At the beginning of May 2021, I was happy working on last year's acquisition, my son's 78 Gremlin GT which was getting a lot of attention in my shop.  Things were good, but in the back of my mind I had been looking to finish fixing a few things on the 64 990H to prepare to put it up for sale in the coming year in order to make room for a long desired convertible of some make or model.  I wasn't overly set on one particular convertible target and in fact thought it could be one of several mid to late 60s Brand X cars.  I hadn't gotten real serious as I knew I was going to have to sell the 990H and then put some cash to it to get something decent.

So on that fateful Saturday afternoon in early May, I was minding my own business, holding and enjoying the day with my 8 month old grand-daughter when one of my instigator friends texts me with a poke about why hadn't I bought this particular convertible....  I thought here we go, I'll bet this is some far flung pipe dream or something, but then the ebay link opened up and there sat the rarest of all AMC convertibles - a 67 Rogue D code M code convertible (290 4bbl 4spd).  It was rough, but it was complete and through the 20 years of barn dirt grime, there were hints that it wasn't terrible - it could look decent with some part replacement and strong elbow grease.

I knew that Mark Fletcher had the only other one I knew of, and that production numbers were in the very low double digits.  The auction was ending in less than 48 hours, and a decision would have to be made quickly.  I did not like, not having a chance to see the car first, but I was able to secure a conversation with the seller on Sunday that answered some questions and I got some additional photos of areas I wanted to see.

Talking through values with a few friends and seeing the number in my head being confirmed by several friends, I decided to place a one time bid just prior to the lunchtime Monday auction end.  As the final seconds ticked away, I saw my "wish" price evaporate and the number quickly approach my max bid.  I figured it was gone to another, but just as things ended the number stopped climbing and ended just under my max number.  It looks like multiple people agreed on the final value.

I knew the car would need a full going through to make operational, and that there would be surprises to deal with.  But I had two things sitting strongly in my favor with being able to grab this little dream car:

1)  My goals for the car is not to make it a show car.  I have wanted a convertible again to drive - so I don't want it perfect.  My 64 990H was basically an all original car that had its share of wear and imperfections.  The fact that it is a barn find that needs a lot of items refurbished was ok - it was all there and except for the bad yellow repaint years ago, was largely an untouched car.

2)  Having just finished the SC/R restoration I still had a good number of spare parts that I could steal from.

The biggest problem I had was that this car was 1200 miles away in Minneapolis area.  It was time for another roadtrip!  This time around I rented a tilt trailer with winch, setup our Ram 1500 for the long tow and grabbed my friend Brian Moyer for another epic roadtrip - then second in a years time.  LOL

We had learned that the car had fully locked up front brakes so we prepared for a hard pull up the ramp.  The goal was to make it quick and easy to get it extracted and get moving back home.  The trip went just as planned - 3 days, 2400 miles and no issues.  The RAM did great, averaging 18.6mpg empty going out and 16.0mpg loaded coming back - and remember that's including the mountains of PA going home on the turnpike!

To make things fun, I had a good friend enjoying the weekend at Carlisle Ford Nationals, and we called them about 15 minutes before we were going to roll by, and they were ready out near the turnpike to salute the rare little Rogue as we rolled by at 65mph.  They snapped a picture of us waving as we went past.

The convertible has rust in the quarters, but I have yet to find any rust anywhere else yet.  The undercarriage is super solid, and has many many original features on the car.

My goals are to redo 100% brakes, and fuel delivery system and heating/cooling system.  The interior played host to rodents over the years and is being gutted for cleaning and necessary refurbishment to make it driveable.  If I have to take it off for whatever reason, it will get a complete redo, but not necessarily to concours standard like our Scrambler is.  Having said that, there is a lot of work to do and I am anxious to get it out on the street, so we are focused on it right now, and unfortunately the GT project is sitting.  The 990H has recently been re-adopted into another family about 20 miles from here so I will get to see it somewhat regularly which is great.

In discussing production numbers with Mark Fletcher, it looks like this is one of about 20 or at most 30 made, and one of only 3 - 4 left.  In reality, this is as close to a factory SC/Rambler convertible as one can get.  I feel like I hit the lottery and I didn't even play it!

I will discuss activities of refurbishment over the coming weeks.  Below are a few photos of the retrieval.  It is a true "barn find" - 20 years hidden in the building below.

"The Barn"

Causing a stir at Fords at Carlisle!

Home at last!

I told the wife I would find her a car that matched the house.  I think I got pretty close!

Congratulations on this rare discovery.  

I have tracked the 4 speed Rogue Convertibles for the last 20+ years. I believe that these one year only 1967 V8 Rogue convertibles are an overlooked rarity that are just now being discovered.  

Of the 921 1967 Rogue Convertibles made it is estimated only 20% were V8 with the majority being factory 232 6 Cylinders.  That equates to less than 200 V8's in either the 200 HP 2 bbl carb version and the 225 HP 4 bbl version ( My family has owned 6 of these 200, and still have 5). Of those less than 10% of all 1967 American V8's were 4 speeds, so an estimated 20-40 may have come equipped with the T-10, and only 1/2 of those were ordered with the higher compression and horse power 4 bbl "D" code motor. So my number is 10-20 ever built and only 4 reported to still exist.

I have owned two of these 4 speed convertibles and truely enjoy the Barbados Blue one that remains in my collection.  Please feel free to call me any time and maybe we can get these rare cars together at a national show someday?

I found that someone made a video from my car 2 years ago at a local show. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYd649n8Mo8" rel="nofollow - 1967 Rambler Rogue Convertible - Cool Convertible Cars S3E10 - That Lady Car Guy - YouTube

You may have already found this, but here is my thread on my cosmetic restoration 7 years ago. I am also including a link to the 2012 Hemmings article on the Red and Black 4 speed convertible restoration .

https://theamcforum.com/forum/1967-rogue-4-speed-convertible-updated_topic63315_page1.html" rel="nofollow - 1967 Rogue 4 Speed convertible (Updated) - The AMC Forum - Page 1

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/rogue-ressurection-1967-amc-rambler-rogue" rel="nofollow - Rogue Ressurection - 1967 AMC Rambler Rogue | Hemmings

Awesome, good luck!!!!

I can't wait to follow this.  If you figure out anything with the convertible frame seals you'll be a hero to dozens, and FYI Galvin's posted on their site that they are expecting the new run of vent seals some time soon.

You outbid me, Kevin, and it's good that you did! You can give it a better home than I can!

Keep us posted on this neat, rare Rogue!

Tom

Kevin, welcome to the Rogue convertible family.  Just had my Rogue out for a 20 mile ride last Sunday.   First time out of the garage in 3 months.  Realized I hate the way it handles with the bias ply tires I had to put on for judging.  It road so much better with the radial tires.  Good luck...can't wait to see it in person.

r

Well from what I have been able to observe so far, the option list goes like this:

-  290 4V high compression engine (D code)

-  factory T10 4 spd (still retains original shifter)  (M code)

-  3.15 open rearend (AMC 20)

-  Thin bucket seats with center armrest console; no headrests

-  All Black interior; carpet has been changed out, dashpad has some warp but no cracks

-  Sport, woodgrain steering wheel with the Black "Rambler" horn ring

-  Electric wipers

-  Electric Washers!  (I've never seen an American with electric washers before)

-  Optional front and rear bumper guards

Mileage is near 119k miles.  The factory Apollo Yellow paint still exists under the hood and in the trunk, but a REALLY poor Earl Scheib repaint of the outside was done, most probably in the mid 90's.  

Car history - I have been able to trace ownership back to 1996.  The car entered the hands of a series of AMCers starting sometime in the early/mid 90s where it was brought into the Denver, CO area.  From all indications to me, this car spent the vast majority of its heavy use years somewhere southwest of CO.  While the quarters have rust, the rest of the car has little corrosion on items that you would expect.  Chrome and potmetal are exceptionally clean and is clear it never saw salt.  In 2000, the previous owner to me picked up the car out of Colorado and took back with him to Minneapolis area where it was driven for a couple hundred miles and then parked in the barn until now.  I believe Mark Fletcher told me that he had seen the car advertised for sale once out of Colorado in the late 90s, only to disappear for another two decades.

A few pictures around the car after getting it home:

(Wait until you see what $15 and a little effort did for this seat - stay tuned)

(SUPER YUCK!!, but under the yuck, the vinyl is good - just have to scrub all the nasties off....)

Steering wheel has typical cracks for a car in this condition but not bad actually - I think I will put the "Javelin-AMX" style horn ring on it - I like that one better.

Original electric washers!!

