My 1965 Valiant wagon project

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Big Dad

Big Dad

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I bought this car 10-10-09 and , even with the 1000's of offers i had for it

I was able to keep it on my collection ..!! :banghead:

Well,
I kinda had a plan when I bought it of what I wanted , going for a "budget" build ..sorta

The biggest budget pain is to start, the front suspension ..
Early A bodies have 5 on 4 bolt pattern and well, they make zero wheels, even steel 15's are impossible, plus everything is tiny, brakes, spindles..

So, there are a few options , I took out my abacus and a piece of chalk and figured my way thru it and well ..

work has started after a long wait

Best option ,(for me) Alterkation front suspension
https://www.reillymotorsports.com

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbU5vFWVscM"]Project Valiant: AlterKtion Suspension Installation - YouTube[/ame]
 
Before pic

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I am trying to run 10.5 tires, its going to be really tight but .. they fit with about 3/4 of an inch both inside / outside

The mock up is a 15 x 10 with 3.5 backspace ..

Tires are 28 x 10.5 old M/T slicks .. due to the wheelhouse, getting tight to the rear door area, that's all that will fit on diam
and keep he tire tucked where I want it to be .. don't want a monster truck stance


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I hope this front works out as planned cause , its an expensive experiment ..

I found many people with positive responses so ..

Its here and under it

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Plan is to build it complete as possible, then take it apart and detail some areas ..

Most likely, the inner fenders will be taken out and replaced with something a little more stylish

Just putting it together to get the details figured out then ..

We'll clean up the ugly

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The fronts were borrowed just to be able to look at it ..offset is wrong for the car, so ..ignore that


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Looks like it's going to be a badass wagon. What engine are you going to use? How much does the Alter-K increase the track width?
 
The front rims shown are totally wrong ..


Just borrowed them to mock it up since the tire size is what I am going to run ( ( 26" )

The rims are 5 inches wide and too much backspace

I'll be able to get the track width closer to stock I'm sure and , the picture exasperates it too ..

Not that bad in person, just looks dumb in the pic


Small block, going to be a lump to get it running ..and de-bug it

But in time, something with some type of boost
 
Thank you for this thread =D> and welcome aboard :cheers:
Love these early A body wagons and yours is looking gerrrrate :cheers:
Again, thank you for sharing a great build .
 
Dang! The last time I saw one of those in person, it was sitting on a trailer behind a white Dodge dually in Checotah, OK. It was at the nicest motel in town, and the uppity guests at the hotel were looking down their noses at the poor dude who had just stopped to rest. He got so upset that he fled the motel for a while to dine at the Big Mac Supper Club waaaaaaaaay across town. He did have a nice little wagon......I just hate he had such a rough time there. Because of the way they treated the nice young man with the Valiant wagon, I will probably never go back to Checotah, OK. Even if it IS the hometown of Carrie Underwood! Sorry....kinda got off topic. :banghead: Sure is a nice car ya got there dude. :D
 
Thanks for the laugh and the great place to waste more money ..

Forgot to tell you this, the floors .. had some pretty good sized holes, whomever owned it previous was a genius ..

Patched them with 3 tab shingles !
 
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