Print Page | Close Window

1965 American 440

Printed From: TheAMCForum.com
Category: The Lounge Area
Forum Name: Member Projects
Forum Description: Are you doing a restoration or in the middle of a major AMC project? Show and tell us about it (*AMC projects* only Please. Others may be moved)
URL: https://theamcforum.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37949
Printed Date: Mar/29/2024 at 12:31am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: 1965 American 440
Posted By: kronik
Subject: 1965 American 440
Date Posted: Mar/18/2012 at 6:42pm
Recently found a guy on craigslist getting rid of what he said was a 64 american.  He didn't wanna crush it because it had very little rust, and he knew somebody could rebuild it.  I knew it was a 65 though because the chrome goes all the way to the back.  Regardless... it was packed full of extra parts and the guy brought it over 200 miles to my house for me all for $400.

Here's what it looked like in the ad...




-------------
65 American
67 American



Replies:
Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Mar/18/2012 at 6:58pm
I got it in my shop... stripped the interior, wire wheeled the rust off of the roof and roughed up the floor so i could coat em.  No rust whatsoever on the floors or trunk Thumbs Up.













Once the interior was cleaned up, i focused on the motor.  Rebuilt starter for $40 and borrowed the sediment bowl from my 62', picked up a $3 napa fuel filter.  Ran a fuel line to a remote gas tank, and she fired right up.  Runs like a champ... the guy I bought it from didn't know if it ran and he owned it for 2 years LOL.

Not sure what I plan on doing with it... I have too many projects right now.  Its just gonna have to wait.  But at least it's cleaned up and undercover in my shop.

there was a distributor and another thing that I don't recognize in the car, can anybody id them? I don't want to throw em away if it's anything amc.






-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: pacerman
Date Posted: Mar/18/2012 at 8:25pm
The last pictures show the brackets that go under the seat backs to make beds out of the front seats when they fully recline.  Joe

-------------
Happiness is making something out of nothing.


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Mar/18/2012 at 8:46pm
ohh good thing i didn't toss those, they will come in handy at the drive-in Wink.  lol

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: raysinvegas
Date Posted: Mar/18/2012 at 10:23pm
This, and the 69 wagon on the way? Shocked  Somebody's got the Rambler disease! I can recognize it, I have 6 myself! LOL  Nice save BTW!

-------------
Andy Ray
64 440H
64 440 Convertible
68 Javelin SST 343
69 Javelin SST 343
69 SC/Rambler


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/13/2012 at 11:37am
I've decided to try my hand at body and paint work.... The 65 is getting a fresh coat.  There was a few dents here and there, some rust on the cowling.  But I have gotten those taken care of the last couple weeks.  I am now knocking all the surface rust down and getting it ready to prime.  I will post some pics after I put in some more work on it today.

As far as color goes, I'm mixing my own custom paint with a variety of ghost and metallic kandy pearls.  It's gonna be a kandy apple red with a black pearl top.  The 440 trim on the side will be replaced with a black ghost pearl stripe.


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: ramblinfsj
Date Posted: Apr/13/2012 at 11:58am
Man, my arms are burning just looking at all the rust you knocked off the underside of the roof. Looks like it was worth it. Floor pan too. The car looks very solid and all it needs is cosmetic work. What motor is in it? Glad to know it runs. That's a huge money saver there.

-------------
1982 Jeep J-20
1965 Rambler American 220
1978 Jeep Cherokee w/401
1983 Jeep J-10
1979 Concord DL 2dr


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/13/2012 at 4:17pm
It has a 232, which seems to run pretty strong.  Hopefully it will be dependable on the road since i'm going to all the trouble to paint it.  I need a gas tank for it though... I'm thinking about modifying a 69 wagon tank to fit since my wagon isn't going anywhere soon (filler tube re-location).  Well anyways... lunch time is over, back to sanding the car

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: ramblinfsj
Date Posted: Apr/16/2012 at 9:40am
What wrong with the gas tank? My 65 had the nastiest old gas you could think of. I pulled it from the car, poured about a gallon or so of muratic acid in it, sloshed it around, then flushed it with water. It was as good a new after that. If it has some holes in it, a radiator shop should be able fix it.