Gas Tank is shot...

Top must have been replaced at some point, maybe 90s.  Top is in good shape.

Trunk just needs a through cleanup and spit shine, add a spare tire and the reproduction floor mat I never used for the Scrambler.

The small area around the taillights between the chrome trim was smartly painted black by a previous owner when the yellow exterior was "redone".  I think I like it enough to keep it - looks integrated into the design.

Rambler American convertibles are amazing! My '66 American convertible had been sitting for many years--inside thankfully. Our goal was to make it safe and reliable, which it is. Wishing you many "smiles per mile."

Maynard

Because the front drums were locked up tighter than Ft. Knox, and the car wasn't moving anywhere without the wheel dollies, first priority was to get it up on jack stands and start tearing into the brakes.

One last look at the way it was purchased.  Even with the cruddy wheels and chrome the car doesn't look bad here.  But the paint job is pretty hideous.  Polished chrome and wheels will make it look good when it hits the streets and will distract the eye from the paint.  The car will retain chrome mag 500s as I love the look of them on these cars  Possibly upgrading to 15x7 and maybe redline radials down the road.  Shame of it - those Hoosier tires only have 1500 miles on them but they are 25 years old - but didn't need a lick of air after even 20 years!

Up in the air - it was time to take a peak underneath:

The car had dual exhaust installed in the 90s and looks pretty solid to get us rolling.  One will also notice something else here.  The American V8 convertibles had a different frame setup than even the 6 cylinder convertibles of 66 - 67.  The same subframe connectors found on the January 1968 - 1969 Americans / SCRs was first used on the V8 convertibles.  In addition to the extra thick rockers, they got these installed.

It was quickly noted that the gas tank was leaking from several spots along the leading edge - indicating that the tank is done.  Thankfully, the original SC/R tank is sitting on the shelf in the barn and will get pressed into service on this car after a full refurbishment of the tank.

The front end is pretty clean on the car - especially when you know it has 119k miles.  This car at over double the miles on it, is twice as clean and rust free as my SC/R was at 49k miles.  Note the bottom of the radiator - that's an original tower Wittek hose clamp and factory lower radiator hose.

I figured it was important to check the block for engine verification.  Someone had put on a set of factory chrome valve covers at some point, so I wanted to make sure the motor was still legit.  I was pretty sure it was as you could see faint traces of the gold paint in places on the intake, front cover and alternator bracket.  The above confirms the original motor.

Dad started some cleaning that first weekend.  I caught him doing what he loves to do - polish cars!

Good bye barn dirt!

Here is an idea of how bad the paint job that was done on the car was executed.  They didn't even bother to take off the V8 emblems from the rear quarters (and there is sand scratches on a lot of rare chrome )

It took me 3 minutes to get the key and open the trunk and another 3 minutes to hand unscrew (4) acorn nuts inside the trunk to take off those emblems, and some paint idiot decided it was easier to tape them off and do a crappy repaint...

We ended that first work weekend by pulling the front bumper and grille parts for for cleaning and refurb.

Inside of the bumper is very free of rust and brackets just had a very light coat of patina.  I actually disassembled everything for cleaning shortly after this photo and blasted the bumper brackets, and then powder coated.  They turned out every bit as nice as the NOS ones for the SC/R - no pits and nice powder finish.

Now, I'm sure that some of you are thinking - here he goes again.  But if you look above, I promised myself if I took it off I was redoing it, and actually powder coat is much cheaper to do than paint and far easier and quicker than painting parts, with a more durable result.  By the time you've put down an expensive 2 part epoxy primer and at the very least a decent Seymour or VHT rattle can top coat, you are $10 deep in materials and you need dry time - letting it hang until thoroughly dry.  I can powder coat in-house for about 25 - 50 cents per part at $11/lb of Eastwood semi-gloss black which is a nice OEM look finish.  I can have a part ready to install after taking from the blast cabinet in 1 hour - fully cured in powder coat.  So, you will see me do a lot of stuff in powder on this driver, same as what we are doing on the 78 GT.

The front bumper assembly was torn down and everything cleaned and polished.  The front bumper was definitely hit at one time - primarily on the right bumper guard, as could be seen by minor distortion on the bumper guard, but also the bumper metal extrusion directly behind the guard.  I will be making up a custom spacer to help the bumper bracket sit properly over the extrusion.  It was great to see the chrome clean up very nicely for the miles it has seen:

Barn grime above - polished out below.  Not perfect, but will look much better now back on the car!

I took the parking light assemblies apart for a thorough cleaning and decided to install some extra NOS orange lenses I had stashed away.  The housings didn't have any potmetal pits and after cleaning looked nearly NOS.

I decided the brakes were going to get a 100% redo.  So, scouring RockAuto, and other sites as well as tapping my friend Bruce, we came up with all new brake hardware, NOS brake shoes all around (original material better on manual drum cars than the new formulations that are made for power disc cars primarily), new flex hoses, and new wheel cylinders.  I found that the late 60s Jeep CJs master cylinder is the same as the 67 American (Wagner) V8 drum unit with the square top and grabbed one of those as well.  Metal brake lines will be a mix of near perfect originals in the engine bay, Fine Line replacement  rear axle lines, and a homemade long run brake line from distribution block to rear flex line.  All new factory style e-brake cables sourced through APD will mate to some Scrambler left over brake handle assembly parts.  APD did a great job having these made up:

The front drums were an absolute bear, and ultimately so far I have wasted the right front drum getting it removed.  The shoes were totally frozen to the drum.  Thankfully local AMC friends, Dwayne Greenplate had some good take-offs that I was able to buy for a great price.  Tear down of the right side drums, and slow build back including powder coat of front backing plate and Por 15 of rear backing plate and a degreasing of the local suspension and treating with some Rustmort rust converter to tunr the suspension black.  I thought that was a good refurb activity without going the whole way on restoration.  Outer tierods are being replaced as well due to totally dryrotted boots.

While cleaning the grease off the rear axle tube - I found a yellow paint stripe from the factory.  This is a 3.15 open Model 20 rear.

The brakes will continue to be an ongoing refurb job as I set some of that work aside when it got so dreadfully hot, and I started working on a few other things in my cooler closed up workshop.  Waiting for some cooler September days to finish the entire brake job now.

I think I will end the post with the sub-thread on fixing up the passenger seat.  For whatever reason the right seat is the worst part of the interior.  Multiple splits and overall rough shape.  I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on seat upholstery right now with the Gremlin needing cash to complete, and actually 75% of the convertible's interior doesn't need it right now, so we opted for an inhouse cheapy job.  Denise helped me get the seat out and did the initial cleaning on Sunday afternoon:

Tape had covered the tears, and red paint was baked on in a few places for some reason...  didn't look good even after first pass clean:

I was able to scrub off the red paint - preserving the nice factory center rib for now.  We purchased some black vinyl at a local fabric supplier and started cutting and fitting panels for the center sections.  On every tear, we placed a small piece behind the tear and sandwiched the tear with a full top piece and strong 3M trim and upholstery glue:

Seat all patched up for $15 and some time on our part, and doesn't look half bad.  The waffle pattern is no longer there, but the vinyls are a little different and gives a transition appearance... not bad for what it is, and it should be quite durable for a couple years.  Chrome trim and handle were all re-polished and assembled back on.  Moving on to the rest of the interior...

ITEMS TOUCHED OR CHANGED UNDER THE HOOD AT PURCHASE:

1)  Water pump swapped out

2)  Bypass hose/clamps changed

3)  Heater core to Water pump heater hose

4)  Positive and negative battery cables

5)  Electronic ignition installed / dist cap / wires swapped

6)  Fan belt swapped

7)  390 valve covers installed at one point

Photos under the hood, starting with the black out paint behind the grille:

Walk around the engine bay from front left to front right & engine top:

We'll get back to some progress on the next post.

Kirby - this is car #2 for me in the past year out of the southwest.  I am fully sold on them.  I will never do another mid-atlantic (or further north) originating car again...  I will be more than happy to hop in the truck with an empty trailer and go to Arizona for another project.  The GT and this car are so much better on body and every other part on the car than what the Scrambler was and both of these cars are over double the mileage.  I just had the 100% original radiator checked out at the shop the other week and he said that thing is in great shape.  He mentioned that salt in the northeast affects radiator integrity, etc. as well and a southwest one may be in better shape for that reason.  You can do all the mid-atlantic cars!!!!

During the hot weeks of summer, I found myself pulling off items and hiding in the cooler shop on refurb and rebuild.  We had pulled the door scuff plates and they were sitting around so I decided to tap out some dents and polish the dull aluminum.  Photo at mid point of the polish.  They look ok, the seatbelts over the years did a number on these, but they will be clean driver condition.

