1966 Factory V8 Valiant Signet Restoration For My Other Daughter

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Another trim piece done.

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That is looking awesome. Only thing that worries me about mine is getting all that trim off and back on. 66 GT has a lot of brightwork. You seem to move fast on these!
 
There is 4 hours of my life I won’t get back. Bead blast and epoxy prime next. Before and after.

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Blasted and epoxy painted the rear seat frames and condenser. Ran out of hog rings and energy.

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I've spent about 4-hours over the last few days reading this entire build. Very impressive and doing most of it outside is even more impressive. I am constantly amazed at what humans are capable of when they put their mind to it. Reading this thread has inspired me to get back to working on my car project again. Thanks for the push Jim!!!

Tom
 
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Sorry for the gap. Life has sucked and I have not been in the mood. Family went to Florida a few weeks ago and I was in charge of the home front. Few days after they left I came home, let the dogs in and they napped (the photo) on the couch. Two hours later the wifes 1 year old baby gets up empties his bowls everywhere and dies in my arms 15 minutes later. My gut has been ripped out since, he was just a big lovable lug. Best guess is he ate something and went Anaphylactic shock. I’m starting to get back to normal and the machine shop is starting to put the engine back together so maybe I can get back to it soon.

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Jim,
So sorry to hear about your fur baby. It's tougher when it comes unexpectedly. Time is the only healer. My condolences my friend.
 
Desperate measures for desperate times. Layson's has no idea when Australia will open up and they can get '66 tail light lenses so I took a chance on getting some from Mexico... $55 for the pair... can't beat it. All they needed was a few minutes on the buffer to get some scuffs out. Found a LH center reflector NOS and Layson's had the backup lights. Now just need a RH reflector NOS.

Micas Y Mas - Mexican Made Lights and Lenses For Your Daily Driver

or contact Miguel directly

[email protected]

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Jim, I love the color on your daughters car. I am very partial to yellow cars.

I also want to thank you for the glowing recommendation.

Would it be alright with you if I use your pictures showing what my look like installed?
 
Jim, I love the color on your daughters car. I am very partial to yellow cars.

I also want to thank you for the glowing recommendation.

Would it be alright with you if I use your pictures showing what my look like installed?

Absolutely
 
We are hung up with parts availability on the engine. Transmission is clear coated and the machine shop doing my engine has my alternator ready for final assembly. He has tools he made decades ago to deal with the bearing and diodes quickly and easily.

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Sorry to hear about the dog, Jim. Not easy to get passed some things in life. Losing a pet is one of the worst. Feel for ya.
 
Another stunning chrome job by Capital Metal Finishing in Tucson. Paired with Detroit muscle technology inserts all I need to do is paint middle strip black and put it together. $220 to rechrome the 5 pieces here, lighter cap, ashtray, ashtray cover, main cover, console compartment door.
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Another stunning chrome job by Capital Metal Finishing in Tucson. Paired with Detroit muscle technology inserts all I need to do is paint middle strip black and put it together. $220 to rechrome the 5 pieces here, lighter cap, ashtray, ashtray cover, main cover, console compartment door.
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That is sweet! Thanks for sharing the cost info. It helps a lot.
 
Hi Jim, you have done an awesome job with the Valiant. I'm so glad you were the one to buy it. Thank you for sharing the progress.MAC
 
The mystery of what holds the console in place on a ‘66 is solved. This seems to be a ‘66 only thing. Note this is the same on a Charger, Dart and Valiant. The brackets accepts 10 - 24 cage nuts and this really interesting washer/ machine screw combo. One of the cage nuts was removed from a ‘66 Charger and the other from a ‘66 Dart by me this afternoon at Alan Shrock’s place.

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This has been sitting on the bench for months ready to be cleaned up and put back together finally got the ambition this afternoon. Another RV2 brought back from the grave. New crank bearing, crank surfaces polished new old stock pistons and rods new valve plates from a O’Reillys rebuild that I scavenge for parts, new gaskets O-rings, NOS front seal. It’s getting really hard to find parts and gaskets for these all things now with the supply chain issues. Luckily I’ve been gathering up new old stock over the last few years. Maybe tomorrow I’ll mix up some black Southern Polyurathanes Epoxy and shoot some of remaining piece parts. Next up is the distributor, starter and put the alternator back together.

 It’s nice the 66 four-door that I stripped the air conditioning out of had the original compressor with this original September 1965 tag on it pretty cool

The O-ring pictures are to allow people to order all rings from websites like the O-ring store when you can’t find full rebuild kits anymore. These are for the Seal housing and for the oil pump cover.

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Alternator needs a new capacitor somehow I missed the new kits don’t include that from ASP. The distributor did not order the FPO plate that comes with the new springs so I have to order that. I did get the starter done but realized that this is a 1.8 hp starter not the normal small block 1.5 hp.
Got a few things painted red in anticipation of the return of the 360/273 Super Commando.

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The wife got a new pup to ease the pain of loosing the big dummy. Parts came in for the alternator so that’s another project done. Used the Dremel to undercut probably a half 1 million cracks in the factory woodgrain steering wheel and packed with PC-7. The chrome has already been redone so this should be a really sharp wheel when I finish but I’ve got a few weeks of sanding ahead of me I believe.

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