69 SC Journey

It is now the Monday morning before the MCACN show.  There were a lot of small things on the list today, but having the full day made it feel better.  Bruce was coming over after breakfast to spend the entire day and even came back in the evening.  We started off the day with finishing the rear 1/4 inner panels.  The NOS armrests needed screwed on, and what a bit of pain they are getting that rear screw in - it was nice having the extra hand holding it while I used the stubby screwdriver.  A couple more screws and the mint original ash trays snapped into place and also the setting of the rear window cranks - the back seat area was done!  We moved to installing the freshly restored rear view mirror and the sunvisors.

Brakes and what to do with them were up next.  The master cylinder needed finished up and we still had caliper bleeder problems.  Deciding that the bleeder problems were not solveable before leaving and hoping to get some level of brake pedal for the show, I purchased some 3/8-24x1/2" screws, and Bruce and I went about bleeding the front calipers as best as I could through the leaky bleeders and then quickly threaded in the teflon coated screws.  Not great by any stretch - but mostly stabilizing the leak situation for the time being.  We got a slight pedal from the exercise, stopped "the bleeding" and were able to swap out the cap and retainer for the final prepped pieces and moved on...  The calipers need to come off in January and have the bleeder faces re-machined (thanks White Post for not handling that during the expensive rebuild...)

Bruce cleaned up choice pieces of the bundle of factory vacuum hose I picked up in Kenosha last summer, and I worked at figuring out what to do with final scoop attachment.  The scoop came with nice stainless hardware, but it would still turn in the holes, and I couldn't hold the socket heads once sitting on the hood.  Soooo, I decided to put a very thin slot in the ends of each screw with the dremel disk and then super glued the screws in position.

Mid-afternoon, Bruce and I started working on installing the door mirrors.  I learned quickly, that you can't assemble them onto the doors fully assembled - just start with the mirror bases and assemble it on the door.  I had welded flange nuts on the inside of the door and hand modified special machine screws for the mirror attachment several years back, so glad I did.  Gives a firm feel to the mirrors.

After dinner I recruited some family help.  It was Monday evening and I needed to finish the door panels and the undercarriage needed cleaning for the show.  Bruce, Eric and Denise all dug in on the undercarriage as I prepped the door panels to be popped onto the car:

I cut out the openings on the new panels, tested and set the clips (which are not easy to do on new panels (have to tap each one into place without damaging anything).  Once the panels popped on the NOS armrests and handles were easy peasy.

The RWB headrests installed and the interior mostly finished:

To finish off Monday night, Eric and I brought down the restored original trunk mat.  I wanted it to get "happy" before loading in the jack and spare tire.  It was a bit stiff, but complied reasonably well.  After 24 hours it settled in even better:

One more full day left!

Tuesday - the checklist was loaded with some heavy items, and it all needed done:

When Bruce arrived, i put him on careful cleaning of the NOS etched doorsill plates:

I had some grille mounting hardware that needed black phosphated, so I quickly finished prepping and cooking those for install later in the evening.

Bruce took care of modifying the NOS 1/4 trim cap plastic pieces to my request - After looking at original pieces and the splits around the holes and the use of the tapered phillips heads, that it would be better to chamfer the holes on the plastic part.  When finally installed on Wednesday morning, I did find that they fit much better.

Next up was finalizing all the vacuum and washer lines to the hood and distributor and little finishing touches under the hood.  Bruce took care of removing and careful cleaning of the NOS jack pieces:

The Hurst shifter handle had to go on.  Years and years ago, I was given the tip that later 60s Mustang also used the 4 speed aluminum handle, so I grabbed one from a Ford vendor at Carlisle and packed it away... but I had never double checked the thread...  Problem #1 of three on Tuesday... The shifter arm is 3/8-24.... the aluminium handle is 3/8-16, but otherwise it is 100% correct including the print style of the "4".  Weighing options, the only one was to take the handle and tap it with the 3/8-24 tap, knowing that I was headed for a steel thread insert regardless later on.  A simple solution at the moment, and it worked well enough for MCACN.  After Thanksgiving I ordered steel inserts from McMasterCarr to fix the handle permanently.  Trouble averted... for the moment.

