I’ve been getting the parts car and pieces ready to list for sale and finally got everything together (it’s listed on this site under A Bodies for sale).

Z R34 by M Patterson, on Flickr

We still got a little done on the Green car. When I test drove the car before I bought it, the rear end howled like a banshee. The rear end had 4.10s in it, which I knew I was going to change out for a set of 4.30s anyway so that was no big deal. I had already ordered the gears when I determined it was a 489 housing.

Everything I’ve looked at on the Green car had been very well done with quality parts. Tearing the rear end apart was really no different; new brake drums, aftermarket axles, new Green bearings. When we got the carrier out it also had new bearings and had a new ring and pinion, but who ever set it up either didn’t know how to set it up or didn’t care and had ruined a new set of gears. Fortunately, the case and sure grip were still good. Honestly I don’t have the patience to set up rear ends, and I don’t think I could stand long enough to do it anyway so I sent it out to a guy I trust to do them. It came back yesterday and is ready to go back in next weekend.

489 430 by M Patterson, on Flickr


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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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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.

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).

Looks good! I like the way you handled the tank issue and the toolbox idea is just simply cool.

With the trunk taken care of my Grandson and I started on the Heater/AC install. Heat and AC are mandatory for this build and of course the Valiant had neither. After looking at various options I eventually settled on piecing together a system for the car. I already have a new Sanden 508 compressor installed on the HEMI so that part’s taken care of. I found a behind/under-dash heat/AC unit on E Bay that looked like it would work so I picked that up.


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.

Nice work! That is coming along nicely!!