The AMC Javelin build thread!

I can see the pictures in the thread just fine at the moment. Looks great too!

Seem OK to me, too

Your last three pics (7/15) don't show up for me.

yeah, when I go to the garage, I can see everything fine

Those pictures are all very high resolution. Those of you who are having problems, are you on slower internet connections? They're showing up OK over here, but they're loading very slowly.

Javelin, you should consider scaling down your photos before uploading.

Roger, will resize in the future!

Bump so we can move it to the new Build Threads section.

Alright, now to catch up...

Fan issue solved

This took way longer than it should have, but I finally got the right combination of bolts, washers, and spacer to make the fan and pulley work correctly. Belts and upper radiator hose followed it in.

Finally got the trunk open, too

And boy was it full! Two tires, a wheel and tire, and a wheel, plus some cool old metal boxes of light bulbs, the original plates, and a pile of 727 TF internals! I think the repair the Javelin got abandoned for was the transmission got rebuilt! Woohoo!

26 years off the road...

Yes, these are the original 1973 Oregon plates. Don’t be fooled by the “98” registration, it’s actually an 86 registration upside-down. This car spent 26 years off the road!

Dropped the tank

Part of the rebuild process was to get the Javelin off of the fuel can and onto it’s own fuel system. As the earlier updates showed, I had replaced the fuel pump and all hoses already. The last step was to drop the tank and assess. It still had gas in it! There was a little sediment, so I drained it (into a pan for recycling), added some fresh gas and swirled it, drained, repeat, etc. It was nice and clean inside and solid (ie - the baffles haven’t rusted off), so back in it went!

Trunk floor

It took a lot of unloading and cleaning, but here’s the bare trunk floor. There is some surface scale, but no rust holes! I will wire-wheel this, prime it, and paint it with AMC splatter paint in the near future.

Brakes are done!!!

With the correct spacers for the booster in hand I completed the brake rebuild/upgrade with a rebuilt booster and new master cylinder. I had to install one conversion fitting and bend the original lines a bit to get it all in, but it’s done. Bled out nicely with new DOT4.

Exhaust fail

The original duals have had it. Both mufflers were completely rusted out and both pipes were smashed. Sawzall took care of all that weight…

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVO2X0oVQEc&feature=g-upl

Movement!!!

The jackstand test of the transmission shows movement in both axles and all four (including reverse) gears! Let’s put the wheels on…

Disc swap

The disc swap portion of the brake job was actually stupid easy. These are the factory Kelsey-Hayes discs that would be on 360 and 401 Javelin’s and AMX’s optioned with them from 71-74. Everything came off of a Javelin and bolted right to mine with no issues at all. The new hoses fit great and the red calipers look pretty good to me.

Down on all fours!

This is the first time in over a year that the Javelin has been on it’s own four wheels and tires! Next step is to make it drive…

First Drive!!!

And there we have it! The first drive under it’s own power since 1986!!!

Video of the actual first move:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVPYWeuTBkE&feature=g-upl

Another pressure washing

With the Javelin out in the sun it was time for another pressure-washing. Goodbye mold, mildew, dirt, cat prints, and other grit! Hmmm, the paint looks good. Maybe I can save it?

Adjustments

Well if you watched the first drive video, you know the brakes were dragging. The rears would lock up as soon as I let off the gas. I took this to mean that I messed up the install, but the drum popped right off. A little digging showed that my power booster uses an adjustable threaded rod for the master cylinder. So I adjusted that inward a lot, and voila! No more brake drag! I then went on a real test drive. A couple of miles through the back of the neighborhood to a friend’s house, stopped and showed off the car, then came back. Nice!

Save the paint?

Here’s what 5 quick minutes of hand-rubbing with a mild polish got me… I do believe that with my Porter-Cable and a lot of elbow grease I can get this “orange” at least back to glossy!

Started scrubbing the interior

After getting some gas in the car (trip 2!) I decided it was high time I took some elbow grease to the inside. I cleaned the mold up, vacuumed, and generally wiped things down. It ain’t anywhere near done, but at least now you can sit in the car without a biohazard suit on…

And into the shop with you!

Trip three was to the local repair shop staffed by some good friends. They are going to do the 727’s filter and fluid (you can drain the torque convertor in these) and the rear end grease. These are two jobs I loathe, and I always spill, so I farm them out! From here it’s off to the exhaust shop!

And that ladies and gentlemen is that! That brings the build thread up to right meow and the actual current status of the car. After the exhaust it'll be a lot of interior cleaning and fiddling (passenger door won't open, windows don't like to go down, etc) in preparation for the biggest show and cruise in the area, which is the 25th. I already bought my pass, so there's no backing out!!

Damn sexy car, and those wheels look great on there. Keep up the good work!

