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 usually pretty 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 projects are done yet I’m going to hold off posting about them until the installations are complete.
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