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Hunter---69 AMX

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pacerman View Drop Down
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    Posted: Mar/24/2016 at 6:14pm
Ok since my buddy and I pulled the car cover off of my long-stored 69 AMX this week, it got the juices flowing and I will be bringing it back into use later this summer.  At least that is the plan at this point. This post is sort of a baseline report.  I purchased the car in 1999 in Orange County, CA.  It was last licensed in 1978 and had been used for some drag racing prior to purchase by the previous owner.  It came to me as shown with no engine or transmission.  It is a factory 343 four-speed car, Hunter Green (hence the name).  It has black/charcoal leather seats.  The drag racing owner was from Turlock, CA and had raced it with a 455 Olds and turbo 400 transmission in it.  I was able to track him down using records supplied with the car and he said with that engine/tranny combo the car was not much fun to drive on the street. 

The pics show it's current condition with the few warts that it has.  I plan to replace the underhood wiring harness (which was pretty badly hacked for the olds motor), replace the drive train, get the seats recovered with new Legendary leather covers, clean up the body but try save as much of the original paint as possible, and push out some of the dents, replace the brakes and drive it.  I have a 69 390 from another AMX.  The car has a Mopar 8 3/4 rear axle in it and I might keep that, but I do have an AMC 20 rear end I can install. 

The car will need new silver stripes (which I have) but I am nervous about removing the old stripes without damaging the paint.  The car has Sieberling brand tires on it and that company was bought out by Goodyear I think in the early 70s, so yes I will be buying tires.

I need to debug Gizmo the Gremlin and finish the IRWIPI project rambler before I will do much with Hunter, but I did order a new MH Electric wiring harness today.  Seats are next.  I will have lots of questions because frankly I have not paid much attention to all the V8 threads here on the forum in the past.

Pics follow:



















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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 69BBB3904spAMX Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/24/2016 at 9:33pm
Smile Cool Joe! I know where you got the NOS silver stripes...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 401MATCOUPE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/25/2016 at 5:04am
Joe...don't be nervous on the stripe removal.  3M and Eastwood both make a "eraser" that will remove the factory Vinyl Stripes with no damage to the paint.  It is a disc of like a rubber eraser material.  I did the entire T-Stripe on the hood of original paint Quick Silver 71 AMX, no damage, and I just did the trunk stripe on my parents 74 Matador X, the Red X was really faded out and their were cracks in the "Matador" die cut....it came off in about 45 minutes, prepped and back on with new repop, all in a little over a hour!!
Ross K. Peterson
68X,GoPac,343,AT,52A(1stCar)
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70X,GoPac,390,4sp,87A,8
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pacerman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/16/2017 at 3:27pm
Okay, I am pleased (sort of) to report some progress.  I am staying with the 343 engine displacement that the car came with.  I have a new factory short block (made in 1973) that I have mentioned before.  I took the rotating mass for balancing to a trusted machine shop in a nearby town.  I picked the parts up today.  The reason I had it balanced was because I could not find a factory 343 flywheel and had purchased a NORS Scheifer flywheel with the correct part number for the AMC 343, 360 and 390.  The Scheifer catalog has a notation stating they they recommend precision balancing of the assembly.  The machinist said that it was the most out of balance new engine that he had ever worked with.  The pistons alone had 7 grams difference in weight.  The crankshaft was 152 grams (1/3 of a pound for you non-metric guys, ha) out of balance.  He said AMC would have been more correct if they had not drilled the crank as much as they did for the factory balance.  Anyway, all is good now.  I am looking forward to assembling the engine in the next couple of weeks.  I will be ordering new leather seat covers to replace the dried out leather on the seats, along with new carpet.  I will try to use Dent-Pros to deal with some of the soft dents on the body, because I want to preserve the original paint.  I will try too knock some of then out myself, also.  