Looks great!

Q: Does running an automatic transmission with the driven wheels off the ground hurt anything? I've heard stories... but it look like you did it and everything was fine.

RossD wrote: Looks great! Q: Does running an automatic transmission with the driven wheels off the ground hurt anything? I've heard stories... but it look like you did it and everything was fine.

Not with a 727 TF! I've never heard that one before though.

JThw8 wrote: Damn sexy car, and those wheels look great on there. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

I envy you, Javelin. Nice project, good work.

Got the Javelin back from the shop already. The TF looked great and the bands were adjusted well, so we are confirming it's a rebuilt trans! The rear end grease was original, but now it's changed. It's a 2.87 rear gear though!!! (43 ring, 15 pinion) Poop! Ah well, it should get good gas mileage. Maybe I ought to take it to the Ohio Mile and see what the top end is... (aw poop #2, the calculator says all of 121MPH with the current tires, 1:1 3rd gear, and 4500RPM's, looks like 5K = 134 though.)

Somebody came by yesterday and tried to buy the Javelin while I was napping with MiniJav. He came back today!

Turned him down (decent enough offer though) and then worked on the car all day today. It is all-together a much more pleasant car to be in. Updates coming.

After the past ten pages? No!

Javelin wrote: ...Maybe I ought to take it to the Ohio Mile and see what the top end is... (aw poop #2, the calculator says all of 121MPH with the current tires, 1:1 3rd gear, and 4500RPM's, looks like 5K = 134 though.)

That 5K would work out real well. Over 135 you need a 4-point bar and I think a harness installed. 135 is the cutoff with stock seat belts.

Dammit, I just read through this whole thing and it's not done. Really enjoyed the progress up till now. Keep it up!

One of the guys that comes to our autox here in CT runs a Javelin painted with the red white and blue color scheme. Great looking car, inside and out and runs really well.

Catch-up updates!

Door panel disassembly

The next item on the list was to rebuild the doors. I started with the driver’s side and pulled off all of the parts. I bagged and tagged the hardware and went and bought all new stuff at the local hardware store.

Door innards rebuild

Of course the main reason for popping the door panels was to rebuild the innards. I took the glass off the track, rebuilt all of the seals and felts, lubed the winder and tracks, and reinstalled. I also took the time to lube all of the locks, hinges, latches, and linkage inside as well as clean out the door and drain plugs.

Upholstery work

Don’t be afraid of interior upholstery! After fixing the plastic inner piece’s cracks with JB Weld Epoxy, I glued the original rubber outer back on with 3M adhesive and liberal application of vise-grip.

Door complete!

After a thorough scrubbing of the door panel pieces and a coat of 303 Aerospace Protectant, I put the door panel back together with the new hardware. I also cleaned and polished the chrome latch handle and door lock, and installed a new window crank (from the Hornet). Now it all works like it’s supposed to and looks great, too!

Repeat steps 1-100...

The passenger door didn’t even open when I got the Javelin. It took longer than I want to admit to coax the passenger door open, but once I did accomplish that I repeated all of the steps from the driver’s door. The passenger side turned out even better (due to less use/wear), but needs the fake woodgrain trim piece to be finished up.

Finally!!!

The rest of the front suspension finally arrived! My special welded LCA’s got damaged beyond repair in shipping, so these are stock ones with new bushings and a stubber (my car was only built with one…). Now I just need to find an entire uninterrupted day to install it all…

More cleaning...

Lots of vacuuming, de-carpeting, scrubbing, de-molding, etc, etc got me to here… You can ride in the car without a bio-hazard suit again! No more mold growth plants, either…

Driving places!

Now I can finally drive this project places, like to work! It’s still loud (no exhaust), ugly (flat paint), and unknown (25 miles in the last 28 years…) but it got me there and back!

Break out the polish!

I was tired of the outside looking like absolute trash, so I spent a day with the polisher. The fender is washed, cleaned, and polished with the Porter-Cable, the door is just washed. See the difference? It’s not “saving” the paint, but at least it’s smooth, no longer chalky, and finally has a bit of gloss. The Javelin now looks more like a “driver” and less like a “I was in a field 10 minutes ago” car.

Phew!

And quite a few hours and many 6” buffing heads later… Voila! Again, it’s not a miracle, but it’s at least an improvement. “Polishing a turd” is how Mrs. Javelin put it…

Close up

Compare this shot to the earlier ones in the build and you can really see the smoothness difference. Now I can do a Duke’s slide across the hood!

I also installed a starter button under the dash.

Awesome progress. Are you going to throw some paint over the primer on the roof? If you can't match it could you at least mask it off and hit it with a couple of cans of white rustoleum to give it a temp two tone look?