Thread: 1968 Plymouth Valiant 1st Gen HEMI

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it's nice to have space, I just keep moving stuff to only move it again and again and again!

Originally Posted by Navy7797

it's nice to have space, I just keep moving stuff to only move it again and again and again!

Yep. And I seem to move 1 thing and it displaces something else with 1/2 of that landing on the workbench and then I forgot where I was going with this other thing and I'll see something else that can go over there with a like piece of something and then... what was I doing now???

Well not too much of an update on the car this time. and pretty much got the reinforcement brace to the transmission tunnel pretty close to the shape it needs to be. The brace is just a piece of 1/8” X 2” flat stock and with some heat and a hammer I was able to get the shape and twist I needed to make it fit. I was hoping to have a picture of it welded into the car and painted but that will take a while.

We also pulled the lower control arms off and replaced the urethane lower bushings,

tunnel brace by M Patterson, on Flickr



The weather turned nice a couple of weeks ago and I figured it was an opportunity to make up some progress on the car. You guessed it, I did too much and caused an issue with my poor old body……fortunately as it turned out it was “minor” but confined me to the house/recliner for about the last week and a half. So instead of following the advice I’ve given others in the past (“ don’t push yourself to hard and give yourself time to heal”), I gave myself a self-inflected wound.

This is pretty much the first time I’ve been in the shop for a week and a half and for the few days I’ll probably restrict myself to the computer and maybe some small bench tasks. So yeah trying to do too much ended up costing me at least a couple of weeks instead.

Zull’s missed coming out to the shop too, she’s pretty much stayed on the porch or inside the house with me since this has happened. I’m not sure whether it’s the shop, me or the treats she knows she’ll be able to con me out of in the shop (my votes’ on the treats LOL).

22525 by M Patterson, on Flickr

One of the projects I’ve been looking at is getting some simple shelves I can stack the small parts boxes on so I don’t have to unstack them every time a need a small part.

PB by M Patterson, on Flickr

If anybody has an idea on who sells shelves that would work or are super simple to build I am definitely interested in any input.

Oh well…..still kicking in Arizona LOL



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Originally Posted by Mike P

One of the projects I’ve been looking at is getting some simple shelves I can stack the small parts boxes on so I don’t have to unstack them every time a need a small part. If anybody has an idea on who sells shelves that would work or are super simple to build I am definitely interested in any input.

Oh well…..still kicking in Arizona LOL

Mike,
In my shop I've got 5 or 6 of the cheapie stamped steel shelf units that the big box stores like Lowe's or Home Depot sell, the 5 shelf units that one assembles with a bunch of #10 bolts, washers & nuts. They're flimsy, but once all of the fasteners are tight they're stable and work OK. Mine are stamped metal, but this one is the same size, 1.5Dx3Wx6'H with wood shelves, 400#/shelf and $35 - https://www.lowes.com/pd/Winado-Stee...elf/5015235479

Another alternative for that type of shelving might be found at a thrift store, Goodwill, etc. Years ago a standard feature on desk tops was a three to five shelf file folder "holder"/bin/rack, whatever it was called.

Originally Posted by rspears

Mike,
In my shop I've got 5 or 6 of the cheapie stamped steel shelf units that the big box stores like Lowe's or Home Depot sell....

And today, because I posted the link to cheap shelf units my Facebook Feed is showing me every shelf unit that is made in China or offered by Amazon/TEMU/ETSY/etc/etc, ready for immediate delivery!!

Thanks Roger, if I was just setting up,my shop those would be great.Is it was when I built the shop wood was cheap (remember those days) and I had a lot on hand so I built in shelving units, what I'm hunting for is something to organize the crap I have on the shelves.

Thanks Bob, I hadn't even thought about those and there are some listed look like just what I'm after.


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When I read your post that last picture wasn't showing, it ended with the pic of your dog. Sorry, I totally misunderstood what you needed.

No problem Roger, I appreciate the info anyway. As I mentioned if I was starting from scratch they would have been about what I would want (especially with the current price of wood. LOL).


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I want to thank Uncle Bob, his suggestion for storage of the parts boxes, it got me looking in the right place.

storage by M Patterson, on Flickr

The shelves slide out which makes it nice and lets me put at least 1 or 2 boxes behind the ones in front. Yeah the top is turning into a catchall as was expected.

I had a bit of a health scare, but seem to have recovered so slowly but surely were getting back on the Valiant. Not much to update on that front right now but hopefully we’ll get some of the small stuff finished up soon (that whole waiting on parts things).


