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69 SC Journey

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kcsamc View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/20/2018 at 8:19pm
Brooke - thank you for the compliments.  All the cars were beautiful.  I think we waved the flag proudly, and everyone stood up and took notice too!

I think the looks on both our faces when we finally realized what was in the ceiling were probably priceless - glad there were no pictures of that!


Edited by kcsamc - Dec/02/2018 at 8:33pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/20/2018 at 9:00pm
Tonight I will start to fill in some blanks since October.  The SC/R was chosen for one of the 16 unveils at MCACN 2018, an honor I will never forget and an opportunity to help bring attention to the entire hobby that AMC has arrived to the MCACN party in force with (3) unveils in that (16) total.  The Nashnuts American team did an awesome job of promoting and preparing for this very significant event.

I had been pushing so hard to finish the car over the past year to make it in time for this event.  I knew I was going to be close but as September turned into October I could see that I might well come up short.  I knew that I was giving Kirkwood and RamAirRick heartburn.  In the end it all came down to one final push.  I lined up help from my dad, Brian Moyer, Bruce Wanner, and Zach Straits as we headed into the weekend before the event to do all of the interior install, grille area and trim out in various places.  Several other issues plagued us including leaky brakes.  It was nail biting time.

The plan was for Zach to arrive about 10:30am on Wednesday morning, we load the car, and be on the road before lunch on Wednesday.  Zach arrived at 9:30am and I was still installing headlight bezels, seat side trim, and tach.  I hadn't even begun detailing on top.  We finished assembly at 1:30pm, rolled the car out of the garage and wenched onto the enclosed trailer and left by 2:30pm headed west.  Little did we know that the mid-Atlantic winter storm brewing would chase us all the way to Chicago!  The car arrived in Chicagoland at 7am Thursday, safe from the storm that made travel treacherous deep into Indiana a short time later that morning.

Over the coming weeks I will post the chronological assembly build process where I left off, as I enjoy some time off from the car through the holidays.  We have yet to start up the car, mainly due to the overly tight schedule we struggled through recently.  We wanted to take the time to go through that process right, plus I really need to revisit the brake leak issues and the caliper bleeder leak may require removal and machining to accomplish correction.

For tonight, how about a small selection of photos that celebrates the long journey of this build through it's MCACN reveal:


As found - late July 1990


Circa 1992


April 2014


September 7 2018


October 20, 2018


1:30 PM November 14, 2018


2:00PM November 14, 2018


12:30PM  November 15, 2018 - MCACN 2018 arrival


Noon, November 17, 2018




Proud to fly the flag with this AMC family of friends!  Thank you all!

Saturday began the handover of this car to the AMC community.  I begin to shift from builder to caretaker.  I look forward to taking care of this piece of AMC history for a good long time, but in reality, there is a little bit of all of you invested in this special little AMC and for that, this one, as well as so many of the cars we have saved for posterity, becomes part of the collective hobby.






Edited by kcsamc - Nov/20/2018 at 9:59pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zioamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/21/2018 at 6:26pm
was great seeing you Kevin and looking over the SC what a amazing Job you and the group that helped you to finish it up the Display that was put together was second to none all the cars on displayed were top shelve car in my book !!!
      .....1969 Sc/Rambler....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/26/2018 at 9:37pm
Tonight I will begin to bring the "journey" story up to date with all the drama that took place between October 27 and MCACN.  Saturday, Oct. 27th was the last official posting on progress.  Time became extremely precious and I was exhausted at the end of every long day.  For the most part of September, October and the first half of November my every workday consisted of 10 hours making a living, and hour and a half on dinner and a nap, and then 4 hours in the shop until 11pm.  I think we will continue the story with a time count-down just to give a better feel to the time crunch.  On our SC/R facebook page someone said that perfectionists and deadlines just don't mix.  I had to be-grudgingly agree.  The two are like oil and water...


