The John Holmes CL Valiant Pornovan Project

keep the updates coming Simo.. cant wait for ya to finish her off ( next month hey? ) lol

Hi all,

Things are kicking along with the Van once again after a couple of busy weeks, but the motivations still up there which is the main thing!

There's been a few changes in the wings which will make things easier in the long term and get things a bit more organised at home with space and stuff. First up, I've decided to sell my Beige VG Hemi 6 powered Hardtop which I've had for nearly 20 years; I don't need to sell it, but these days I'm just keeping it for sake of it and the fact that I've owned it for so long, which are reasons that don't just cut it anymore. I've achieved all that I've wanted from it so its time to move on. To that end, I'm going to drop the near-stock Old Daze motor straight into the Van and build a mildy 318 to put back in Old Daze - nothing fancy, just a 600 4bbl and a Mopar Purple Shaft cam so it'll skid the tyres ok.

The coolest part I'm finding with this Van build is the amount of people who are fully getting into it and have commented that they're getting to indirectly build the Van they always wanted as kids/teenagers through this project; to that end I appreciate the interest and 'donations' of materials, time and cool ideas to get it all happening. Damo is a mate who does a lot of custom signage got in touch with me a few weeks ago and kindly gave me a bag of machine cut mirror off-cuts which are self adhesive and will go perfectly in the crushed velvet rear. I was going to put glow-in-the-dark stars on the rear headlining so was thinking I might make a couple of Coke 'ribbons' for the inner side panels out of these. The lava lamps will reflect nicely off them too...



During the week I braved the dust & heat and got the rear pan welded into place and did the final finish on it today; it totally neatens up the half ass way they designed them back in the day and keeps the whole thing looking cleaner. The number plate lamps are LED ebay jobbies which are built in to the chrome heads of the number plate retaining bolts which saves a bit of stuffing around too.







I've also pretty much sorted (finally) the last of the 'easy' work on the The Taking of Plenum 1-2-3, its such a relief to see it looking almost ready to have the top re-fitted, and not to have rust holes that you could do a knee-up bomb dive into only a couple of months back. Nearly a third of the base windscreen lip was rusted away too and all that's needed is to clean the welds up a bit to make sure there is plenty of clearance for the plenum top.







Diff-wise, I've managed to pick up a few ebay cheapies lately like a disc brake ZH Fairlane Borg Warner LSD which will go into a spare CL Val housing, with ebay 3.45 VL Commodore gears which should help it along a bit with the tall-ish 255/60 15's that are going on the back. I also picked up one of those cheapie alloy diff hats which is the same as you find on your normal XE XF Falcon Sedans with the Watts linkage rear suspension. I'll have a go at cutting off the ribs and Watts linkage stud, smooth it off and polish it up for an alloy diff cover. It's going to have the 'sniffer' look and be jacked up in the back so I better get some bling happening! I'll paint the diff too in Cyan Blue and am even contemplating chrome vinyling the whole diff housing to get around the legal factor... Definitely won't be going the Gemini diff red and silver though.





During the week I also visited the local white line fever truck accessories shop; man they have some awesome stuff there and if I ever win the lotto and build an Optimus Prime replica Peterbilt Truck I'm going to go nuts in that place; the thing will look like a Christmas tree if I ever get to build it. Back on track I picked up a couple of 90mm chrome exhaust stack tips to suit the sidepipes I have here for it. The sidepipes are genuine 70's 'Thrush' brand which use an ugly rectangular tip that point downwards. I've never been a fan of them so will cut down these truck tips to suit and make them side exit to resemble the way-cooler Doug Thorley show-tubes that were all the rage back in the day. Plus I think using something that says 'Thrush' on it is a bad omen when fitted to a panelvan... There's always the option to run some BJ McKay stacks through the roof or even the worlds largest pair of HQ 253 wheelbarrow handles out the back, but even I'm not that retarded to do it.











The pics of the Aussie and US Denimachines should give you an idea on the paint scheme although the original flames are a tad ugly IMO and look like seaweed, so will be more Hot Rod style on this one and a full inferno from front to rear. The white and flames will also continue onto the roof of mine like on the US one, whereas the Aussie version stayed with plain blue.





Lastly is yet another wheel change, I've put 15x8" Ansen jellybean mags in the too hard basket (they're even non existent on US ebay) and am going to buy a set of 6 & 8" Cragar S/S's for it with three bar spinners. The other choice was satin finish Centerline Autodrags (bit 'new') but I love the Cragar S/S's and think they'll suit the look of this thing down to the ground over the Indy's. These will be the first set of mags I've bought brand new... ever... so might as well buy what I truly want for it. I do love the Challenger pic from the last Street Machine which has side pipes and huge jellybeans on the back but my mind won't change again....





Anyhoo, thats way too much jibber jabbering from me!

have fun

Simo

That's a fantastic read Simo.
How about some pics of your 3 Trans am fronts?

Go for it....... she coming along................

Thanks guys, its nice to be making some progress finally!!