As the day headed into early afternoon, the pressure was on to get the car on the ground.  It was time to get those wheels on, and get it off the jackstands.  There are points in a restoration process that make you pause and stare.  The minute I stepped back from installing the wheels and NOS lug nuts, I FINALLY got a glimpse of what it was going to look like, but still anxious to know what the overall stance was going to be - amazingly it was nearly 3pm on the day before leaving and I had no idea how car stance was going to end up (torque link install changes everything a good bit).  First peak with wheels:

A few minutes later the stands were removed and I had good look at the all important attitude!  Car is still sporting its original springs all around!

Wow - its looking close!

Brian came straight to the shop after he finished work, and he and Bruce and I continued working at assembly.  Brian installed the door sill plates, while I brought down the holy grail - the NOS steering wheel and pulled from the 25 year old shipping box - boy I hadn't looked at this beauty for years - sure glad I jumped on it for the $140 price tag all those years ago!!!!

Brian and I did a 15 minute "alignment" on the tie-rods and got the tires close enough, to allow me to get the steering wheel on and then we focused on dropping on the hood scoop finally and then getting the battery installed with hold -down.

The celebration of the hood scoop and how well the slotted screws worked for assembly was short lived as we turned to the battery assembly.  The battery dropped in but was super tight.  The reproduction hold down bracket was a totally different story - Problem #2 for Tuesday was in full swing...  The bracket was too short on length and too wide on the width to work on the battery plastic topper.  Playing with options, the only thing that affected change was putting my foot inside the bracket and pulling with all my might against it - I got it about 50% of the way before calling Eric in to show us how strong he was.  Young buck got it to about 90% fit before maxing out.  Brian then carefully filed the rubber coating and then we brute forced the bracket over the battery in the tray.  Boy there is no finger room to mess with the J bolts on these things!  Crisis #2 narrowly averted for the day...

With the hands still available and running out of evening hours, we all worked on assembling the grill into place which went pretty well with careful screw assembly.  We dropped in the handmade stainless hood pins and checked the hood alignment - all good.

Before calling it a night, Brian took on the challenge of getting the NOS wiper arms on the pivot shafts and Eric and I installed the jack and spare tire in the trunk and slapped the stickers on to finish up the trunk.

After everyone else left, Eric and I wanted to get the air cleaner on, so we dropped the base on and aftermarket Fram filter (for transport) and the super nice original air cleaner lid I had squirreled away.  My heart sank immediately as Problem #3 raised its head.  What I thought was a correct NOS carb -air cleaner rod, turned out to be wrong and was too short.  - what to do?  Its 10pm on the night before leaving... I frantically text RamAirRick about the issue hoping a backup plan in Chicago could be pulled off if needed and then I instructed Eric to bring down Box 1A and 1B to see if I had any other rods to try.  After emptying the boxes, we located the original bent, battle scarred and grimmy original shaft.

Like a NASCAR pit crew fixing a smashed up car, we puleld out the anvil and hammer and straightened the rod, I hand filed as much of the battle scars out of the shaft as possible and we chased the threads with a tap, before Eric threw it in the blast cabinet for a cleaning and I yanked out the Eastwood plating kit and prepped for zinc plating.  In just 15 minutes from locating the alternate rod, we had it completely restored and installed on the car, and finished up the air cleaner assembly before collapsing for the night.  Crisis #3 averted - time for bed....    only a partial morning of time left to get it on the trailer and the list was still too long...  Zach was due to arrive at 10am or so the next morning.

Guess you are driving east again Tony! 

Driving East is the only way for me to see all those great AMC's in one place and to hang out with all the crazy AMC folks!