17.5 days to load:

Took a moment to take a pretty picture of the factory Hurst shifter sticking up through its hole in the floor - there is still MUCH to do....


16.5 days to load:

A friend from work volunteered to come over and help on Sunday afternoon.  After he relocated all the floor holes that the sound-deadener covered, we worked to assemble the clutch linkage.  Having never assembled one of these before - it took a try or two to figure out the assembly sequence.  Things were looking up as we moved ahead with the pieces.  But, things were about to go south.  I needed to get the linkage done because I had to get moving on installing the exhaust pipes.  I am sharing the following details here only as a cautionary tale to all those that follow.  I'm not happy with what I had to do and had to compromise on.

I had run the tap through the mounting holes on the bellhousing before engine-tranny assembly.  Everything seemed ok, but as I was soon to find out, the top clutch pivot bracket threaded hole was compromised from aluminum corrosion and only a very few threads were intact.  As I was very carefully tightening the bolts through the bracket, the top bolt drew down, I gave it just a few more inch-lbs of torque to secure and I heard a sickening "tink" sound and the bolt popped back out of the bracket - the top threads were wasted.  Facing the reality that the only way to properly fix it was a thread insert, and the fact that I didn't think I could get in there to properly drill and tap it, I was just able to get my air drill up there to take out the 5/16 thread to a 5/16 hole and made a special bolt head to lock into place on the backside of the bellhousing and nutted it on the bracket side.  Now you know one of the deep dark secrets of the build you would have never known if I didn't show you.  The lesson here - triple check the quality of the threaded holes on the bellhousing before installing.  Repair any questionable ones with thread inserts before you get backed into a corner like I did.



15.5 days to load:

I pulled down my prepped NOS exhaust brackets only to find that the clearcoat I had applied to them was already allowing spiderweb rusting under the clear.  I was not a happy camper.   This humidity in the mid-Atlantic region is horrible for finish hold.  I stripped the clear off each piece and spent the whole night plating the hanger metal pieces with the Eastwood tin-zinc and then steel wooling to give back a "bare-metal" look.  Another day burned on rework....  Below is a photo of the subassembly with the NOS self tapping bolts.  for exhaust assembly later in the week, we set the exhaust position and then mounting the hanger assembly to give a final bracket weld position.










Edited by kcsamc - Nov/26/2018 at 9:42pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/27/2018 at 10:34pm
14.5 days to load:

My friend Bruce has been coming over almost every night.  Up until this day, he was basically trying to keep the flow of clean and ready new or NOS parts prepped for me to bolt up to the car.  On this night and for the rest of this week, I needed the extra hand to start fitting the exhaust.  By my calculations I needed to have the exhaust completely done by Friday and we were already at Tuesday.  In September, Denise and I made a trip down to OCMD for a short weekend beach trip and to pick up the new exhaust created by longtime AMCer and exhaust expert, Craig Goldberg.  Craig used an original set of SC/R pipes to make me copies.  The only problem was the fact that standard pipe bending machines cannot make the hump with as tight of a radius as factory - Craig gave me every fraction of an inch he could and then freehanded the slightly alternate exit that we all were praying would clear the tight spots in the tank area.  This week we were about to find out!

On this night we got as far as installing the front (2) left pipes and slid on the NORS 3163 Thrush cans direct from the box.  A test fit with the tailpipe clearly showed that we were long on the front portion.  After consulting others of the SC/R facebook page, my suspicions turned out to be correct - I needed to cut down the pipe ends on the NORS 3163 mufflers.  Work ended here for the Tuesday night




13.5 days to load:

Spent the first hour of the evening in the shop, measuring and cutting the ends off the new Thrush mufflers, then it was time to fit the left tailpipe, check the clearances and determine where the hanger brackets had to be welded on.  I had purposely left the torque links, shocks, and e-brake lines off the rear end to give me the maximum clearance to fit the pipes - that was a very good decision.  We had plenty of room to get the tailpipe over the axle without messing up paint, however, bubble wrap protection was still used!




