1970 VF Valiant (An Australian Dodge Dart) By BMV Engineering
 

Hi guys and girls. My name is Craig I am from BMV Engineering a small shop in Queensland Australia. This is a build the has been going for a little while now but have only now decided to put up a build of the car. The car is a VF Valiant coupe witch is pretty similar to your 1970 Dodge Dart. The main difference being the front sheet metal. Australia is pretty strict on modifying cars with all major mods needing an engineers approval eg: Chassis and suspension work and all smaller mods like engines and drive train needing a modification plate. Basically paying people money to allow you to make your old car safer. But at least that way there is not as much bad workman ship.

So this is a VF Crysler Valiant. Not the one we started with but just an example.

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The Valiant was a uni body car but we are running a full chassis but then tying it into the body again so it remains a uni bodied car. The main frame rails are 4"x2" and the rear notch section starts at 4" but reduces to 3" at the end of the notch.

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Basic chassis in place

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Had some issues on the rear quarters that needed to be fixed.

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The front end was designed to be like a bolt on kit you might use on a Nova or Camaro except welded in place

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The un official saying at work is we dont build show cars. Our customers drive their cars. So with the rear end we have 3" of adjustment for the 4 link. We can move the ride height higher and lower and still keep the 4 link at its correct geometry as we made multiple mounting points. The same for the coil overs.

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Rear boot section mocked in place.

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Took her off the jig and pushed her outside for a visual and no the wheels are not staying.

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Onto the inside. The floor is going to be double skinned there is support under the top floor section to keep it flat and the sills will wrap under to the chassis rails.

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Thanks Craig

BMV Engineering
Australia

Amazing fab work,I really like it:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

^^^^Yeah, what he said.

You put the steering rack in backwards! :stirthepot:

Looks nice. Thanx for posting...

Hi.
 

Hi. Love your work guy's. Where in Queensland are you located. You must have a DOT guy with a labrador and a white cane. lol. Cheers Trevor.

clean Fab work ...

Looks pretty good. If you want to share this build with some other Aussies, send me a pm.

More more more pleeze !!

Amazing work.

Craig
Looks fantastic! What did you use for the front suspension and what driveline is planned?

This Valiant is amazing!
If you think you can get this thing street registered with the help of engineers then I may very much consider bringing my PT 68 camaro back to Queensland(from the states) in the coming year or two.

Welcome to the site. Sounds like a great build. Please keep us updated and good luck!

Hi guys thanks for all the positive comments.

lebowski - The front end we used was from an Australian company but we are having some steering rack issues. The geometry is a little out and has to much bump steer for our liking as this car will see alot of road and track use we want it to drive right.

The Val will be running a 440 Hemi with Indy heads and efi should have 600hp. Torqueflite box and a Raceproducts fabricated diff housing with 35 spline floating hubs. Willwoods all round.

The owner likes to use his toys so it has power steering and aircon too.

slimjim - This will be 100% road legal we have worked with our engineer from day 1 and he is happy with everything so far. There is a good chance yours will be able to be on the roads in Australia maybe just contact someone first.

Will update when i can or check out our facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/BMV-Enginee...2447652139295/

Craig

Great stuff Craig. I will have to drop by and have a look when I'm in the area. :goggles:

Very impressive workmanship!!

Ooooh man, you guys dont mess around, Killer Build!!!

Very nice and welcome to the board


Marty-mj
www.garagescene.net www.syborgtwinturbo.com www.2ndcamaro.com

Great work, cool car!

Very nice clean work , I like how you rolled the trunk pan instead of having a hard edge

Started on the center console its just simple with shape to match the rest of the lines on the car. There will be a vintage air controller up front and cnc panels around gear shifter and park brake to break up all the color as most of the interior will see paint not trim.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...psvvs7l33y.jpg

Also made a start on the rear parcel shelf. Again shaped to go with the rest of the car and we recessed the speakers into the panel so it can be covered with a cnc panel. The rear seat will meet flush to the rear tray should give it a nice clean flow.

