davalf
Active Member
As the title says, I am redoing a 67 Valient.
First, the story of how I came to own the car. I have some really good neighbors in this rural community that I live in. The neighbor that is closest to me has a small shop and flips cars to make a little extra cash. Needless to say, I was always over there helping out and talking about what I wanted to eventually do. My wife would always hear my talking about building a shop and then redoing a car. One day after a few glasses of wine, she gave me the go ahead to build the shop. Before she could sober up, I had placed an order for a 24' x 31' x 11' tall shop. After a few anxious months of waiting, I had my shop. One small problem, I had nothing to work on in it.
So, I have always been a Mopar fan, in fact, all we own are Dodges. I began to search the net to find a project and fell in love with the 67 style Dodge Dart's. It turned out, I just really liked most A-Body's. One afternoon my neighbor gave me a call and asked if I would share the driving duty to Maricopa Arizona to pick up a 69 Charger. After a 24 hour round trip, my neighbor had his next project, a virtually rust free 69 charger, and once again, I was extremely jealous. A few weeks go by and we get the Charger running and I cannot wait to get my own project.
Once again, my neighbor calls me, and says, "I have your car on its way here right now!" I was dumb founded. Sure enough, a couple of hours later, a 67 Valient shows up. My neighbor, Brian, was selling a 86 Ford pickup and the buyer offered cash plus the Valient for a trade. Brian had me in mind and said bring it on over. He told me if I wanted it I just needed to give him the difference in the asking price of the truck, which totaled out to be $1000.
So now I have my project. 1967 Valient Signet 2 door post car with a 360, 727 trans, and I am pretty sure a 8 and 3/4 rear end out of a 70 Charger. The only rust in the car is right under the battery tray.
I do not plan on restoring the car, just building it up to be a nice weekend driver and maybe an occasional run at the track.
To get you up to date, I pulled the motor, sent the block to the machinist for some heavy cleaning, cleaned up the heads to include reseating the valves. Ordered all new piston rings, cam bearings, and rod bearings. Got the block back, painted it, installed crack, pistons, and heads.
I am running short on time for todays post because I have to drive to LA to go to work tonight. I will post more detailed pics of the engine and car when I get back this weekend. Thanks for reading. I want to apologize now for any spelling and/or grammar errors, I didn't get a chance to proof read.
View attachment valient1.jpg
View attachment valient2.jpg
View attachment engbay.jpg
View attachment heads.jpg
First, the story of how I came to own the car. I have some really good neighbors in this rural community that I live in. The neighbor that is closest to me has a small shop and flips cars to make a little extra cash. Needless to say, I was always over there helping out and talking about what I wanted to eventually do. My wife would always hear my talking about building a shop and then redoing a car. One day after a few glasses of wine, she gave me the go ahead to build the shop. Before she could sober up, I had placed an order for a 24' x 31' x 11' tall shop. After a few anxious months of waiting, I had my shop. One small problem, I had nothing to work on in it.
So, I have always been a Mopar fan, in fact, all we own are Dodges. I began to search the net to find a project and fell in love with the 67 style Dodge Dart's. It turned out, I just really liked most A-Body's. One afternoon my neighbor gave me a call and asked if I would share the driving duty to Maricopa Arizona to pick up a 69 Charger. After a 24 hour round trip, my neighbor had his next project, a virtually rust free 69 charger, and once again, I was extremely jealous. A few weeks go by and we get the Charger running and I cannot wait to get my own project.
Once again, my neighbor calls me, and says, "I have your car on its way here right now!" I was dumb founded. Sure enough, a couple of hours later, a 67 Valient shows up. My neighbor, Brian, was selling a 86 Ford pickup and the buyer offered cash plus the Valient for a trade. Brian had me in mind and said bring it on over. He told me if I wanted it I just needed to give him the difference in the asking price of the truck, which totaled out to be $1000.
So now I have my project. 1967 Valient Signet 2 door post car with a 360, 727 trans, and I am pretty sure a 8 and 3/4 rear end out of a 70 Charger. The only rust in the car is right under the battery tray.
I do not plan on restoring the car, just building it up to be a nice weekend driver and maybe an occasional run at the track.
To get you up to date, I pulled the motor, sent the block to the machinist for some heavy cleaning, cleaned up the heads to include reseating the valves. Ordered all new piston rings, cam bearings, and rod bearings. Got the block back, painted it, installed crack, pistons, and heads.
I am running short on time for todays post because I have to drive to LA to go to work tonight. I will post more detailed pics of the engine and car when I get back this weekend. Thanks for reading. I want to apologize now for any spelling and/or grammar errors, I didn't get a chance to proof read.
View attachment valient1.jpg
View attachment valient2.jpg
View attachment engbay.jpg
View attachment heads.jpg