The AFB carb kit arrived in early July, so I took off the carb, and did a first pass spray clean on the outside before getting started:

The carb didn't look too bad from the outside.  It was rebuilt once before though.  It was my first time tearing down a Carter AFB, and I have to say the number of pieces were a little intimidating at first

Once inside, the visual confirmed that it needed the teardown.  The bowls were nasty and the accelerator pump was gone:

The choke was really gummed up and not working properly with the inlet butterfly:

After a careful walnut shell cleaning, and thorough washdown, it was time to re-assemble

Float setup on these are a little more involved than a Holley but doable.

Below - the rebuilt carb with primary adjustments ready for install (hopefully it works when called upon).  Its not bad looking for its age and all its original plated surfaces.  Definitely a far cry from the one the carb master did for the Scrambler, but I'm happy with it for a driver.

I was tired of looking at the dirty old washer fluid bag, so I pulled it out one evening and cleaned it all up.  It was missing the cap and I grabbed one from an AMC vendor to add at assembly.  Man what a difference a little elbow grease does on these!

I had been eying up the battery tray as a coming project, and finally decided to get the tray removed for rust treatment on both the tray and apron.  I have learned from experience on the SC/R and the GT having a good deal of rust that I was VERY fortunate to get a car with a non perforated tray / apron and I wanted to keep it that way.  First was getting the rusty screws out.  I hate those phillips head screws.  Even having the correct insert for a ratchet, they are a crap shoot.  (2) came out fairly easy, the other (2) needed force.  In the end, I decided those screws were not going back in, so I gripped the other (2) with all I had on a pair of vice-grips and tapped with a hammer until they started turning - yay they came out!  Photos below of as found thru rust treatment of the apron.  After these photos I hand painted the apron with POR15, after rust remover gel, and brush on rust converter.  The tray got a full bead blast to white metal then a super heavy powder coat job in semi-gloss black.  Wish the Scrambler's was this nice, I had to fabricate a new tray with a repop tray bottom/original brackets.

Above rust treated.

I think that's enough for one night.  Yes, I know the battery tray should be Apollo Yellow... but its way more important that the tray be bullet proof, and you only get that with powder coat.  Someday when I paint the engine bay, I can scuff the powder coat and apply a color coat on top.

The clamp was factory date coded from March 1966 - a good date for an October 66 build.

The radiator looked in great shape for its age, and 119k miles.  It tested out with flying colors and the radiator shop gave it 2 thumbs up - so no recore for now!

I just have to finish cleaning off the old paint and prepping the outside surfaces for a new coat of black lacquer.

The fan shroud and fan were prepped for bead blasting and priming:

The shroud was in particularly great shape with no pits at all.

The alternator was pulled for a full rebuild/resto by my local alternator shop.  It won't be concourse correct like Bill Dickerson here does but it will be fine for a driver.  It looked pretty cruddy at take-off.  We don't need problems with items like this once we get out on the road, so the time is right to do the rebuild.  We'll have a photo later of the refresh ready to be installed.

The waterpump and crank pulleys were taken off as well for rework - they were both remarkably rust free.  I decided to just do them in OEM black powdercoat and they turned out terrific - I wish the SCR's were that easy to make look good.  NOS wouldn't have turned out any better!

They are ready to bolt back on now.

The original voltage regulator was pulled off the apron for a quick refresh.  I am hoping that this thing is stays functional for a while as I don't have a spare yet to go on the car.  Nice before and after photos:

I think we will stop there for tonight and try to pick up some additional subproject documentation in the next day or two.

It is cool to also have one of our sister cars (one of the 4, 4bbl 4spd converts) also entering the members projects blogs here at the same time as this one.  It kind of makes it seem like there must be a decent number of them out there but in fact there is not.  Mark Fletcher's car is the only one out there on the street, and hopefully (2) more will join his soon, but there isn't really anything out there beyond that.

Always welcoming the updates, Kevin! Neat stuff! Not to mention two rare converts finding new owners and new life this summer! Amazing!

Brian was my best friend, as well as fellow AMC enthusiast and lived just a few miles up the road from me.  Brian was also my travel buddy and right hand man in the retrieval of "78 GT JOURNEY" and this project.  I couldn't have gotten either one of them home here without his help.  His contribution to many of us in the hobby cannot be overstated nor ever forgotten, and his legacy will endure through the memories we take with us.

Over the past 2 weeks, I have finally got myself back on doing some work on this project as it's important to get it ready for spring.  So I will catch up a few things I still had to document from September then walk through the most recent items.

In September, I finished up the restoration and coating work on the Scrambler's old gas tank to put in the convertible.  The Scrambler's tank was in far better condition.  I decided after getting it cooked and cleaned out to use the KBS Gold Tank Sealer kit for the inside.  I then coated the outside with POR 15 black.  I have always been hesitant on the tank coatings over the years, but I decided that once a tank rusts inside - its going to come back even faster after cleaning with today's gas, so I got the best stuff out there.  I am very hopeful the KBS system will last at least 20 years - it is an impressive solution.  I buttoned up the refurbished tank with a Repop sending unit and hardware from APD:

Since getting the car I really wanted to get eyes on the floor pans to check for signs of rust from the topside.  The under carriage looked great, but you always worry until you can see it for yourself.  In September I got the old mousey smelling carpet up front pulled out and was ready to do a happy dance with the view of these floors.  I have never seen a car with that many miles on it and floors that look this nice - I would say water has never touched these floor boards!!! Woohoo.  This is one solid boned convertible!!!  But man did they spray the goober sealer on the floors - far more than my Scrambler had factory!

The icing on the cake was locating and documenting the body tag further confirming the car's rarity and authenticity!!

I decided to pull most of the ancillary items off the aprons and firewall in order to clean the paint and brighten up the engine bay.  A cleaning of the wire harness is now underway now that it is unfastened from the harness straps.  New harness straps were sourced at Fall Hershey.  So glad I pulled the throttle linkage off the firewall.  The main horizontal rod had worn away about 40% of the diameter and the rubber encased bushing was shot.  Some NOS bushings were sourced, and the rod was welded up and ground down before everything was re-plated in the Eastwood tin-zinc system.  Now it will work much better and look better too!

The leaky gastank was really stinking up the house garage with the smell of bad gas, so I worked a couple nights to get the old tank removed from the car.  I was glad to get that removed and out of the garage - smells better now!!

Far more parts had been coming off than had been going back on, so I needed to clear out some items stacking up in the prep area.  An obvious piece - was the front bumper.  Getting it back on would definitely make more space, plus would make the car look better again, so I assembled the from bumper and worked to get it re-installed.  Polished chrome, fixed bumper guards, new parking light lenses and powder coated bumper brackets made for a nicely cleaned up original chrome assembly!

For original chrome - it looks pretty good.  Not perfectly straight, but the chrome cleaned up nice and should distract some attention from the poor paint quality for a while.

New parts have still been arriving.  One larger item was some new coil over springs for the rear to help a little when we fill the back seat!  These will make their way on the car once the rear seat is removed.

I'm back on the car at least 10 - 12 hours per week now, so hopefully more new project updates will occur soon again.

The heater box is now removed from the car for rebuild and a heater core change-out.  That subject matter will get some documentation here over the next couple weeks.  I am waiting on the foam kit to get started on full teardown.  It was good to get rid of the mouse eaten glove box, and continue to rid the interior of that terrible smell!

I figured it was time to start putting a few things back on the car so I could make some space for things that have to come off next.  The old fuel pump was removed, and replaced with a NORS unit and a little more engine degreasing around it.  Then the fresh powder coated pulleys went back on, the restored spacer, fan blades, and refreshed bolts were next, and the rebuilt alternator was added.  Front of the motor is looking more complete now!

After this photo was taken, I removed the old bypass hose, and gooseneck, and cleaned up the gooseneck for re-install and went shopping for a new thermostat.  You can see that all I am doing for now is cleaning the engine, but refurbishing pieces that bolt to it.  I really don't know if I'm going to have longterm engine problems to deal with or not so I don't want to go overboard at this time.  I just want to get it up and running and see what else it needs at this point - while replacing all the auxillary items that cause driveability issues.

The powder coated original battery tray was installed and acts as a nice tool tray in the engine bay now!

I am hoping to try to pick up some steam with more work during the weeknights, but we'll have to see how it goes.  I needed to feel good about progress (or lack thereof) and decided to install one of the few NOS pieces I have for the car - a right side Rogue unique front fender potmetal ornamentation.  NOS bling always makes me feel better!

