Aussie 62 Valiant

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Martythetrimmer

Martythetrimmer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
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Location
Canberra Australia
I've had a few requests to start a thread so here goes!
I'll start with a bit of back ground about myself as none of you know me.
New Zealand born and have lived in Australia for 24 years. I'm not so much a Mopar nut more a car nut! If it's cool and well built I will love it, doesn't mean I would own it! My Father owned a few Mopars over the years starting with a 1929 Dodge. This car is my first memory aged two when we traveled to Wellington to pick up my Grand parents off the boat from England. Later me owned a 1954 Dodge Kingsway wagon then a 1966 AP6 Regal which is similar to the American version. My 62 is being built close to elite show car standard and will then be driven, that drives the show car guys nuts. I've done this with all my cars, they're there to use.

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I've owned a few Mopars over the years starting with this 1971 Rebel. These aren't considered Mopars in N.Z. just a Rambler! This one was a 304 V8 and went real well, very impresive for a 5Lt in a big car. This was my first attempt at painting a car, turned out real well. Should have never sold it but wanted to go faster so bought a stinking hot 327 Chev powered Holden (Aussie GM). Turned out too Hot and used way too much fuel, 10mpg open road and less than 5mpg around town, if you were cearful and worse if you weren't.
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My work car was an AP6 bought very cheaply as it didn't run well. A quick fuel system clean and a set of shocks and she was all good. Drove that thing every where.

Next Mopar was a 1971 Aussie Charger. This one was rear in N.Z. with a manual trans and Hemi six. Only bought because the girl I was chasing liked it. Must have worked we've been married for 27 years!

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To give you all an idea what I do with my cars here's the cars I've built over the past 18 years. The first is a 1969 Holden Brougham, 308 V8 powerglide and Ford diff. This car was built my me in a single car garage over a 2 year period. This car was also painted by me. These cars were Holdens flag ship car in the day and cost 25% more than the Ford Fairlane when new. This car while a drive car had to compete with outright show cars at our Premier show as then there was no "street class" judging. It did well and always finished in the top 60 and took home a large haul of trophies over the time I showed it.

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The next was a car built just as a cruiser for the Summernats (our Premier show). It's a 1975 XB Falcon GS Fairmont wagon, or was! 351 V8 C4 and 4.11:1 minispooled diff. It was a factory 7 seater but I widened the front passengers seat into a double then reshaped the drivers seat into a Recaro style. Again this was a home done paint job, started just 4 weeks before the SummerNats. A lot of fun and could seat 9 in comfort and in the "super cruise" we would carry upto 20. Philips sponcered the sound system. This was the only trailor queen I've owned, I did try to register it but our state inspectors rejected it without looking at it. The next 2 owners registered it in there home states without a problem! This car was my daily driver for 5 years until I got board with the Brougham and descided to build this as the car had no real value. I sold the leather trim I had done along with the power windows and A/C, should have kept that! What I had left owed me $400. By the time it was finished it totaled $3000. It is the cheapest car to finish in the elite hall at the SummerNats and did so for 5 years.

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This is the wifes 1978 Holden GTS. We repowered it with a 304 EFI V8 crate engine new from GMH. It's backed by a turbo 700 and 10 bolt style LSD diff.
Custom everything is all my own work including the rear wing, from air dam, grill and custom engine bay cover panels. As I'm a trimmer by trade I went over the top on the interior. Again custom everything, infact the only stock thing left is the gauges which she didn't want to change. It blows people away that the car is hers, well she can't complain about my project now can she! Todate this car has finished in the top 60 street judging at the SummarNats 9 times and taken numerious trophies over the years inc. top sedan, top paint, top interior, top audio install and top sound quality to name a few.

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Now onto the real subject of this thread!
I plan to rebuild this car down to the last nut and bolt. It will be finished as close to "show level" as I can then it will be driven as my other cars have been. I want to take a base model car and repower it with a modern "hightec" high performance engine, add modern luxury seating, A/C, power rack and pinion steer, electric windows etc. In effect it will become a 2012 version of a Valiant. Everything I can do to make it handle is being done and large 4 wheel disc's are being fitted.
Onto the engine bay to start with. Every hole has been weld and a flat sheet then welded over the top, there is more to come but that is being worked on soon. The reson I went over the top of the original firewall is this is the only legal way to do it here. Everything I do must comply to the regulations as they will be looking very closly at this car when it goes for it's first rego inspection as they don't want modified cars on the road in this state!

I didn't want to risk cutting up the K frame to trial fit this engine then find it didn't fit so I took a fibreglass casting from the K frame an modified it to suit the forward style sump of the V6. The engine fits nice but if it was any bigger it wouldn't have.

