Father Son project

[King Willy]

To upgrade the brakes, grab any disc Valiant assembly, they all use the same balljoints and specs. CL & CM are ventilated. Grab a Centura diff for a newer 3rd member, other year Vals are too wide. It will also mean that the stud pattern is upgraded to Ford not the weird one it came with and as a bonus all RH threaded wheel studs!! You could even run EF rear discs to keep Jet safe in learner unfriendly traffic.

[rattyrod]

Thanks for the suggestions King Willy ,we have already got boosted disc front end ready to go , haven't thought about changing the rear so will look into it .

[rattyrod]

Much like Chrisso and his EH ,the job of cleaning decades of grease , dirt , oil and general road grime off parts is one of those jobs that most people hate. Luckily with a fair bit of chiselling , scraping , soaking and blasting you get to a point where you can put some shiny coats of paint on . It also gave us a break from all the chiselling , scraping , welding and grinding on the body . The front end has had a disc break conversion with all new bushes , ball joints , tie rods and torsion bars ,just needs grease and bolt retainers turned over , then it should be better than new

[Mudgy]

Looks bloody tops mate !

Nothing like a fully reco'd bit to get the motivation boosted. I was happy to have the ol' stuff just cleaned (not painted yet) to keep the build going on. Nothing worse than handling bits and getting covered in gunk. Even with the parts cleaned up, I still get dirty hands doing stuff - well they could be worse if it wasn't cleaned up I suppose.
Nice work mate.
Cheers, Mudgy

[Chrisso]

Great looking progress Ratty and Jet, I reckon all those years of grease, dirt and crap seem to protect the components (only my opinion mind) and after scrapping it all off and getting it ready for paint and the result is absolutely first class boys Well done look forward to your next instalment.

[Sly Fox]

Great looking progress Ratty and Jet, I reckon all those years of grease, dirt and crap seem to protect the components (only my opinion mind) and after scrapping it all off and getting it ready for paint and the result is absolutely first class boys Well done look forward to your next instalment.

Ditto - Nice work guys, keep the updates coming

[rattyrod]

We ( I ) spent a little bit of time doing a bit more cleaning , this time on the body shell . First up was wire wheeling the floor to get most of the dirt and tar off ,what was left the soda blaster will take care of .Saturday night was a trip to eastlink cruise night but due to some ordinary weather we were home by 7*30 ,when my mate Adam suggested we start a bit of paint stripping on the back quarter panel .Our plans of one panel soon became two and three and by 1*30 am when we packed it in we had three quarters of the car done




My helper hard at it

[Sly Fox]

Nice work guys, that's cleaned up a treat

[Mopar Mick]

Body looks in pretty good condition.

Are you aware that you can get patch panels for the bottom of the rear quarter panels?

Keep up the good work.

Mick.

[Mudgy]

Very nice mate - it's in good nick for its age. After paint stripper is applied, do you need to carve out the bog patches? I would have thought the bog would react, and be un-useable after that.

Cheers, Mudgy

[Chrisso]

Geez boy's that has come up a real treat, looks great in it's birthday suit seems to be in top condition for it's age. You guys are powering along thanks for the pics making great progress.
What brand of paint stripper did you use??

[rattyrod]

Hi Mick ,One of the first things we bought were inner and outer quarter panels and two front floor panels ,hopefully the quarters go in as easy as the floors .
Hi Mudgy ,the top layer of bog does come off with the stripper but it's easier to whip it out with the wire wheel once the paint is off.
Hi Chrisso , we are using Camstrip automotive paint stripper by Cam purchased from The Body Shop in Bayswater , its about $55 for a 4 litre drum , it took about 3 goes to get to bare metal ,slop it on nice and wet ,wrap in glad wrap for half an hour then scrape off . We found a flexible steel ruler works best as you can curve it to the shape of the panel.if you let it dry it is harder to get off , also best to wear gloves and disposable booties so you don't burn yourself our walk it into the house.

[Chrisso]

Hi Chrisso , we are using Camstrip automotive paint stripper by Cam purchased from The Body Shop in Bayswater , its about $55 for a 4 litre drum , it took about 3 goes to get to bare metal ,slop it on nice and wet ,wrap in glad wrap for half an hour then scrape off . We found a flexible steel ruler works best as you can curve it to the shape of the panel.if you let it dry it is harder to get off , also best to wear gloves and disposable booties so you don't burn yourself our walk it into the house

Thanks Ratty that sounds like the same method I have been using except I used Diggers Industrial stripper and it works faster than superman folding his washing and yes I do recommend as you do gloves, glasses and I always have the hose handy.

[rattyrod]

Bucket of water in the garage in case the gloves rip , which is quite common, then hands dried in front of the fresh air fan and on with a new pair .Booties are a must to stop spreading the stuff around and also keeps the lovely stripping smell from your boots ,house ,car etc . I get mine from work at a hospital at the moment

[stillhavinfun]

Coming along very nicely.
I love the early Valiant shape as well.
When you've finished a particular job and it's all shiney and new again, it really lets you see your work is worthwhile and getting somewhere.
Following along with interest.