June 2011 Road Trip Back to Royea's Junk Yard

Sorry for the year delay but I had a lot on my mind.

  Back in June of 2011 "sometimes shop helper" Jordan and I went back to Holderness, NH and Royea's Junk Yard that I had last visited back in Nov. 2007.  Back then I had seen these two '71+ Javelins that were stacked on top one another.  Reading Hemmings I got this great idea about a front brake upgrade for AMC's. A vital part you need for the upgrade is a '71 or newer spindle from a Javelin that came with disc brakes. The upgrade allows vented rotors and single piston Kelsey Hayes calipers to be used in earlier cars that came with either drums or solid rotors and the infamous four piston Bendix calipers.

  So off Jordan, Augie and I went to fetch us some spindles.  Luckily, the parts we needed were in the Javelin that was on top so it was pretty much a stand up job.  With the help of an old VW bus motor hatch, a bumper jack and an old rim (all found    
                                                    on site) we were able to get the Javelin's nose                                                             raised to facilitate the removal.

  We only had to borrow a few tools from the "junk yard boys" to get the job done.  With the spindles in hand we went to cash out.  I did made the mistake of dragging the perfectly useless rotors and calipers with us and "the boys" must have thought they were made of gold when they gave me the grand total.  YIKES, I didn't have the energy to argue because I felt like crap due to a cold.  I found out later I had a 102° F temperature.  I should've let Jordan drive home.

This shot is of Jordan contemplating how we are gonna straighten the tweaked front bumper.  As of now we still haven't straightened it, but we did have all of the chrome blasted off both bumpers.  This will allow us to pretty these up with filler and some New Blue paint.

Lots more updates to come!

The New Blue

Took a little time off. Walked by AMX a lot, still has a nice looking shape. Shawn's idea was to take it to Carlisle, PA in July on his car trailer, sell it as is, and come back with a finished AMX. Mentioned this in passing to Gary the Body Guy and he said, "Back up, what did you say?." I was kinda joking but he called back in a few days and said "we've gotta have a meetin', Mike and Andrew aren't happy with your new idea". So, we got back on the project with a little hiccup of bad color choice. Gary's philosophy is "the engine bay gets painted with the door jambs and then you reinstall the drive train and interior components before the full body repaint." I wish I had a drive train and interior components not to mention brakes, brake lines, wiring harness, steering wheel, lights, bumpers ... As Gary says - the ball's in my court now.

In the meantime my oldest daughter, Katie, got engaged and her intended is hell bent on arriving to the ceremony in style in a very cool car. Any chance this will be ready for the task by Sept 10, 2011 (9-10-11)? Unlikely but any great ideas to help it get there are welcome from my fans.

So here are some pix of the recent progress -
Didn't like the "blue tarp" blue so we scratched it off.
















Finally doing some painting. We switched from Dupont 356 to Dupont 443 blue. Hard to tell with these shots but much nicer and darker hue.














Gonna hang the doors this week so we can get them off the stands before we knock, or bump, them off.




























We are up to 300 lbs in body filler on this rear valance panel.

Doors are Back

Got Gary's Super Goo to adhere my brace rod to bottom of rear valance panel. This panel restoration is more a challenge than a wise decision. I've seen a reproduction online for $300 but that's not the point.

















Sanding filler for the umpteenth time on said valance panel
















Looks good from this angle
















Get these out of harm's way
















Gotta hang these and get Joey going with the POR15 (where's Joe?)
















Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm still working on the stupid valance panel.
















Fits pretty good
















To your left you'll see the damaged hood that still hasn't been rectified.

March Push

Tape Time!





























Mike and Andrew get to it.















Looks ready for some Chroma Premier












Yup. What's that smell?














One color at last, on profile.






























Door hinge rebuild with Huw's help


































































Rear valance panel has hit everything but the lottery. We can rebuild it.












Fiberglass hood came in from freight truck. BUMMER...

Took the summer, fall and early winter off. Been real busy with shop enhancements and bay additions, and other good excuses. But now I'm getting refocused... see below

Hired Guns

Award winning body crew took pity on my project and decided to come to my shop for a few weekends to get this masterpiece moving again. Granted, I did all the hard work and these guys get all the glory.

PS. Carworks young crew Austin and Joe had just finished applying POR-15 to the rest of the insides of the body and trunk that we hadn't painted last year.





Gary (don't know if I should use his real name) does the lower quarters.













Mike does the final "pull" of filler on the roof.














Right side door gets filler from Gary














Same door gets sanded by me.



















Right side door back on to help getting the lines right at the rear quarter. Andrew gets the cowl panel in order.












Left rear quarter gets coated. (Oldest daughter Kate visits later same week and not only remembers the smell of body filler but likes the seafoam color.)












Right side goes seafoam too.















What are these things? Glad you asked - these are homemade support anchors with captive nuts for fender braces.













Ready for welding.















Welded. Remember, don't hold the work while welding without a glove.














Looks official.

More Suspension Time

On the eve of July vacation week in the pouring and incessant rain, I have talked Linda into helping me update my blog. If summer ever comes, it would be nice to take a break from cars in general. So, the Rambler is the first wave of the furloughs. But we did make progress recently (see below). I am grateful for all the advice I've received from Robert B. and assistance I've had from Dave W. & Huw P.


Rear differential & rear leaf springs in place














Nice arc on those new rear leafs















Trunnion time




















Helicoil on the rear diff
















I told you it was posi















Wider shot of trunnion time




















Side shot
















Action shot (who needs factory tools?)












Beefin' up rear diff spring perches

















Nice weld Dave











Adding more welds between axle tube and diff body