TheIronSausage
Two brain cells left.. rubbing together for warmth
I have a dual tweeter stereo speaker in the dash hole in my Valiant. It recently let the smoke out of it, so I decided to replace it. While I had the guts of the dash out, I figured that I'd pull the defroster vents and dash cap (V200.. so fancy) because they looked absolutely terrible. 
I dont have a shot of the dash cap, but suffice to say it was just as fugly. I've got defroster vents from a seventies D100 that I need to paint and install (exact same part for the two early A body guys who might find this page).
I sent the dash cap off to an upholsterer. He said he'd maybe have it done in a week. Since my dashboard is completely gutted for about a week, I thought it would be a good idea to Super Six my car finally. I've been collecting the necessary parts for a while, and have two full sets, and other manifolds, carbs, linkages etc that I've picked up over the years.. the down time is perfect to make one set look factory "right" on my '63. I got the manifolds off, and had to drill and tap the very front bolt hole for the exhaust manifold after it broke. While I had it all apart, I decided to try and fix a previously botched repair on the rearmost exhaust manifold bolt. At some point, somebody had broken a bolt off back there. While trying to fix it, they (or me.. too many cars worked on, not enough brain cells left to remember) drilled into the water jacket. The hole had been upsized from 5/16-18 to 3/8-16, but was threaded incorrectly, and always leaked a little bit of coolant into the exhaust. I helicoiled it, and put a fresh 3/8-16 stud in it after slathering both generously in pipe dope. Then I spent about an hour separating an intake/exhaust manifold combo with an oxy/acetylene torch because the intake I wanted to use was in way nicer shape than the one that was rust welded to the super nice exhaust manifold I wanted to use. After getting them apart and painted up, I turned my attention to the gas pedal. Those of you dumb enough to try and modernize early A bodies know that the old rod and bell crank linkage/gas pedal combo that came in them only works with single barrel bullshit. So I pulled the carpet back to get the old pedal out, and found out how bad my floor pans were. Don't get me wrong.. I knew the driver's side was shot and the passenger side was spongy, but I was still surprised at how bad the driver's side was. I did a quick search on EBay, and found a set of floorpans that the seller claims will fit 60-65 A bodies.. I'm sure they actually fit something else entirely, like a Ford Grenada. But I've got grinders, and a welder, so they'll fit eventually.
To recap.. I went to change a speaker, and now my car and garage look like this.
View attachment 19844
The speaker isn't even in the car at all yet, it's sitting on the roof of the Challenger next to it.
I dont have a shot of the dash cap, but suffice to say it was just as fugly. I've got defroster vents from a seventies D100 that I need to paint and install (exact same part for the two early A body guys who might find this page).
I sent the dash cap off to an upholsterer. He said he'd maybe have it done in a week. Since my dashboard is completely gutted for about a week, I thought it would be a good idea to Super Six my car finally. I've been collecting the necessary parts for a while, and have two full sets, and other manifolds, carbs, linkages etc that I've picked up over the years.. the down time is perfect to make one set look factory "right" on my '63. I got the manifolds off, and had to drill and tap the very front bolt hole for the exhaust manifold after it broke. While I had it all apart, I decided to try and fix a previously botched repair on the rearmost exhaust manifold bolt. At some point, somebody had broken a bolt off back there. While trying to fix it, they (or me.. too many cars worked on, not enough brain cells left to remember) drilled into the water jacket. The hole had been upsized from 5/16-18 to 3/8-16, but was threaded incorrectly, and always leaked a little bit of coolant into the exhaust. I helicoiled it, and put a fresh 3/8-16 stud in it after slathering both generously in pipe dope. Then I spent about an hour separating an intake/exhaust manifold combo with an oxy/acetylene torch because the intake I wanted to use was in way nicer shape than the one that was rust welded to the super nice exhaust manifold I wanted to use. After getting them apart and painted up, I turned my attention to the gas pedal. Those of you dumb enough to try and modernize early A bodies know that the old rod and bell crank linkage/gas pedal combo that came in them only works with single barrel bullshit. So I pulled the carpet back to get the old pedal out, and found out how bad my floor pans were. Don't get me wrong.. I knew the driver's side was shot and the passenger side was spongy, but I was still surprised at how bad the driver's side was. I did a quick search on EBay, and found a set of floorpans that the seller claims will fit 60-65 A bodies.. I'm sure they actually fit something else entirely, like a Ford Grenada. But I've got grinders, and a welder, so they'll fit eventually.
To recap.. I went to change a speaker, and now my car and garage look like this.
View attachment 19844The speaker isn't even in the car at all yet, it's sitting on the roof of the Challenger next to it.
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