Progress: A little but its another a step forward

Yet again, work seems to be taking up virtually all of my time leaving no time for the Valiant.
The engine is still bagged up waiting for reassembly. 
As I had no time to do anything, I felt it was probably a good time to get the 904 torqueflite rebuilt so it was ready for the engine when it was put back together.
So now for some good news:
The torqueflite is back, all finished and ready to go.

 AND: I've been finding a little time here and there to start painting the motor and heads. I've got the original Hemi red that was used on the motors at the time from Pentastar parts. Here's a little preview of what's to come.

The motor is finally home

I've finally got the motor home. Here's a sneak preview before I get it on the engine stand and painted up.

Engine block nearly finished

I've just been down to reflex to drop a few parts off for the engine rebuild. They're putting the new cam and timing chain in for me and getting the block ready for all the add ons.
As can be seen in the photo below, It's almost ready to come home and get painted. 

Engine

Ok. After a lot of umming and arring, musing and thinking, and in general avoiding the subject all together, I've decided to rebuild the engine.
The purple engine that I put in, I just couldn't get the emissions down. After getting up to temperature, there was a bit of blow back through the oil filter. I was pretty sure I wouldn't get this through on a road worthy.
I looked into the engine numbers and the engine in the car is the original engine from the factory.
Decision made, rebuild the engine.

Here it is stripped down and ready to go and get cleaned, have the cylinders honed and a general check over.

BTW, for a bit of a laugh and to show that the "idiots" left no stone unturned. . . .
This is how you make an undersized thermostat fit in a bigger hole!!!!!

Dart Hubcaps

Shot of the same quarter with the Dodge Dart hubcap. Can't wait to see these spinning in the sun!

Work begins again

The weathers fining up and I can start the body work.
A little teaser to get me motivated to get going again.
Hope you all like : )

Sand blasting

The air compressor is back and working again, but it's been way too cold to get out in the shed at night.I did however take the guards down to the sand blaster for a clean up. The result is WOW! There is no way I would have been able to clean up around these light housings to this standard! For people concerned about blasting, the following process was taken: All hard edges and thickened steel were garnet blasted. All large flat areas were plastic media blasted to ensure there was no stretching of the steel. In other words there is no distortion of the steel and the guards came back exactly the same shape as they left.