I'll post some front pics soon

Simo

I hung on folks and found the rims I was really wanting, 15x8.5" Jelly's; I am totally stoked with how well they suit and fit the Van. It makes me want to paint the whole thing black and have big murals of Sophie Monk plastered all over it...



I also picked up a Camaro scooped CL bonnet off ebag which should suit it too, and saves me messing around with the projected 2 A9X scoops I had for it:



Had the old girl out on the backlawn today to make room during some yard reno's and couldn't help myself so took some more pics. I mocked up the new bonnet and gave the front 14x6" Sankey's a cut and buff to make them look more polished like the rear jobbies. I fitted up some old design Cragar S/S 3 bar spinner caps (have the knurling on the 3 bars) to the front and will leave the rear capless. Using S/S caps is probably a bit wrong on anything other than proper Cragar S/S rims, but I don't really care and think they look the part!

have fun

Simo

Lookin good Simo.
Spinners look great as well.

Hi all,

Things have been kicking along but pretty slowly due to other stuff keeping me busy; in between I managed to get the plenum top repaired and prepped, donor pieces are great but I think age is catching up with everything now so even the donor stuff needed work. So here's the plenum top all prepped and sealed underneath. The weirdo lava like bubbling at the ends is where I found the factory lead wiping with the mig... made for some action anyway.

The top in all its glory:



rust repairs and reforming of the rubber mounting lip:





Sealed and painted hopefully to never rust again..



We held the the sequel to The Taking of Plenum 1-2-3 a couple of weeks ago and managed to get the top back on and the plenum repairs pretty much finished thank fark. A couple of hours saw it all zipped up and then it was time to have some steak sangers, a couple of beers/Cokes and a couple of boxes worth of Paddle Pops.

Here's Barry Jackpot trimming up the donor pillar bits:



sitting it on with the lower screen piece tacked on:



welded into place with the pillars cleaned up:





A cool part of the working bee's is that its a good excuse for everyone to bring their rides around for a spin, here's my mate Steve's 120Y which is running a turbo 6cyl Nissan RB20 hybrid donk with RB26 head - how does 453 RWHP sound? He's hoping to run 9.99 in full street trim once the boost is upped form 20lb to 30lbs. This car is scarily docile and quiet on the street and would have to be one of the best street sleepers ever - you could park it at the bowls club and no-one would bat an eyelid!







The Jackpot was trying to work out how to fit his giraffe-type frame in there and was going to rip the front seats out and drive from the backseat Hightower-style...

So since then I've reformed the lower dash frame mounts and screen seal seam using the dash, new screen rubber and thanks to some pics supplied by a few friends (I had nothing to go on, it was all rusted away!). Here it is before final finishing:



Once that was sorted the whole lot was primed and sealed in some acrylic and then I popped in the screen and dash frame to make sure it all fits ok; the last thing I want is to have the car 99.9% finished and find the screen doesn't fit... especially after its copped so much work.





The guards, doors, bonnet etc. were all then bolted on for the same reason so now I can strip it all off and finish it up properly. I threw the glass nosecone on and will start cutting it apart to try and make it look not so ugly...





And Alf's ready to go...



have fun

Simo

looking good but not finished yet?

Getting there Daz, getting there...

Well a couple of Mondays ago I walked out to the van and thought i'd just weld a small plate into the lower rad support which had been butchered in the past so I could get on and paint the engine bay. Once I cut it out, I thought I'd just move on and cut out the rusty bits in the sills and forward sill corners behind the front guards whilst the grinder was out. Three days later I'd made patch panels (using high tech metalworking tools known as a hammer, snips, grinder, block of wood, brick chisel and a trampoline) plated the floorpan, forward part of the sills, the door jambs, lower inner sections of the A pillars (near the lower door hinges) and some rust in the upper A pillars, pov-packed the floorpan shifter hole and then sealed and painted the whole lot. Those that know me well will be totally not surprised to learn that I forgot to plate the section of the radiator support panel that I cut out in the first place..





I've been wanting to name the Van as all Van's should be, and really wanted to go with something that would tie in the history of both me loving vans and homage to the van scene of the 70's and early 80's. Names like 'Mr Damage' and 'Alley Cat' have the goods due to their ease of being remembered and toughness.

So I sent the feelers out as my brain was numb to help with some ideas. Usually I thrive on this sort of stuff and my previous cars have always been named with ideas that just appear in an instant. Old Daze, Mopar County Sheriff, Claim to Flame and all the other car names have come to me pretty darn easily but this took its toll in my brain. In saying that, friends were on the money with ideas that were both cool names, had old associations or were 'van' based. Some of my first thoughts were 'Old School', 'Patience', 'Paradise City' and 'Van Dreamin' as kudos for the old days of Gunners and years gone by. "'Reminiscence' was suggested early on, a mate was onto 'Melmac' for the ALF factor and 'Dirty Deeds' by another friend nearly got a run! The main thing that stopped me from Dirty Deeds is the red/white/blue Denimachine paint scheme I have in mind for it, but if it was going to be black or blood red with some hot chick muralled onto the sides dressed as a warrior princess slaying a dragon then 'Dirty Deeds' would be it!

