The Flying Valiant: 1964 Valiant V100

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be careful welding on the cowl near the pillars. there is usually a leaded in seam there.
welding can release lead fumes that will make you sick.
 
Yikes. That's good to know. I had no idea there was lead in these cars. There was probably asbestos in all that insulation I pulled out too. I didn't see a seam below where I made my cutouts, so hopefully the exposure was minimal. I'll keep that in mind for the rest of my cowl repairs though. Fortunately, most of them are away from the pillars.

Wow. This car may literally be the death of me.
 
I think old Chrysler products naturally resist alignment. Even with all the alignment holes we drilled, getting the panels straight is no easy task. The wife and I got things pretty well aligned for now. Should be enough to get the rest of the body work underway. Also got the sandblaster working properly (FINALLY). All it took was replacing the gun, the hoses, the clamps, and using glass beads instead of baking soda. Eff baking soda.

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Not much going on this month. Holidays and blah blah blah.

Anyway, here's the pictures. Mostly patching and valance work.

Oh yeah, and one test fit for fun.

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Mad props to Ben again for help with the fender patch. That thing was a bear.

Also, Ben gave me some good ideas for radiusing the front fender edge so it can run bigger tires.

As of tonight, both doors and the hood are welded up. The driver's side fender is patched, but there's still that modification we're gonna make. We'll see how that works out.
 
So I thought I'd get clever about that tire clearance problem I was having before I took the car apart. I'd seen notching done before, but my buddy Ben suggested I try something clever, and it seems to have worked well. What do you think?

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This is what I got done last night. I know it looks like there's a few pinholes, but there's no light getting through, and since I was an idiot and decided to weld the patch on the actual corner, this was a very long and ugly process of eliminating holes, so those few dimples are staying. I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully, I'll have the dash trim holes filled in by Monday and by Wednesday have the trunk knocked out. Then I remembered I still need to touch up the undercoating, and I'll probably weld the K-member up just to have that done and be able to put the welder away for a while. It's gonna be weird not having to weld every evening for a while. My arms are already sore in anticipation of all the sanding.
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Yeah, I should stock up on ibuprofen now.

Dashboard downgrade successful. No fancy trim in this V-100. I am disappointed with how banged up this thing was on closer inspection. It's going to take some serious filling and sanding. I need to go back and time and punch younger me for chopping up the original dashboard for stereos and buttons. I'm annoyed at how rusty this thing has gotten, but that's mostly because it reminds me of how slow I'm really going. I've got a good head of steam built lately, though. It's been great to really be taking big chunks of work and seeing the results right away. The chassis was the most discouraging part so far because no matter how hard we worked on it, the car looked essentially the same for MONTHS. I'm not looking forward to the block sanding, but at least with guide coat I can SEE changes happening to the car. It seems seeing results is the best way to keep me motivated. I can really feel the first coat of primer coming now. There's just one more piece to fix on the body, and only the K Frame and the LCAs left to weld before we put the welder away for a while. Crazy to think this car could be in primer by the end of the month. Got to stay focused.

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Ugh. Grinding a straight line is hard. Really hard. Not thrilled at all with how this turned out, and it's really ugly underneath. Gonna take bit of filler to fix the underside, and I'll probably have to fill the other side to balance it out. We'll see. Ran out of time tonight, but I'll try to fix this mess tomorrow. I don't know why I thought grinding a straight line three feet long would be easy.

UGH.

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So...It's been a while...

Big progress report though: Got the filler done and we're actively prepping for high build primer now. Got the seam sealer underway and thank you to Rice Nuker for sending me a PDF guide so I can finish it off. I'm also trying this Lizard Skin alternative that I've heard so much about. Basically it's a mix of latex paint and microballoons. Got a can of "oops" paint at Lowe's and a bag of spheres for less than $25, so I figure it's worth a go.

Then it's drill holes for all the stuff that I don't want to drill after paint, epoxy primer the exposed metal that's left, and finish prep for the Slick Sand.
 

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Also, here's some shots of the seams and one particularly interesting drill spot.
 

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Well, this made a huge mess, but I got them in. Turns out, Valiants weren't really designed to have spotlights, despite how easy the instructions made it look. Even the slightest wobble either way will kick through either the door frame or the windshield frame. There's also a third piece of metal you have to drill through that isn't obviously visible from the outside.

So...I have some holes to fill, but it will be worth it. I would be extremely cautious trying this with a windshield in place.

I'll post pictures of the view from the inside once I've cleaned it up a little. These come through at a very awkward place, right in the corner of the inside A pillar JUST above the dashboard. Seriously, the shaft is practically resting on the dash.
 

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Finished fixing all the damage I did drilling the spotlights, applied the sound deadening paint, and coated the frame rails with encapsulator last night. I now have a ton of nasty green paint(?) or whatever was in that frame rail encapsulator can that won't come off my arms to show for it. Totally worth it though. Valiant is back on the ground and both those things are off the checklist. Got a lot of pinholes filled as well. Wednesday will be checking for more pinholes and doing and extra pass with the 180 grit to get all the scratches I missed on the first pass.

Also, I noticed a little foam rectangle on the top of the quarter windows that got stuck in the rail. I need to remember to put some kind of padding back on when I reassemble everything.

Here's the recipe for my homemade Lizard Skin, by the way:
One gallon of latex "oops" paint from Lowes: $10
One pound of ceramic microballoons: $11

I mixed them all together and the final result was a bit like icing, so I thinned it down to more of a pancake batter consistency and rolled the whole thing on. Not sure if it'll make much difference or not, but for the money it's worth a shot.


Here's where I got the idea from: http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/alternative-lizard-skin-103610.html

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Oh, hey! Some stuff happened recently that was worth posting about. Big thanks to Mike's Classic Car Shop for doing a fantastic job on the final spray. The bodywork was almost entirely done by a friend, my wife, and yours truly. There was a small dent that showed up right before painting that Mike fixed on the house.

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Now all I have to do is get all the pieces back on it!
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Guess I need to update my signature again.
 
Wow! I forgot about this thread. I'll have to update it. The car is basically done and we just got back from Carlisle where it won a celebrity award from Geoff Stunkard.
 
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