[Amc-list] Detailing issues

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[Amc-list] Detailing issues

From: Don Johnson <donjohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:41:40 -0400

> Snip
> I'm starting to restore the underside of my '68 AMX
> and wondering what
> colors various items (rear end, suspension, etc)
> were from the factory.
> Does anyone like Eastwood have the correct colors?
> Snip

Okay, here is what I have amassed over the last while.
I apologize for the length and I can't remember where I got it from, but it might be the AMC club in Europe.
I do not make any claim to accuracy so use at your discretion.
Don

1 Power Steering Gearbox Black - no natural cast iron. Natural alum top plate and end cap. black phosphate bolts
2 Strut Rods and Mounts: chassis black
3 All Four Shocks: almost gloss black with paint inspection marks. Originals were by gabriel, said American Motors and were date coded and had PNs
4 All Front End Mounting Hardware: clear (silver) zinc for the most part. Some special locknuts are clear cad. Tie rod screws and nuts for adj are phosphate
5 Transmission Cross members: chassis black or bare metal
6 4 Speed Bell housing: natural alum, assembled on the engine when painted, ~2" near engine is painted- cover the bolts.
7 4 Speed Tranny: natural cast iron, has a few paint insp marks
8 Drive Shaft Natural -- Metal : some were painted black. Both have stripe(s) to denote 4spd or auto
9 All Clutch Linkages, Crossbar (Z-Bar) and mounts Natural -- Metal: not sure, bar was phosphate on my car, zbar may be natural or zinc;The main pushrod to the pedal is black paint. Rest of the parts were a mix of natural metal, clear zinc, and phosphate.
10 Power Brake Booster and Master Cylinder: almost gloss black. Entire unit painted incl MC lid. MC lid has AMC PN for fluid
11 Rear Axle Housing: Black or bare metal
12 Drum Brake Backing Plates: chassis black
13 Torque Links and Fame and Axle Mounts: chassis black
14 Upper and Lower Read Shock Mounting Plates: uppers were bare, lower were black if rear end was black, bare if bare.
15 Rear Brake Drums: black
16 Exhaust Hangers: originals were zinc plated metal with black phosphate rivets. Later replacements were bare metal and used a semi-tubular rivet. Later again two of the plates were dropped and they used a rivet with a bigger head.
17 The engine brackets to the rubber mounts were black on 68s and then later unpainted. Dunno if they stopped painting in early 69 at the same time with the xmber but sometime in '69 they were definitely bare metal
18 Bumper to Frame Mounts: chassis black
19 Front Fender to Frame Brace : univ black if you mean the ones in the engine bay
20 Ignition Coil Bracket and Mount : clear zinc
21 Throttle Cable Bracket on Intake Manifold : dunno
22 Alt. Mounting Brackets: Painted engine color, "Z" one is univ. black
23
24 Gas Tank and Mounting Straps : galvanized and covered with undercoating
25 Trunk Bumper to Frame Mounts: univ black
26 Trunk Latch Mechanism: body color
27 Trunk Latch Loop: body color
28 Engine Cross Member: bare or chassis black
29 Lower Control Arms : chassis black
30 Spindles: chassis black
31 Disk Brake Callipers: " "
32 Rotors: bare
33 Backing Plates for Disc: black, IMO matches the master cyl - fairly glossy
34 Trunnions: partial or all nickel plated
35 Upper Control Arms : chassis black
36 Coil Springs : black w. applicable stripe
37 Inner and Outer Tie Rods and Adj Sleeves. natural
38 Center Link Natural, dark metal from forging
39 Pitman Arm natural with paint insp mark
40 Front Sway Mounts and links Bolts are clear zinc. Bushing mounts are either bare or galvanized.

Most suspension items were painted in 68, but it seems that in 69 they stopped painting some of the xmbrs, etc, and this carried over into 70 where much
Tom Benvie:
This is an Eaton unit used in various make and model cars-some like the
Fords actually have a fluid bowl separate from the pump body. AMC has
them together.

