WORK on our Valiant wagon restoration project rolls on, with Scotty setting his sights on a banged-up chassis rail.

In the last episode he stripped the driver’s-side rear quarter back to find some nasty surprises, and with no clear solution to that just yet, he opted to switch tack and check over the bones of the wagon.

While most of the chassis on the old Val is in fairly good nick, the spot inside the engine bay where the steering box attaches is in need of some love. The bottom has rusted somewhat, but it has also cracked on the side.

This is because the engineering process used by Valiant to convert the Chrysler chassis from LHD to RHD was fairly crude, even by the standards of the day. While the steering box bolts to the subframe in LHD models, the relocated box on Australian models simply hangs off the chassis rail. This means that after 50 years of abuse, they tend to give in, and ours is no exception.

Scotty set about cutting out the wounded section, before bending up a 3mm steel patch panel and welding it firmly into place.

On the next episode, Scotty plans on stripping back the roof, so keep an eye on all Street Machine media for more Valiant goodness.