Project #3: '79 AMX

[ramblinfsj]

I've been waiting a while to get this car and it's finally mine. I got it to the house about a week ago and immediately got to work to see if the engine would fire off. The distributor plug was missing as was the coil. That was quickly fixed with some spare parts I had laying around. The fuel pump was out so I drove to town and bought one and filled up my gas can. I replaced to fuel pump, poured in some fresh gas and the little 304 sprung to life. The engine ran very well and smooth. I didn't run it long because it needed some water in the radiator. I topped the radiator off and decided to take it for a shake down run on the country backroads. The engine purred like a kitten and the transmission shifted through every gear smoothly. I got about 3 or 4 miles down the road when the engine suddenly quit. I stopped and tried to restart the engine but the engine wouldn't turnover. I thought I really screwed something up. I pulled the dipstick to find a ton of water in the crankcase. I called my friend up who lives a few miles down the road to come give me a tow back to the house. We got back and I drained the water and oil out of the engine and pulled all the spark plugs. I refilled the pan with oil and luckily the engine started turning over again. I put the plugs back in, reconnected the wires, and the engine fired right off and sounded and ran fine. It was a bit of a scare but all is fine except that now I have to replace some head gaskets which is never fun but it's better than a total engine rebuild. Mechanically the car seems to be good. Cosmetically.... not so much. The body is pretty rough but not a total wreak. It can be fixed. The interior is the worst part. Lots of parts are missing like the door panels and some plastic trim pieces. The center console is busted up, the carpet is ratty, the front seats are torn, and everything is faded. The best part of the interior is the dash (faded but in good shape) and the rear seats. The rear seat backs were folded down which for the most part protected them. They are filthy as all get out but they're in good shape. I'm not sure if I'm going to do this project after the American is done or do the '62 Classic. Both have their pro's and con's but I just haven't decided. I'm leaning more toward the AMX just because I haven't had a hot rod in a decade. Anyway, hear are some pics of my poor old rough little AMX.
 
 


 

[IowaEagle]

I wish I could get my hands on the one that is in our community.  Almost did when it was impounded and would have been in the police auction.  Of course they came and reclaimed it.

[ramblinfsj]

As soon as I got this car home, there was a 1979 Spirit/AMX with the 304 and manual transmisson in our local want ads for sale for $3000. I wanted to call him up just to look at it but I was way to busy. Last I looked it's still for sale.

[AMX]

Looks like a nice solid project. That's a pretty uncommon color for a '79 AMX too!

[Route 66 Rambler]

Very intriguing project there, FSJ.  I'd probably lose my composure if one of those things was sitting in my driveway.  OK, I admit it, I might even flop around on the ground. 

Good luck on this one.  Really cool plaything.
mike

[83Eagle!]

Okay, another member of your fleet that I am just drooling over.  I wish I had the room.  Good luck with it.

[ramblinfsj]

Okay, another member of your fleet that I am just drooling over.  I wish I had the room.  Good luck with it.

Well I'm lucky. I have a friend who is part owner of a wreaking yard and whenever any AMC's roll in, he calls me. And like an addict I've bought every one of them. Two Grand Wagoneers, '77 Postal Jeep (doner for the American), '87 Eagle Wagon, the '65 American, and the AMX. Sometimes I think it's more of a curse than a blessing but want can I do. I just went thru another wreaking yard that is owned by a friend of a friend that surprisingly has a 70's Matador station wagon with a 304/auto and a white Spirit with a 258/manual. Both are darn straight cars especially the Matador wagon plus the guy said the engine runs but leaks oil out the rear main so that pretty much proved to me it did run . The Spirit is in good shape minus the interior (same with the Matador) but nobody knows the condition of the engine and drivetrain. I'm under the impression that he will sell them DIRT CHEAP. If so I am buying them. Good thing I have 4 acres of land. I bet my neighbors don't share my thoughts though.

[IowaEagle]

Keep saving them.  I wish I could save more.  But I have neighbors and live in town with funny rules.

[ramblinfsj]

My friend talked to his friend with the wreaking yard that has the Matador and the Spirit. He said he'd take a look at both cars and give me a price. He also mentioned that the 258 in the Spirit ran when it was parked . So it's looking like I could be getting two running AMCs which isn't too surprising since only one AMC that I've got from the wreaking yard hasn't run. I'm getting alittle excited about it but I can see my future cash flow get smaller. Also on a non AMC related topic, another friend of mine's aunt is giving me a Corvair. I don't know what year it is or for that matter much of anything else about them. I've done alittle online research on them and they are pretty neat cars. Like a much more interesting Volkswagon. The problem is the car is a total rust bucket. If anything, I'll part it out to fund some Rambler projects.

[IowaEagle]

New sign in yard.  Will sell Corvair parts for AMC money.

