1981 Spirit DL

Well, started ripping out old carpet to prepare it for getting new carpet put in and ran into rust. Luckily, it's not too bad. I'll be taking it in a few weeks to get quotes from body shops on replacing the metal so I have a nice clean surface to lay the carpet on (and no more rust inside). I also have been working on recreating graphics for the air cleaner. To my knowledge, AMC never made a decal for the 151 engine, so I made my own. I may experiment with other designs and options, but for now, I'm pretty happy. Luckily I work for a company that can print these on a chrome background so it should pop really well. I also recreated the factory decal that shows you how to replace your air filter and I think that came put really well also. 

Looks good

Just got the car back from the shop today and the new tires look amazing! Really brings the outside together with matching RWL tires on the car. I haven't gotten around to taking any interior pictures of the car since the rust discovery, but I will try to update on that. Luckily the body shop I took it to for a quote knew of me through my family and offered me a pretty good deal on getting the rust taken care of. I also got a quote from an upholstery guy on installing the carpet, including the backs of the rear seats, and fixing a split in the seam of the driver's seat. All of that work for $100. Can't ask for a better deal than that! Things are slowly but surely coming together. I also visited Kirkwood's father's compound and came out with more than just the fender I needed. He twisted my arm enough and I came away from there with a Concord parts car! That should allow me to replace the front fenders and eliminate any extra body work to repair rust damage on the current panels. The parts car also was nicely optioned with a 151 with air conditioning that I may rebuild and swap in so I can drive the car as it is for as long as possible. I also sent off those air cleaner and engine bay decals to the company headquarters in Wichita Kansas and they are going to print the air cleaner decals on chrome film for me! (And for free!) Big thanks to Ian for putting a dent in my wallet and a Concord at my buddy Doug's property. He wanted some parts for his Eagle, so we split the car 50/50 so we both win. Can't wait to get started once I save up some more for the rust repair on the interior. 

Well, after a few knuckle scrapes and a hammer and chisel to break free some of the floor welds, I got the driver's side floor pan removed to help cut down the cost of getting the floors done. Those things are stubborn! I'm now icing my knuckles since a hammer slip busted up one of them pretty decent. Gotta be careful! Here's a picture of the cut out floor. I may have to have them repair the tab on the u channel of the frame a bit, but I don't think it's too terrible. Now to cut out some of the rear hatch area and inner rockers and it will be off to the body shop!

Today I got my air cleaner decals back from Wichita. The company I work for can print on chrome film, so they made me 2 sets of each air cleaner decal I designed. I also there's an emissions sticker from my buddy's '73 hornet in the mix since they were already printing the decals for me. Fortunately for me, they printed them for free and I am very grateful for that. Here's what they look like:
Now I just have to decide what ones I want to put on the air cleaner. Any suggestions? I have 2 of each one in case I don't like how one looks or screw it up applying it. Tonight I'm grabbing that parts car concord from Kirkwood's place and then I'll have plenty of parts to pick and choose from including a complete 151 which I will plan on rebuilding potentially as early as this winter. Car will go in for floor pans and rust fixing in about 4-6 weeks!