Having the chance to locate my own brackets for best fit on the tailpipe was another smart move - we set everything in place, including mounting the bracket then marked the pipe for weld location - then removed from the car and welded the brackets on the bench.  If anyone is wondering where I got the brackets - I took measurements off an original set and had a local Amish shop make them for me.  A very young fellow named Amos took care of me!


12.5 days to load:

I got the welding done on the left side tailpipe and we permanently installed it with the NOS Q-clamps.  Once fully locked down, I ended up with a finger's width of clearance back near the tank at the closest spot.




Photoshop out the jackstands and it looks like I'm pulling the front end off the ground on a hard launch! - dreamer!

Later in the evening, Bruce and I got the front (2) right pipes installed and the muffler slid on.  Boy the right front exhaust pipe is tight up there for drawing up the nuts!  It's the end of the night Thursday, the exhaust still has the most most problematic pipe to install, and the car is due in Chicago in just a tick under 2 weeks...

Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/29/2018 at 10:15pm
11.5 days to load:

It's Friday, dad got medical release from doctor to travel after surgery in mid-October, and he arrived to join the heat of battle for the final round.  Bruce arrived after dinner and Eric also joined the important Friday night goals to finish the exhaust pipe install.  The all important right tailpipe HAD to fit or we were in trouble...

A first pass fit demonstrated that we could make the tailpipe fit the tight exit around the tank, but... the final bend to set the exit angle had a little too much bend and the tailpipe tipped downward.  There was not enough adjustment to compensate for it, and the only way to correct it was to try to take out some of the bend; easier said than done.  Looking at each other as we contemplated how to "unbend" a tailpipe and do it fast, we brainstormed jumping on it (no luck), running over it with the Durango (nothing either), and finally drastic action of hitting it with 10lb sledge hammer (using a wooden support frame and plywood interface) which on the second blow did the job perfectly.  Crisis averted.

We got the brackets set and welded then did the final install and clamping.  After all was said and done, we had about a finger's width of clearance on the right side as well.  To celebrate the complete and important victory, I slid on the NOS exhaust tips for a photo op to end the night...



Fits like a glove around that tank!



Those exhaust tips are a lesson to all those out there searching for NOS parts.  The purchase of those tips came nearly 20 years apart.  If you have ever passed up an item because you felt it necessary to make sure you got both at the same time - you might not ever get the chance.  I bought one at Carlisle in the early 90s and picked up the second just a few short years ago to finish the set.  A bird in the hand....

10.5 days to load:

It's a new day to make serious progress.  My goals were to get closer to buttoning up the undercarriage and rear axle.  First up was the ebrake leverage assembly.  Lots of NOS parts here, and a lot of search through the years to find them.  This assembly is more complicated than I thought...


The black clip is the hardest item to find - got lucky with that one about a year ago!

Rear shocks got mounted and clear plugs in the trunk installed.  In addition I fought with the terribly (Inline tube) bent short line from proportioning valve to flex line to get it to fit  Angry, finishing the brake line assembly.

The tailpipe tips got their cleanup and final install to formally complete the exhaust system:




I gave dad a project I don't think he was expecting...  With having a AMARK battery topper I decided to use a clear side Interstate battery - but it had molded in letters.  I asked dad to remove the letters from the battery and polish to remove traces of its existence.  I don't think I could ever convince him to do another one for me.  LOL





Bruce worked on prepping NOS parts for assembly:




Kevin Shope
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67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov/30/2018 at 10:16pm
9.5 days to load:

The calendar is winding down fast, and I try to go a little lower key on Sundays with small projects with more immediate satisfaction of results.  Dad and I were in the shop alone for the whole afternoon.  We worked to finish up center caps and trim rings on the wheels.  What a difference a little bling makes on those blue wheels.  Original NOS 4 clip trim rings can be a pain to get on.  I ended up using a paint stick with a deadblow hammer - and a good deal of caution and care.  Ultimately they submitted without anyone getting hurt!


