'65 Valiant Convertible: Mostly ignored for over 20 years
The modification is actually pretty simple.
You can see the 2 cuts made on the sides of the crossmember. After making the cuts, the bottom section just gets hammered up to form a curve, then it gets welded up.
The net result is that you get about 1 1/4" more room to tuck up the right side exhaust pipe. This car will likely get the old exhaust pipes from the blue Valiant. The blue car now has headers and will get new pipes from the collectors back.
The 318 going in this car is a van engine of unknown mileage . I don't recall how well it ran but it wasn't knocking when it ran before. I have no idea where the 904 I have came from. If this car were mine, I'd look for a later 904 with the lower 1st gear. There is an '87 Fifth Avenue in a local junkyard. Those were decent transmissions and they also had hydraulic lockup converters. This car could get 20 mpg or better with the 2.71 gears and 26" tires.
Next up, calipers, hoses and a master cylinder. I'm going to bend and flare a front to rear brake line using the excellent brake and fuel line flaring tool I got from Eastwood. This thing makes those hand held flaring tools a total waste of time.
The modification is actually pretty simple.
You can see the 2 cuts made on the sides of the crossmember. After making the cuts, the bottom section just gets hammered up to form a curve, then it gets welded up.
The net result is that you get about 1 1/4" more room to tuck up the right side exhaust pipe. This car will likely get the old exhaust pipes from the blue Valiant. The blue car now has headers and will get new pipes from the collectors back.
The 318 going in this car is a van engine of unknown mileage . I don't recall how well it ran but it wasn't knocking when it ran before. I have no idea where the 904 I have came from. If this car were mine, I'd look for a later 904 with the lower 1st gear. There is an '87 Fifth Avenue in a local junkyard. Those were decent transmissions and they also had hydraulic lockup converters. This car could get 20 mpg or better with the 2.71 gears and 26" tires.
Next up, calipers, hoses and a master cylinder. I'm going to bend and flare a front to rear brake line using the excellent brake and fuel line flaring tool I got from Eastwood. This thing makes those hand held flaring tools a total waste of time.