That looks sharp!  - Anyone got a left side NOS they want to sell?

I also did some scrubbing in the trunk (no photos at this time) to get all the nasties out of there as well.  That is coming along and should have some status photos of the cleanup and spruce-up efforts in the next week or two.

Hope to have more to share soon!

1)  Heater Control valve - as all late American owners know, this part has become a real issue.  Now there is a solution that you can do at home to rebuild and restore your old heater control valve.  I took the time to do a very detailed set of instructions here:

http://theamcforum.com/forum/late-american-javelin-amx-heater-valve-restore_topic112620.html" rel="nofollow - https://theamcforum.com/forum/late-american-javelin-amx-heater-valve-restore_topic112620.html

2)  Front Seat Side Chrome - the 1967 Americans were "blessed" with a new chrome trim on the uprights of the front seats - plastic..... Over the years mine as well as many others have cracked, broke and disappeared.  All (4) of mine were missing.  Taking a cue from other 67 owners and working with Typhooner here, I purchased a set of 66 American stainless side trims and polished up and attached to the seat sides.  The top holes were 100% aligned, the bottom holes needed redrilled to mount, but they look great!

I had mentioned that the heater box has been pulled.  Here is a photo of the old mouse eaten glove box that's obviously getting replaced

The heater box is now on the operating table, but I am finding that it is in pretty remarkable condition!  It has stayed very dry inside and I won't be doing a full restore on this one - no need.  the panels are just getting cleaned and only one is fully removed.

Coding info that is all but gone

Another AMC getting the love it needs !!!!!!

Keep up the good work Kevin.

Having AMC Fun,

Ollie

One little project I did over the weekend turned out to be a super nice save of an unobtainium part that I'm kind of anxious to share.  Sometimes I look at a part for weeks stewing on how I want to attack it.  This one was stewing for about 2 months, and it was time to get it done and back on the car.

The thin little bellows boot for the accelerator linkage coming out the firewall is impossible to find NOS and no repops have ever been done.  Many cars have them nearly 100% gone when they get them. This one was still intact but showing many signs of age and deterioration from motion.  As part of the linkage refurb, I wanted to do something to stabilize it.

After a degreaser cleaning inside and out I used a strong superglue gel to bring the cracks back together and let cure over night:

Using some 150 sandpaper, I hit the high spots on the glue to smooth them down a little to make less noticeable, wiped with lacquer thinner and hung up in the paint booth:

I had wanted to do something more than just gluing - I wanted to somehow reinforce all the aging material.  One night a number of weeks back it hit me!  Use PLASTIC DIP to coat the exterior, so after about 7 coats of spray black PLASTIC DIP I had a pretty sharp looking part.

I am hoping that the PLASTIC DIP has made a good bond to the surface and will help the old rubber live long enough for me to score one of these rare items in a box of NOS parts somewhere down the road.  Time to let it cure well and do the re-assembly of the linkage to the firewall later this week!

On this refurb project there isn't money time or reason to go full custom special mix for anything, but trying to go off the shelf and keep moving to get this on the road.  The only piece I had to repaint of the grey pieces was the heater motor mounting base - the rest was in excellent condition.  I took the one panel with me to Autozone and grabbed what looked like a good match.  I think I got lucky - Rustoleum Smoke Grey:

Working on the rest of the heater box the last night or two:

Upon reading of others solutions, I opted to try an alternate new heater core rather than pay a hefty dollar for a recore of the original.  I ordered up a #98571 aluminum unit from ebay for $47 shipped.  It's a little smaller so I used the extra foam from the DMT heater rebuild kit to fill in the gaps.  The front panel didn't fit as well due to tube location slightly different, but I was also able to fill those gaps up.  The core should work and look just fine once fully re-installed:

Gap above was filled in with extra foam

Main box pretty well finished up.

Now working on the motor assembly:

Maybe the whole box will go back in later this weekend.

The rebuilt throttle linkage assembly is ready to mount back on the firewall as well this weekend:

 

 Are you talking about the gray paint I inquired about above? If so, I never considered that Ford or Ferguson gray may be a good match.  Thank you!!!

I need to check out Tractor Supply better. They just opened a store near me and I went there to get some rat poision rather than drive all the way to the Co-op.

Looking good as always Kevin.

Having AMC Fun,

Ollie

 

 Well, the Ford gray isn't going to work. Too light, almost off white.

George - looked it up - that's an interesting piece.  Wish I understood how the rubber attaches to the metal on that.  The AMC one is like a bulkhead grommet pop in place - photos of the Lincoln one is hard to tell, but you are right that bellows part is similar enough.

On the grey paint guys - I don't see why what I picked out isn't good enough and can be found just about anywhere Rustoleum paint cans are sold....

On the Wittek clamps, the date code is the quarter and year. Not sure if that's been pointed out.

Shortly after the last posting, the heater box was finished up and is now awaiting re-install:

The radiator had been sitting around awaiting its final detailing, so the old finishes were fully stripped off and prepped for paint.  Amazing to me is how many tiny little stones got caught in the radiator fins, but not one ever punctured a tube!  Shown here is after a half hour of picking and blowing out the stones.  Spent another hour beyond that getting it as clean as I could:

Prep and paint.  Radiator painting night is my favorite night everytime it comes up on the project.  That's when my completely obsolete lead based black lacquer and RM PNT 90 thinner comes out to play.  Lacquer is hands down the best paint for your radiator.  I am happy to have a stash of materials to do it just like the radiator manufacturers did back in the day.  The 100% original 57 year old radiator looks good under tuxedo black lacquer!!

The radiator project got followed up with epoxy primer sanding the fan shroud and getting it under paint as well.  I was amazed at how nice the shroud was - very few pits to sand out - far better than the one used on the Scrambler.

Now that the shroud is done, I need to get the spit bottle hose made up for the radiator and drop those pieces into the engine bay and open up some space for other sub-projects to get done.

With the gas tank 100% ready to be installed, I wanted to get the rear pumpkin cover off, fluid drained and a little detailing on the rear end completed.  Time to pull the cover:

I got the cover cleaned up and a quick coat of POR 15 on it and then tin zinc plated the bolts, cleaned the rear case out and got it back together.  It looked pretty good inside.

Don;t know if you can see on your screen or not, but the cover was marked 13 - 41.  So it is definitely a 3.15 open rear.

Over the weekend, I finalized my tire / wheel combo of choice and placed orders for both.  I was getting concerned that I might not be able to get them when I wanted so I got busy and got the orders in.

I ordered the wheels from Summit Racing (free shipping) and they arrived in less than 3 days from order time.  Bling on the porch when you get home - nothing better!

Tires will be several weeks behind and I will get them mounted and show them off at a later time.

Next time we will talk about the master cylinder prep!

And its been a long time since I saw a rectangular paint can with the big lid like that lacquer!

Getting ahead of the story George - have to wait a few weeks!

Tomorrow, its finally time to declare victory over the stuck drums on the left side and prep to do cleanup and brakes on the left side.

Greg - Dual Wheel peel is definitely not a priority with me on this car.  If the motor and clutch stay happy for the next 4 years I will be happy.  Other projects are literally "hanging around" here in the shop so I need to fight project creep and get this dropped on the ground and go get ice cream on summer weekends.  I will be happy to just enjoy the ride - won't have to get to the ice cream stand in two seconds!

The rear trunk cover for the gas fill tube got a refurb in semi glass black powder coat and the screws replated:

John Clark from Philly came up to spend a Sunday afternoon with me and brought some special tools along to convince the left front drum to come off.  It fought hard but we saved the drum!  Thanks John!

The hood is now off for a inside stripping of the old insulation glue and a cleaning and polishing to make the underhood presentable and clean.  Easier to do some firewall work now too:

A sample rub down above to see how good it will get.  It won't look bad.

The ebrake cable assembly was next up.  Pulled down the bellcrank and equalizer assembly.  Somebody was messing with this years ago and assembled it wrong.  Can anyone see what they did incorrectly here?

Some time in the blast cabinet and some tin-zinc plating and these are ready for another 55 years, the clip was even re-usable:

I pulled the original brake pull assembly and tore down.  Then I grabbed my box of goodies left over from the SCR build and took my NOS brake pull assembly with the original Kennedy all metal reproduction handle attached (this NOS assembly was used to make Kennedy's handles back in the 90s - although this was NOS, the original plastic handle was cracked from just sitting on the shelf!!! so this one got the first repop ever done back in the 90s).  Finally going to get used on this project:

Add on the new APD ebrake cable, and then I hunted through the box and found a few of the original mold tool shot samples of rubber firewall boots that I had reproduced a number of years ago.  I trimmed the flash off and used one of those here.  I should have kept a few more good ones!!

