Pete & Matts Valkyrie

Pete and Matt are in the process of ressurecting a '60s 2 piece Valkyrie which Pete (Matt's father) had once used as a daily driver before letting it sit neglected for many years. When Peter originally built the car, he used a performance Ford 289 with a Trans-Dap bell housing to drive the '65 Corvair transaxle. He originally used a manafree intake and 4 two bbl rochester carbs, later replaced with an Edelbrock and single 4 bbl Holley. Car now has a Ford 302 coupled to a Ford FMX 3-speed automatic transmission custom adapted to the Corvair rear end (for those of you unfamiliar with the Corvair transaxle, the transmission and differential are in separate housings and can be unbolted from each other).
This new drivetrain arrangement is a bit longer and so, required more room. Pete and Matt elected to do some stetching exercises, and have been gracious enough to share the process with us.
	Here you see the rear section prior to cutting. The white line is where the cut is to be made. Metal straps were pre-dilled with four pairs of holes. The distance between the outer pairs of hole was greater by 6 inches that the distance between the inner pair of hole. Here you see bolt going through the inner sets of holes and into the body section.
After the cutting was complete, the straps were fastened to the body using sheet metal screws going through the outer set of holes in the straps and into the holes previous drilled though the inner holes. This way, every part of the body was separated 6 inches, and the straps aligned the two haves while they were glassed back together.

Here you can see where the cut was performed across the rear deck. The Valkyrie's lines are remarkably well preserved.

Peter's background is in Electronic/Electrical design and fabrication with a strong secondary interest in mechanical design, while Matt brings great mechanical skills and enthusiasm to the project, he is the motivateing force here. This project is on a tight budget, so Peter will be doing a lot of original design and fabrication of electrical controls and body parts. Some planned examples:

Side glass will be one piece with the top glass gaskets locking the glass on the inside and outside. Pulling the door handle will automatically jog the glass down so that the door can be opened. Closing the door will automatically re-close the window. Peter decided to do this to make it harder to break into the car, and to eliminate the typical hard top-side glass wind noise. The engine will use an electric water pump. This pump and the radiator fans will be modulated by electronics which Peter has already designed and run in successful simulations. This will keep the engine within a very tight range of operating temperatures. He also expects to program a cool down cycle which will run the water pump and fans for a short time after the engine is shut down. This is intended to prevent the very high head temperatures which can occur after a hot engine is shut down. Peter is hoping to save wear and tear on head gaskets caused by the high rate of expansion in aluminum heads at elevated temperatures.