1973 AMC Hornet Sportabout X

I couldn’t tell you why I enjoying rewiring old cars, but I just really do. I may have a screw loose. I got a lot done today on the wiring. Fuse panel is in place and the firewall bulkhead connector is wired up and mounted. Everything inside the car is mostly done except for rewiring the gauge cluster connectors, but the wires are all there and ready to go. Tomorrow, I’ll wrap and pull the rear harness through and finish up everything under the dash. I have some woven split wrap arriving from Amazon on Sunday or I’d do the underhood wiring as well.

Also tomorrow, I need to get the accessories back on the front of the engine and bolt the torque converter to the flexplate. If I have time, I’ll see if I can get the Hedman headers and starter in and modify the exhaust for the longer headers. I hope they exit with similar side to side width as the X pipe doesn’t give me much play width-wise.

Sunday will be church and family time. Couple more long weekends and I’ll be cruising the streets. Then a little bit at a time I’ll do suspension, steering, tires and alignment, seatbelts, windshield, stereo and speakers, swaybars, maybe retrofit some torque-links just for kicks. The wife wants carpet and upholstery eventually as well, and I’d like to cut and buff the old paint and put on new stripes. The wheels could use some refinishing as well.

I don’t expect to win any car shows, but I enjoy looking good and the Saturday morning cruise.

Heck, it’s 4:15 AM. Bedtime.

Didn’t have as much time as I would have hoped to work on the car today. Got some more wiring done though. Ran rear harness, organized under dash wires. Ran main power wire to junction on engine side firewall then through firewall to fuse panel, ran direct ground from battery to underdash ground junction, etc. I like to have a battery power junction in the engine compartment to provide clean power and unclutter the battery cable terminal. I also like the direct ground junction underdash for a single point for anything that needs it. I also jump it over to a body ground as well. I don’t plan on running down shorts or ground issues for 25+ years. If I’m dealing with a really old ignition switch, I’ll use relays instead of running loads directly through it for accessory and ignition feeds.

rms827 wrote: Great looking car, Red20.

I appreciate that. Can’t wait to get it back on the road. Sometimes I wonder why on earth I decided to rewire a perfectly good car...

Well, we’ll see what all I manage to get done this weekend. Lots of other family tasks to do and my wife is due with our 6th child any day now. I’m gonna see if I can get the headers in and exhaust fit to them and welded up tonight. Then wire up the rear end and as much of the engine bay as possible tomorrow.

I’m out of gas, so I’m going to have to weld exhaust with .030 flux core. I hate welding thin wall with flux, so I did a few quick test passes on a piece of scrap. Eventually got my settings and method down by the 3rd pass.


The first (top) pass was definitely an exercise in burning and filling holes. The key is more heat than you’d think, decent wire speed and short burn times. Don’t go too fast or you’ll burn holes. As soon as the puddle stops glowing, hit it again. And an autodarkening lense with a short delay is very helpful for stitch welding. I’m no pro though, so you probably shouldn’t listen to me...