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K frame mods

My good friend Bruce also has a V8 62 which we recently fitted rack and pinion steering to, along with many other things. He like others we have meet that have R & P fitted, feel that this mod is the best thing they have done to the car. To that end I chose to use a power rack in mine and reinforce the K frame as mush as possible. I purchased my front end items from "Firm feel" http://www.firmfeel.com/ and couldn't have been happier with both the items and the service, really nice guys. They supplied me with their K frame reinforcement kit which fitted perfectly. They do exchange K frames and are well worth a look. I have made a lot of changes to my frame to suit the V6 I'm going to use. At this stage the basic work is done it just needs to have the cosmetics finished.
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The engine is a GM based unit but is sold a world engine, i.e. any manufacturer can purchase a badge as thier own. They have been sold as Holden (Australia) Chev, Pontiac, Cadalliac, Alfa Romao and Suzuki. Headers exit behind the rack and have to be custom made. My mates V8 one has no problems with clearance. The conversion is done by Pentastar parts and restorations in Sydney but Elko also does the same style.
 
The style of conversion I'm using works well and has been done by Pentastar parts for over 10 years. There is a cradle style that bolts in but that flexes too much and the rack is mounted below the sump which does lead to bump steer. This style requires a notch to be cut into the sump to clear the rack but the bonus is the rack is in alignement where it should be. My mates one uses an older rack than mine and is manual where mine is power. His has no bump steer even on uneven road surfaces. My rack is slightly wider than his so the push rods from the end of the rack had to be shortened which now means they are 1/2 an inch shorter than the original arms but with better shocks and 1 inch torsion bars the suspension movement will not be enough to create bump steer. Another club member has the same rack as mine and also reports no problems.

Marty
 
Should have started with a little bit of back ground on the car.
I bought it as a rolling shell with the suspension being the only bolt on left, there wasn't so much as a door catch or even the bolts to hold the steering column, that was zip tied in. It had been owned by a panel beater so all the rust repairs had been done which was it's main appeal. It had been for sale for years and was in danger of ending up at the crusher. With parts from a good mate, purchases off Ebay, and many NOS parts from the USA I now have most things needed but I'm still looking for bumpers. I've had unfaverable comments here from purists but none of then would buy the car because so much was missing then they complain when someone modifies it! Pleople will either love this car or hate it, no middle ground I think. So far there have been more favourable comments from open minded people than not.

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Marty,

Great job you are doing there, is going to be a very nice ride. I think we have many a similar idea on how the old s series should handle and look. Hope to progress mine a bit in the next few months with the new floor and firewall. Your k frame looks great, have stregthened mine in similar areas and just fitting up new mounts for the hemi now. Look forward to watching the progress.

Graeme
 
I felt A/C was a must in OZ so I purchase a Vintage Air Compac unit from Summit racing, better freight charge than Vintage charge! I should have bought thier largest unit as I found I had more than enough room. I cut the entier plenum chamber out of the car as I wanted the A/C to be completely inside the dash.

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I wanted to have a good defrost system so I made a fibreglass duct that has twice the area of front screen defrost but also directs air to the side glass at the same time.

This is the backing of the port the flexable ducting from the A/C concects to. The air the passes through a cavity in the body and back out the vent ducts.

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This section will become the backing of the duct.

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This is the finished duct. It now has two front screen vents while the extension on the right directs air to the side glass.

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The two components in place

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All that is left of the original dash is the vent area, about 1 1/2". This is the start of the mock up of the new dash. Note the position of the side glass vent.

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Another angle showing the vent.

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Dash is close to being ready to fibreglass. There will be an exra two A/C vents in the console when it's made. It has the new VHX gauges from Dakota digital and will use a double din DVD/GPS head unit. The finished facia will be carbon fibre while the dash itself will be covered to match the leather trim when it's done.

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wow!! thanks for sharing the photos--- that is going to be a very nice ride!!
any luck with the bumpers, yet?
Lawrence
 
Here's a few more shots of the dash after being fibre glassed.
The gap at the side is to allow for the A pillar covers to be made.
The head light switch is back lit with blue LED's to match the VHX gauges. http://www.dakotadigital.com/index....tegory_id=636/home_id=-1/mode=prod/prd726.htm
I ordered a Dakota digital controler from Summit racing that operates the
auto head lights as well as the dome light and accessory power with key off function.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index....ategory_id=403/home_id=-1/mode=prod/prd42.htm

Still looking for bumpers, I'll find some sooner or later! Lawrence

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