I had been putting out calls for 1970s version of black door jam weld pinch seam trim, without much luck on feedback.  Finally found some used stuff for sale and it came in the mail this week.  I did some cleaning of the raw material and it looks like I should be able to cut some good sections out to use on the convertible - this stuff is near indestructable and looks much better than the thin repop stuff that is out there today.  This is a great upgrade for the 60s Ramblers that used the fragile and fraying nylon weave stuff.

... And finally for today!  The new tires arrived late this week!  Getting tires right now is really tough and to avoid the horror stories of trying to get tires from Coker or Universal, I went the route of the Diamondback Tires, and had them make me up a set of 205/60/15 and 225/60/15 redlines from the BFG tried and true radials.  Hoping to get them mounted in next couple weeks but here is a first look with overlaying on the new wheels.  I am actually very impressed with how these look as a "refaced - vulcanized" redline tire.

Before everyone says "watch the clearances" - I am aware and have some plans underway to maximize my tire clearances, especially in the front but have some contingences for the back as well.

Looking fantastic Kevin.

Having AMC Fun,

Ollie

This was a busy week with (3) of Brian's Gremlins departing his collection here in eastern PA for new homes across the country.  Also had some of those new owners staying as guests as they were here loading, and another forum friend here this week picking up parts.  The convertible only got a small amount of love this week as I started assembling things back into the engine bay and worked on the wiring harness.  So it was great when a highly anticipated box arrived yesterday from Norway with some super hard to find NOS trim for the convertible!!!  Making it way more special is that my adorable grand-daughter was here to help open the box and inspect the parts as they were removed.  You can't start the training of the next generation too early.  The NOS addiction needs to be transferred forward.  

A special shout-out to Terje Mittet for sending some great parts over for this car.  We have 7 of the 10 lower trim pieces.  I could really use the right door and right rear quarter (front) pieces if anyone out there has some bagged pieces yet.  A few trim pieces I am looking for:

Right Door - 4484006

R Quarter (front) - 4484042

R Quarter (rear) - 4484012

Rear taillight eyebrow pot metal - 4484164 (L), and 4484165 (R)

Left front fender potmetal endcap - 4484001

Rubber seals on this car are just fair.   This was a southwest car most of its life so rubber has gotten a little hard over the years.  I'm not in a hurry to work on those items early on, as I plan this car to just be a nice driver that goes out mainly when the sun is shining and the top is down.  Door window fuzzy's look like all 60s cars - which looks like a balding teddy bear.  No plans to replace at this time.  The felt on the linkage is a factory deal - I think it is an anti-vibration / rattle element on the assembly.  I got an NOS one from ebay when I redid the linkage.

Heater hoses (new pieces via NAPA/Gates) are installed with replated original Wittek clamps, and the cleaned wiring harness is back in place with the restored throttle linkage all back in place, and the new master cylinder mounted.  Not a bad look against the backdrop of the original Apollo Yellow paint!

This past week, I gathered up the stripped and prepped brake drums, (front and rear), new races to get turned, and the new tires and wheels and dropped off at my local shop to get mounted and balanced.  Stuff isn't as cheap to do anymore...

But the preliminary results on the tires and wheels with a quick first look was very satisfying!  This will be a very classy look!

After doing yardwork this morning, and chasing an 18 month old around all afternoon, I decided I wanted to do something tonight on the car, but didn't want to get too deep, so I decided to get after tearing out the back half of the interior.... boy I wish I had waited.  Yuck - the main living quarters for the mouse house was under the rear seat.  Nasties.....  Mask and gloves and garbage bags and shop vacs...  at least its improving...

Tomorrow, I'll get the back part of the seat out, side panels off, and rear carpet pulled up and thrown out.  At that point I can start to evaluate the current state of the top motor and workings and what must get refurbished there.  At this rate, if I make Detroit with the car I will be lucky, and that's only if the motor /clutch have survived the long Rip Van Winkle slumber without immediate needs for teardown - fingers crossed that I can get a couple summers out of the motor / trans.

Rear carpet is out, and side cover panels are out.  I tore apart the door panel on the passenger side and got the old door handle off and the side trim removed.  Paint touchup on the door is complete and light 2000 - 3000 grit color sand is up next to bring the gloss back on the passenger door that is duller than all the other panels.  Touchup, although far from perfect does clean up the look of the side of the car now.  You will see all the spots but at least its all one color again!

My friend Bruce Wanner was over last night and I handed him the glass lens from the one rear side panel for the convertible that was all busted up and asked if he had any in his stash.  He showed up tonight with an NOS one in the bag.  What a great friend!!!!  These don't grow on trees anymore!!

Hoping to do a little more assembly in the engine bay this weekend and maybe start assembling the left front axle/brakes.  I need to get some real progress done now!

1)  New wheels are waxed and new center caps are installed.  They sure do look bright!

2)  Rear seats have been sanitized and cleaned as best as possible.  Hopefully the odor can be fully eliminated!

Other items got a few photos:

3)  Radiator hoses and a final heater hose installed

4)  The right door panel was removed for inside work - pulled off the lower chrome trim and old door handle.  Raided my SC/Rambler boxes for NOS door handles and Mark Fletcher sent in an NOS lower door panel molding to install!  Thanks Mark!  The right door was replaced with a junkyard door after some sort of minor side swipe in years past and the paint work was really bad on it, and many chips and paint gouges.  Watersanded and buffed the door paint and got the touchup paint out and made the best of it - it looks a lot better but will never be great.  From 5+ feet its not horrible.  Chrome went back on and it does a good job of distracting the eye with bling!  Fresh door handle rubber helps the appearance too.

NOS door trim vs old original - much brighter!

5)  Left spindle/brake assembly completed.  Scott Comenzo contributed to the project with fabricated spacer plates to help gain room on this drum car for the 15x6 wheels / 205-60-15 tires.   The drum cars lack the extra spacer plated used on disc cars and would have made it tight up front.  This will keep from having the spacer the outside of the drum / new studs.  Still good length on the brake hose.

All new brakes are now assembled on the left side now.  I still need to go back and put the spacer plate in on the right side.  New Grade 8 bolting was required.

6)  Pet project that I'm proud of - installing a antifreeze overflow (spit) bottle.  I had purchased the tank several months ago after researching what I wanted, but to install it, I needed to make a special bracket.  After gathering up some metal, this past Friday I was off work and decided it was going to be a fabrication day.  A very special bracket was hand fashioned and welded to allow the bottle to be fitted right along side the radiator, and without any new holes or changes to the body.  Painting the nice aluminum bottle semi gloss black, makes it look much more natural and near factory looking.  Glad to say that the heating/cooling system is ready to fill now.  I like the look of this!

Very pleased with the look and fit - bracket was a pain to bend - wish I could have found something a gauge or two thinner.

7)  Trim change out - this is moving along.  Last night I pulled the front fender splash panels to work on the short pieces behind the wheel arch.  I found that the 67 cars didn't use the lumpy rubber for edge sealing - they were made from old inner tubes!  My Scrambler was the lumpy rubber sheet material.  Interesting....

The right side fender molding had holes "rotted" through it and I couldn't understand why....  Well dirt had filled up behind that thing and even eroded off the paint behind the molding up to a dirt line.  This molding was toast!!  I am now treating the fender surface rust and will touch up with some brush on yellow before installing the new molding.

I am still looking for an NOS trim piece as shown below - PN 4484042 - right rear behind the door.  Anybody have one????  NOS please.

Well.... time to get back to work on the car!

I really like that overflow bottle. Where did you get that?

Love the updates!

It is a Mustang vendor offering:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Scott-Drake-C5ZZ-8C077-AL-65-68-Ford-Radiator-Overflow-Tank-Alum,471100.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Scott-Drake-C5ZZ-8C077-AL-65-68-Ford-Radiator-Overflow-Tank-Alum,471100.html

Great! Thank you...

A couple weeks back, I got a few extra hands and I pulled to rear bumper off for clean and tweaking activities.  Tore it apart and derusted the inside of the bumper and then applied a coat of silver chrome paint to protect it a bit:

I took the brackets and cleaned them - I was absolutely amazed at how much original black paint there was on them and next to no rust!  But I did confirm my suspicions on having tweaked brackets (the bumper didn't sit right), when I put the brackets side by side.  Thankfully I had a fully set already black powder coated in a  box upstairs so I just swapped out the whole set, and replated the bolting hardware, polished and waxed the chrome, cleaned up the backup light subassemblies, changed out the cracked original clear lenses with NOS ones, and put new DMT gaskets in.   Installed a NORS license light, and the rear bumper is ready to go back on!