-------------
1982 Jeep J-20
1965 Rambler American 220
1978 Jeep Cherokee w/401
1983 Jeep J-10
1979 Concord DL 2dr


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/16/2012 at 12:26pm
I think the gas tank was damaged when the car was pulled from a ditch or something.  They hooked the cable to the rear axle and the tension on the cable dented the tank so bad that it's creased it and it has a hole now.  I think that's why the car was parked years ago.  That's just my guess though... it was the previous owner.  Fixing it at a radiator shop would be cool, but i'm pretty strapped for cash right now.  I haven't started cutting the wagon tank yet, but it's on my workbench!  I don't need it done right away so we will see what happens.  I might just end up seeing about finding another one, i would like to NOT start robbing parts from the wagon i just got.

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: KermitDRambler
Date Posted: Apr/16/2012 at 1:45pm

The gas tanks are the same basic shape from 64-69 but the filler neck is in a different place on a wagon than other body styles. Also, there were venting changes over the years. My 67 wagon has a fitting for a vent hose but the 68 American I had did not.

Matt


-------------
1967 American wagon

http://www.mattsoldcars.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.mattsoldcars.com


Posted By: ramblinfsj
Date Posted: Apr/16/2012 at 3:19pm
Originally posted by kronik kronik wrote:

I think the gas tank was damaged when the car was pulled from a ditch or something.  They hooked the cable to the rear axle and the tension on the cable dented the tank so bad that it's creased it and it has a hole now.  I think that's why the car was parked years ago.  
The same exact thing happened to my '62 Classic but not only did they crush the gas tank, it broke a couple suspension parts and pulled the engine from their mounts. The drivetrain is a torque tube so all the components from front to rear are mounted solid to each other.

-------------
1982 Jeep J-20
1965 Rambler American 220
1978 Jeep Cherokee w/401
1983 Jeep J-10
1979 Concord DL 2dr


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/17/2012 at 7:41pm
I went on a spontaneous camping trip for a few days and I meant to post some pics of my progress before I left but never got around to it, but here they are...


Filling trim and "american" script holes.  I also got rid of the antenna hole, side view mirror and rear door handles.











The front fender was replaced by the previous owner, they didn't fix the splash shield underneath, so the fender didn't line up right.  There was also a dent on the cowling that I needed access to, so the fender came off.  I wish I would have gotten some "before" pics of the cowling dent because it was pretty bad and it came out quite nicely.  If I posted the "after" pics, it would just look like a regular cowling (woo-hoo). 




Shaving the back door handles... gotta love it when your patch fits perfect the first try.  You can see the raised edge on the lower left side of the hole under the blue tape.  You wanna find those edges and knock em level before you fill holes, as I had to redo several of mine.  The metal distortion is most likely caused by pulling on the door handle over the years.








Surface rust covered the roof, trunk lid and hood.  In my experience old cars with red paint often fade and lose their protective qualities faster than others.  At this point I have sanded half the roof down to bare metal.  I have to use an etch primer or epoxy primer now that I have taken it down to bare metal. 




The hood hasn't been sanded on yet, that's just the 4-tone rusty faded paint.  This is my practice body and paint car.  I figure if I mess up the paint job, it will still look better and be more protected than it was.  If it comes out good, I will be doing my 67 that you see their on the right.




After working on the cowling dent and straitening the splash shield, I was able to put on and line the fender back up.  The fender that the car came with is from a 64 american.  You can tell by the chrome strip location, this is one way to differentiate between 64 and 65 americans from the side.  On the 64s (notice the fender) the chrome is lower, and would stop in the middle of the door.  On 65's the chrome is higher on the body and runs all the way to the back.  I used this tell when purchasing the car; it was advertised as a 64 but I knew it was a 65.  Anyways... rather than finding the correct 65 trim for the front fender and re-drilling holes, I will be removing and replacing all the side trim with a black ghost stripe.




Almost done sanding all rust and feathering paint chips and scratches.  Dents have been hammered, filled and blocks sanded (for hours).  Antenna, side mirror, rear door handles, script and trim holes have been removed and filled.  Rust on the cowling and a pretty dented rocker panel were the major fixes.  I regret not getting any "before" pics of them.  Now it's about time to clean up, hang my paint booth and shoot some primer.  I am self taught and this is my first time doing bodywork and paint.  All work has been done by me, and I have to say... I'm quite happy with the outcome thus far.  It's been a lot of work (mostly by hand), but it should be worth it in the end.  I think that you get a certain special kind of feeling when you do your own work.




