Ok, finally figured out with the help of the excellent instructions how to get piccies of my 'baby' up!! The work seen here took me two weekends, getting the floors plated, plating holes in the body & fenders and welding in new rockers. She's off to the garage tonight to get the old gas drained & the fuel lines purged.

Okey dokey, just got back from my mechanic, they drained & flushed the fuel system and got her running, a little rough but a carb kit should sort that out.

Brakes are fine & the body etc is all in fine shape. I suspected the brakes were ok as they held when I was unloading it off the flat bed at some unreal angle (ABC towing, Regina...good service there, showed up on the dot both times I used them to move the Valiant)

The bad news, looks as thought the motor had been sat a while, (I know, I should have known better. I acted a little like a starry eyed teenager when I bought her....lol!!!!) two pushrods got bent trying to start her & a further two bent a little later. They freed up all the valves (luckily none of those got bent) but I'm getting them to pull all of the pushrods and replace them (they did say the rest would in all likelyhood be ok, but what the heck, false economy to my mind). Running a little rough but no nasty noises and from what I've read on other sites if slant six's haven't been run for a while they can clatter a little but this smoothes out with time.

Not sure yet what the final bill will be but I've dealt with these guys (Al-mar Auto repair) for a long time and they are good guy. One of the few garages who only do what they say they are going to do, check back with prices if further work is found, if they can fix using recon parts they will and no BS.

Further news as it breaks.......

Picked up the car from my mechanic this afternoon, leaving my wallet $680cdn lighter. She started right up and it sounded a lot like an old ford zephyr 6 my father had back in Wales in the early 70's. Pleasently suprised by the ride, some odd creaks & rattles but not bad, the suspension coping with Saskatchewan potholes quite well. I complied with my mechanics advice & let her toodle along without revving the whatsits off her.

Things that make you go 'Hmmmm??"

1. Driving along, the steering is, shall we say, a little on the 'loose' side!! Gonna check out the tech forums & see what can be done to tighten it up.

2. No nasty noises from the tranny but there is a distinct 'clunk' when it shifts from 1st to second, oddly enough, 2nd to 3rd is smooth as silk.... go figure. Suspect a tranny service is in my future.

3. Holy snot the brakes are not as good I thought when you want to stop when moving, pulling a little to the left and needing a good heavy foot. Again the mystic gypsy forsees an upgrade to at least a brake booster in the future.

4. After nearly three years as an immigrant in Canada I can now count myself a true Canadian as I used a roll of the 'handymans friend' (duck tape) to fix up the rips in the front seats. I did resist the urge to buy a roll of 'Camo' duck tape though....lol.

Oh, by the way, a reman carb was used, not just a kit if you think the amount I paid looked a little high, second thing, picked up my stepdaughter from work & she saw the car and thought it was 'cool'.....

Well, been running back & fore to work for nearly a week.

The trans has smoothed out somewhat (still a little 'lumpy' between 1st & 2nd), but the car doesn't shudder so much when putting it into reverse or then switching to drive.

The engine (touch wood!!) sounds smooth, no clatter from the top end & no nasty noises either. Oil level has not dropped & looks pretty clean & no smell of gas. No unusual smoke from the exhaust.

Brakes have eased up, still a lot less stopping power than a modern car but it has ceased pulling to the left, probably (like the rest of the car) just needed some road time to bed back in.

The washer pump is toast, put washer fluid in and it's leaking from the pump and it doesn't push the fluid through. Gonna put an electric one in and a toggle/push switch on the dash. I have no problem with this as I'm not going for concours, just a daily runner.

Got used to the steering now, don't think it's as bad as I thought, used to rack & pinion & the recirculating ball steering feels a heck of a lot lighter. I might consider a Firm Feel steering box in the future.

Been playing with cans of spray & I think the colour is going to be GM Lime Green (the wife likes it, & that's the important thing!!!)

No rear defrost, not sure what the setup was but just got the vent hole & no hardare, off to Princess auto to see if I can find a heater/blower unit to install.

More news as it happens.......

Sounds like you are on a roll. Before I put my valiant up on jackstands I had to move it to the front yard and it would clank and clunk but I believe its the U shaft. It also sounded kinda like a lawnmower engine the little bit I had it running, which later I noticed the exhaust was loose from the manifold. Keep up the work, its nice to hear and see the progress you're making. -Dan

I think I've been pretty lucky so far!!! Bought the washer pump but then found a thread on this site which indicates the wiper switch may already have the posts for a push switch for the washers. Checked mine and it does depress/spring back so I may be in luck again! Need to check the back of the wiper switch, check for spare posts and run a test light on them. This will be done friday (working for the province has it's advantages, every other friday off) along with the stereo install ($100 Walmart special), a clean up and some more body work.

