Little $250 69 Valiant

Nice looking car. Love the colour and what you did with the bumpers.

Thank you. Its been catching a lot of attention now that I have finally had the chance to get it to some cruise ins. Im having a blast driving it again!

Back to the Valiant again.... This poor little car keeps getting put on the back burner, and I finally have given it a bit of love again.

Not sure many people follow this but a lot has happened in the years I have been gone from the site. I have essentially built 3 other cars while the Valiant sat in the driveway and on the street.

The one that first dragged me away from the Valiant was my daily driven 64 C10.


The second one to get my attention was a complete ground up build of my rat rod.



The last was my sons 73 Maverick we dropped a 302/C6 into.

All those and one sold house, a son in his first year of college and no garage to work out of currently leads me to working on the Valiant at a buddys place.
The Valiant has been sitting for a good while with a transmission that went south. That's really the only thing that kept it from being driven. Several months ago I ran across a good deal on a rebuildable core and had it rebuilt. In the midst of doing the trans swap I ended up selling my house and the car was disabled even further as it was all pulled apart. I had it hauled over to my buddy Cliffs because he has a lift.
That brings us up to speed now! Its been a long time coming that this Ol' girl is back on the streets!

So... with the freshly rebuilt trans in and it moving under its power again I have turned to details to make it road worthy again.

List of items needing attention immediately:

1. Transmission installation (done!)
2. Brakes! (they are non existent and I have a known leaking rear wheel cylinder)
3. Throttle pressure cable (lack of which is what killed the previous transmissions)
4. Tires (this task opened a hell of a can of worms.)
5. Intermittent Ignition switch issue. (Tries to start only when releasing the key)

That's where I plan to start anyhow. Hahaha

So here is what happened when it comes to the tire replacement. I looked online at replacement tires for the 14 Cragars I have and the price was more than I was willing to pay for wheels I eventually planned on removing. Which then led me to look of the wheels I wanted. As luck would have it I scored a full set of exactly the wheels I wanted and a good set of tires as well for a very reasonable price. Feeling I am winning at that point I was soon to be slapped by reality.
Reality being these wheels and this offset are NOT meant to be on this car. (I knew that beforehand of course) With that said I set out to find out how to get them on appropriately.
That of course led me t internet searching and of course back to Good Ol' FABO!
So now a disc brake kit, new master cylinder, wheel cylinders for the rear leaking ones, rear wheel spacers, etc... I an half way through getting them to fit.
The wheels and tires I got are spec'd as this.

Front: SIZE: 18x9 Tire: 275/35/18
OFFSET: +24 millimeters
BACKSPACE: 5.95 inch
CENTERBORE: 70.8 millimeters

Rear: SIZE: 18x10 Tire: 295/30/18
OFFSET: +22 millimeters
BACKSPACE: 6.37 inch
CENTERBORE: 70.8 millimeters

So far I have the rear sorted. Important to note (at least for my own record keeping) is that the combination to get the rear wheels mounted is as follows:

• Stock A-body 8-3/4"
• 10" drums
• Small bolt pattern
• Stock leaf spring location
• Wheel lip rolled up
• 1" thick adapters from 5x4" to 5x4.5"

With a 295 in the rear it is incredibly tight, but doable for cruising the car like I plan to. If you were driving it hard or even for AutoX I don't think this is a realistic fit.






For now that's my current update. I started this as a record for myself really, but feel free to follow along if you will.
Next is the front brakes and wheels.

Damn, man i haven't seen you in ages. I'm glad everything is going well.
Love the Chevy P/U. Keep the updates rolling.