Steve -
The car had a 149 when I got it, with the original crashbox in it. When it started blowing a tonne of smoke, I figured rather than a rebuild, since it was registered with a red anyways, I'd get a 186 put into it.
I got Greg out at Holdies to do the swap-over for me, and was really happy with the motor - it had great compression on all cylinders.
Then the gearbox shat itself, so it got a new 3-speed put in from an HQ, but of course the tunnel needed to be bigger to fit it, hence the butchering job to get it in - I told Greg since it was getting carpet over the top of it anyways I wasn't too fussed about it being neat under there.
Wish I'd had the room, resources and knowledge to restore it when I owned it, but as you saw when you picked her up, there's only room for ONE classic car in the garage, and Joy's Valiant had that position long before I came along.
Keep the pics coming though Steve - it makes me VERY happy to see such a great resurrection!
- Adam