Quote: Team Valiant, You guys are incredible in all your efforts. The latest issue of Mopar Collectors Guide has an article by "expert" Frank Badalson. He seems to minimize the efforts on your Valiant because it's a slant six car. Additionally it says the valve cover gaskets are wrong, with his own compelling argument. He seems to just slam your work in a round-about way. Doesn't seem to be too positive. Since he owns a restoration shop, what is his motivation?
Interesting article
On one hand it advises " ..I've said this many times before - do your own research!. Don't rely on anyone to provide it to you." yet we are provided with many absolutes on what can and can not happen. It's interesting that a couple of the recent posts seem to shed different light on these absolutes concerning rubber valve cover gaskets. On the Valiant we have the car indicating it has a rubber undisturbed valve cover gasket, people who worked on the cars when new saying a rubber valve cover gaskets is correct, plus other documented cars with rubber painted gaskets - proof enough?
You be the judge and do your own research!
That's exactly what we did on Project Valiant. I was involved with the project from the beginning and took most of the documentary pictures and compiled a lot of the research information. I just looked at the picture folder for the project and it stands at 7,088 pictures and files. Some might say that's a bit extreme but it proved invaluable when documenting the car, reassembling the car and applying markings plus was a constant source of information.
Taking the time to document the car, allowed us to place the original bolts and fastners back in the original locations and clock them to the original position since we had done this level of documentation. This was carried through out the entire project on all components. Many of the pictures were actually posted during the project so everyone could follow along. The Valiant was a very visible project. You'd have to work hard not to know the project was out there, it ended up being a huge thread here.
When we get to the statement that " To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever spent time researching this about a Slant Six( rubber valve cover gasket)or a 318 car. Why would we? " Why wouldn't we - we're just doing our own research so we can end up with a product that represents what the car was like in looks, performance and even smell when it arrived at the dealership in 1970! This was uncharted territory since a slant 6 had never been to the levels we wanted to take it to. Besides the Hemi Cuda from 2005 and the 440 Challenger R/T from 2008 show winners are still in the garage and you want to improve your efforts.
We're also led to believe that when the slant 6 had it's valves adjusted it " probably " left with a rubber valve cover gasket. Possibly true, but what it didn't leave with was engine colored paint on it. It certainly wasn't on the gasket out of the box. The technicians are paid a flat rate as determined by Detroit based on a time study on the length of it takes to do the job. I spend 30 years with Chrysler reviewing, approving and adjusting warranty claims and I don't remember a technician ever saying that the warranty job paid too much. In fact if a technician would have asked for extra time to paint the gasket to match the engine on a warranty repair it would have been a short conversation. I'm sure we've got some techs who could weigh in on that one !
I don't think you'll see me on the soap box too often but this is one of those times. The bread and butter cars are what made the money for Chrysler ( and other manufacturers)and allowed them to have the image cars. How many times do we talk about how few or how rare a muscle car is. How often do you hear my car is 1 of ??? built. Manufacturers need high volume car lines to pay the bills. People would like to have an SRT 392 Challenger - fact is the V-6 Challenger is the volume car. Don't get me wrong, image cars are the driving passion but at the end of the day the you need the grocery getters to make it all happen. Don't sell their significance short. The K car and it's derivatives saved Chrysler in 1981.
I guess like the title of the article it's time for me to " Put a Cork in it".
