Thread: My Wifes 62 Valiant

Our cousins had a white wagon with the push button auto - many, many moons ago.

Will watch with interest - all the best.

Great old machine. A mate of mine had one back in the late sixties in a small town in SW Qld and MAN could that thing go. The poor old coppers had 144ci Ford falcons and didn't have a chance of catching him. Pretty sure it had a 165Hp slant six. It really was a novelty back then (and a chick magnet).

This one is in a wrecking yard not far from where I live has been for some years now, There was only about 1006 R Ser ever sold in Aust. This one is a manual The owner wont sell it.

Hodgo

The R series are now very rare and very valuable - don't you just hate people who collect cars and do nothing with them - sounds like a few landie owners I know.

Garry

1 hook the steel bits out of a 318 auto box and stuff tyem into your box, get rid of the brass bits

2 get a set of heaters made up 71/2 inches then 3 inches 3inches 2into 3 into 1

3 the hard bit, make up an inlet manifold for 3 1 5/16 SU carbs, ( ill try to remeber the jetting) 2 1/4 face to face.

4 i have the cam regrind specks some where.

5 send me the head, there will be big dags of casting in the ports to start with.

that should give you a bit over 200 HP

Somewhere in my shed of crap I have the original Chrysler AM radio from my CL ute, wrong vintage but your welcome to it.

Originally Posted by andrew e

It started at valentines day last year, i bought my wife the most romantic present of them all. Its somthing she always wanted, complete with pushbutton auto and bench seats.

It was last regoed in 1991, and has been in storge since. Heres what i know of the history. It was owned by an elderly lady, till the mis late 80s, who wouldnt allow anyone to sit in the rear seat.Then a fellow bought it (his handwriting is looks like my grandfathers, so i'm assuming he was elderly too). He was the last registered owner. It then sat until last year (under a tarp i think), before it was bought by someone wanting to make a quick buck. It was purchaced by a father and son team in melbourne, who planed on restoring it, but lost intrest before they picked up a spanner. which is where i come in.

The car is in very very good condition for its age, and still has its origional duco and chromework.


the seats and door trims are all origional, the only thing not origional about the inside is the 80s radio in where the center grill is meant to be (centre grills are available as a repro).



The duco on the roof has very bad crowsfeet, all the way to metal. I dont know what to do there, as the rest is presentable. I might just give it a coat of penetrol.

The front floor pans are very bad, but the outside skin is almost perfect rust wise.

First step in the restoration, is to work out what it will look like when its finished, so i purchaced some mags and whitewalls, which p38a paul kindly picked up, and remy delivered to sydney.






Anyway, this is pretty much where its at ATM, as i have been busy with p38s and my sisters 130, however i have just started a new job 3kms from home, so it will get lots more progress in the next few weeks.


Andy

Andy id ya get stuck on parts my mate here in perth has a Valiant that he is totally rebuilding so if you ever need numbers of parts people give me a hoy and i'll get the info for you regards Andy

Thanks, my plans.... i mean her plans.... for the slant were a cam, headwork, headers, long runner intake with a 350 holley, EI and a few offenhauser bling parts. Tripples are too hard to keep in tune.

As for the auto, if it aint broke....

I just want to get it driving nice and stopping (did i mention it has no brakes?). Make up some rear reatbelt and kiddie seat mounts, fix the rust in the floor etc etc, then, when all thats done, tickle the driveline.

That R series is in much worse condition than the wifes S. I know they are rarer, but that makes the parts harder to find.

I am not a fan of concourse or show cars. If you fix up somthing to a perfect show standard, someone will look at it until they find a fault, and then highlight it. If you leave all the faults there, people will admire the car for its details a not notice the faults.

An example is at the castle hill LR show this year. There were heaps of S1s. People pretty much walked past the restored ones, and spent ages looking at the ones with the paint all worn off.