the entire car and then break it down into sections. I use the 1.6X factor( if its going to be $100 then its $160) Also be REALLY aware if feature creep.
I started doing a front end job on my Cuda. Brake upgrade, then front end rebuild (you know while its apart) Its still apart 2 years later....
Also watch out on a DD and have a back up plan in place. Remember this thing is 45 years old. And even the best laid plans go wrong..
As for spefics let us know more what you want and what you want to spend.
Frank
Sorry Frank, I thought I replied to you already but apparently I didn't :sad:. First off, you were absolutely correct it's a 904, and I do own the service manual, I've never thoroughly looked through it so was unaware how in depth it really is. I'm actually in the position where I can't allow upgrade creep. This is my only car (my everyday driver) so all of my upgrades have a time limit. Most of the upgrades I've done to it over the years were cause and effect, IE. I blew a tire, I bought new wheels and tires all around, so on and so forth.
I've already thrown money away on the car that I wish I didn't have too, but I was close to losing the car a few months ago when I ran out of places to store it and the transmission was toast. So push came to shove and I decided I wouldn't let go of her and had a shop get her moving again. It was costly, but in the state of affairs it was unavoidable. which basically leads me to the specifics. My budget fluctuates so what I mean by low budget is not throwing money away every time I do something and not aimlessly throwing around the money that I do use. I have no idea how to determine what a realistic budget in total for my car is, as I don't just have the money laying around anywhere. I get extra money and time and I think about the little things I can do to the car to keep the forward restoration progress, while I build my mechanical skill set. As is I don't have tons of free time, an extra vehicle, or a lot of tools at my disposal.
One major question that I do have though and I'm not sure if I'm just an idiot for asking it or not, is dual or single exhaust? As I stated in my previous post I am gathering the parts for taking the stock intake/exhaust manifold off and replacing them with a super six intake 2bbl, and clifford headers, the same headers that slantscamp is showing on his engine. I already have these parts purchased, I'm just waiting on delivery of the super six setup (full intake and carb w/ linkage and spare carb, and he's throwing in the exhaust manifold, which will be nice as a back up since my current stock one is cracked).
So once it's all installed, Y pipe the headers into the single exhaust? or run them out straight to dual exhaust? If dual exhaust is a X pipe crossover better performance, or is it a moot point? To further this question, I currently run a flowmaster turbo muffler, if I went dual exhaust another of those would be fine, or is there a muffler that flat out puts the rest to shame?
I have other questions of course But i'll go one stage at a time and ask them as I go. On a lighter note during the recent rain storm I noticed that my car leaks so much that I might as well just leave all the windows down, this coupled with the fact I still had the factory carpet in the car lead me to discover rotted out floor pans. So I found and purchased a full 4 door set of door seals, front and rear glass gaskets, and in door weatherstripping. Still waiting/looking for a windshield since mine is seperating and cracked. Once I get that done I can start with floor pan replacement. I've also began sanding down the severely troubled rust areas and priming, on my path to the whole car.