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Craig

Hey guys bit of progress this week. Inside is pretty much sorted just need to do some more work under the dash mounting things. Console was continued through to the rear seats.

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Today i made a start on fitting up the front sheet metal so we can start all the front end fab now doing the radiator support and inner fenders.

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Thanks Craig

Looking awesome!!

Looks good, Craig. Those two slots on each side above the headlights, are those turn signals or other lights or purely decorative?

Just BADAZZ!!!! Love the DARTS!!

Amazing work.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Thanks guys, The slots in the guards are the original location for the front turn signals these will be getting shaved off and turn signals will be put into the front grill.

Craig

Craig,
The car is looking great! I really like the firewall and what you've done to the rear package area, the front bumper looks perfect....outstanding work!

Thanks for posting the build process.
:thumbsup:

What are the access panels in the floor for?

DBasher - We have tried to make everything flow and keep similar lines through out the car. Plus the fab is kept simple and functional. The Valiants actually come stock with a big chrome bumper on the front but we are removing it and just keeping the lower front valance we feel it looks alot cleaner and modernizes the car alot more. However the to larger rectangular cut outs will be made smaller and they will be used to run front brake ducts. The panels on the floor are for hiding things. The floor is double skinned so the sills will wrap about a foot under the car and the top of the floor inside is flat there is about a 4" gap between. The drivers side will have brake and fuel components and on the other side will be electrical. All line and wiring will be hidden throughout the whole car.

Craig

Started all the rad support on the Val we shaved the cut outs on the lower valance and cut smaller holes into them for the front brake ducts. The wont be 100% efficient. While they do flow quite a lot of air these were mainly put there for looks and to fill up some room in the engine bay.

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The ends of the rear bar have been cut off and new ones reshaped to the body and gapped up nice and tight. We got some new dodge dart lights they have the reverse light in the housing unlike the stock ones that were in the rear bar witch are now gone.

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The under side of the rear of the car has started to be sheeted out this is where the mufflers will be housed.

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Cheers Craig

Engine bay started to get some loving today.

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Thanks Craig

Killer work guys

Incredible!!!


Marty-MJ

Wow, I love what your doing. You guys have some mad fab skills! The bead roll work looks amazing.
Subscribed!

Bread truck
 

Please post up a build tread on the bread truck. What engine is in the truck? Keith

Kcrain - The bread van is about a month off being done we had a pretty major hold up on the diff and gearbox. The Chassis is a shortened C30 item with a 4link rear. It has Air bags all round. The engine is a 426 Hemi blown it has just under a 1000hp on pump gas and has 960ftp of torque. Dual 4" exhaust too. The wheels are custom made Alcos 22". Also set up power steer and aircon. The owner is keeping the patina look. It will be a family cruiser and tow car for his drag car. Might only do that a couple times as the fuel bill will be quite large.

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So 2 weeks ago the owner of the Valiant told us he wanted to take it to the states largest car show as a almost complete project car so with many long days we got it there so here are some updates.

We ran tubes in the chassis rails under the floor for the fuel and wiring for the pump. These will exit out behind the rear bar and be hidden all the way the the motor.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...psjouvbawr.jpg
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Exhaust has been run. Dual 3.5" over the diff. Sill has also been reshaped and now wrap under to the rails.

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Oh just heck yeah!!


The bread truck is quite the undertaking! Wow.... just the volume of everything alone.

Just brilliant craftsmanship btw!

Some awesome metal work, love the van...

A little mod to the engine bay to let some heat out.

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...psqysiumlc.jpg

The Indy headed mopar stuffed in there. We kept the guards basically stock because the owner wants to do some track work if he hurts the front its easily replaced.

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New grill and air ducts fitted up. We removed the stainless trim off the front of the guards and added a extended lip off them.

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And this is how is sits now had a magazine do a shoot before it left. Ihope you guys enjoy.

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Cheers Craig