The colors: the cast iron body of the pump is a natural cast finish.
The bowl, cover, and brackets are semi gloss black. There are 3
different pulleys. For automatic shift cars the pulley is a stamped
steel piece that is painted semi gloss black. The bolt that holds it in
place is natural. It is a single groove pulley. For standard shift
cars there are two different pulleys. One, the most common, is a
stamped steel pulley that it is the same as the auto equipped pulley but
there is a second stamped pulley that is a little smaller attached to
the front. This is used to drive the smog pump, and a date coded, AM
script fan belt goes from this pulley to the smog pump pulley (as is the
power steering pump belt-and the AM script IS NOT in white paint-those
are the replacement belts. The originals had the script embossed into
the belt). It is also semi gloss black. The second pulley is a one
piece cast iron unit found on some 1968 cars. The unit has two grooves
of different diameters. It is possibly semi gloss black, but the few I
have seen did not have any paint on them. The standard shift pump also
has a bracket attached to the pump to allow adjustment in the smog pump
belt. This is also semi gloss black. The shaft for the auto pump is
shorter than the shaft for the standard shift pump. The pump attaches
to a cast aluminum plate that is natural with a smaller aluminum spacer
plate between them. The nuts and washers are natural. DO NOT
overtighten the pump or you will crack the top of the aluminum bracket.
The pump also has a bracket that attaches to a long stud coming from the
water pump/timing cover. This uses a fine thread, natural colored nut,
a lock washer, AND large flat washers on either side of the
bracket-often missing.

The lid of the pump is held in place by a wing nut. It and the washer
under it are natural. (here is a tip-you do not have to remove the top
to check the fluid level, which should be about 0.5-1 inch below the
top. Just loosen the top wing nut some. Lift the cap and turn it as the
hole for attaching is off center. You will be able to easily look into
the bowl at the fluid level). There is some stamped text on top of the
lid so the paint should not be so thick as to cover it up. There is a
gasket under the lid.

There is a large hex head on the side of the pump. This should be
natural. It has a two digit date code and the pressure stamped on the
side. The 68 and 69 pumps have a lower pressure than the 70 pump. DO
NOT interchange the pumps unless you interchange the box as well. I
have seen some pumps with an off white paint mark in this area, but
don't know what it is for.

There are two hoses going to the pump (or from it). The low pressure
return line goes to a nipple attached to the fluid bowl. It is held in
place by a natural colored spring-type clamp with a nut and screw. The
hose is black and I do not believe there are any printed markings on it
(but not sure off hand-I'm not at home so I can't check). The second
line is a high pressure line and has a fitting attached to either end.
The fittings are cadmium plated and are angled to fit on the pump or
box-you will not be able to put the wrong end in the wrong place. The
original hose has a "fitting" in the middle of the hose the same cadmium
color. This is to stop the hose from "ballooning" or expanding under
pressure-which is over 1000 pounds. The aftermarket hoses I have seen
have not had this middle piece.

I'm thinking there is a red paint mark on the return line but not
sure-seems there is a small red paint mark somewhere here. Will look
later tonight.

You can use automatic transmission fluid in the pump without problems.
They are very prone to leak and a rebuild kit is mostly O-rings and
gaskets and seem easy to find, and are easy to rebuild.

Hope that answers all your power steering pump questions. You may note
that the 6 cyl. pumps were the Delco units in Javelins.

All of the PS pump hardware is clear zinc plated (silver) except the ones that I note in a minute. Tom said natural but it is actually clear zinc. The two short bolts that hold the pump body together are black phosphate, the rest of the long bolts that pass thru the body are clear zinc. These two blackened bolts are usually grade 7 or 8 and have an "SSC", "FP", etc marking. The three long bolts are usually "EWF" marked and these are special bolts with longer than normal threaded portions. There are different lengths of both the black and zinc bolts that go thru the pump body because of the bracket that attaches to the water pump stud- the longer screws go thru the bracket. There are two different brackets that attach the PS pump to the water pump stud: 69 and prior uses one type, 70-71 another; they differ in which two bolt locations they attach to on the pump body.

The OE belts were by Dayco and had the heat stamped "AM" and the group number was inked on it with white ink. This is the belt that Tom mentions. The surface of the AM mark is level with the top of the belt surface and there is a small area around the AM font that is lowered by the stamping process. There is also some type of production code heat stamped into it but I am not sure it decodes using the conventional date code process.

Low pressure hose: I've never seen any markings on them. The hose clamps were by Wittek, originals had a "2" stamped on them along with the Wittek name and Chicago IL. The clamp itself was galvanized, the screw and nut were clear zinc. You can buy repro wittek clamps today and they are identical to the original 1968 era ones except that they do not have the "2" stamped in. Prior to 1968 this clamp used a slotted fillister head screw; ~1968 and after it was an indented hex head slotted screw.