Dad finished polishing the battery case, and I worked on installing the NOS sidemarkers and NOS 390 emblems on the front fenders.  Satisfying to finally add those elements clearly defining it as the factory hotrod:



I needed to keep working at finishing up the undercarriage items, so it was time to get the rear end and trans fluids added and also get the driveshaft installed with restored hardware.  The driveshaft decided it wasn't interested in sliding past the new aluminum seal in the tailshaft and required me to use more force than I thought I should.  After it succumbed, it finally got happy and spun ok, but that first pass was the hardest install I ever had on a driveshaft!

The driveshaft had a nice wide pink stripe in the middle and a small swipe of orange on the yoke - makes for a more colorful undercarriage for sure!


Also just faintly showing in the picture above is that pretty NOS rear end fill plug for the Model 20 rears - I really like that NOS part!

I finished the night with the need to complete the very last of the paintwork - on the spare tire wheel.  It had been blasted and primed with the factory original tire a week earlier, so tonight was just shooting the semigloss black.  At least it would get a week to dry and cure:



At this point I had one more long week at work including training a new supervisor to fill the temporary position I was filling.  Dad was here for the week, and we setup projects for him each day while I was at work.  We saved the larger projects for "the team" in the evenings.

One "small" project dad worked at was getting the reproduction lanyard cables assembled with the hood pin latches - what a pain that is to get the loops to open up enough to insert the cable and not screw up the plating!


8.5 days to load:

Dad worked to get the short stainless trim pieces at the beltline installed during the day.  Eric helped with some extra finger strength in the evening to get two stubborn clips to "pop" to finish that off on that Monday night.

Eric and I worked to install and set the torque links.  First up - was loading the trunk - I decided to use the bags of lime I needed to use on the lawn plus some jugs of water and the new oil for the car to meet weight!  We learned a few things that can help others if you are taking notes:

    1)  Don't install the axle rubber bumpers on the frame until after you do the torque links - they are just in the way at set height.  We had to take them off and re-install again after
    2)  If you don't have a 1 1/8" open wrench - go buy one first - you need to hold the nut between the torque link bracket and the backing plate - using an adjustable wrench under high torque wasn't fun for Eric....
    3)  Make a height gap gauge per the TSM out of a paint stick or something instead of using a tape measure - nice to have a standalone gauge to test insert for gap check as you load the trunk weight.

And, good luck with torquing in between the tailpipe and spring Sleepy


I didn't take a photo of the finished torque link assembly - sorry.  They looked sharp with fresh plated hardware!



Edited by kcsamc - Nov/30/2018 at 10:22pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/02/2018 at 9:50pm
7.5 days to load:

During the day, dad took care of assembling the air cleaner snout and decal - which got promptly packed away until the last day of the build so it wouldn't get damaged:


The spare wheel got un-wrapped and stacked with the rest.  I quickly took notice to the difference in the width of the redline between the original and the reproductions:



I noticed that my picture files really diminished for the rest of the time.  I guess the throws of the battle kept me heavily focused on the work at hand verses documenting.  On this night we began working on the brakes - boy I had no idea what I was in for...  I expected a few fitting joints to ultimately need a little extra torque, but what ensued was just downright brutal, and quite honestly a battle that I have still not won.

Things started out innocently enough with adding DOT 5 to the master cylinder and "bench bleeding" it in the car.  Within 5 minutes of re-attaching the brake lines to the master cylinder, I had leaks everywhere.  I spent the rest of the night on my back loosening and tightening fittings on each leak.  felt a bit defeated at the end of the long night.  The most worriesome development was the fully restored front calipers had brand new bleeders that wouldn't stop leaking by.  We had a plan to try making conical brass or copper washers and dad would spend the rest of the week working on that solution off and on.

