My 1966 Valiant Effort

64 SRT8 Dart · May 5, 2012

Well, being I'm gonna actually be doing some work on my 66 Valiant Signet here shortly :cheers:, thought I'd start a thread!

Car has a 273 2bbl w/904 and 7 1/4 rear and 9" drums all the way around.

I do have an 8 3/4" rear I'm gonna cut down and a set of Center Line Convo Pro 15"x12" rears with 29x14.5x15" Hoosier QTP's for the rear half....sometime in the future

...but....

For now, it's gonna get:
RMS upper tubular ca's
bbp 11" front disc brakes from 76 Dart
PST inner/outers rods, sleeves, pitman and idler arms and lower ball joints
Dr. Diff dual res 1 3/16" bore master cylinder w/71-74 Abody prop valve
John Dillinger lower tubular ca's w/ hoops, and coil over adapters
QA1 DS401 coil overs w/400lb 10" springs
Centerline Convo Pro 15"x6" w/ 3 3/8" b/s wheels on front
Manual steering box w/manual steering shaft installed

Hopefully within the next few weeks the project will be under way....(classes will be done for summer) and pending we don't get swamped at work :rambo: lol

zhandfull · May 5, 2012

Brakes are a great upgrade and the big tires under those low fenders always looks cool.

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

Yeah, I really can't wait to get started on the rear. As of now I plan on going the ladder bar/ coil over way. Just seems simple to me and has worked on cars for decades.

Also, I definitely can't wait for the brake upgrade. It has power brakes right now but the booster is leaking, I'm sure....you can hear a hissing sound when applying the brakes and the motor ups in rpm's. Not to mention the pedal is ultra stiff. Will be going to manual brakes.

cosgig · May 6, 2012

How can you not help but to be stoked to play with a beautiful pile of parts like those. I'm chompin' at the bit here, and they ain't even mine!!!

Good luck with the project, it looks like a fun one and is going to look beautiful when you get it all installed!! Geof

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

Thanks Geof!
Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about it.

Eventually it's gonna get a full cage as well. Been trying to decide on a color when the body work get's done.

Thinking jet black with the black vinyl top and a satin black hood. Wish I could get a cowl hood for it, I could prob put one on the factory hood...however might go with a Hemi scoop. Or possibly gun metal gray with the black vinyl top and satin hood. Hmmm

But then again, I think the red is growing on me....even though I hate red but both of our cars are red. lol

Engine wise, I have a 318 "temporary" motor I'm trying to get built as well....just need machine work done. I have all parts to do it. Eventually, I'd like to do what USCG is doing with the 6.1 Hemi or similar.
Time will tell. lol
Little by little for now.

Badart · May 6, 2012

That should keep you busy for a while. Make sure that you install come rubber bump stops on those coilovers. I can't believe that QA1 doesn't ship any with them. Strange Engineering does. They sell universal ones at summit and you can cut them down. John

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

Badart said:
That should keep you busy for a while. Make sure that you install come rubber bump stops on those coilovers. I can't believe that QA1 doesn't ship any with them. Strange Engineering does. They sell universal ones at summit and you can cut them down. John

Didn't even think about it. Hmmm
Are you talking about a bump stop that fits on the shock itself or one that comes in contact with the upper control arm?

Sorry, this will be my first time this deep into a front suspension. lol
Thanks John!

Okay,,edit....just looked at your coil over in your pic section...so I need to get one that slides on the coil over shaft. Any idea on how thick it should be installed??

Badart · May 6, 2012

64 SRT8 Dart said:
Didn't even think about it. Hmmm
Are you talking about a bump stop that fits on the shock itself or one that comes in contact with the upper control arm?

Sorry, this will be my first time this deep into a front suspension. lol
Thanks John!

Okay,,edit....just looked at your coil over in your pic section...so I need to get one that slides on the coil over shaft. Any idea on how thick it should be intalled??

Edit: they do slide on the shock shaft, that way you don't have to mount one on the arm.

They are tunable, so you could cut them down however much that you want. I think that mine will only be 1" similar to the one that came on the Strange Engineering setup.

Badart · May 6, 2012

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HAL-BC01/

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

That's funny, I just looked at those. lol
Thanks John!

