Get some Headlight Bezels for her. Like everyone else I like the patina a lot but no Headlight bezels Bothers me a Bit lol.
Hey Caleb, man that thing is sweet with the patina nothing says "I don't give a ****" like that LOL! Regarding the gearing I would first try going to a slightly bigger rear tire, it will not only "raise" your final drive a bit but will also increase grip from the bigger contact patch and be more resistant to spinning because of the larger diameter and rotational inertia. Just some nerdage for the day lol...
Rear tires are pretty near brand new so they'll be staying for now. 275/40/17s eventually I'll be going to 295/40/18s. Ralphie361 has this same trans in his dart and when I found out that 2.76s suit this trans better he put some 2.76s in and said it's MUCH better all around. Just gotta find the time to swap mine in.
That's awesome, your driveshaft and u-joints will be hardly spinning at all... How's the RPM drop between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd btw? I've noticed on my '93 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0L and AX-15 the drops between 1-2-3 are HUGE and then 3-4-5 are noticeably closer. I've always been a little leary of the torque rating too, I wonder what it actually takes to blow up one of those transmissions I haven't really heard of it happening...
Tell you the truth I'm not sure on the RPM drops. I don't have my tach installed yet. Ralph blew his first ax up in his dart (behind a 5.7 Hemi) on a hard 2-3 shift. I won't run it once I do a Hemi swap (I'll run either a built a500 or a T56) but behind a stock 5.9 I'm not worried at all
I didn't realize it was that long since I've been on here, that's awesome that it's up and running, congrats! I beat my 5.9 Dakota for years in front of the v6 ax15 in that, so you should be good for a while!
Back in January I bought this '72 Valiant for $500. I had planned on getting it running and using it as a driver but I don't have a title and have too many projects anyway. It's a shame to part it. But I pulled the screws for the headlight bezels, horn button, defrost vents and the dash pad last night for my Duster. The dash pad is mint but was brown, then dyed blue for the valiant and I'll be dying it black. I'll also be parting out the rest of the valiant this summer so keep y'all's eyes pealed for parts for sale
Got my dash pad painted Monday night. Hope to get the wiper linkage back in, pull the column and get the dash frame painted in the next day or 2.
Well I got my wiper linkage seals put in and got the linkage all back in and hooked up, still need to put grease in the pivots. I also masked off the dash frame and painted the dash in the car using semi flat spray paint. Turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself!! Here's after paint If I have time tomorrow I'll put the dash pad on and start reassembling the dash. Gonna make a big difference!! Bad thing is, now I'm gonna have to upgrade the rest of the interior to match!!! Lol
Thanks. The dash SHOULD be back together in the next week or so (been saying that the last 2 months. Lol) We have a cruise-in once a month and the first one was Saturday so my goal is to have the car back to being drivable in time for the next one.
I said mine would be ready by summer but I am starting to question that. After reading your build you are well aware things don't always go as planned hahah
Oh I know all about that!! Lol. This just MIGHT be the year it actually makes it to the Nats!! But I'm not gonna say for sure until the morning we leave! Lol
Well, I got a small (but kinda big for me) update. So I bought a sunpro tach a few months back and I knew I didn't wanna mount it on my steering column, didn't wanna put screws in my nice dash pad, didn't wanna mount it on the lower dash and I didn't have room in my gauge cluster. So here's what I did about all that! This is what my bracket looked like when I got it. Here you can see I took my dremel and cut the base off the bracket. By the way, after everything I used the dremel for on the bracket, I'd suggest that EVERY household and/or shop needs a dremel!!! I'd wanted one for a few years and a few weeks ago I bought one used at an auction for cheap and they're badass!! But back to the pics! I then cut the bracket at a slight angle. And here's how I welded it back together! I'll save y'all the trouble (and me the embarrassment) of looking at the pics how this thing looked after I welded it and before I ground the welds down with the dremel. I literally spent about 2 minutes welding and 20 minutes cutting and grinding those welds!! And here is how it'll mount!! I'm pretty tickled with how it turned out, someone who can weld worth a flip could've done it much faster but all in all I'm happy! I took every apart again and I'm about to get it painted and then I'll see about getting it out back in and wired up!!
Well, I got a little something done yesterday. I discovered that when it comes time to do body work, I'm gonna have to either patch or replace the drivers door jam Here's the lower rear part and is definitely the worst. Here's the top of the jam, by the quarter window. And here's the front lower corner of the door sill. Anyway, I wire wheeled it all down, then a coated it in navel jelly a few times (wasn't real impressed with the results) then wiped it all down with paint thinner and sprayed it with the same semi flat that I used on the dash frame. Next I'll need to do the passenger side and also the upper and lower parts of the doors as well as the sail panels. Btw, anyone have any 70-72 Duster front door panels kicking around? Color doesn't matter as long as they're in fairly nice shape
Yesterday I also got a cardboard template cut out for the upper transmission crossmember and today I traced it over to steel I went way overkill on the thickness of the materials but I had this plate kicking around for months so I decided to use it Here's what I have so far, I'll cut out a few more pieces and will need to weld it all together then. Can't explain it but I'll post pics once I get it done. I did have to cut this one stud off on the transmission to get it to clear the second "hoop" that I'll be putting in. That's all I got for now but hopefully I'll be getting more done on the crossmember tomorrow.
Well, I got the crossmember built! Only thing left to do is clean it good then I'm gonna dip the whole thing in enamel paint so it's coated inside and out. Here's the main frame of the crossmember, I got this done yesterday. Today I finished boxing it in. I got a lot of practice welding on this thing!! Some of the welds even turned out pretty dang nice for a newbie with a flux core welder!! I'm hoping to get the crossmember welded into the car first of next week!