6.5 days to load:

Dad spent the day rounding up hardware for other projects; in the evening we continued working on brake leaks in what seemed like an endless war.  We did get a bleeder to stop leaking with a conical washer (but would later start up again when we tried to bleed the front brakes).  Progress was hard to come by and there was a feeling that the project was hitting a critical stall point...

5.5 days to load:

We had to move onto some other projects so dad and Bruce started installing the rain spouting moldings.  The right side was kind of brutal, but they caught a break on the left side which popped right into place for them while I was at work.  In the evening, I had to get the flat black on the top of the hood flapper to match what my original hood had from the factory.  The hood needed to go on in a couple days so this needed done now.



I got the chance to study Mike Lewis's all original car at Auburn 2014 and saw how the black from this factory quick spray bomb, feathered into the inside of the bubble because the flapper sits part ways open.  When you see the car in person you can see that effect on this project.  I think I got it pretty close.

Original hood details, you can see where over the years the paint was coming off:


Bruce was able to install the new stainless sunvisor clips onto the original cleaned up sunvisors and had them prepared for assembly in a few days.  I was able to source the necessary 1" and 1/2" stainless replacement clips from ebayer "finesunvisors".  I contacted him through ebay and he had me use one of his existing clip buy it now offerings and then just sent me the sizes I needed - great replacement for $18.25 shipped.  Highly recommended!



At this time I had one last day at work with a very early start, and the all important final weekend just around the corner.  It was time to get some sleep in the leadup to the do or die weekend ahead.  You have probably noticed that I hadn't been talking about the interior yet; that's because the car still had no interior, save the headliner and dash assembly....





Edited by kcsamc - Dec/02/2018 at 9:55pm
Kevin Shope
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4.5 days to load:

It was the Friday before MCACN, I had a very early day at work and then off through MCACN...  got home from work about 2:30pm dog tired, sent Kirkwood a semi-coherent text and crashed for a nap for about 2 hours.  When I finally recovered from the week, dad and I had a good list of things to accomplish to be ready for the big weekend ahead.

We kicked off the evening prep with getting the hinges loosened up with my patented "hinge-o-matic".  If you remember back, I learned a rough lesson on a rusted NOS hinge and didn't want to repeat that or cause damage to the hood.  So we bolted up the wooden hinge actuator on each side, oiled each pivot and started breaking the resistance from the freshly painted hinges.  Got each one of them working nice and smooth.  We needed to install the hood on Saturday while we had the full work party and plenty of hands.


I had to install the reverse switch onto the shifter, and screw on the plastic hump - making sure that a good watertight seal with rope sealer was accomplished.  I also got out the NOS high beam switch and installed on the floor in prep for Saturday interior work.

The rest of the night was spend hunting down all my hardware for the weekend push.  I hadn't seen my hood bolts in quite a while and I knew that I didn't have them painted white yet as I forgot them when we painted the hood in Sept but I had a plan to get them done.  After a panicked search, I finally located the hood bolts and got them blasted in the cabinet before ending the night.  The NOS clear shock cover plugs went in and the dome light wiring got tweaked and prepped for Saturday.

Sorting my seatbelt bolts, I realized we had to re-plate the rear bolts because I never found short NOS ones - well,  poor Bruce had his job for Saturday morning lined up!

3.5 days to load:

The all important Saturday push was upon us.  An early breakfast and off to the shop.  Team members for the day would be arriving throughout the early morning and I needed to be ready.  My all star line-up for the day:  Bruce Wanner and Brian Moyer (my lcoal AMC friends with a lifetime of experience), my dad, and Zach Straits who God bless him, hopped in his truck at 4am to drive up from central Virginia to help me for the whole weekend.  Eric would join us later in the day.

Before the crew arrived, I setup the booth for powder coating and quickly coated and baked the hood bolts with appliance white powder.  They turned out very well and matched the paint 100%.  Bruce arrived first and got his assignment to blast and zinc plate the seat belt bolts.  Dad started doing final polishing of the red paint to get it ready for the show.