But at the end of the day I knew it had to be my own work. So these names spent all week going through my brain: Vanama, Van Dreamin, Vanquish, Van Hellzing, Blue Crush (nearly got the nod, very 70's), Sin City, Denimescence, Denial, Paradise City, Wise Old School, Vanessence (Vanessa the bride loved that one, go figure) but the winner and name that I'm laying claim to is

'DISTURBIA'

namely for the projected flame paint, noisy gear drive, gilmer set and big exhausts!

The meaning of Disturbia is "a mental disturbance; an insanity that is so powerful it controls and dominates one's mind". I think an obsession and dream of building a Van for 30 years has that covered! I've also always loved that word and I think it'll suit it as it creeps around Bris Vegas.

have fun

Simo

I think I've actually made it to a milestone! I'd pretty much bare-metalled the whole engine bay and welded up all the extra holes and the wiper motor hole over the last few weeks, and after finishing up the engine bay and new plenum top and pillar prep yesterday decided to get it coated asafp.

So it was out with my trusty Vacuum Cleaner little beaver spraygun; first up was a coat of etch primer followed by a few coats of hi-fill. I was hoping to be at this stage by Christmas Day but got this done a week behind schedule which isn't too bad, especially with the recent Brissy rain. Hopefully tomorrow I'll hone the block and get the front end all painted up, and in a couple of weeks time get the engine bay rubbed back and sprayed in white. I am planning to spray the topcoats properly with a compressor and spraygun but going with what you know isn't a bad idea either!

Its nice to actually see it changing for the better!

have fun

Simo

great name Simo, ya could put in the paint in a font like Metalica to press the point home more.

Got the front end all sorted too after stripping it a couple of weeks back and painting it up. It just needs the shocks and AP-VC type front bumpstops fitted (shorter like the RT Charger type whilst still looking factory). The hard part now will be where to store it for the next few months and not scratch it... I just went with easy gloss black with some home chrome on the linkpins and radius rods and nothing says 80's detailing like Cyan blue for the swaybar!



Simo

highwaymenace wrote:great name Simo, ya could put in the paint in a font like Metalica to press the point home more.

Nice idea there! Maybe across the header panel? The hard part is going to be morphing it in with the 'Denimachine' lettering. I don't want it to look too busy but want to incorporate both. I was originally going to replace all Denimachine lettering on the sides and tailgate with Disturbia, but I like the memories that talk of the Denimachine always prompts with people. I may just put Disturbia along the sides of the Camaro scoop to get it in there somewhere.

sides of the scoop would go sweet.

Hey Simon, have really enjoyed your thread, alot of good work done but keep the standard front apron i think but go wild on the rest , cant wait to see the finished product.

Cheers Azza

Love the name!!!!!!!!!!

Love the project....... Top stuff.

70s-groover wrote:Hey Simon, have really enjoyed your thread, alot of good work done but keep the standard front apron i think but go wild on the rest , cant wait to see the finished product.

Cheers Azza

Thanks for the kind words folks, don't panic too much if you think that front in the pics looks ugly (because it is). Its an original Freedom 'GTO' nosecone but I am going modify the crap out of it to resemble the more proper Trans Am front (bottom front in B&W ad pic) which I think is the best looking of all the fronts that did the rounds back in the day.







have fun

Simo

so will we be seeing this project at Summernats 2011?

I wish Daz, I'll just be happy to have it rego'ed by the end of the year even if the interior isn't sorted in the back or anything. It'll be a long haul but I'm trying to do a little bit everyday.

Simo

Ive allways loved the 76-78 cl twin headlight front on these chryslers. they look very tough.

good thread, been enjoying the commentary.... but i as to how a trampoline comes in handy when shaping metalwork??....hmmmm, must be a boy thing! LOL Also, i like the name DISTURBIA, and thought i'd throw in my 2 cents worth.... how about DISTDENURBIAMACHINE??? lol, sorry, couldn't help myself... it just came to me. You could always have DISTURBIA on the tailgate and numberplates and have DENIMACHINE on the lower sides? in some nice fancy writing? just an idea... probably not worth considering but it may give you something to play on later..... keep it up, i'm enjoying reading and watching your progress.

rambletamble wrote:Ive allways loved the 76-78 cl twin headlight front on these chryslers. they look very tough.

used to have a CL wagon with the twin headlights and the chrome honeycomb front - what B*std to keep clean! looked good though (when it was clean)

Thanks Maz,

I did think of going Disturbiamachine but it all got too complicated. I was also going to replace the denimachine writing with Disturbia on the van (all or just 1 or 2 of the 3) but will leave the denimachine writing as is, moreso for the memory jogger and reminiscing factor it gives people late 30's + in age. Its amazing how many people of all walks of life remember them back in the day so want to keep that dream alive. I'll get Disturbia airbrushed onto the sides of the bonnet scoop so there's at least some mention of it!









have fun

Simo

i must say i used to hang shit on chryslers only cos my ex was into them and the wagon i had was a lemon (he got ripped off big time)..... but the vans do look good.... ouch, did i say that ?????