1964 Valiant straight axle build

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Oh! No it will be fine....I have 3 other street driven cars with straight axles, and they are waaaaaay more bare-bones than this one will be! I've driven two of them from my house in Riverview (south east of Tampa) all the way to Don Garlits museum in Ocala (3 1/2 hours in a hot rod) with no problems. I've had them all on the interstate as well, they drive fine. Big trucks still have straight axles on a lot of them.

If they are set up right they ride just fine!
 
Hi, I'm building something similiar, what pitman arm are you running? It sure looks like it'd work on mine. Thanks.
 
We took off the power steering, and added a Mopar, aluminum, manual steering box, and whatever arm was on it. I traded it from a buddy, so I don't know what he got it off of.

If we had used a non-dropped axle, it would have cleared the drag link without having to put blocks in the front of the frame, to lower the spring hanger....as I recall....we might have tried a couple of different steering arms before we found ones that cleared everything.
 
DV8 said:
We took off the power steering, and added a Mopar, aluminum, manual steering box, and whatever arm was on it. I traded it from a buddy, so I don't know what he got it off of.

If we had used a non-dropped axle, it would have cleared the drag link without having to put blocks in the front of the frame, to lower the spring hanger....as I recall....we might have tried a couple of different steering arms before we found ones that cleared everything.
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Oh well. My car already has stock manual steering, and the stock pitman is studded, I need to find one with a hole, and the right geometry. I'm thinking maybe B-van.
 
Oh...we cut the stud off, and drilled a hole. They make a drill bit to drill a tapered hole for tapered rod ends. I think Speedway sells them.
 
nice good luck with your project.......and they call me bonehead.....
 
Latest issue of Mopar Collectors Guide has an altered wheel base 66 Dart wagon with a straight axle & big block.
 
I am not doing anything exciting on it right now, so I haven't taken any pics. I stripped the dash apart, and brought the front end assembly home to paint, grease, and reassemble.

My buddy said when I got a chance we would wet sand the body, then seal, and paint. Hopefully, that will be sometime next week. Then final re-assembly can begin. I still need to buy about $3,000 worth of parts, and that doesn't even include interior and wheels and tires....so that is slowing things down a little!
 
Cool cars, love the galaxie, though im a mopar guy, its cool though, post some pictures of your valiant when yoiur done ok
 
hw612 said:
i was wondering how it sat with the motor in it, nose high?
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If I were to do it over again, I would have went with the un-dropped, straight axle. With it being a street/strip (mostly street) car, I didn't want it to be too high. But since I kept the K-member (it kept everything strong, and made the motor mounting, steering, etc., easy) the drag link was hitting the springs with the 4-inch dropped axle. We ended up having to put some spacers under the front of the frame to raise everything up a little.

These two have 4-inch dropped axles, but with tube frames in the front, so the 4-inch drop looks just right, but they give you a lot more room to work with with the steering. I wanted more of a streetable car, so we kept the K-member and inner fenders (new, fabbed ones), etc.

I think the 4-inch dropped axle with the spacers will end up being about the same as a non-dropped axle without the spacers.....Either way, I don't expect it to be much higher (if at all) than these two......


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Same car after the rear wheels were moved up....Looks like he might have jacked the front up some....

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Big block......

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67 prostreet gt said:
Cool cars, love the galaxie, though im a mopar guy, its cool though, post some pictures of your valiant when yoiur done ok
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Thanks....I always considered myself a Mopar guy, but once I got into hot rods, I just learned to appreciate other makes, and mix and match things.

I'll post the whole build, including the final product. I should be able to work on the front end this weekend, and maybe get to the painting in the next couple of weeks.
 
same here, for racing ill always bleed hemi orange or petty blue, but i aprreciate other brands, especially the shebly cobras went to a car show last weekend with my dart, and i got put in the same class as 5 other cobras, one of them a metallic pink one with lots of chrome
 
Ok...back with an update.

I lost my job back in May of last year, so things slowed way down, as it took me longer to come up with the money to finish the car, but I sold off some hot rod stuff (no cars though...just parts and one '34 Ford truck body), and managed to get back on track.

The front end and rear end are ready to go. The engine parts are all in except for some minor stuff like a pulley or two...just waiting on the engine builder to put it all together.

And best of all...the body is finally in paint!!!

I need to buy the wheels and tires now, because it will be on the ground in a week or so.

I took a few pics, but when I pulled the camera out of my pocket, the screen was cracked! :( So I just guessed if they were in frame or not....I got most of them...


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I know I said that I would have used a non-dropped, straight axle if I had to do it over again, because of clearance issues...but I have seen one with a non-dropped axle, and it is way too high in the front for my tastes...
 
All right, looking good ! Did you get the frontend worked out, any pics ? I am doing an altered 66 dart and I want the nose down also. May go with a 6in dropped axle. Please keep the pics coming.
 
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