Brian arrived shortly after Bruce, and we set our goals on trying to get the headliner trim completed.  I hadn't been looking forward to the install of the side headliner rails, but Brian has done that job many times before.  I had set the seatbelt holder trim holes and we quickly got to work.  As suspected we needed to make the gap in the rail bigger to install it.  To preserve paint we ended up pushing in two body putty spreaders and using a putty knife to twist and open the gap.  After a trial fit and more spreading we got the first one on, but decided to really open up the gap in the other side before starting.  You don't really see the gap once installed - and we saw that it is tough to get the cardboard to drop in where the metal reinforcement ribs are.  So take our advice - get a strong 3/16" gap everywhere on that trim before starting install.

After getting those in - the front and back pieces were not too bad.  Brian took a seat inside and we fed him parts and screws.



Zach arrived from VA mid-morning and we set him to work installing the seatbelt hangers and clothes hangers on the headliner - finding screw holes was fun...

With a shop full of eager hands it got busy quick - while Brian and I did headliner work - Bruce and Zach installed the pinch weld trim



A near crisis was narrowly avoided when I realized that the headline trim I had painted up and waiting did not include the two piece front pieces....  Thankfully I had two sets of original of those and one set had really good paint - dad did some very careful cleaning and detailing and they looked as good as the freshly painted pieces beside them, once installed - whew, don't know how I messed up that prep months earlier but it just about derailed the Saturday train.  Moving on.... NOS mirror mount got installed concluding the headliner effort.

In the rear, we started working on installing the C-pillar trim panels, only to find out that there were no screw holes for the hole in the trim at the bottom of the window.  Leaving the screw out for about a half hour - we decided that the needed drawback and finish look of the car just wouldn't do like that so we decided to put a drill bit in my dremel and try to get a hole in that near impossible location.  It worked like a charm and we had the correct screw installed and looking the way it should.

Moving on we needed to get the rear panels installed and the rear divider panel installed.  I made new ashtray pocket liners from gaffers tape and kraft paper. The left side trim panel went on pretty well (these were new SMS panels), but the right side was just off square from SMS a bit and boy did it give us fits popping into place....  Things were starting to shape up a little bit though!



Zach saw the antenna cable still hanging down and volunteered to plug in and finish tucking it in behind the glove box - easier said than done - but at least he got to take a quick nap while he was down there....



Next, it was time for the vertical piece of the rear seat.  The Gordy Chilson fully restored seats were completely redone including blasted and painted framing to new burlap/seat cushion and vinyl.  Bruce and Zach posed while showing off the part of the seats you will never see!



We thought the seat went in too easy and it did - we ended up having to pull it out twice to get everything positioned just right and to be happy with it!  Interior work ended for the day with Kevin and Brian laying in the rear carpet, trimming and carpet taping into position - so far so good with carpet - the new Hillick's kit I bought in 1992 was well made.  The rear plastic trim was screwed into position over the carpet to set the edges on the carpet.  Before heading in for supper with the crew, we laid out the front carpet just to let it get happy overnight.

After dinner, we had three big goals:  install the the windshield trim (the dreaded job), install and set the hood, and loop back around on brakes.  Dad also struggled through the hood latch - lanyard assembly with Eric.  Because my nerves were shot on th ebrakes, Zach volunteered to work through each leak point and do what it took to stop the bleeding.  On the distribution valve, we ended up installing brass washers which ultimately eliminated the leaking.  Rear brake lines got the same treatment but some major disassembly was required!

Brian and Kevin tackled the windshield trim.  All in all the windshield trim wasn't terrible - it was nerve-racking but within an hour all 5 pieces were installed and protective tape removed.  Having the 100% correct original replacement trim clips I think was key, plus having an NOS windshield gasket didn't hurt!