(Bent bracket above)

I noted that it looks like in its past life it had a bumper mount hitch attached (see extra holes in bumper and bracket scratches around the holes).  Boy a person lives dangerously with an American bumper hitch mounted to these tinfoil bumpers!

I started working on a little fixup of the right side door panel - neither the vinyl nor the carboard are great so I am doing some minor repairs to make them better but not show worthy...  The bottom corner clip had pulled off the back layer of the cardboard (typical).  I cleaned up the area - took a piece of paint stick and modified it to fit, and wood glued the repair piece in place with the clip - should work well!

Last Sunday, I was kinda bumming about not having the car ready to drive, and I needed a feel good project.  I decided to finish greasing the bearings for one of the front drums, packing the grease in the hub, and getting the rear seal in, so I could mount a wheel.  Got the brakes adjusted up on the right front axle and installed the drum, and then popped the first wheel/tire on.  At least I get to smile at it when I walk past it each time now!

The lower side aluminum trim is now off the right rear quarter and I have had to resort to restoring the piece right behind the door to try to match the quality of the NOS pieces now.  Maybe I will come across an NOS one in the future but I need to keep moving right now.  Currently watersanding the piece up through 2000 grit to prep for polishing and black accent repaint.

Its posted usage is for late 60s Jeep CJ.

You will have to swap out the "pusher" to your original one as length is different.

The left rear brakes were finally torn down and the new brake lines were installed across the rear end.

I found that taking the bumper off the rear bumper was easier without the tank installed so I moved ahead with getting the bumper finalized, and then detailing out the rear panel pieces.  The taillights were out, got some really nice used lenses I polished up and new DMT gasket set:

The original housings looked really good once cleaned and near perfect.

Bumper on and tail panel all dressed up:

The chrome and aluminum trim between the taillights has some dings and bruises but looks acceptable for a driver.  The original bumper and bumperettes don't look bad for their age.  The fresh straight brackets make the bumper fit better now.

On one of the cooler nights in July I had the wife assist while I hung the tank in the car again.  It was nice to get that back in the car.  It will get some undercoating later on down the road.

A little while back I finally found some used sections of 1970's pinch weld seam from a donor car.  I don't like the cheap stuff they make today as a replacement for the old nylon laced 60s style but the material they used in the 70s for this was great stuff, and with a little elbow grease, they clean up very nice and look nearly new.

The old stuff:

The replacement stuff from a 70s AMC, I just cut to the length I needed on the convertible:

... and finally, during last post I was starting to restore the right rear aluminum grooved trim, then got a message from Terje Mittet in Norway that he had that trim, so I said send that thing over!  The right side trim is now on the car and it helps the appearance a lot!

The truck is packed solid tonight for the trip to AMO National/Michigan vacation/Woodward Dreamcruise so no work on the car for another couple weeks!  This car was to be ready to go on a trailer tonight, but it was clear even earlier this spring that it wouldn't make it.  Really pretty bummed but not much I could do about it.  Hope to enjoy the event in other ways over the coming week or so, then get back to finishing the refurb soon.  Fun awaits and I'm anxious to drive it.

The right hood hinge was pulled off last week and I took it to work to re-stake the hood side pins and tighten it up a bit.  The hinge got cleaned a bit and put back on tonight to its original position in hopes I don't disturb hood alignment too much.

Last week I also snagged a handful of the correct rubber hood stops on ebay for 66 - 67 Americans (the repops are more solid - these are more open).  These are getting installed now.

This past Saturday, my friend John Clark had to come up and pick up his Kenosha treasures I hauled back, so we scheduled a timeslot to change out a few rotten frost plugs in the original 290 that we found a few months ago.  John is a mechanic by trade and has far more tools than just about anybody I know, and had just what we needed to get these done.  The right side head frost plug was bad and (2) of the (3) on the left side of the block were not good.  We pulled the motor mount on the left side and replaced all three.  Using a dual piston caliper spreader ratchet tool we were able to install the right side head small plug even in the tight space we had.  John was a life saver.  I don't have any grand expectations that the original 290 is going to stay in the engine bay more than a couple driving seasons, but we do want to eliminate some known external issues up front and give us a fighting chance at some "trouble free" driving for a bit.

 (the valve covers here are just standin for the real thing to be installed a bit closer to startup time.)

Left lower plugs going in:

We cleaned up most things after the battle but I still had a few tools sitting on the step stool when PopPop's little helper arrived and quickly located the tools and decided she wanted to help.  I promptly removed the center punch from her tiny hands 2 seconds after this photo and learned my lesson about keeping tools picked up from now on!!!

Today I got back on cleaning the inside of the hood so I can get it back on the car this weekend.  I need to reclaim the garage floor space soon for Eric's projects so its time to get this done.  The hood insulation adhesive is a pain in the bum, and with some elbow grease the original paint will look good enough for a driver.  I picked up some new hood insulation from Kennedy American at Detroit the other week.  Time to keep moving!

Starts to get easy to see how a brake job turns into a full rotisserie restoration, but I am trying very hard to steer clear of those urges.  However its impossible to ignore lurking problems on a 57 year old, largely original car.  And boy do those problems have a way of bubbling to the surface!

Last weekend with some extra family members around, I managed to get the hood all cleaned on the inside and re-installed on the car.  That provided much needed space back in the main shop for the other project car...

This week, I started to map out and work on action items on the car.  I used the vinyl repair kit to fill in some cuts and bruises on the right door panel, and I decided to just pull the starter for a full rebuild seeing it sat for 20 years.  Starter came out easy.  But the next view made me groan:

Ignoring the old oil leak from the valve cover gasket, you can quickly see that yet one more frost plug needs to be replaced - the one hiding behind the starter.  Yippie... at least with the starter out its open enough for a reasonable replacement.  The starter is off at the local rebuilders so I get to do this one this week.

While hanging out under the car, my head turned the other direction towards the tail of the transmission.  My eyes caught this sight.  Do you see what I see?

If you said:  a trans laying on the cross member - you would be correct, and a very rotted transmission mount.  Looks to have been rubbing there a while and this car last drove in 2001.

To finish my night off the other evening, I decided to loop around and replace an original fuel line on the left side of the car.  On convertibles - the fuel line is split due to the extra subframing causing obstruction for feeding through a bent line.  That original fuel line was encased in sound deadener from 1967 and needed to go.  The fun part came in the fact that the front line wasn't bent quite right and was angled directly up at the floor - fun to get the new hose on!

New hose in place!  You will notice in the bottom photo that the fuel line clamp just behind the split never had a screw in it!  I left it that way...

Trying to keep moving!

After reading this I tried the exact same procedure on an accordion boot for a manual master cylinder pushrod.  The only thing I did different was to spray the glued boot with black FlexSeal after cleaning it in alcohol.  We'll see how it stands up.  Thanks for posting this!

The first little project was finishing up the pinch weld seam trim replacement.  As I had stated before, I really like the material that AMC used in the 70s, as it is still very usable stuff today - sure beats that old frayed nylon factory stuff.

The rear quarter door jam was replaced in the 90s with some of that plastic reproduction stuff, and the fronts were original frayed nylon.  I bought a bunch of black 70s version for cheap money - cleaned it up and cut my pieces from the best condition sections of the trim.  Here below I am showing why I like it so much as a nice replacement on driver cars of the 60s.  The top piece is the reproduction stuff, the lower piece is the 70s AMC used stuff I put on - it looks so much nicer installed than the repop stuff.  Go the extra mile - get some from a 70s parts car!

Alex from AMCPARTSWAREHOUSE agreed this past summer to reproduce the very hard to located rear Rogue "J" trim pot metal that "eyebrows" the taillights.  Alex sent me the first set for test fitting, so I needed to get the old pieces off and the new ones fitted and installed.  Of course nothing on a mostly original car is straight forward.  The stainless trim that goes between them was really beat up on this car and while I didn't have intentions of worrying about it for initial car refurbing, I learned that I had to take that piece off to install these potmetal corner pieces that slide into it.  Sooo... I had to do something with the trim.  So many times I feel like all I'm doing with some parts is polishing a turd.  That's what this trim piece was all about.  It's better than it was but its still just a turd - hopefully someday I'll find a super straight and clean replacement for it, but for now, its back on with Alex's new reproductions!