This is an earlier pic, the side has been stripped by this point.  Just a view of my shop as it sits now and some of my cars.  67 (black, on the left)  62 (geen brown, in the back) and 61 (black, in the back).  They're dusty from sanding on the 65... I usually don't let them get like that.




Well that pretty much sums up the work I did last week.  Tomorrow I will probably be getting back at it.  And more pics should be coming soon.


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: nukeday
Date Posted: Apr/17/2012 at 11:26pm
Nice! I'm looking forward to coming to see you.

For bodywork, I'm so green I'd love to just look at the tools and equipment you're using, and ask you a million questions.

Curious if there is a photo-chopper on the site that might have done the car up as you'd like it to look finished? 


Posted By: Richtom1
Date Posted: Apr/18/2012 at 5:59pm
You are quite right, red usually fades the fastest.

When I pulled the headliner out of my 69 AMX I found the inside roof similar to the rust yours shows. I wanted to do something with the rusty roof interior.   After scraping and prepping I brushed Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator on  then waited the necessary time and brushed a second coat on.  The next day I brushed on a coat of Rustoleum white waited and then brushed on a second coat.

It's important for everyone to note that any sanding and/or grinding done in the vicinity of another car can lead to small rust spots showing on the paint.  Sometimes even overnight.  If a person has to grind near another car make sure to cover any car nearby and/or blow the particles off so they won't stay on and contaminate the cars finish.


Posted By: 69grumbler
Date Posted: Apr/24/2012 at 1:40am
looking good was this rambler on spokane craigslist if i remember correct, i just bought another 69 up here in spokane.


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/24/2012 at 4:31pm
Yes, actually it was on the Spokane CL.  Fortunately the guy was buying a car down here in Portland the same weekend, so he was already heading here with the trailer.  Delivered the car for no charge.  He said he wanted to find a buyer that was gonna fix up the car and not part it out.

I finished the first coat of primer yesterday... I'l probably post some pics later after I get em off my camera.


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Apr/25/2012 at 2:49pm
Finally got it ready to shoot some primer on it.  I had to move my cars out of the shop so I could set up a makeshift paint booth.  It sat outside uncovered for a couple hours; luckily the weather has been on my side the last few days.  It has been sunny in the upper 70's / lower 80's lately, which is a nice change from the Oregon rain.








By the way... the bird that went poo on my rear window is no longer with us anymore.  It has been a constant battle between that me and that g..Censored..mn bird.  She had a nest in my shop, probably used to invite her friends over to poo on my cars too Angry.  I swear they knew which ones I was working on and they would always aim for them.  If I left a window down, you could see where they would sit up in the rafters (carefully aiming i'm sure) and try to drop bombs INSIDE my car.  Well between Me, a buddy of mine and a little help from my cat.  I haven't had any bird problems lately.




Well I thought it would be a good idea to move the car outside since it was nice and all.  I didn't expect my car to be covered in polled from the nearby blooming spring flowers.  It wasn't that big a deal though, I was already gonna spray it down really good with the compressor and wipe the whole thing down with wax & grease remover before it got paint.




Okay, so here's my $40 paint booth LOL.  It's 25'x18' made with 10' sections of 3/4" pvc conduit ($1.35ea @ home depot), some 2x4's for a frame on the bottom, and painters pastic.  It's not the best booth I have made, but it's the biggest.  All i did was lay 2x4 frame on the ground, drill some 7/8" holes in the frame directly across from each other.  Then took a 30' lengths of pvc, arch em over and stuck the ends in the holes.  It wouldn't stand up freely, so I had to tie it to my rafters in a couple spots.  Overall it was pretty easy.  As an added bonus, I can break it down and set it back up whenever I want, for less than $20 for replacement plastic.  I know it's not professional... but then again, neither am I.




Got her in the booth, wiped clean of all pollen, fingerprints and dust.  Masked and ready to go.  I forgot about it at the time, but raising the car a few inches helps get access to the low spots on the panels.  Next time I will put the car on stands before I paint.  I didn't miss any spots (that I could find) but it sure would have been nice just to have 2 more inches of clearence when spraying the rocker panels




Drab grey olive-ish primer.  A very ugly color indeed... but I love it!  Sure looks better than rusty orange-red with the optional dents, chips and scratches.  Most importantly though, the car is protected from rust.  I used Finish 1 brand etch primer FP301 and FT302 reducer.








The next step is some high build primer and more sanding.











