1965 2dr American 220

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   So, as I already wrote in the introduction corner, this one is bought to my wife actually. But as it needs quite a bit work and she is busy with our two littles at the moment, I am the one who is going to fix it.
After few days owning it I can only say that I love this car - really simple and quite elegantly designed. There are few goods and few bads at the moment. 

Goods are new brakes and quite solid body shell, considering the fact that it has been driven in the winters and has seen quite a bit salt. Floorpan seems to be solid, all underside is under quite thick and really nasty oily and sticky undercoating but it seems to have done it's job. Another good thing is that the car has most of original parts intact, at the moment it only needs new hood emblem, taillight lenses (both are cracked but I already sourced NOS ones), glove box lock and that's all.

Now the bad things - carburetor is leaking even after rebuilding, sourced Carter 1brl from 70's Ford and try to replace it with this one. Water pump is leaking, will remove it soon to check if I can manage to rebuild it or have to order older pump and modify the cooling system to work with it. And of course the worst issue is dry rotted weatherstripping that needs to be replaced.

Yesterday I removed the gas tank and found half of tank nasty brown stuff from it that some time ago probably was gasoline. After some pressure washing, discovering two small pinholes and removing the sender unit, it was clear, why the fuel didn't want to come trough the line - intake filter was clogged up and under thick brown goo. I filled half of the tank with hot diluted sodium hydroxide and let it soak for a while, hopefully it dissolves the varnish. 

Now I have to do something with this leaky water pump, flush the cooling system fix the tank, and change the carb. And then I think it's good to go again form the engine side.

Few questions, maybe someone can answer:

1. The float of the fuel sending unit is dissolved, there were only few pieces of it intact. Could it be sourced as NOS part or does anybody know, if there is good candidate for replacement?

2. At the moment the only working thing in the cabin is heater vent. All gauges are dead, no courtesy light, nothing. Turn signals and horn are also dead. I checked that fuse box got the voltage and fuses are okay. Any ideas?

3. Alternative weatherstripping sources? I am aware of amclives.com pricing, but they use only UPS or Fedex premium service as carrier and shipping to Estonia is almost the same as the parts. Most critical are windshield seal and door seals, these need to be replaced ASAP.

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rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: 1965 2dr American 220 Posted: Jun/29/2021 at 12:17am
	So, as I already wrote in the introduction corner, this one is bought to my wife actually. But as it needs quite a bit work and she is busy with our two littles at the moment, I am the one who is going to fix it. After few days owning it I can only say that I love this car - really simple and quite elegantly designed. There are few goods and few bads at the moment. Goods are new brakes and quite solid body shell, considering the fact that it has been driven in the winters and has seen quite a bit salt. Floorpan seems to be solid, all underside is under quite thick and really nasty oily and sticky undercoating but it seems to have done it's job. Another good thing is that the car has most of original parts intact, at the moment it only needs new hood emblem, taillight lenses (both are cracked but I already sourced NOS ones), glove box lock and that's all. Now the bad things - carburetor is leaking even after rebuilding, sourced Carter 1brl from 70's Ford and try to replace it with this one. Water pump is leaking, will remove it soon to check if I can manage to rebuild it or have to order older pump and modify the cooling system to work with it. And of course the worst issue is dry rotted weatherstripping that needs to be replaced. Yesterday I removed the gas tank and found half of tank nasty brown stuff from it that some time ago probably was gasoline. After some pressure washing, discovering two small pinholes and removing the sender unit, it was clear, why the fuel didn't want to come trough the line - intake filter was clogged up and under thick brown goo. I filled half of the tank with hot diluted sodium hydroxide and let it soak for a while, hopefully it dissolves the varnish. Now I have to do something with this leaky water pump, flush the cooling system fix the tank, and change the carb. And then I think it's good to go again form the engine side. Few questions, maybe someone can answer: 1. The float of the fuel sending unit is dissolved, there were only few pieces of it intact. Could it be sourced as NOS part or does anybody know, if there is good candidate for replacement? 2. At the moment the only working thing in the cabin is heater vent. All gauges are dead, no courtesy light, nothing. Turn signals and horn are also dead. I checked that fuse box got the voltage and fuses are okay. Any ideas? 3. Alternative weatherstripping sources? I am aware of amclives.com pricing, but they use only UPS or Fedex premium service as carrier and shipping to Estonia is almost the same as the parts. Most critical are windshield seal and door seals, these need to be replaced ASAP.

pacerman Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Supporter of TheAMCForum Joined: Jul/03/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 9060	Post Options Post Reply Quote pacerman Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jun/29/2021 at 12:45am
	The copper float for the fuel sending unit is still a pretty standard part. NAPA here in the US can probably get you one. Just ask for a 65 Mustang float. The AMC parts dealers might have one too. I can almost guarantee that a Ford carburetor won’t work because the throttle linkage is different than for a Rambler. You might have to convert to a cable type linkage or just swap the throttle plate if your carb is one of those used by both Ford and AMC, like the 1904/1908.
	Happiness is making something out of nothing.

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jun/30/2021 at 10:48pm
	I compared the carbs, linkage difference is not too bad and if I cannot fix Holley, I can retrofit it using directly cable for throttle. Started removing parts for cleaning from interior. Sunvisors that were almost black and moulded came white again after some water and dishwashing soap nicely. Now the question is, how yo treat those greyish spots left by the mould. Any ideas? Bought some vinyl to cover the headliner. Any tips how to remove it? As it's almost 60 yrs old, it seems quite fragile and as it's moulded again and paint is damaged, I think only reasonable way would be to cover it after cleanup. As I understand, it is glued in originally?