You can order yourself a set here:

http://www.amcpartswarehouse.com/collections/frontpage/products/1967-440-american-rambler-rogue-rear-j-trim" rel="nofollow - http://www.amcpartswarehouse.com/collections/frontpage/products/1967-440-american-rambler-rogue-rear-j-trim

Hopefully these fresh new or NOS trim pieces on the car will distract attention away from the crappy paint!

I had mentioned before how great the floors were in this car.  I'm amazed at the front floor pans.  However I did find under the rear seat that the mouse house piss worked its evil and ate through the factory paint on the rear seat hump are and it needed treatment (and it was still not so pure), so I scrubbed it the best I could and then used a 3M Skotch wheel to prep the surface and decided to use some phospate based sealer I had here in a quart can - the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating paint - its very good stuff for sealing of semi clean surfaces.  Got it brushed on last Saturday.  Looks better (and smells better too).

Before above, after below

I had pulled the steering wheel a few weeks back as I wanted to do some repairs on the wheel for cracks and to swap out the horn ring with the sportier version used on AMX/Javelin, etc.  I prepped the wheel and then mixed up the PC7.  First time using that stuff - rather interesting filler/bonder.  I am just doing localized repairs and hoping to just use some touchup paint to blend it in.  I just wanted it good enough that my hand didn't get caught in the cracks and to clean up the look a little bit.  Now in the process of carefully sanding it down - going to take some hours doing this project!

Tonight I just finished up re-installing the shifter / tunnel hump.  I had pulled the shifter out for a mild rebuild to tighten it up.  The tunnel hump had been pulled once before and the reverse switch was missing!!

A fellow 67 4spd friend put me onto AMARK having reproduced a small qty of those special switches a while back and thankfully AMARK still had them on stock!  I ordered that item up and a number of other rebuild items for the shifter and pulled the shifter for a refresh.  What it looked like on the bench:

I tore it completely down, plastic bead blasted all the parts going back in, treated them with my secret preservation sauce, and put them back together with some good moly grease and the new components - there was still a lot of good original zinc plating on the parts.  Not bad for a 55 year old car with 119k on it.  Ready to go back in:

And tonight - with cleaned and waxed chrome shifter arm assy - installed back in the car:

Some would ask, why go to all that trouble to rebuild one of those horrible factory shifters?  I would agree these aren't great, and I'd rather be stirring a Hurst, but this car really needs to keep that original defining feature.  Its what make it so rare in the first place.  I don't plan to drag race it, so hopefully it will be good enough for farm country Sunday drives slow rolling through the gears.

Progress must continue now to get this on the road this driving season.  Stay tuned.

The steering wheel is done and except for a little more cleaning and polishing the black, its ready to go back on.  I was happy with the driver quality effort on this.  For just the price of the PC-7 2 part epoxy filler, and my time, the wheel is good for another 10 years it looks.

I got all the big cracks sanded out, without affecting the rest of the wheel:

Next I raided my paint cabinet and found some non metallic brown paint and mixed in drop of white to soften it up a bit and started hand painting the fresh repair:

And some gloss black touchup for the back:

The result wasn't bad,

But I decided tonight to try my hand at a little wood graining to help blend those spots a bit.

I got the smallest little dremel bit I had and started cutting down through the brown for a little depth, then found some AMC 80s Mocha Brown that I had around and carefully applied it to the cut and did a quick finger wipe to make it look a little more natural.

It helps mask it a lot better and doesn't have that abrupt grain stop look it had before I started.  It was fun just trying to see how good I could make it look for zero dollars.  Compared to where it started, the wheel doesn't look bad.  The top is wearing smooth and thats OK - it looks original to the car!

How it looked before starting:

Earlier this week, I pulled the top well cover and replaced the rear shocks with some new Monroe coil over shocks to keep the rear end from sagging with a full house on a Saturday night ice cream run.  This job was almost too easy...  had to wonder why for a minute!

Pulled the convertible top pump out for flushing and seal kit rebuild.  We are ready to reinstall and hopefully get the top operational in the coming weeks now:

Looks like someone had put Brake Fluid in it at one time, however these later units were supposed to run on Type A (Dextron) ATF, so I will be using ATF now that we have a full flush underway.

Thursday was a 73 degree day here in eastern PA, I came home from work to this view peaking out of the garage.  Would have been a nice evening for a quick spin in the middle of winter.  Soon enough I guess!

I got the complete convertible top system back in place and yesterday I started the filling and bleeding process.  I have been taking it slow and making sure not to overheat the pump motor.  I am using the recommended automatic filling system (FLUID-MATIC) from the convertible parts company.  I highly recommend having it.  Its worth the money even if used only once.  The top goes down 100% for me, but I still have some air trapped I think in the bottom side of the cylinder and we are still working on that so that the top goes up properly.  It struggles yet at the full down position, but then once it gets about 30% of the way up it is fine.  How it looks right now:

I have to admit, I was nervous putting power to the system for the first time and hoping all went well.  So far, I'm not seeing any wiring issues / shorting, etc.  The headlights work!

From here on out its is mainly about bringing the systems on line one at a time and see how the car likes it.

I got the steering wheel sub-project done 100% now.  I had a 67-68 Ambassador horn ring laying around that had the woodgrain center overlay.  I pulled it off to expose the standard sport wheel center in all chrome.  Using some old left over wheel argent silver spray bomb and some flat black and careful brush work, I was able to convert it to the 1967 chrome edge sport wheel center.  I am glad to shed the black "RAMBLER" center that was on it - never liked that look.  So for $16 in repair materials, the sport wheel is good enough for a driver, with no guilt of using up a good wheel for a show car.  Its not perfect but looks good at 5ft!

Week before last, my project was to get insurance on it and to get the antique tag process started with the PA DMV.  The insurance company wanted some photos, so I had to make it look like it was pretty well done.  LOL  Wheels are hanging on for the moment (and keeping stuff in the shop a bit more tidy)  I really love the look with those wheels and tires!

The new AMARK brake pedal pad got installed - they are a pain...

The top motor / cylinder lines system has been bleed and filled with new transmission fluid.  While it still groans a little starting up, the system works smooth and I'm happy enough with it.  Not ruling out a long-term needed change of drive cylinders, but they work ok for now.  When the top was down I took the opportunity to take the sunvisors and rear view mirror off and clean / polish everything.  Mirror chrome is in stellar condition.

View with the top down, first time since I've had it:

The other week I ordered a blank black aluminum license plate and a chrome surround, and pulled out my small stash of collected emblems from last year to put together a unique one off front license plate.  I was given a very nice used Rogue emblem, found a really nice used 290 emblem with good color, and the "6" and "7" letters at the Knapp Garage sale in Kenosha - they were on my shopping list for this project.  I ground off the pins on the back of each and decided on the layout.

Next up was the mounting, and I asked my little 2 year old grand-daughter if she wanted to help PopPop on the yellow Rambler.  She enthusiastically agreed so she got to help screw the plate on the front of the car.  Memories.

The finished look:

There are still a few minor things in the engine bay, one being getting the fresh PCV valve and new hose to the carb base installed.  I didn't like what I found with the car and wanted a elbow molded hose for the back of the carb install on the 67s.

After striking out with Napa being able to help find a generic hose, I started doing research on-line and found a proper hose type for oils/fuels that I could make into the hose I needed.   Dorman 46060 (from a Subaru or something) has a double elbow.  Ordered it off Amazon, got it in two days and installed it.  I cut the hose right at the start of the bend on one end and it fit pretty much perfectly!

Installed:

This week I tore down the left door, I want to grease the window regulator, swap on an NOS door handle, NOS lower ribbed trim piece, new door rubber, and new window fuzzies all around.

With the fuzzies off I decided to repaint the tops on the left side as the drivers down is worn down to surface rusted bare metal from arms on the door.  It won't be a fussy job, just good enough to clean up the look and taking the time to do it while the fuzzies are off.

Weather is supposed to be nice Sunday so I can open the door and rattle can this project to completion in the afternoon.

Next weekend, I will have a little help and we plan to swap out the transmission mount (dropping pipes, cross member), and bleed the brake system finally.  New carpet will start soon as well as re-assembly of the drivers door.

Excellent progress!

Calendar scheduling for the Nationals is not favorable for me this year.  Had it been July or August I could have made it.  June is overfull.

