My tow vehicle repower

[boxhead]

I went looking, as I thought I had a thread on this, but it appears not.
As most of you know I have a VH Valiant station wagon that used to be a hearse.
The car was left to me as part of a deceased estate.
After trying to sell it and thinking about dismatling it for parts, in the end I fell in love with it and it now serves duties as my tow vehicle for Cobra racing.
The car (known as George the Goon after my wifes Uncle who left it to me) was built in 1972 and sold through the Tamworth dealership, the original color was fountain blue with blue interior, 3 spd manual colomn shift with 215 Hemi 6 with 4 wheel drum brakes and no booster.
George was painted black for use as a hearse and had the rear seat removed with slide added and timber paneling.
In approx 1979/80, George bought the car as he was planning to open a "cut price" funeral service in Alice Springs.
When he arrived in Alice Springs he contacted the franchisee and they advised that after doing some research they had decided there was not a "large enough market" for a second operator in town.
So George became the local DHL courier rep, had the car repainted back to its original color and usd the vehicle to cart freight around Alice Springs.
Uncle George was getting a bit too old to drive such a large car by about 2000 so the Goon was parked up. Sadly my wifes cousin told me nearly all the little dents in the car happened in the last few months before George stopped driving it.
Here is a pic when I first went to pick it up.




And after getting him home and a quick clean up.








After deciding to keep him I had to get him roadworthy, replaced tyres also replaced the vinyl flooring, converted to disk brake bossted, repaired air con and repainted grille.




I removed the slides and fitted a flat floor in the back to allow more storage for race trips.




And with white wall tyres finally fitted.


George the Goon has now done Nationals and ShelbyFest towing the Cobra, only "issue" is a lack of power when trying to get moving (has a 2.92 auto diff fitted).

So having decided I will keep George, next phase of his conversion is to fit a small block V8 (318) convert to 727 auto trans, and fit power steering, I want to retain the colomn shift as I am undecided if I want to keep bench seat.
This week I rebuilt the gearbox, new clutch plates, steel plates, full seal and gasket set.




I have now started rebuilding the engine, it is basically stock apart from 4 barrel manifold, 60thou over pistons and a cam, also converted to electronic ignition



Also fitting extractors and open exhaust system.

As work progress's I will add more info and pics.
Plan is to be done by mid Feb 2012, in time for ShelbyFest.