-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: ramblinfsj
Date Posted: Apr/25/2012 at 4:25pm
Nice work on the primer. I'm glad you got it on there too. I'm against Rambler nudity. That is a lot of darn bodywork and you did a great job from what I can see. I'm diggin' the paint booth too.

-------------
1982 Jeep J-20
1965 Rambler American 220
1978 Jeep Cherokee w/401
1983 Jeep J-10
1979 Concord DL 2dr


Posted By: nukeday
Date Posted: May/03/2012 at 2:06pm
Lovin' how you get things done. I wasn't sure what to expect, but both the body work and the paint booth look pretty darn good. Keep the updates coming, looking forward to seeing the finished car in person.

There is a little annual car show in Coburg first Saturday in August. There was a guy who used to bring an early American, but not sure if he's still around. We're hoping to have ours there this year, even though we may end up just pushing it over there.


-------------
Rambler/Datsun/Saab fan
'60 American Super


Posted By: NYDave
Date Posted: May/13/2012 at 9:55pm
As much as I love my Classic, I always loved the 64/65 American body style.  Love to get a station wagon one day. Looking forward to seeing paint pics.


Posted By: Rebel Vic
Date Posted: May/15/2012 at 9:33am
Did you get that car from a guy in Tacoma?  If so I remember seeing it on craigslist.  Great work so far.  What color are you painting it?


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: May/15/2012 at 10:11pm
I started working on it again today after taking about a week off to do carpet in a vette and put together a few mother's day gifts.
First off, the roof was a little rough (probably from not holding my gun perpendicular to the surface), so I sanded it smooth with some 600.  Then I finished taking apart the gauge cluster and I will be sanding the rest of the interior tonight.  Hopefully I will be masking and then shooting it with a high build primer tomorrow.
Ya, I got it from a guy in Tacoma.  The guy was really cool, he brought it a couple hundred miles to me because he wanted it to go to a collector who would fix it up.  After it's painted I will have to send him a couple pics.  I have paperwork dated January 2012 stating it's certified "junk".  I guess one man's trash IS really another's treasure... or soon to be at least.  I'm hoping to get the job done with some summer left, which shouldn't be an issue (but I got so many projects). 
The car will be dark kandy red with a pearl black top.  The chrome strip on the side will be replaced with a black stripe.  I did some test spraying with the pearls that I have, the kandy red is a little too purple-ish.  I'm looking for a dark kandy red.  I need to do some more test panels, as I only sprayed over black ones.  I have heard of people spraying red pearls over everything from silver, gold, brown and even green... all with different effects.
Anyways... enough typing, I need to get to sanding... now where did I put my redbull...Wacko


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: Rambling On
Date Posted: Jun/04/2012 at 3:25am
how are things going with this any color on it yet . nice work looking forward to see the finished result . 

-------------
1965 Rambler American 440h coup LHD


Posted By: nukeday
Date Posted: Oct/05/2012 at 5:37pm
Any progress pics? 

-------------
Rambler/Datsun/Saab fan
'60 American Super


Posted By: Rambling On
Date Posted: Oct/06/2012 at 1:26am
i have just started a 65 330 project after my 66 440 was dead in the end . looking forward to seeing this with color . 



-------------
1965 Rambler American 440h coup LHD


Posted By: nukeday
Date Posted: Aug/01/2013 at 4:50pm
Any updates? :)

-------------
Rambler/Datsun/Saab fan
'60 American Super


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Aug/14/2013 at 12:14pm
It's been about a year, but I'm finally getting some work done on this car again.  More updates soon...

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: colincs
Date Posted: Sep/05/2013 at 11:07pm
Just curious, and maybe I missed it in the thread, but is there a reason you shaved the rear door handles and not the fronts?


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Sep/05/2013 at 11:34pm
I painted the car with some high build primer (FP415) last year and started sanding on it and never posted any pics; I found em, so here they are...

Its got a little bit of striping on it because i put down two thick layers and started coming up short on paint for the third.  Doesn't really matter since it's all getting sanded down anyways.




After lots of block sanding it eventually looked like this, and this is pretty much how I left it last year...




What you can't see in the pictures is the work that has gone into getting the top strait; it had several dents on it that for some reason went unnoticed until this stage.  Block sanding the top and the hood is tedious.  Since the metal isn't supported very well, you can't use very much pressure otherwise it tries to flex.