Spring work in the yard has precluded a lot of activity on the car, but I was able to get the new spark plugs in and put the cleaned up valve covers on that I wanted to use, and begin the kerosene wash down in the oil pan.  Just about ready for a final flush and oil fill this weekend.  The left tie-rod assembly is under refurbishment now and I'm waiting on a fresh set of Packard wires, after an NOS bag of Gen 2 V8 wires had the wrong parts in it.  This week, my grand-daughter was around in the evening, so I planned it as a work night for her and I to put the wheels on the right side now, since we are all done on the right.  She worked hard at pulling off the stickers and then found that her little fingers looked good with an NOS lugnut hanging on them - she was a little upset as I took them one by one to put on the studs, but she enjoyed using the ratchet to tighten the lugnuts!

Original trans mount didn't have it all together anymore - time to go.

Turns out that chrome and rust do mix, and I like the looks of it!

A couple weeks back on a Saturday our local dent doctor came for a visit and beat on some dents - especially on about 20 or more "hail" type dents on the hood.  There are still a few that were not easily reached, but overall the car looks much cleaner while maintaining a little original character.

Another subproject was fixing the driver side door panel where the clip section blew out.  A previous owner decided to drill holes and put screws in, but thats no good.  I fixed the real problem on the backside with a dremel, piece of a paint stick and wood glue.  Cost:  $0.00

Damage on the front side repaired with a vinyl repair kit and now ready for new SEM black re-dye.

With the swap out of both tie rods on the left side, and tweaks on the ebrake assembly, it was time to put the left side wheels on.  My grand-daughter likes to help, she thinks the NOS chrome lugnuts are jewelry...

In the engine bay, the correct Packard wires with date codes were installed and the hood insulation glued on.

Out in the barn, a parallel effort was underway to re-dye the door panels, kickpanels and convertible rear fiberglass panels.  The door panels were already "repaired" as much as they were going to get from me and were and easy hang and shoot.

The rear fiberglass panels were not so easy - they had some cracks and oversized mounting holes that needed repair and sanding, also paint finish loss in some areas meant that they needed a full restore of the factory textured finish.

Factory texture:

I learned that SEM Texture Coating in a spray bomb can get very close to the original finish, so I got a can of the expensive stuff.  After using bonding agent you just spray this at a distance to get the desired affect,  you can lightly sand the texture after drying or go right to top cost of SEM color dye.  A very very light sand of this on my panels might have gotten to 100% factory match but I was well satisfied with the as sprayed results - these turned out really nice!

My friend Bruce had an NOS light lens to replace a broken one (opening an NOS bag never gets old) and a good cleaning of the ash trays and these were well on their way to a nice clean look.

The refreshed rear panels and refreshed front kick panels were installed.  They turned out very well.

The doors got finished up inside, joints lubed and the new mylar shields applied with some fresh butyl sealer.

The moderately repaired door cards with refreshed color dye finished off the doors on evening about a week ago.

I still have to work on my solution to attach those little armrest stainless trim pieces.  I have a plan but need some time on it that is not necessary at this moment to move to startup.

I had been putting off a little electrical project to make a special jumper for the new style brake pressure switch that I purchased.  I didn't want to cut the factory harness plugs off, so I used some donor pins from another harness and put the connectors on the other end.  So this little jumper piece converts the plug style from the harness to the new switch:

If I wouldn't have told you, you would have never known...

One challenge that I was able to successfully complete over the past number of weeks was to upgrade the safety system for placing a child seat in the back of this car.  My grand-daughter would not be happy if I leave her behind everytime I go out, and not being up to date with proper mounting capabilities to keep her safe is not an option either.  Turns out that a convertible is possibly the easiest car to retrofit modern child seat restraint latches to.  Getting a little input from several others and bouncing ideas off my son, and searching ebay's selection of salvage latch designs, I came up with a winning solution - no extra holes and no cuts!!!

On a convertible, I got lucky with the top latch.  The seat bolts on in (2) places - right at the center of the passenger in the back.  The rear bulkhead has thicker metal than a HT, and has a little pocket where the nut sits.  This made for a perfect scenario for my first selection, a 2004 Mazda RX8 latch:

Grind off the tab and it fits that convertible bulkhead pocket like they were made for each other:

I placed a really wide flange nut on the inside of the seat frame to help sandwich everything together safely:

Installing the rear back portion of the seat, this is what it looks like from looking through the rear window - A very clean install!

Looking at where the lower two latches would have to sit, I ordered a different solution off ebay, and then moved on to freshening up the seatbelts while I waited for the new latches to arrive:

The seatbelts started out at a light tan faded from black.  The RIT dye got the color back to a dark brown, but I think I needed to have a hotter solution than what I had.  They are good enough for a driver.  After dying, I repainted the buckle heads black.

My second set of latches arrived late week this week, they are 2007-2009 Chevy Equinox.  I ground off the tabs, redrilled the holes to fit the seatbelt bolts and then layered these on top of the right side seatbelts.  My son says he can reach in to grab them for the car seat so we are golden.  I love no-mod solutions on an old car!

While working on the carpet, one evening I found myself staring down the steering wheel tube and seeing a broken turn signal switch return spring.  Dog gone it, another thing to add to the list, and wondered if it would ever stop asking for more new parts.  I knew I had an NOS switch stashed and after a lot of looking I finally found it, only to learn that there were two types of switches and the NOS one I had was not the right one.  So this past Monday morning I called up Doug at APD and ordered a correct switch that arrived Thursday.  Since I had to do that job I decided I would also do the new M&H SCR tach wire harness that I got to install a 635 style tach in the car since it ties into the switch wire and fishes through that area.  but to do the wire harness, I had to pull back off the firewall plate and drill a big hole in it and install a nice rubber grommet for the tach harness:

Now the plate is more like an SCR plate with a clean looking grommet for the wire.

The new turnsignal switch arrived Thursday as promised, and I was still hoping to get everything done and be ready for test startup today with buddy Homer Boeckel, but these harnesses are not fun.  I gave up late Thursday night and will delay startup for one more week while I do several other action items.  We are close but I need to make that pinned harness fit down that tiny hole.  Yeah, fun times....

The car has been on jackstands since a week or so after I brought it home in June 2021.  It was finally time to let it sit on the ground and see how the shocks, and tires want to work.  The rear tires are not small!

I am happy so far with how it sits and the aggressive look now that it finally sitting on all (4) feet!

The rear seat is in.  If I can get this turnsignal switch in, the wheel goes on and the front seats go in and its basically show time.

Back in August I was finishing up the steering column work and looking to get the seats in.  The new TSS got installed, and the steering wheel installed.  right off, the grand-daughter was anxious to be at the wheel:

At this point, we finished up making sure she had gas and all the rest of the fluids ready, and scheduled a Friday night late in August to have FASTNASH come over and assist with the re-awakening of the 290.

I rolled the car outside, had the fire extinguishers handy () and pulled the distributor to prime the oil and get it ready with final checks.  I believe we were both amazed when with a few tweaks on timing, and carb adjustments on the fresh carb rebuild that the little 290 started up, and within 20 seconds was very happy to be alive again!!!

Some video links below to the startup.  The exhaust note is very pleasing in person and really, for having original valve seals still in it - smokes very little!  we were really quite pleased with it overall and a little surprised

http://youtu.be/zDvC4mZPahM" rel="nofollow - http://youtu.be/zDvC4mZPahM

http://youtu.be/FHLzHM71yTE" rel="nofollow - http://youtu.be/FHLzHM71yTE

A short shakedown loop run happened shortly after the video and FASTNASH and I really liked how things went.  

Two things were found.  There was a rear brake grinding, and the turn signals were not working right.

Over the month of September I got the rear wheel back off and found that I had put one long "nail" on the retainer spring and it was rubbing on the inside of the shoe - no issues there - easy peezy.  The turnsignals have turned out to be a completely different story.  To make a long story short, several of us suspected the repop turnsignal switch, so I decided to find an NOS unit.  After a short search I found one, but boy install was a bear.  Finally figured out the trick on these things, but in the end the same problems existed.  I have yet to figure it out, but I am planning on doing some work soon to test grounds on the front bumper.

Meanwhile, the car has gotten out a bit for short backroad runs and for me to get used to a clutch and shifter again after way too many years.  A couple photos now that its outdoors a bit:

I must say - she's a cutie, but the camera is very kind to her rough body/paint.

Today she made it out to her first car show and it felt very satisfying to finally be able to let the public get educated on just how rare this little car is.  A 2023 Corvette had the unlucky opportunity to park beside us today!

Of course we were the only AMC there!!!

Over winter we will sort out a few more things and probably prepare for a clutch swap by spring.  Close enough to call it done enough for now.  I have a tach to get ready for install and few other minor things to do over winter, but its time now to start to turn attention back to 78 GT JOURNEY project!

Ohh, I thought that was a Fiero!  Nice Rogue!

I personally like the new Vettes, except for the taillight treatment.