Badart · May 6, 2012

64 SRT8 Dart said:
That's funny, I just looked at those. lol
Thanks John!

Looks like Summit is back ordered. Here is Jegs http://www.jegs.com/i/QA1/122/BC01/10002/-1

HotLines · May 6, 2012

And a nice looking Signet it is..

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

That's okay about Summit being b/o'd. I won't be starting the build till June anyways.
Also, I have $15 Summit bucks!! lol I got those with the purchase of the coil overs...go figure. lol

Thanks HotLines! The quarters are gonna need some more work to em as the p/o's work is coming out and he did a lot of stuff that was just plain wrong. If you look in the trunk where the holes for the rear plymouth emblems would be he used green tape and then bondoed over the holes...the tape is still there. The same for all the emblem holes in the front fenders too.

Thankfully everything else is solid as a rock and still has most of the undercoating on it.

64 SRT8 Dart · May 6, 2012

A few more pics.

If Waggs chimes in at some point...notice the painted to match body tail lights. lol Like I said, p/o did some weird stuff.

These are the week I got it.

BillGrissom · May 6, 2012

No turning back now. Looks like your in >$5K in parts already. Paint all parts well so they stay looking purty.

64 SRT8 Dart · May 7, 2012

Got the new seals from firmfeel installed in the box today.

Here is a pic of my make shift seal driver for the worm shaft seal..lol

Ever seen anyone use a rear servo from a 904 for a tool? lol

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 7, 2012

Got the box completely together today, with added grease zerks.
Also, posted in the suspension, steering section.

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 8, 2012

Okay, so, now I'm also in the process of building my own battery box for the Valiant.
Made of 1/8" 5052 aircraft aluminum.
Pics are of the whole sheet, layout, then box cut out. Will have a friend form for me at the break press on Monday. Then tig up the corners, put in some holes, and put a decent polish on it.
Then the lid and battery hold down brackets.

Box will be 15"L x 9"W x 10.5"H

Pics aren't so great, cam on phone.

Badart · Jun 8, 2012

Good Idea on the battery box. I need to make a couple of those. We need pics when it's done.

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 8, 2012

Will do John. Just waitin on those darned bump stops!! Supposed to be here on next Wednesday.
So hopefully either next weekend or the following weekend the front will be done!

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 22, 2012

Well the bump stops were pushed to ship on the 29th!! I can't wait that long as I was supposed to start work on the Valiant tonight....however, my buddy told me that his brother had a truck in their garage with the trans taken out....so hopefully tomorrow.

I made some bump stops from some shock bushings that actually might do the job just fine.

Also, got some pics of the battery box. Got the main box all welded up and some reinforcment tabs on the bottom, nothing fancy, just for added strength when bolting down. Haven't tigged alum for a while so, some of the welds look sketchy, but they'll be on the bottom, lol.

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 22, 2012

Here are some pics of the corner welds. I ended up grinding them smooth then washing over them with the tig to try and make look a little better.

Not sure if I want to try and polish this thing or just go with a brushed look.

64 SRT8 Dart · Jun 22, 2012

Also, got my uppers, lowers, spindles, and caliper brackets back from powdercoat this afternoon!! Sorry cudachick

I dropped them off at the end of the day on Wednesday and told them I would need em on Friday. They close at 3:30 so they didn't know that they would have em done but told me to stop on by and check.

Well they did and I was impressed. Only charged me $125 for all of it.

Spindles and cal brackets are 20% Gloss Black and the upper and lowers are Gunmetal Gray.

dglearn · Jun 22, 2012

Hey we all have to support our local shops as well. I believe cuda chick does a great job but local shops help the next generation grow. I wish that many of the old speed shops were still around, great sources of information and knowledge that is being lost.

64 SRT8 Dart · Aug 15, 2012

Well, after a few months of working a bunch and having my parts on the shelf I've actually started to do the front end work.

Ran into a big problem once all the front suspension was dropped.....the tops of the frame rails were rusted completely through inside the brackets for the upper control arms!!! Talk about a big disappointment.

So, spot blasted the area (pics are of passenger side) and am boxing the frame in, well more or less capping the area off, which will hopefully also add a little strength in this area as well.

Also, dropped K-member and did a little work to that as well while installing the sleeves for Dillinger's lower control arms. Man, the factory welds on this thing were mostly horrible...there was still slag on some of them even after nearly 50yrs, lol.

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