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The pedals are a done deal. A friend in GA had a complete setup except the steering column, all removed from the same car. No mixing, matching, or "I think" about which to worry or discover during assembly. He sent me some pics this morning, I paid the man and he shipped 'em already.

I still need a column, sorta... Stretch and I have everything to build the right one with the possible exception of the floor-shift cup where the column shifter rides. I might have that piece in the garage attic, but would still consider a pre-'70 floor-shift manual-steering column at the right price.
 
no worrys ive dug thru everything and only found "parts" of it not the whole thing so ill quit looking...funny thing is i KNOW i have one..somewhere....hmm i wonder if it found its way into that mini dodge truck...that was a 68 FB floor shift fish pan its on

also dug thru the pile of columns that i know of and no complete ones.....ill dig for the collar ring if you want...i half wonder if i tossed it into my 69 as thats where it was headed
 
I see that they're also re-popping the '69 only ignitions. That will make a lot of '69 owners happy. :cool:
 
Those column parts were a good idea for a repop item, since apparently people now think the things are made of gold. I remember selling an E-body manual floor-shift column on eßay for just under $300 and thinking that was a lot of money. Now they're $400 and up?! There are a couple of vendors with 'em, so I'll probably avoid Tony's. I'm glad I have a couple of F-body shifter handles lying around, too--people are friggin' insane on their asking prices for A-body one sticks with the "HURST" stamping! $199 for a rusty one?!

Ah, the myriad things you suddenly realize you need when doing something like this. For instance, I don't even own a tach that's not part of a cluster, and I probably should have one that reads higher than 8K. Lord knows, that's the type of thing I hate to buy used. An electric fuel pump is another, since with the gear drive a mechanical pump is out of the question. Thankfully I've got that covered, though.

Just going down the list. I still need a Holley 750DP, too. My concern about getting one at a swap meet is that it leaves me precious little time prior to the first track day... literally one week. That's not a lot of time for dialing in a tune.
 
and i aint about to go digging out my carb crates in this weather....do i have one...maybe..but im fairly certain they are all vac secondarys
 
Not to worry. A vacuum-secondary carb simply won't work with a high-RPM 4-speed launch anyhow. They tend to fall right on their faces when the load changes as the clutch is released at the line. It's a lot easier to launch a car with mechanical secondaries and an automatic than a manual trans with a vac-suck carb.
 
Dr.Jass said:
It's a lot easier to launch a car with mechanical secondaries and an automatic than a manual trans with a vac-suck carb.
Click to expand...

But it's a lot more fun to launch a mechanical secondary carb with a manual trans. :vroom:
 
Well, the carburetor is on its way here. :dance:

I called our performance warehouse today looking for a couple of things for the Valiant. One of the guys there (Matt) is a hardcore racer. But, he recently bought a '69 Mustang Mach One street machine. It came with a 514" engine and supposedly everything needed to put it together and run 10s--on pump gas, with plates. When he took inventory of the parts, he found the carb was missing. The seller remembered he'd loaned it to a friend to try on his race car. He'd call his friend and get it back. The friend sent back a different carb of the same model missing the squirters, a float, and one accelerator-pump arm. The baseplate was installed backwards. Matt said, "What the f__k am I supposed to do with this?!" The seller was pretty pissed about the whole deal, and said he'd just buy Matt a new carb.

When I called today, he'd originally offered me a couple of different new Holley 750DP carbs they have on blowout--really, really expensive carbs. One of them Summit sells for $810, and he offered it to me new in the box for $603. Another one was about $785 at Summit (I looked both up) and I could have that one for $565. I explained to him what I was doing, and that wasn't in my budgetary considerations. He suddenly changed subjects and said, "Text me a picture of your Valiant." I did, and he responded, "I've got a carb for you. I'll call you later." He called after I got home; I just got off the phone with him. He's got no use for it, so he's going to box it up and just send it to me. No charge; I just gotta buy the missing pieces--all inexpensive standard Holley bits.

This ain't some swap-meet junk 4779 Holley I'm getting for free, my friends. What he's sending me is a slightly-cannibalized, but otherwise good condition, Race Demon 850DP. :dance: He didn't have the model number handy, but I doubt it's a bottom-tier carb considering the new one the guy bought to replace it was a Holley 950 Ultra XP, which is a nearly-$900 carb.
 
Well, a rudimentary measurement tells me the cam that came with the engine is probably too large to work with my current valvesprings and rocker arms. I'm not willing to put a bunch of machine work ($$$) into the heads for this project, at least not at this stage of the game. I got the new cam, and even it might be too large, but I can back down to a 1.5:1 rocker if I absolutely have to do so. I'll have a valvespring micrometer tomorrow that will give me a definite installed height, as well as a spring pressure tester to let me know if my current springs are even strong enough.

Since I didn't have the installed height when I ordered the cam, they couldn't give me a recommended spring on the card but if I "were starting fresh" they recommended a 1.950" installed height, ~210lb seated with ~450lb/in spring rate. Once I know what it is with which I'm working, I'll at least have a place to start shopping if necessary. :hmmm:

Cam card for the sissy replacement camshaft:

SissyCam.jpg
 
considering there are 2 valiant builds going..these said valiants need to go heads up when they are done
 
Three, actually. You forget that 71ChargerRT has two of 'em. :D

Probably just going to have to compare timeslips. Considering the distance between the cars and their general nature--at least mine's, which I expect will be a bit of a cantankerous beast--getting them side-by-side isn't all that likely (although I'd love it).
 
I'm going to sell the first one I bought to my brother, and he wants to continue with the 440 direction.

I'm going to move forward with the junkyard rescue, the one Doc gave the moniker Nova. A lot of the stuff I planned for the first Valiant is going to make its way to this one, 8-3/4 with 11" drums, 11-3/4 front disc brakes, front and rear (if it fits) sway bars, leaf spring relocation, but with a 360/727 and eventually fuel injection and a turbo. This one is going to be a healthy street car with the ability travel long distances.
 
That's way too long a road trip just to get two uninteresting Valiants together. Mind you, I've nothing against road trips but one like that involving a trailer? No thanks, unless I'm going to pick up or deliver a car. I'd happily road-trip to a lot of far-flung places, but not with something as obscene as what I'm guessing the Valiant will be. 4.10 gears, a rude camshaft, and an 850DP do not a pleasant cruiser make.

Solid rollers have a ridiculous rate of lift compared to anything else--a 254°/262° @ .050" hydraulic, or even solid flat-tappet cam would be around 304°/312° advertised. Also remember, solid cams have no bleed-down at low RPM/oil pressure like juice cams do, so that duration and lift is "all the time" as opposed to anything hydraulic, whose lifters' bleed-down lowers both lift and duration below 2,000RPM. That cam is way gnarlier than what many of you might think. Kind of mild for a solid roller, yes. Mild cam, not in the terms we normally consider.

I will giggle like a tickled baby if I can get this engine to idle well anywhere below 1,000RPM. The vacuum signal will be both weak and choppy as hell.
 
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