Thread: 1968 Plymouth Valiant 1st Gen HEMI

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As mentioned we got the BB K member in the red car last weekend. I spent most of the week removing the trunk mounted battery wiring and the Terminator wiring harness from the green car to get it ready to sell with the red car.


z RC2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


This weekend was getting the modified K member in the Green car, the big brown truck came by and dropped off a new set of PST “103” torsion bars and 20:1 steering box so basically the front suspension is done.


Z GC by M Patterson, on Flickr


We’re just about ready to push the red car out of the shop and put it up for sale. We put the hood from the Green car on it and went ahead and changed out the deck lids. The deck lids both need to be stripped down to the bare metal before there painted but the green car’s had been drilled for a power cut off switch which I won’t be needing. In the process of changing the deck lids we found out the torsion bars used to hold the lid up had been improperly installed so we took the time to straighten that out (always a lot of fun).

z RC by M Patterson, on Flickr


With the holiday this week I probably won’t make that much progress but a little down time’s not a bad thing.



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Enjoy the holiday week, Mike! Thanks for posting the update.

Making good progress.

I spent the last couple of weeks getting the parts car ready to advertise; sorting/cleaning, deciding what can go with the car and taking pictures.

Finally got it posted to Craigslist yesterday and I’ve got a couple more places to advertise it on today.

If anybody is interested it’s listed at: https://tucson.craigslist.org/cto/d/...766193987.html

Already got the text from someone who claims to be interested in it, but wants me to run a vin report on it from some unknown pay site……yeah….NO.

We got the 3rd member out last weekend and I was pleasantly surprised to find when the builder had set up the rear end he had replaced everything with new; brake drums, aftermarket Axles, “Green” axle bearings. The differential had been set up with new bearings and 4.10 gears…..and that’s where everything went to crap. Unfortunately who ever set up the gears either didn’t have a clue, didn’t care, or who knows. The pattern was way off and they had managed to ruin a new set of gears.
It had howled like a banshee on the test drive so I was expecting what I’d found. I was going to do a gear change to 4.30 anyway so it was no big deal in the scheme of things.

I had ordered the 4.30s when we determined what carrier we had (turned out to be the heaviest duty one of those commonly available). I ended up falling into a great deal on the new 4.30 Richmond gears. When I started looking for them the average price seemed to start around $325 and went up from there. Amazon had a set of Richmond Gears for $120 !!!!! Yeah I know, sounded too good to be true. I really debated on ordering them and would not have been surprised if they came in a plain white box, were factory seconds or counterfeits but I also figured it could also be old or mis-pricing. With Amazons’ return policy I figured what the heck and order a set. When they came in I checked them over with a fine tooth comb and everything seems legit, the box perfectly matched an old Richmond Gear box I had and all the stampings were correct. Honestly I don’t have the patience to set up rear ends and couldn’t stand long enough to do it anyway, so I sent them over to the guy who I trust to set up rear ends and the gears patterned nicely. Anyway out of curiosity I checked Amazon the other day and surprise……they are now listing the gears at $320.

Anyway I got a call yesterday and the third member was done so it’ ready to go back in the 68 next Sunday.

489 430 by M Patterson, on Flickr



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Now that's a proper for sale ad, wish more people understood the principle of thorough description.

The 4.30s made it into the rear end housing a couple weekends ago and the rear end was buttoned back up. So progress I guess.

Z 4.30 by M Patterson, on Flickr

And then there was the ashtray. Both Valiants I bought had the ashtrays removed and gauges stuffed in the hole. Fortunately the dash bracket was still in the parts car and rummaging around in the truck I found the ashtray. Unfortunately the 4 ball bearings and bracket they ride in was missing. I’d already determined I will probably never use the dash ashtray but if it’s not there it leaves a hole that the new center AC vent won’t quite cove and I know it would bug the dickens out of me. So I started looking for a complete astray/brackets assembly. That’s when I found out they are one year only for Valiants and Barracudas, are usually missing the bearings and slider bracket and are pretty pricey (like $200-$,250 pricey) if you can find a complete assembly.

After some thinking I figured that the ashtray will only need to slide into the dash once. That being the case I picked up an assortment of bearings off Amazon and used 4 (9MM) bearings and tack welded them to the ashtray bracket. I ended up welding 2 in the wrong place and had to relocate them (and forgot to take a picture before I installed the bracket).