I have some more recent pictures of the work I have done lately, but they are on my other computer... I will have them up in a couple days or so


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Sep/05/2013 at 11:40pm
Originally posted by colincs colincs wrote:

Just curious, and maybe I missed it in the thread, but is there a reason you shaved the rear door handles and not the fronts?


Right before I started on the bodywork a friend of mine brought over 2 door poppers, he had lost the remote for them so he pretty much gave em to me.  I wasn't even planning on doing it really (shaving the door handles that is)... it just worked out that way.  I will have to wire a couple hidden buttons under the dash to pop the doors.


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: colincs
Date Posted: Sep/08/2013 at 7:38pm
I see!  Well it should be pretty slick once you get those buttons wired up under the dash, and looking forward to more updates!


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Oct/26/2015 at 7:22pm
It has been quite sometime since I posted on the forum, particularly on the progress of this car.  Life ended up taking over all of my project time and the car sat untouched for almost a year...
Well I got back to work on it and finished it up just this last month or so.
The original plan (for 2 years) while I worked on it was a dark candy red with a black top.  I changed my mind on the color during the last week tho.
I used "sour apple metallic green" from summit and a couple coats of high solids clear.

pics coming soon...


-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Oct/26/2015 at 8:09pm

I will be lowering the car all around a couple inches... maybe 3 in the front.

Tried to get a close up of the metal flake/pearl... the picture doesn't do it justice.  This thing shines bright when its out in the sun.







Quite a bit of Color difference when under artificial light.







-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: 232jav3sp
Date Posted: Oct/26/2015 at 8:31pm
I like it! Pearl is one of my favorites. I like your decision to change the color.


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Nov/30/2017 at 7:34pm
Doing some work on the 65 lately...

Scarebird conversion

Before



After




-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Nov/30/2017 at 7:48pm
Lowering plates

Before



After



I don’t remember exactly how much the drop was, but I think it was close to 2 inches.

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: kronik
Date Posted: Nov/30/2017 at 8:43pm


I left the engine bay alone when I painted. Since the car ran good, I figured I would just leave the hood down when I showed it off. But something tells me that’s not what I want in the long run. So I’m pulling the 232 and rebuilding it. Also painted the engine bay, trunk, and underside of the hood and trunk lid.

Somebody in the past cut the top radiator support to fit a rad cap or clearance for pulling the motor, not sure but it was ugly. So it had to be fixed as well.





I have to admit, when I pulled the motor this little cut gave the crank pulley plenty of room on the way out.

I’m not gonna lie... I painted the engine bay with rattle cans... Outside. But this is proof that you can get near show quality finish if you know what you are doing. It’s all in the prep work and a good base primer. I used rustoleum line, I have had good long term results with them in the past. I will usually only rattle can things that don’t get direct sunlight. I took it down to bare metal where there was rust, etch primered. Then filler primer. Then sealer primer. Then several coats of black. Then multiple coats of clear. They have a new “professional automotive” line of spray paints, they seem to spray more material in a wider fan which helps give full coverage without the stripe look that rattle cans usually have.



One drawback with rattle cans is that they have much longer cure time and less resialncy to solvents. Luckily it will be able to sit for months before the motor goes back in. I will be rebuilding the suspension as well, so I will remove the cross member and paint it later.

-------------
65 American
67 American


Posted By: LakesideRamblin
Date Posted: Dec/07/2017 at 11:46pm
It looks fantastic. Love what you have done so far! Keep posting when you can. Like to follow your progress.

-------------
LakesideRamblin
69 Rambler 360
73 Javelin 360
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." T. Roosevelt


Posted By: gremlin1945
Date Posted: Dec/08/2017 at 12:12am
The brackets for the rear seat. Does anyone have a pair for sale? I need a pair for my '65 wagon.

-------------
former NHRA #1945

former IHRA #1945

T/SA


Posted By: one bad rambler
Date Posted: Dec/08/2017 at 2:45pm
Awesome job on the flake!!! I`ve tried it`s almost impossible to get a shot of flake unless you have a really good camera...I did a gold metallic base..3 coats of .015 and .004 gold flake 5 coats of clear 600 block 3 more coats of clear....

-------------
68 AMX 390 4 Speed,68 American,64 American 2 Door Wagon Altered Wheelbase,78 Concord Build 360,727,8.8


Posted By: 67 Marlin
Date Posted: Dec/28/2017 at 10:41pm
Great work on everything you've done with it!



Print Page | Close Window

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Copyright ©2001-2019 Web Wiz Ltd. - https://www.webwiz.net