[ramblinfsj]

I've been thinking real hard on this car about what I'm going to do and I think I've figured out what to do first. My brother just quit driving his '85 Wagoneer because it's a gas sucking pig and pretty much has given me full control over what to do with it. Good thing too because the 360 in it runs like a champ. I've had 4 Wagoneers before this one and the power they had can't touch it. So round one of project AMX is to pull the 304 out and stick the powerhouse 360 in it's place. With the engines being externally the same, no one will ever know it's a 360 unless I tell them. The 360 diffinitely needs a tune up and a carb kit while I'm at it but I may just wait a bit until I can get a Summit cam, performer intake, and a four barrel carb. The 304 will get the head gaskets changed out and put back together and will go into the Wagoneer. No sense in letting the Wagoneer suffer. I'd love to get a stall for the AMX while the engines out but I've searched for them online and they are priced to the moon. I went to the local drag strip two weekends ago for the first time in nearly 10 years and I kinda caught drag racing fever again. So I want to take the AMX and make a few passes.  I probably wouldn't be able to afford to daily drive this car because of fuel mileage and it will probably see alot of drag strip time but the resto. of the car will be stock. I will not hack this car up for the sake of racing. It will just have some go-fast parts.

[Route 66 Rambler]

360 AMX.  What could be wrong with that?  I like this one, and I'd probably do exactly the same with it myself.

[ramblinfsj]

Well I had to sell my Wagoneer to pay a bill so for now no 360 is going in the AMX. But that's not to say it won't get one later on. So for know, the 304 will do. I'll start gathering parts to do the head gaskets. My brother came over to the house and I was showing him the AMX. I opened the hood and showed him the engine. He was kinda shocked to see a V-8 in this little o' car. He then asked me if this car had been wreaked. I told him that I thought it had been because the hood won't line up with the hood latch and the passenger side front tire rubs when I turn the wheel. He begins to point out the ugly welds under the hood on the inner fenders and the frame structure. I looked at what he was pointing at and it made me sick. Apparently the car had some heavy front end sheetmetal damage and the chop shop that "fixed" it cut the front end off and spliced on another Spirit front end. It's a very badly done splice job and I never noticed the welds because they are cleaverly hidden by wires, the ignition box, and other things. The only spot that you can see any welds is down on the frame by the engine. It's not that noticeable unless you are looking for it. The whole front end is shoved back toward the windsheild about a 1/4 inch and is not square from side to side. Pictures would describe what I'm talking about so I'll get some. I think I can fix what the "body shop" did but I'll have to ,of course, take the front end apart. I want to take the engine out anyway and fix it so I guess while it's out I'll fix the front end. I've never done any kind of work like that before but surely I can do a better job than that. I'm also wondering if this car actually had a front air dam and fender flares like other Spirit/Amx's and since the front end was replaced with a Spirit front end that they went ahead an eliminated the rear flares since an air dam and flares are hard to come by. Anyway, the bad news is, more work for me. I'm not giving up on the car, it's just going to take me longer to fix. In the meantime, back to the American.

[Route 66 Rambler]

That's kind of a bummer.  John Elle, a member here, replaced the entire front clip of his '80 AMX, from the subframe supports under the floor pan, all the way forward.  Everything in front of the firewall, he unwelded from the donor car, aligned with the AMX, and welded it back on.  I've seen the car in person and it is undetectable.  If I hadn't seen the pictures I couldn't imagine it.  They are in the RustBucket, in Riders of the Rambler Heritage:






He lives here in Phoenix, so I can get advice or tips on things to watch out for or that might help.  Although he has told me that after seeing the cars in Arizona(he is from New York upstate), he would never do it again, he would just get another body.  Believe it or not, this was done as a rust repair.

mike

[ramblinfsj]

I thought about getting another Spirit body. A guy I know has one sitting in his wreaking yard that I could transfer all the AMX parts over to but the only thing stopping me is the VIN number on the AMX. If the AMX's VIN is exclusive to only AMX's, I don't want to it plus that's a lot of parts to transfer over. I'll see if I can fix the front end first before I have to take drastic measures like another body.

[Route 66 Rambler]

The VIN is attached to the dashboard and the left door.  Both can be moved.  The only other place it is visible is underneath the steering box, on the frame rail.  Arizona has a procedure at DMV that will let you replace the body by assigning the donor body's VIN to a salvage title, then surrendering that title to either a salvage yard or the state MVD.  Then you can change the VIN under the steering box legally.  If you don't, the odds of anyone looking there are very small, although they probably just now went up a lot... 

But the reality of it is, a policeman is not going to remove the steering box during a traffic stop.  He will check the dash number and possibly the door, both of which are kosher for the title.  It's still not a crime to have the wrong number on the frame, but only if you own both cars on state records.
mike

[AMX]

Flares, front air dam and rear spoiler were all standard on the 1979-80 AMX.