Z AT2 by M Patterson, on Flickr

At least it holds the ashtray in the correct position and fills the hole.

Z A by M Patterson, on Flickr


Next on the list was to install the new gas tank. Before I’d bought the new 18 gallon tank, I did crawl under the car to make sure it would fit with the coil-overs and ladder bars. It sure looked like it would….. (I suspect you know where this is going). The factory tank is designed to wrap around the spare tire well and when it’s back far enough to do that it interferes with the coil overs. Yup what was supposed to be a 20 minute job just got complicated. We’re currently in the process of redoing the trunk floor.

We also have just stared on the EPAS Electric power steering unit and are in the process of figuring out where and how to get the aftermarket AC/Heat unit installed under the dash. As none of those 3 projects are done yet I’m going to hold off posting about them until the installations are complete.



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Murphy's Law.
It strikes just when you think: 'This is going to a doddle - dead easy this time...'
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Hey Mike,
I just saw an article about a new DIY AC Hose package from Vintage Air, EZ Clips! Looks like a pretty slick way to do the hoses needed w/o breaking the bank!! Saw it on In the Garage media. I can forward it if you PM me your email address, or VA should have it listed.

Thanks for the heads up on the AC lines Roger. I've been looking into it and and the flexibility of those lines is appealing.


So back to the gas tank and trunk. This is the trunk/fuel cell I started with. As this will be a street car/daily driver I wanted to have a functional trunk with enough room for a full size spare tire, tool box, jack, tire changing tools, plus enough room for a suitcase or 2.

Fuel Cell by M Patterson, on Flickr

I had decided to go back to a stock tank so I bought a new 18 gallon tank but as mentioned there were interference issues between it and the rear coil overs. It looked like I had a couple of options short of going back to the fuel cell (which ain’t gonna happen). Some guys have cut the spare tire well completely out, plated over the trunk floor and run a Satellite/Coronet gas tank on their Valiants/Darts. I’ve also seen where others notched the spare tire well and moved the tank forward.

I looked at several tanks for adaptability and if I could have gained another 5 gallons or so of capacity, I’d probably would just have bought another tank and sender. Of the readily available tanks I looked at that would work with the flat trunk floor I’d only gain 1 or 2 gallons so the decision was made to notch the spare tire well and use the tank and sender I already have. Of course relocating the tank led to a few “down stream” issues that also had to be addressed.

The Valiant tank is designed to wrap around the spare tire well, so moving it forward requires part of the spare tire be removed.

Z T 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr

Z STW 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr

Doing this requires a custom fill pipe and cutting and welding (which thankfully I’m still be able to do). Losing the spare tire well is not a problem as it’s too small to hold a 28” tall tire anyway.

I found a rear cargo floor pan from a Jeep that’s big enough to cover the tire well and has reinforcement ridges rolled into it. By retaining part of the spare tire well and putting a hatch in it, I could have a nice storage compartment for a jack and impact wrench. The new floor was trimmed, fitted and welded in place and sealed.

Z C by M Patterson, on Flickr

Z TF by M Patterson, on Flickr

I used spray on urethane bed liner instead of undercoating on the bottom of the new floor pan. For inside of the trunk I used a tintable bed liner without the texture material. The green is not even close to a match (which I expected) but it’s paintable so that will be addressed down the road.


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Now I had to do something with the fill pipe. The factory fill pipe has a piece of metal that runs from below the end of the pipe to almost the top of the pipe. When filling the tank this acts as an internal vent so when the tank is full and fuel runs up the bottom side of the pipe (and hopefully shuts off the pump). The part above the divider vents and allows the gas in the lower half of the pipe to go back down into the tank instead of spitting out on to the side of the car and person filling the tank.

Z PV by M Patterson, on Flickr

When I modified the pipe I lost that feature. Fortunately I’ve been thru this before and knew a fix was to run a ½” fuel line from the top of the tank (slightly above the end of the fill pipe in the gas tank) to the top of the fill pipe (the same system some of the old Jeep Wagoneers’ used).

Putting a fitting for the ½” fuel line in the tank was pretty straight forward as where I located it was a flat area. I used copper washers on either side of the fittings to seal it. Because the fill pipe goes in at an angle the fitting is above the pipe’s end.


