1969 AMC Rebuild

Thought I'd share a few photos from my rebuild of the 69 AMX :)

It's been a while, since 2002 when I first saw the car and bought it.  Took a few hundred pictures of the rebuild and car over the years.

It started off as a 69 AMX Bittersweet Orange, with leather (well, the door plate said it was leather, but the original seats were long gone), a 343 CID engine and M11 BW Auto Trans.  If I recall, rear end was a 3.15:1 or so.

First heard of the car in 2002 from a friend of mine.  It was sitting near the woods on someones property near Rocky Hill, NJ.  Took a ride over.  Owner was moving, so I made an offer and he took it.  Word of advice.  Always check out the car out top and bottom :)  Especially underneath.  When I looked at the car it had just rained and it was sitting down on flat tires.   I ended up replacing all the floorpans, doors, quarters and then some.  Well, at least I learned basic welding as a result :)

I had all the glass out along with all the removable body panels, so at that point, I thought it would be

cool to paint it Big Bad Orange.  And so it began:

2002, when the car was flatbedded home:

The primer and mud on the back quarters was hiding a LOT of rusty metal that would have to be replaced.

Car in the garage and up on stands.  Now I'm seeing what a mess :)  But it's an AMX and I always wanted one:

Pictures of the floorpans.  Every footwell had to be replaced, along with the entire brace structure under the drivers seat:

Making some progress getting the floor back to some solid metal:

Now for the quarters:

Passenger side roughed in:

Now for the drivers side:

Skipping ahead a little :)  Rough body work done with epoxy primer and its driving again.  Still with the original metal hood.  It was badly rusted under the front lip and the front underneath had cracks, so I ended going with a SS/AMX fiberglass repo hood:

Couple of shots delivered to the body shop and they've been working on getting the final bodywork done:

Home from the body shop.  Still need to put the trim back on:

Shot of the two AMCs together, big brother and little brother.  Still a little ways to go with trim and stripes :) 

And finally, a shot of how the car looks today.  It's running a 360 CID engine with Edlebrock Heads, Chet Herbert Hydraulic Roller, Hooker 1 7/8" headers, mated to an AMC TF727 Trans with a 10" stall with anti-ballooning plates, AMC20 rear, with 4.10 gears and solid axles.  Oh, and just to be safe, NOS 100HP Nitrous System :)

Oh, and I had the leather seats done with brand new material and foam.  I could never get the seat to sit right on adjustments, so I ended up putting them into storage and getting a pair of tan sport seats from Jegs, making up the adapter brackets out of bar steel and square stock so I could mount them to the factory rails.  At least now I don't feel cramped in the car with my head hitting the headliner!

Been an interesting journey.  I'm glad I did this car, and I learned a lot about welding and basic bodywork, but I think if I were to do it again, I'd just buy a car that's already done :)  But you never know!

Steve

Beautiful job!

-Steve-

Most times we try at older age to do a Resto only to let them sit and never get done , great tenacity ,

Well done , pass some of that mojo this way .

Lol

Gary