Members Cars (Archive)

The car may have had a couple of previous owners but the last one was an 86 year old gentleman from Fremantle. It appears that the car has been well cared for over its life which makes it a good purchase - very original in and out. It looks like no one has ever been on the back seat and the original AM radio still cranks out the tunes with ease. I bought the car to be a daily driver, but in order to be a daily driver a few things had to change on it. First up, was to get it registered!

Next was was installing LPG on the slant 6 so that it is economical to run. The LPG install was completed in September 2006 which happened to be just in time for some government rebates which I'm very happy to receive. The car runs great on gas which is a bit of a relief. Interestingly enough the car has lost some overall power but starting is 10 times easier and it is a lot smoother to drive.

The change next in line was to install disc brakes on the old girl. Theres nothing wrong with the drums... unless you want to reliably stop! Just kidding. The drums worked very well, if not too well. But to achieve smoother braking control and to let my missus behind the wheel discs were a must. It now runs a remote booster in the factory location as well to aid the discs. Also received a reco master cylinder along the way, and late model control arms so that I can fit a swaybar. Roughly at the same time I also took out the diff, cleaned it up, and got the leaf spring rear end reset with an extra leaf for the LPG tank weight.

Next up was an airconditioning install. After tossing up over a few options I settled on a new Vintage Air setup. Definently not the cheapest on the market but great quality and great results! A fair bit of effort was required to get it to bolt up to a slant 6 but in the end it was worth it. The other part of the setup which I am using more now is the heater - a few 6° mornings really make the heater very appreciated!

There has been a heap of other miscellaneous changes as well to help it be a reliable daily driver such as a Petronix electronic ignition, intermittent wipers, central locking, alarm, halogen headlights and so on.

For more updates check out this page on www.valiantpacers.com.