SURVIVOR vs. GROUND-UP RESTORATION!

[Paul Jacobs]

DAVE!
Thanks for the congrats. It was a cool year with all three Daytonas going for the gold.

I love this thread! To those of you that have not seen the Valiant in person, your missing out on viewing the most accurate, and thourough Mopar restoration I have seen in my 25 years of study. I have never seen ANY restoration that has, or probably ever will, come close to the work done on this car.

Dave, do you plan on showing the Valiant at any other venues in the future? It would be a crime to keep it locked in your garage from now on!

[Paul Jacobs]

Dave,
Thanks for your support. I certainly will do my best but I cannot do it alone. My goal is to reach out to many knowledgeable folks in this hobby to make it as accurate, unbiased, respected (and even fun) as it can be. I have big shoes to fill as Keith and his team have done a great job and has been a mentor to me for many years-nearly 20 in fact.  I intend to make changes that reflect my personality, learning & experiences as a amatuer competitor as well as a shop owner (now retired thank goodness).
I don't want to side track this thread so I'll leave it at that for now but I will soon expand my thoughts on a different thread.

[EB3-GranCoupe]

...2500 mile "Wing Car"...I guess it was technically correct but not by the definition that most Mopar Brethren think of.

Back in the day, I had wanted to join the local Pontiac Tran-Am club with a T/A Challenger.  I just needed the T/A to do it with!

[resq302]

Dave,

Is that how they painted the engine compartment?  Ive always wondered how they were able to get in there and do it if they had painted it from the outside.  I know I've typically seen a lot of paint runs on the corner area where the fenders meet the cowl in the engine compartment so I guess Ive always assumed it was painted from the outside.

Again, fantastic work and attention to detail!

[resq302]

Awww geez Dave, now I have to go back and re-correct all my notes that I crossed out thinking it was the correct way to apply the undercoating with Q tips just like the factory did.       

I figured you would know how they painted the car but I was not 100% certain how they painted the engine compartment.  I heard and figured that they painted it from the outside but thought that might have been incorrect as it might have been easier to reach the center of the firewall being inside the engine compartment.  Ya know, easiest, most cost productive way of doing thing approach.  Granted, the factory painter might not have been up in the compartment as much as your friend but was just thinking about the process.

Hope you and the family are all doing well.

[resq302]

Glad you had a good laugh my friend.  Pleasure chatting with you on the phone again today!  I must know...... were those Q-tips date coded for 1970 also? 

So where are the rest of the pics?   

[resq302]

absolutely amazing Dave!  Its amazing how the smallest of details can take the longest time to get to a finished project, however, without all those details, the car would not be anywhere close to as amazing as it turned out!

[GranCuda1970]

That paint is spectacular you can look into it forever. 

[GranCuda1970]

I'm good with after pics of the challY!!! I want to see em.     

[spamtank]

 

I'm good with after pics of the challY!!! I want to see em.     

Bring 'em on!  : 

[resq302]

Quick question for those who are following the thread.  I have been asked by a few people over the past couple of weeks about the "Ground-Up Restoration" part of this thread.  So far we have concentrated and centered most of the attention on the Valiant.  How about a few detail pictures of the Challenger restoration?  The car was a disassembled 26,000 mile Basket Case so there are not as many "Before" pictures.  We do have MANY photos that illustrate the "After" results .  Quite honestly, the Challenger is every bit as nice & correct as the Valiant.  All of the minor "flaws" have been corrected since it was shown at the 2008 Nationals. It would actually give the Valiant a Head to Head battle in an OE competition! 

Now THAT would be an idea!  Can you compete against another one of your own cars and enter more than one car in OE judging?  Oh wait.... never mind.  I forgot it is a competition against the manufacturing standards and not against other people.

[spamtank]

Believe it or not, once we started into the projects, the Valiant was the more difficult to work with.  Twice as hard!  Also shown is the underside of both cars after they were completed. 

I'm sure you'll get to it, but I'm curious what made the Valiant twice as hard.  Perhaps there were fewer NOS parts to pick from?

But my real question is how did you get those awesome photos of the undersides?     I would imagine that any lens wide enough to get that much of the car would have distorted the image.   

[ChallengerHK]

But my real question is how did you get those awesome photos of the undersides?     I would imagine that any lens wide enough to get that much of the car would have distorted the image.

One possibility is a camera with a fixed lens instead of an SLR. I have a Sony DSC-H2 with a 12:1 zoom that takes some amazing pics; it's really what got me into digital in the first place. One of the nice things about the camera is that, since it has a fixed lens, there is onboard software that corrects for lens distortions.

[GranCuda1970]

Thoses pics are fantastic. 

[GranCuda1970]

That is Darn fine work!!    I saved your pics for reference.