Apart from the transmission, brakes & tires, replacing seatbelts, I believe I'm past all the major expense. Running costs should be minimal, I have a 5.5 mile round trip to work through city streets (30 MPH max!!) and plates & basic insurance through SGI costs me $34 Cdn per month. Figure around 99 miles per month = approx 22 litres of fuel at 16mpg (may be more but the fuel guage is out so I worked on the mean worst mpg), so around $22 for gas, $60 parking, total of $116 per month. bus is $58 so costing me about $60 more than the bus & I don't have to freeze my arse off waiting at the bus stop.

Your project looks and sounds like it's coming along well. I was going to post the other night that your wiper switch should have the extra terminal for the washer, but you seem to have found that info. All you need to do now is add a wire to make it functional. 16 MPG is not very optimistic.....I used to get 17 daily driving in Chicago traffic and I had a Super Six set up, not a 1 bbl and also had 3.23 gears. You should have no problem getting 19 - 22 MPG.

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There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, and Slant Six Dusters !!!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/slantasaurus/

take a look around

Well, I had to put in a toggle switch, there was only one free post on the back of the switch and that was a live feed. Spent last sunday putting on a new antenna, cleaning all the glass, polishing chrome and spraying the wheels, starting to look a lot better. I will post some more pics this weekend, it's dark when I leave for work and twilight by the time I get home so I need to wait till then to get some better light.

Promised some updated pics so here goes,


Front view, showing the shined up bumper


Front 3/4


Rear 3/4 showing the proposed colour



Duct tape repair & rear interior


New sounds!!!

New tires are on the agenda this weekend, the Hercules tires shined up well but we had our first bit of snow in Sask on wednesday and the grip from them is limited. A set of motomaster A/W's is on the cards ($55 at canadian tire)

Got the new tires done on sunday, bit more than I was expecting as I missed the sale & ended up paying $68 per corner plus balancing, tax & environmental fee. Total came out to $420 CDN. Cleaned up the interior a little more, using 'spot shot' to clean up the headliner and interior wipes to get some of the grime of the upholstery. I also rewired the rear speakers (didn't have wiring that was quiet long enough) so now the wires run correctly & not up the centre of the car. Winter is starting to kick in, about minus 11C this morning & snow but the slant fired up first time & she handled well on the new tires.

To cure the rear defrost problem I have ordered a standalone heater unit from www.sportsimportsltd.com. $46 US. Going to hard wire it in to the existing 'rear air' toggle switch for the 'on/off' and mount it on the rear parcel shelf, since it's got a 360 degree swivel, I can point it into the car if I ever carry any rear passengers (the cars heater is GREAT in the front).

Finally, my Welsh flag number plates arrived from Georgia, got one for my Valiant & one for our Intrigue, looks good with the Welsh dragon on the front!!!!

Good on ya for rocking an A body through Sakatchewan winter. We have snow forecast for tonight....

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Well, it's only a short trip across Regina (eastend to downtown), I'll probably wuss out when it drops to minus 30C.....lol. So far it's started on the button every time, but we'll see what happens in January....

Well the big freeze has set in in good old Saskatchewan, at night it has been getting down to minus 26C and below with wind chill and the Valiant has started with very little effort every morning so far. It got down to nearly minus 30C last night and she took about 15 mins to warm up so I could get it into gear without stalling out. At the moment I have not got the Valiant plugged in at night but that will change, my stepson has our second official parking spot with a power outlet and unfortunately he's now going to have to make other plans, I head off to work at 7am, he heads off at between 9.30 to 11am so he has the time to warm his car up!!!!

I tried plugging in the heater I bought last saturday and promptly blew the cigarette lighter fuse, no biggie I thought, Ha Ha!!! Should have checked the other electrics, the headlights, heater, wipers all worked but the blown fuse took out the rear lights, indicators & brake lights!!! Drove like that till yesterday when a little voice told me to check the lights, took the fuse from the CD player and that kept me going. Funnily enough, no honking or single digit salutes from other drivers, must have taken pity on me....lol!!!

I need to get some weight over the back end, the grip is ok on the tires but there isn't enough weight in the back and I'm spinning the tires when taking off on icey junctions. Brakes & steering are ok except where it's black ice and /or ruts in the snow then it gets a bit interesting.

The short length of the drive means that the Valiant interior doesn't really get all that warm so to stop the windows misting up I'm driving with the drivers window half way down, bet the other drivers are thinking, 'Now there's a real Canadian!" lol......

No restoration work lately (too damn cold!!!) but I have driven the Valiant to and from work all winter so far. Only issues I have had are the tires, they are narrow and there is insufficient weight in the back leading to some 'interesting' slides, the car is not plugged in at night and therefore I'm burning as much gas warming it up as I am driving... LOL!!! So far it has taken everything a Saskatchewan winter can throw at it, even made it to work when a colleagues car died cos his anti theft system threw a wobbly due to the chip freezing.... heeheeheeheehee!