Z TV by M Patterson, on Flickr


In order to get the fitting at the top of the fill pipe to seal I needed a flat spot in the pipe. After the hole for the fitting was drilled I used a ¼” thick washer/spacer I had laying around on the inside of the pipe, ran a bolt thru it and used another odds and ends piece with a flat surface I had in the drawer, tightening the bolt gave me the flat spot I needed for the washers to seal.

Z TV2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


If I still had access to a pipe bender I probably would have just bent up a new metal fill pipe but fuel fill hose for a 97-80 Ford F150 gave me the bends I needed to mate the filler neck to the fill pipe (though it had to be extended a bit). With a little tweaking I was also able to also use the original tank vent. It’s not beautiful but then neither was the stock fill pipe and it is functional.


Z FF by M Patterson, on Flickr


I like having a set of tools with me so a tool box was added to the trunk where the battery used to sit. I don’t like a tool box that slides around all over the trunk so I used a pair of Jeep hood hold downs on each end to hold it in place. I like this setup as it allows me to easily move the tool box between my different vehicles.


Z TB by M Patterson, on Flickr


I added a spare tire hold down for the spare that’s the same height as the rear tires. Basically it’s done but I’ll probably be adding a latch for the hatch cover to keep it from rattling, but that’s a project for another day.

Z ST by M Patterson, on Flickr

When all was said and done I have a functional trunk and new gas tank. Overall I’m happy with the way the trunk turned out (I’ll be happier when it’s all painted body color).



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Very clever on the gas fill pipe! Actually, the whole trunk "package" is really nice.

Very nice! I didn't do the vent when I made my filler tube and fueling up takes forever now. When I take my bed off for paint I'm going to do a vent.

"...... fueling up takes forever now....."

Yeah that can be a real PIA. I've had a few like that, the 57-58 Dodges and Plymouths had long fill tube with the divider, but unfortunately the divider was a little too short on a lot of them and pretty ineffective. Back when I was in my El Camino phase the reproduction Specter tanks had the divider welded in in the wrong location which was when started using the hose and fitting trick. Unfortunately I didn't know the tanks had an issue until I installed the first tank I bought and tried to fill it. I hate working with tanks that have had fuel in them. The second El Camino I did I modified the tank prior to putting any fuel in it.

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for a barb fitting when I did the Valiant tank so I ended up using these.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BL2R5GH1?th=1

I ended up just cutting the barb off just past the threads.


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When I was just out of high-school there was a jack of all trades guy just up the street who did a lot of odd jobs and maintenance at the schools. One of the school busses was dripping gas from a small rust hole on the tank, and he said he'd "...weld it up later". It was a Saturday and the school was outside of town a few miles, no neighbors. I came back after lunch and asked if we were going to drop the tank and he said it was already done, and explained that if the tank was full there was no air to support combustion, and "...as long as you don't burn through all you get is a tiny flame on the outside, and it burns out as soon as you seal the leak!! But I wait until there's no one else around before I start...." Quite a guy, a self taught master of most things!

With the trunk taken care of Cade and I started on the Heater/AC install. Heat and AC are mandatory for this build and of course the Valiant had neither. I've got all I think I need to get the passenger compartment portion put together. I already have a new Sanden 508 compressor installed on the HEMI so that part’s taken care of. Its time to get the parts out of boxes and installed.


z ac by M Patterson, on Flickr


It took a bit of looking but I eventually found a set of under dash vents I liked (hardest part was finding ones that were set up for 2” ducting). The Y connectors will be installed in the ducting to the outer dash vents to divert the air to floor air when the heater is used. In order to keep things simple, the Y connectors and in-line water control valve will all be cable operated.

Z Vents by M Patterson, on Flickr


We got the evaporator/heater unit mounted up under the dash Sunday. I’m really pleased with the way it tucks up under the dash.

Z EVAP by M Patterson, on Flickr


And I got the under dash vents installed (I’ll run the ducting later this week). I could probably make the factory controls function with this, but I’m taking the easy way out and will just build a custom control panel and use the switches provided.

Z V by M Patterson, on Flickr



I’m still figuring out which way to go on AC hoses and still have to pick a condenser and receiver dryer but we’ll get to that in time.



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