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Rare Ragtop Rogue Refurb

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/10/2021 at 11:22pm
Time to walk through some of the rebuild and refurbishment projects from earlier in the summer.  The goal with this car is to give it new life and create a dependable driver.  So the emphasis will be on reliability and clean verses 100% correct or perfect condition.

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.




Edited by kcsamc - Sep/10/2021 at 11:24pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/29/2021 at 10:28pm
Time to try to catch up the story.  In early August I started pulling a second grouping of parts for refurb.  The radiator was never out of the car, and I wanted a full check and flush.  I took a photo of the factory original bottom radiator hose and the tower clamp.



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.



Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ramblinrev Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/30/2021 at 9:17am
Always welcoming the updates, Kevin! Neat stuff! Not to mention two rare converts finding new owners and new life this summer! Amazing!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/04/2021 at 9:29pm
It's been too long...  as I look back at the last post, it wasn't very long afterward that life changed a lot here in our local AMC community.  Early October is Fall Hershey AACA, and every red blooded old car fan takes a break from projects for a week to enjoy the last of the good fall weather and everything old car at the 4 day event.  The next week our tight group of AMCers would lose one of our most famous members, and my best friend, Brian Moyer to covid - a sudden and devastating loss for all of us.  Suddenly, work in the shop didn't matter for quite a while.  Helping the Moyer family through the loss became our primary focus as we all worked through the emotions.

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.


Edited by kcsamc - Dec/04/2021 at 9:34pm
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 232jav3sp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/04/2021 at 11:22pm
She's really coming along, nicely! Those floors look as good as the ones on my Rambler. Also, I may have a voltage regulator, or two, lying around. If you are interested, of course. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote javman7 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec/05/2021 at 8:14pm
Looks fantastic. What a great find.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/09/2022 at 9:54pm
Time has been way too tight in recent weeks.  There is a lot on the plate right now, but I desperately want this car on the street this spring so I keep trying to make some sort of progress.

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!


Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/14/2022 at 8:45pm
I remembered that I had (2) special projects on the Rogue here that I had forgotten about and wanted to share tonight:

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:


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








Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ollie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/15/2022 at 9:36am
TLC goes a long way...........
Another AMC getting the love it needs !!!!!!
Keep up the good work Kevin.

Having AMC Fun,
Ollie
1966 American Convertible -- "The Rambler"..SOLD
1974 Postal Jeep -- "Rapid Delivery"...SOLD
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kcsamc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/17/2022 at 10:08pm
Thanks 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!









Edited by kcsamc - Jan/18/2022 at 6:56am
Kevin Shope
1964 Classic 660
67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv
A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)
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