It's been awful long time since last post. But folks, I have a good explanation. I've been busy. Ha ha, yes, I've been. Lots of time consuming things going on and not the least time consuming one is my daily driver. My loved work horse the '67 valiant started to make some weird knocking noise while under load and the noise gets louder around engines peak torque RPM. My educated ques was connecting rod bearing. I could have bet for connecting rod bearing, but ques what? Was it the cr bearing? Was it?  Noup. It was not.  I didn't have time nor will to defuse the leaning tower of power, so I just drop in new cr bearing while it was open and hope for best. It is probably  wrist pin, but you never know. I must build me another engine and when it's done, I just drop it in some weekend. I need this car  everyday...

No matter how busy I am, there is always some time for Alea iacta est. I've been fabricating right side inner fender and I got as it done just today! It actually feels pretty awesome as it wast the last and final piece of sheet metal needed for Signet once so poor rusted body. Not all the welding and cutting and grinding is done, but only front upper control arm mounting ears are missing and I would not consider them as sheet metal parts.  So, we're almost there. I can almost touch the victory line!! But I'm not gonna celebrate before I really am beyond the sweet black and white.

Not related to Alea iacta est really, but I wanted to share this with you guys. As told before, I need to build a new engine for my daily driver Valiant. Actually, I already started to working at it. As a natural choice, it is a slant six, the omnipotent leaning tower of power. 225 cid forged crank unit. I ordered some parts from summit racing and now I'm just waiting for my parts to arrive. There will be some forged Wiseco pistons, H-beam connecting rods, high performance camshaft along with suitable valve train components and more. I've been thinking whether to use the existing intake manifold and turbo hedders compo or building a new one. The time will tell, but in the meantime I decided to do some head work. I reshaped the combustion chambers a little bit and added some polishing on it. 

The head will also have over size 1.70"/1,44" stainless steel valves installed with hard valve seats on exhaust side. When reshaping the chambers it is good idea to measure and re-size them to be exactly the same shape and size. The combustion chamber on this head are 62cc (original is 54cc) and there is less than 0,5cc difference between smallest and largest.  Syringe and a piece of clear plastic are handy tools to measure the cc's. I use some heavy grease to seal up the plastic cover plate to head and valves to their seats while measuring. 

We went out to a party saturday night... Actually, we went out to a party Friday AND Saturday night.  Awesome time once again at Ellivuori Real Gone rock'n roll weekender. As you may figured out all ready, not much happened in the garage this weekend. 

But something have happened since my last post about a week ago... You probably remember my latest "project" that I bought some time ago, the '67 Plymounth Valiant that I bought for 500 euros for parts. The reason why I bought this poor car is that there still was some parts I needed for Signet aaand, it had so many usable spare parts for my daily driver Valiant as well. Now, it is done. Wrecking the '67. Teemu said something like if I don't wreck it asap, I will never do it and there will be Alea Iacta Est part 2. within few years. Noup, there will be not. At least not with this parts car. It is done by now.

 But don't take my words for it, just look at the pictures... :D

Ok guys. English is definitely  not my first language. I should have done my lessons back in school, but, unfortunately, I didn't. Actually, I barely passed the English studies in primary school... Anyways, many of you have asked for more English content  and what else can I do but try my best? :) Yeah, I will try. There might be some typographical and grammar errors, but, as been told, not my first language, so please forgive me :D

What's going on in the garage? Right now up is the last and final section of Signet's body work. The front of the car. Inner fenders are almost done and less than a quarter of Square meter of sheet metal is needed to finish the job. About four hour of work. Maybe.About. But inner fenders are not all there is. Upper control arm mounting ears need to be done for both sides. And that is not asking much of material, but hours and hours of work. It is quite critical area and extra precaution should be placed on this as the mounting ears will hold front suspension in place... It is also important to check and double check that they are located in correct place or I might not be able to get the front wheel alignment right :)


Anyways, before I start working with the control arm mounting ears I must finish the inner fenders. Here's some pictures of drivers side which is ready now . Shotgun side is also almost done, and I'll post the pics when it's finished...

Not so long time ago my buddy told me about '67 Valiant Signet that was for sale for parts car.  I already had too much of everything laying in my yard and elsewhere. Everywhere. So, another junk car was definitely something I was not in need of. Less than a week back me and my buddy went to us-parts for some spare parts and on our way back home he told we were pretty close to place where the junk '67 was. It might be good idea to check it out while we already were pretty close to... Yeah, we can check it out, but I'm not gonna buy it, I only need some parts for my Signet project, that's all, not the whole car, definitely not.

So we went there. the '67 was crashed, hit by VW Touareg in the back. Back of the car was completely busted, actually, it was missing, everything back from rear window was missing. But it had lots of, lots of usable parts and more importantly, everything that I needed to finish the Signet. The owner told me it had freshly rebuild engine in it and 904 automatic was working nice before the car was busted.  I asked for some parts and prices, but he didn't say anything, just looked like he was wondering and wondering something. After about fifteen minutes he replied "would't you just by the whole good damn thing. I don't need it, I don't need any parts neither. It would be much easier for me if you just buy the whole car.". Yep, after God knows how many minutes he finally continued "750 euros." Not bad, but I didn't need it, I didn't want it... But the Devil maid me say" 500, nothing more". For my surprise and surprisingly quick he said "500 it is, but I keep the new battery"

And 500 Euros it was.