It was good to get the windshield trim on, as the hood was next.  With a complete team on hand (albeit getting tired!) we hoisted the hood onto the hinges and set about tweaking the position to match up with all the mating sheet metal.  While it took a few tries we ultimately had the hood fitting perfectly and FINALLY we had a complete exterior!!!  Hood down, time for a photo!



Time to recognize the all star team that accomplished the near impossible on Saturday - mission not yet complete but the team stayed on goal for what needed done and at 9pm we called it a day.  For me looking back, it was a humbling day, knowing all these great guys were willing to give me their time and talent to help get the job done.  Equally a blessing to have (3) generations of Shope guys in the shop Saturday night wrenching.  Photo below has all but Bruce in it from the Saturday all-stars:




Edited by kcsamc - Dec/14/2018 at 11:01pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/18/2018 at 10:33pm
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The calendar is now turning into a blur, I'm on a self imposed media blackout to stay focused, with no idea from here on out what the weather is supposed to do for the week ahead... and there is a ton of work to do yet.

Sunday's work staff was slimmed down to myself, Zach and dad.  Dad worked to finish up red paint detailing while Zach and I laser focused on the front carpet.  I won't say the carpet was hard, but it was very tedious and time consuming.  Fitting, pulling it back, adding some jute in spots, rechecking, applying tape and resetting and then trimming the sides to fit, and allow the kick panels to seat correctly just took time.  Before we knew it, the morning was gone, we had the rear seat belts installed and the carpet screws in the back done.  (Warning - if you want to nearly lose your religion sometime - try relocating the old carpet screw holes through the new carpet/jute - yeah...)

I captured Zach as we finished up the front carpet, and then prepared for rear bottom seat install:




In all, the carpet turned out pretty good - we needed to add some jute on the top of the hump and around the shifter to make it look better, but the other areas laid down pretty well.

Dad moved onto installing the SC/H emblems and the hood emblem - important final phase elements to set the car off.  While I had an NOS hood ornament I could have used, the new reproductions are so perfect and spot on - I left the NOS one in the bag in the display cases upstairs.  The chrome on the NOS is starting to yellow just a bit so the repop actually presents better.






The colors were really starting to pop!

Before finishing the rear seats off, I finally broke out the NOS rear dome light covers.  There are some NOS pieces you really think twice about spoiling before tearing open that factory packaging, and these were one of those times for me.  Super rare parts today.  boy they just popped when I pulled them from their 50 year old package!




When installing these, make sure to get the correct tab in the right hole slot on the panel.  At first glance it looks like these can go in any of the (3) locations, but they are made for just one location for best fit - rotate and try before finishing.


The afternoon pressed on and we wanted to get Zach on the road home before it got to dinner time.  I dug out the NOS front seat bolts and we retrieved the restored seats from the house and started loading.  Just so you can see the correct detail on the seat spring, I took a quick photo between setting in both seats.  The spring should be bare metal look with the rest of the pieces a semi-gloss black:


You get a good look at Gordy's recovering work there as well.

I am not sure how she worked it, but my wife got to be the first one in the drivers seat as we handed the seat in the door opening to her and started fastening it LOL



After getting Zach on the road, dad and I continued with a few smaller items like hood trim install, horn assembly (just one for now!), and I slipped in the shifter arm, and struggled through getting (4) screws for the shifter boot down through all the layers of jute and into the shift hump speed clips.  Dad was leaving in the morning so my help was dwindling.

FASTNASH and his son, Nash drove over Sunday evening to help on a few important items of getting the rear axle hubs final torqued, adjusting the clutch, and getting the ebrake tension set just right before he had to head home and get his Rebel Machine ready and loaded for their trip to MCACN as well.

The weekend was successful, there was still a lot to do, but we were within striking distance - not a slam dunk by any means, and more challenges lay ahead...










Edited by kcsamc - Dec/18/2018 at 10:37pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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