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/08/2021 at 3:23pm
	Swapped Holley to Motorcraft branded Carter yesterday, that one leaked even more and didn't even promise to start the car. So I just bite the coin and ordered brand new copy of Carter YFA, seller promised to deliver it before 12th, so then we'll see. Adapting Carter is actually simpler than I thought. Biggest thing to do is having to find new air cleaner or replace the bottom of stock one. Linkage difference is manageable quite easily. Today I started temporarily fixing some rust spots before pre-registration checks. As I suspected, previous repaint in Finland means quite a bit sloppy bondo job that I cannot remediate easily at the moment. The bottoms of the quarter panels are replaced before and after welding the patches, the warpage was covered with lead and putty. The bubbles on the quarters weren't caused by rust but some kind of reaction between lead and polyester filler. Filler was bubbled up from the lead and after removing it, the lead and welds under it were in good condition. There is some more serious rust that needs to be cut out and replaced in one spot on the lip of rear fender either side and the bottoms of front fenders should be replaced to be perfect. But at the moment I will just use Brunox rust encapsulator that I have nothing but good experiences until now on those spots and recover these with some epoxy primer and filler. If I can manage to sell the idea of fake patina paint job to my wife, then these spots could be replaced later and blending in the repairs only will add the character. Few pics of the right side that looked a lot worse than it is (those black spots under the lead are left by some kind of treatment on the welding seam, not holes):

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/12/2021 at 3:17am
	Got new carburetor from post. Seems like Christmas in the middle of summer :) Fixed most of the rusted areas, at the moment there is epoxy primer on the raw metal. Have filled back and primed all spots on the right side and bottom of the left quarter panel. Managed to repaint left quarter panel bottom to try out color match. Color match is quite good, only thing that will show the repair is glossy paint, have to remediate it with some fine scotchbrite. Considering the bottoms of quarters, I had to sand away some of the sloppy bondo job from past. There was considerable warpage when I put ruler on the finished panel, and there were few higher spots in the middle of the panels. After sanding those down, the bondo amount was quite a bit smaller in the end of the day. Now there shouldn't be more than 1/8-3/16 inch of putty anymore and most of that is fiberglass reinforced one. So, should be better than before. This week I have plans to finish spot repairs for the paint and sort the fuel delivery. Have to reinstall the tank and clean out the fuel pipe coming from back of the car. Then I have to do something with leaky water pump (I have some ideas how to restore stock one). And after that I think the car is good to go.

mixed up Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jun/16/2015 Location: Monroe mich Status: Offline Points: 2178	Post Options Post Reply Quote mixed up Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/13/2021 at 1:53am
	all those spots of rust are the typical place the 65 cars rust its clean compared to what mine was
	69 amx 290 auto 65 220 290 4spd 80 ford fairmont

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/13/2021 at 4:26pm
	Talking about typical rust, the worst body parts are trunk lid and hood - both have extensive rust damage on the front edge and inside of the framework is quite badly rusted too. I have small hope to find better ones from Finland but probably those are only slightly better. If I have to restore these, I have no idea, what to do with the inside of the framework. Correct method would be removing the frame, cleaning and painting the insides and after that rejoining two parts. But probably it will damage the outer sheet metal enough that the parts need extensive filler layer after that. And the car has already too much filler, so I would avoid damaging it more. From positive things - I managed to repair paint on the passenger side in the weekend. Not too pretty (got better match on the driver side), but at least the rust is gone for a while and local registry office should not complain about that when I will go to register it. Today I replaced fuel pump and carburetor and car started almost immediately, had quite acceptable idle, didn't smoke anymore and revved without surging. Now I need to fix the leaking water pump, weld the crack in exhaust manifold and get somehow stuck distributor out from the block. Then she should be technically good to go. Few pics of the paint repair and installed carb:

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/16/2021 at 4:24pm
	Got the paint repairs mostly done today. Mixed a bit less yellow hued paint and got pretty good match - if looked directly across the bodywork, the difference is practically unnoticeable only way to tell the repairs is looking at angle - then the difference in gloss is seen and patches seem a little bit darker. But from few feet it looks really good and I am happy for now. Now I have to fix two dents and the paint on the roof and then the paint is finished for now. One of the not so good news is the fact that the valves seem to be leaking and probably I have to send head to the machining shop for resurfacing and valve job. Found crack in exhaust manifold too, that explains massive exhaust leak under hood. But for now few photos of almost finished car:

232jav3sp Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jan/09/2013 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 2451	Post Options Post Reply Quote 232jav3sp Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/16/2021 at 8:32pm
	Sure looks good in the pictures. Be great to see it in person!

rnx69 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Apprentice Joined: Jun/28/2021 Location: Tartu, Estonia Status: Offline Points: 37	Post Options Post Reply Quote rnx69 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul/19/2021 at 11:48pm
	Can't say that carburetor replacement hadn't positive side - it's not leaking anymore and car had idle at last, but the engine ran on 5 cylinders as before. Measured compression and 5 first cylinders were good, but last one was reading absolute zero. Nothing. Removed valve cover and gave starter a spin - all rockers moved but last one. The valve for that cylinder was stuck open and didn't move a hair. So I pulled head and found that I was right - the valve was stuck. After few taps it was free again and seemed to move quite smoothly. Yesterday I put the head to the lye tank and today I start disassembling it. Hopefully the valves are okay and I have only resurface the head mating surfaces slightly and after that it's okay to put together again. Bottom end seems to be really good - cylinder walls are as good as new, there isn't any considerable wear and honing pattern is there. If only the parts for this engine wouldn't cost arm and leg... Head gasket comes next week and was over 100 Euros. I have to source new exhaust manifold too - old one came out in two pieces :( Edited by rnx69 - Jul/19/2021 at 11:50pm