The Great White Brick - '69 Valiant

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When I bought the Deviant, we ran the 318 for a minute and it ran, not very good, but it ran. Now, upon inspection we found the block to be badly cracked, presumably from being frozen with just water in it.

So we need a new motor!

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The photos don't really show the cracks very well.

Anyhow, no worries because the Mopar Gods sent us a granny driven '79 Newport (found in a local newspaper). The asking price was $1500 (that's about $1350 US dollars) but Tom lowballed them and got it for $550.

I feel guilty taking the 360 out of this thing. This car has only 28,000 original miles. The rear seat has never been sat in! It was literally the grandmothers car and she stopped driving so it's only been driven once or twice in the last 2 years.

Oh well, cars must be sacrificed in the name of hot rodding! Amen for big R-bodies with small blocks! :)

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Well apparently some dude with aspirations of putting a Chevy motor into the Newport and then entering it into a demolition derby likes white cars too....he gave us $200 for the car minus the drivetrain! hahaha....
 
Hard to believe this 360 was blue and powering a boat just a few days ago! Well okay, some parts have been changed like the intake, valve covers, water pump (so the outlet is on the other side)...should look great in the Deviant!

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Tonight I put a second coat of Master Series Silver under the car while Tom did some front end assembly! Feels good to be putting a few things together for change.

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I found this little guy down inside the rear door cavity (there's no door, but you know what I mean). What do you think he is, a rat?

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65s said:
I found this little guy down inside the rear door cavity (there's no door, but you know what I mean). What do you think he is, a rat?
Click to expand...

Nah he's a deviant rat. :evil2:
 
maybe a weasel, i don't think i've ever seen a rat with fangs that size before. But I've been known to be wrong before.
 
Are you spraying the Master Series stuff on or brushing? Looks good and does it have to be topcoated? What about spraying undercoat over the Master Series? Keep up the good work your thread has been very helpfull to me.
Thanks Bob
 
We sprayed the Master Series on the bottom of the hood and around some of the engine bay, but for the most part it's been put on with a brush. You're supposed to put 2 coats then a topcoat, or 3 coats with no topcoat. We're going to spray the bottom of the car with the chassis black as a topcoat.

It's not affected by UV so you don't have to topcoat it. You can put any paint you want over it without need for sanding it, as long as you do within 7 days (so the directions say).
 
I'm also in the process of painting my work van too. It's a rusty old thing, so I'm grinding off rust, welding in some patches here and there, then painting it with Master Series, then I'll put some primer then filler here and there and eventually some paint on top. So far the Master Series is sticking to the rust really well and it's great for filling in pits and weld holes/gaps.
 
That looks like a new underbelly Neil, looking great. By the way have a complete floor on the way for my swinger, from the firewall to the back of the rear floor pans. With shipping from florida it wasn't that cheap but quite a bit cheaper than buying all new floor pans and trying to fabricate the rest of the floor. Plus I will then have the proper floor hump too. Kepp us updated on your project can't wait to see the finished product!
 
Looks good Neil,looks like you really like that paint.
It's good stuff isn't it?
 
Neil, I've got to ask.....what in heck is Master Series - other than golf I guess. :) You're in Ont. so I'm assuming it's a product available in Canada. Also, you've intrigued me with the use of WD-40 for cleaning the barnacles off 'er bottom. Could you explain at what point you use it and what it does for you? This enquiring mind sure wants to know, because I'm scraping the barnacles off the bottom of my Vart right now.
Thanks.
 
70Dart: Same to you 70Dart, start a thread (if you don't have one already...maybe you do, I'm really bad at finding threads around here). Glad you're getting a whole new pan. Tom did most of the pan work and he said it was a ***** and a LOT of work, but it's like a new car now!

Evilscamp: Yes, I like the Master Series. I hope it's all they claim and doesn't rust through. It's different to apply then por-15, but I like how you can leave it and come back to it later and I like how it's more like paint then a plastic coating (Por-15 always seems like a plastic coating to me)

Oldvart: It was Evilscamp here that referred me to Master Series. It's a US product actually, and I had to have it shipped up here. It's a rust inhibiting paint that was originally designed to paint bridges I think. It's like por-15 but you can paint over it, doesn't require as much prep work and it builds up and fills in pits and scratches really well. It's supposed to stick better and last for 25 years before rust through again. So far so good.

To clean the bottom of the car I started with a variety of scrapers. I bought a $5 kit of gasket scrapers and pokers, one looks like a dental tool. On my back I scraped (with safety goggles of course) and poked and got as much **** off as possible...one little square inch at a time. Probably took me 60 hours. In some areas I softened it with a heat gun first, then when it was dry it would flake off easier. Then I went over everything with a wire brush. They you spray WD-40 (liquid, not the spray cans) on and scrub with a wire brush and the dental tool again in areas you missed. Oh ya, I used a paring knife at one point until it broke. Then I degreased with Marine Clean degreaser and a 3M green scrub pad and brass brush. Then rinse a few times, then 2 coats of Master Series and finally we'll put a finish coat of Master Series chassis black, sprayed on. A lot of work but you could eat off the underside of this car!

Rust bled through a bit on my van bumper (that is REALLY rusty) so I emailed this guy that has a website about the stuff and he said I didn't mix it well enough. He was right, I remember only mixing it for about 20 seconds because I was in a rush. I mixed it really well and recoated and the bumper looks great now.
 
Neil I will get a thread started some day but I want to get a decent amount done first so I can get pictures then post the progress, as I hit some dry spells like now where I have not done anything too substantial for a while. I will get there eventually. Once I get the sills and floor on the go it will actually seem like I am getting something accomplished. I am going to put a big push on it this summer as we have a baby on the way September 1st so I hope to have most of the noisy stuff done by then, like beating and pounding and forming metal.
 
hit the undercoat with a torch and it will be like scraping butter off.

ohhhh........the smell of burning undercoat............better than a homecooked meal.
 
The smell of burnt undercoating, WD-40 and Master Series paint permeates my notrils constantly. Sometimes I wake up and crave it. Other times I just can't take it any longer and have to get on my back, roll under a car and scrape until my arms ache. I think I'm going through withdrawal right now actually...quick, anyone got a car that needs scraping!?
 
70Dart: Baby coming? Do as much as you possibly can now! Get helpers, get 'er done! Take time off work.....whatever you must do. Soon you will have no life.

Well actually, that's not true. You'll just be really tired all the time. Sleep now while you can. I know you think I'm joking........
 
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