I will have to deal with the sagging headliner but want to try to avoid having to buy the replacement currently marketed by the vendors.  The materials themselves are in great shape.  The glue has just failed.  The wheels will be blasted and refinished.  I will be getting new tires but I think I want to preserve the original look of the tires so I might try for the redlines or the small logo Goodyear RWL's.  Pictures to follow soon.   The car has a Mopar 8 3/4 rear axle from its racing days.  I don't know whether I will keep it yet.  Joe 


Edited by pacerman - Mar/16/2017 at 3:30pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 401MATCOUPE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Mar/16/2017 at 3:50pm
Joe,

Don't be shocked by how far out the balance was....the factory 343 flywheel has a cast in mass balance block on the side that faces the back of the engine....about 1" cube size.....the Scheifer Flywheel in neutral balance, so what they have to do to correct the weight, is to add or subtract the amount of weight (roughly speaking) that is the delta from the factory balance to the neutral balance.
Ross K. Peterson
68X,GoPac,343,AT,52A(1stCar)
68X,GoPac,390,4sp,52A
69X,GoPac,390,4sp,64A
70X,GoPac,390,4sp,87A,8
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pacerman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/23/2017 at 9:39pm
Ok so i made room in the garage for Hunter the AMX over the weekend and I am another step closer to starting the project.  It feels good to have the car inside and it does provide some incentive to work on it now.  He's a dirty guy still but I will begin cleaning in and build the motor.  I will be asking numerous questions as I try to mate the engine up with a T-10.  The car was not complete (missing engine and tranny) when I got it so I will be looking for original style hardware more than likely.  




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pacerman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun/03/2017 at 6:41pm
Spent much of the day removing a section of the silver Go Package stripes on Hunter the AMX, in preparation for replacing them with NOS stripes.   I want to drive this car a couple of years as a survivor before I make a decision to paint it.  The paint has held up pretty good overall. I used the Stripe Eraser to do it, as mentioned by Ross some time ago.  I purchased that tool a few years ago but it didn't work on my 77 Gremlin which had sunbaked gold stripes.  It's working OK on the AMX but the process I used is this:    Stripe eraser to remove the vinyl stripes, Two or three rounds of Goof Off with a soft plastic sponge to remove most of the adhesive, followed by two more rounds of hand rubbed 3M Perfect It rubbing compound.  It's one way to get your exercise.  At this rate it will take me about three days to do the whole car.  It does leave a shadow of the stripes but that doesn't bother me because it will make positioning the replacement stripes a little easier.   Joe




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 348AMX Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun/04/2017 at 5:49pm
You'll like the 343, it is a great high performance street engine, responds really well to mods, put a moderate cam. An r4b or air gap headers and some mild ignition upgrades and it will pull awesome.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pacerman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun/07/2017 at 10:37pm
I cut the old racing exhaust off of the car tonight.  Interestingly the guys had installed the mufflers backwards, with the inlet facing the rear on both sides.  I don't know if they did that for a better fit or what.  I removed the rear carpet and am considering how to manage the replacement. Stock Interiors does sell the wheel well covers and rear panel as an item, and I will buy those,  but they they do not (in their online catalog) offer just the rear carpet.  I am going to reuse the front carpet because the car is a survivor and that carpet is in great shape.  Also, I had ordered a couple of spray cans of Code 71A Hunter Green from APS Tower Paint and sprayed a couple of coats hastily onto a grey painted background on a test coupon.  The paint is a pretty fair match and will be useful for some fill-in at the edge of panels and perhaps underhood.  I don't think it is wasted money.  I also have a quart of 71A Dupont paint mixed by my local paint supplier but I have not sprayed a test panel yet.  





Test coupon on the left compared to paint under the trunk lid.  








Last licensed in 1978, presumably by the guys who raced it.  They didn't even bother to put the date (month) tag on the left side of the plate to make it street legal.  I have not peeked under the 1978 sticker to see when it was registered before 1978.  


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 69BBB3904spAMX Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun/07/2017 at 11:54pm
Smile Joe,

Keep all the exterior original paint and buff it out. They are only original paint once and this looks like it can be a very presentable survivor.
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