1964 1/2 valiant build thread.

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what a find, talk about a clean slate to start with very nice ,I have the oem radiator for a six cylinder or 8 if you decided wich way your taking her ,I know it will be down the road but theres not alott missing from a quik look ENJOY
 
what a find, talk about a clean slate to start with very nice ,I have the oem radiator for a six cylinder or 8 if you decided wich way your taking her ,I know it will be down the road but theres not alott missing from a quik look ENJOY


thank you for the offer. I have an aluminum universal radiator from summit that i will be using. the car is not going to be a factory correct car. i am just trying to get here back on the road with the spare parts that i have and a limited budget. she will be getting a 5.9 magnum motor with a 904 trans. she will be a floor shifted bench seat car with an after market shifter up thru the 65 floor shift console. I am in the process of getting the chassis sorted out. i will me moving the springs in and mini-tubbing this weekend. then she will get the disc brake swap and a complete front end rebuild.
 
well getting started on the rear suspension rebuild. ordered up my inboard spring boxes from RMS and gonna do the mini-tub at the same time. got the old rear out last night. had to narrow it up a bit so it fit in my garbage can. lol

 
well last night i got the rest of the rear suspension out of the way. got the old spring hangers out and all emergency brake lines, gas line and factory brake lines out of the way. started the crappy task of knocking all the factory under coating off. I will be scrapping the entire under side of this car and painting it with a chassis coat of some sort. there is alot of very light surface rust but nothing to worry about. most of the factory under coating is just flaking off in sheets. frame rails are super solid. will be doing the spring relocation this weekend. here are some pics of the progress.





 
I have lurked here long enough :cheers: Keep up the good work and like everyone here has said I agree this is a great find and very solid, digging the stearin wheel :tongue9: Very nice option someone some one must have put in in the past or maybe not but I love it :cheers:
You aced the frame contorts :cheers: and looking forward to seeing what you do when it comes time for the V8 to go in and watch the front end/disk brakes go in. Thank you for a great thread :glasses7:
 
I have lurked here long enough :cheers: Keep up the good work and like everyone here has said I agree this is a great find and very solid, digging the stearin wheel :tongue9: Very nice option someone some one must have put in in the past or maybe not but I love it :cheers:
You aced the frame contorts :cheers: and looking forward to seeing what you do when it comes time for the V8 to go in and watch the front end/disk brakes go in. Thank you for a great thread :glasses7:


its funny you mention the steering wheel. that one of the pieces that made me have to have it.

I thank all of you guys for the info. I have never really payed much attention to the early a-bodies in the past. I have had alot of questions with this car and you have all stepped up in fine fashion. this car is alot of fun to me because it doen't have to be absolutely perfect. I am simply trying to make her a nice driver that i can take any where. im sure moving the springs in and mini tubbing is a bit excessive for a daily driver but nothing looks better then a car dropped down over some big rubber. this girl is gonna be LOW and have a pretty sassy attitude.
 
So know Victoria has a big sister named Valerie :thumleft: Very cool :glasses7:
Yes your steering wheel is/could be a S model Barracuda or it came out of a Signet Coup =P~ Very nice wheel indeed

FISHYPETE brought mine back to life =D> It was cracked all around the horn ring where the two spokes meat, and turning black around the outside, it is know a beautiful wheel he repaired and panted, your 64/65 should have came with a wheel about like mine :glasses7:

The last picture is what it looked like before FISHYPETE restored it, you can see where it was craked and wore :D
 

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so the steering wheel wouldnt be a dealer installed option? I have the build sheet under the rear seat. I have yet to take it out for fear of tearing it.
 
just got my spring relocation boxes from RMS. awesome quality! super thick material. if anyone wants to move there springs this is the only way to go.



 
That relocation kit looks pretty substantial.
 
made some more progress this weekend. not as much as i had hoped but still got some **** done. here are pics of my spring relocation boxes installed.











then i got tired of being hunched over under the car and pulled the steering column to fix the mess in the engine bay. the car was a factory column shift car. I gutted all the shift parts and installed a collar bearing in the bottom after shortening the housing. here are some pics.

this was before.



and here is the progress. i had the bearing for my dart but never put it in. the 65 column has a 3/4" steer shaft instead of the 1" like in my dart. had to make a shim for the bearing but ended up working awesome.







this is where i cut the housing back.







here it is back in the car. should provide a bit more clearance for headers.



 
then i get back to work on the rear of the car. started the mini tub on the passenger side.

first i scraped off all the factory seam sealer and wire wheeled the surgery site.



then i cut the trunk hinge bracket off the wheel tub. i was careful to cut it as low as possible.



then i cut the cross brace off in the back seat area



then i cut the inner wheel tub out. i made sure to cut the radius nice and close to the wheel tub so that i create a nice lip to make a template from.





then i spent what felt like forever cleaning up the wheel tub inside and out.





that is where i left off on the mini tube. i need to get a template made and cut the inner floor and then put her all back.
 
when putting in the spring boxes i noticed that the old springs used a 1/2" thru bolt. I am a cheap bastard so i ended up modifying the springs to use the new 5/8" hardware.















then i had to press in the new rear spring eye bushing. it is aluminum for the slider set up.





 
Dam I love that bearing in the column idea, Where did the bearing come from?

It must hold the steering shaft steadier than the old original bearing. And then the more header clearance is a double bonus.
 
Dam I love that bearing in the column idea, Where did the bearing come from?

It must hold the steering shaft steadier than the old original bearing. And then the more header clearance is a double bonus.


you can get the bearing on ebay. it is called a "collar bearing" i paid $7 for it. the outside diameter is 52mm and the inside is 1". im sure you can get them at a local bearing supplier with the correct 3/4" inner dimension. i think you will find that most of our columns have lower bearings that are completely shot. mine was missing all together. they depend on the steering box to support them. I will be adding a borgeson univeral joint as soon as it gets here in the mail. that will deal with the large sloppy factory joint at the steering box.
 
Thanks younggun2.0, I'm going to be looking for one, and for the borgeson universal joint, that I have.

Great pics as well!
 
got started on my slider mounting brackets last night. i made a 3/8" plate with 3 mounting locations for the slider brackets. this will be welded to the frame rail and the sliders will bolt up to the plate. i plan to notch the frame rail so the plate will be flush with the frame. here are the pics of what i got done last night.



 
nice work! I love the bearing for the column. I did the same thing with my sliders.
it was nice having the peace of mind if I changed springs and needed to move them or replace them all together they bolted in instead of being welded in.
 
nice work! I love the bearing for the column. I did the same thing with my sliders.
it was nice having the peace of mind if I changed springs and needed to move them or replace them all together they bolted in instead of being welded in.

thanks man. im trying really hard not to let this project snowball on me. i have that mentality of "well its this far apart, might as well do this while im at it". i already broke my own rule and did mini tub and moved springs in.
 
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