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Great to see your new post, Mike, and great to see CHR up and running again after several days of the Hmmm, can't reach this page.... Also good that you found an easy solution to your storage/access need, thanks to Uncle Bob! Almost surprised that Uncle Bob didn't have something for you in his "inventory"!! From his Marketplace posts his shop looks almost like new Salado branch of Speedway!!

You're welcome Mike, glad it worked out for you.

Roger, it's taken a few years but my inventory of excess parts has shrunk a fair bit from 1 1/2 garage stalls to about an eight by eight space. Down to mostly the less desirable stuff for the typical swap booth.

Between the weather and a health scare, it’s been a while since I had much time to work on the Valiant.

Now that were back at it, we decided to get the fuel system sorted out. As I found out when sorting out the first car I built when I moved to Arizona in the mid-80s, vapor-lock can be a real issue on a carbureted daily driver where I live.

Besides the heat being the major cause for vapor-lock additional aggravating factors include altitude (I’m at 4500ft and often travel to higher elevations), and oxygenated (ethanol) fuel (E10 is the most common and available premium fuel in this area). Basically where I live I hit the trifecta for vapor lock.

After going thru a lot of the typical “fixes” for vapor-lock on that first Arizona build, I found the only real fix on a low pressure fuel system was to run a return line. This keeps the fuel moving thru the system and prevents the heat buildup that will cause the fuel to boil in the fuel line. With that in mind I started collecting the parts for the fuel system.

When I bought the new gas tank, I also orders a new sending unit to go along with it. There are currently be 2 sending units readily available for these cars. One for a 5/16” fuel line and the other for a 3/8 fuel line. I chose the 3/8” one in part because it has a nipple for fuel return line.


Sending unit by M Patterson, on Flickr


Next up was collecting the rest of the parts for the rest of the fuel system, and building what I needed to meter the fuel being returned to the tank. Before anybody comments about my fuel pump choice, I’ll be covering that in my next post.


Fuel system by M Patterson, on Flickr


When I finally installed the fuel return system on that car 35 years ago, I was using a fuel pressure regulator to control the amount of fuel bypassed back to the tank. Back then I had a heck of a time getting one that would work properly or last very long. I finally solved that problem by replacing the regulator with a fitting containing a fixed orifice.


Bypass by M Patterson, on Flickr



Somewhere along the line I figured out that a 1/4” NPT fitting/pipe is the correct ID to run an 1/8” NPT tap through. Then I use an 1/8 recessed pipe plug with a hole drilled in the center as the metering device. The hole size doesn’t appear to be very critical, I’ve used as large as an 1/8” hole and as small as 1/16” …..for this one I’m starting out with a 5/64th” hole .


Some may also note that the fitting on the return line I’m using a compression fitting rather than a flair fitting. Believe me normally I do not use compression fitting on anything automotive. In this case it was what I could find that would work……from a safety stand point it should do fine. Under normal conditions pressure in the return line will probably be under 1 PSI, in the worst case, (like the return line becoming blocked) the fuel pump I’m using has a max pressure of 6 PSI.


Personally I liked the cleaner look of the fuel line I originally built for the engine on the test stand.


Fuel Line 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


The return system I built is definitely a case of function over form. I want the return to start as close to the carburetor as possible or in the case of multiple carbs at the furthest carb in the system.


Return line by M Patterson, on Flickr


Basically it is what it is. Given the choice of how it looks and nursing a vapor-locking car home, I can live with it .



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Clever use of a pipe plug in a fitting.!.! I like that idea and will probably use it somewhere in the future. 8-)
Back in the early 70's I used probably hundreds of compression fittings and never experienced any failure(s). And we would install them in all sorts of applications. Brakes, trans coolers, fuel... it didn't matter. Then by the end of the 70's I guess it became a huge taboo... no one ever said why or what caused this but it just seemed to spread like a rumor. Don't use compression fittings! I still use them on my own stuff when needed, but never on a brake line... I guess age brought wisdom? LOL Nice write up as always.

".....we would install them in all sorts of applications. Brakes, trans coolers, fuel... it didn't matter. Then by the end of the 70's I guess it became a huge taboo....."

Yeah I know Mike. Back when I started in the late 60s not every mechanic had a double flair kit in their tool box and compression fitting were pretty common. As I recall at the time the double flair kits were pretty pricey (relatively speaking).

The selling point on the double flair fittings is the pressure rating which is quite a bit higher than the compression fittings which can be critical on brakes and PS pressure lines. A lot of things like trans cooler and fuel lines compression fittings would probable be more than sufficient. Of course you'd still probably get a ration of crap from some who can identify the difference between a compression and flair fitting in the first place.....you know there's one in every crowd.


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