Jet and my first project car together arrived this morning courtesy of a bit of detective work by my father in law (sort of) Don and transport by Dale Bates . Though not a rod I still think these would have to be one of the best looking cars ever built ,in my opinion anyway . I have to finish off a couple of jobs on my chev ute and then its all systems go for a full resto , it might even end up shiney . Apart from mission brown applied by a little beaver sprayer over factory black and usual rust in rear quarters ,front floor , some in doors and dints and scrapes its quite straight and solid . I bought this off a one owner little old lady and had been stored for the last 15 years in her garage in Melbourne ,true story .
Gotta be happy with that purchase. I'm sure Jet will turn it into something amazing that will be all his. With your help of course. Make sure you post build pics. I agree they were a very tasty shape. Happy building Regards Steve.
Hi Mick , plans are for a full resto including color change back to black and also getting rid of those lovely door trims. Fired up the engine for the first time in 15 years and it started pretty much first go . Prior to starting we flushed the radiator out of old coolant and took out the rusty thermostat and about 75 millimetres of what can only be described as oily clay, which I can only guess to be very old congealed coolant ,lucky it was held out of the head by the thermostat. It also got a new filter and oil.It ran smoothly but a little smokey at the breather and not much vacuum at the PCV valve. As a foot note , never let a nearly 14 year old hold the hose while attending to hose fitting in the engine bay ,lets just say if I could run as fast as I used to he wouldn't have been laughing as much as he did .
Nice find Ratty . Looks a good solid and complete vehicle . We see some strange twists and turns with vehicle tastes . In the late sixties and into the 70,s and 80,s those early Valiants if not all Valiants had very little following with stuff all re sale value . To day they are prized . All the best with the resto
We made a start on the old S despite saying I would finish a few jobs on my ute first . First up was removing the bumpers , first the rear, which needed the tow bar ground off because someone had decided it would be extra strong and welded it to the back panel . Then the front , which also needed grinding due to a turning inner nut ,don't we love old cars .Next up was the interior strip out and window removal ,which was a lot easier and uncovered a few rusty areas especially front floors. The good thing is rust replacement panels are available for most of the rusty areas and the rest we can make. By far the strangest thing we have come across is the sills are filled with something like a hard filler that looks factory and in one of them was 2 dried out complete yabby shells .