High pressure hose: has a white stripe and some white numbers/date codes. Some date codes are easy to decode month day year XXYYZ, some I can't figure. See picture for two examples of the codes on the hose.

The pump body is cast iron, but is not a light gray like the common simulated cast iron paints. The correct finish is dark, almost like charcoal, and it is a phosphated finish, not a paint (see pictures and additional restoration text below). The pump body has casting codes but they don't always make sense to me using the conventional date code format.

Pressure relief valve cap (giant hex head cap on the side) was plated, clear cad or zinc, I am not sure which. It is stamped with the max pressure and also a date code like HF for month year. In general, 68-9 had 1100 max, 70 had 1200 max, although I also have a 900 max pump but I am not sure of its year and what model car it was on.

Generally, the pump body had three paint daubs: red on the front near the seal area, mostly hidden by pulley; some had a green daub on the top; most had a white "line" on back, below the reservoir area; some had an additional daub on the back (see pics). I have one 67 pump and all marks are done in yellow and some '70s have some funky blue marks like the BBB color.

The pulley screw has an integral lockwasher, and the screw head is "indented". This type marking screw is not used anywhere else on the car so it is hard to find a nice one. Don't hammer on the OE pulley screw to get the pulley off, use a sacrificial hardware store one! The pulley flat washer is very thick, ~.18". There is also a ~.18 thk FW that goes on the special timing cover/water pump/PS bkt stud with nut- it goes behind the integral nut on the stud and spaces the stud out. These are always missing from water pump changes, so people add stacks of washers behind the brace, which is not correct.

On 4 spd cars there is also a brace that goes from the PS pump body to the AIR pump. This attaches to the PS pump with one of the black phosphate screws that pass thru the body.

The lid uses a "special sized" (diameter and thickness which is not readily available) flat washer and a 5/16-18 wing nut. The lid's stud, FW, and wing nut are all clear zinc plated.

All of the PS pump painted parts are semi-gloss black including the lid.

PS pump. This is a used, restored PS pump. It has been *completely* disassembled, including the high pressure hose seat and the venturi that the bowl feeds fluid thru- parts you'd never remove to rebuild it. Then the body was sandblasted; then it was hot black phosphated, rebuilt with new seals, and the paint daubs were added. The charcoal finish of the body is not paint. This is the correct finish for the pump body- I duplicated the finish an NOS one and a mint used one (same finish).

On 4 spd cars there is also a brace that goes from the PS pump body to the AIR pump. This attaches to the PS pump with one of the black phosphate screws that pass thru the body.

The lid uses a "special sized" (diameter and thickness which is not readily available) flat washer and a 5/16-18 wing nut. The lid's stud, FW, and wing nut are all clear zinc plated.

All of the PS pump painted parts are semi-gloss black including the lid.

wiper motor details:

Wiper motor housing- cylindrical casing was zinc dichromate (yellow) as was the wiper motor mtg plate- connects to firewall. End cap on the motor (brushes are here) was clear zinc. The gear housing on the other end of the motor (this screws to the mtg plate) is a natural zinc die casting- grayish/silver colored. The switch plate, where the wires attach (this screws to the gearbox housing) is clear zinc and has a white or tan bakelite looking plate on it where the wires solder to terminals. All of the screws and washers on the motor assy are either clear zinc or natural. The 2 long #10 screws that hold the motor together are clear zinc, the 2 flat head screws that hold the stators to the motor case are clear zinc. The short screws that hold the switch plate to the gear housing are either natural or clear zinc depending on the year and are a slotted fillister head self tapping screw. The short screws and washers that hold the motor to the mtg plate are clear zinc. The output arm from the back of the motor is phosphate finish on the OE motors and yellow zinc on later "NOS" motors made after 1972.

Most of the cylindrical casings had codes like A11, Z11, etc stamped into them. I haven't figured this out; does not follow usual date code convention AFAIK.

There is a date code inside the gear box housing. I have several and cannot find any correlation or pattern between it and the numbers stamped onto the motor casing.

The wire harness to the switch is four wires arranged in a piece of heat shrink tubing. The harness is totally flat with each wire next to the other; none of the wires were wrapped around each other on any of the OE harnesses I have seen. The wires are always in the same pattern as far as how they are grouped by color inside the heat shrink tube. It is possible to make a duplicate of the OE harness if you have some patience: all you need is 16ga stranded wire in red, black, blue, yellow and the heat shrink tubing.

There is a gasket to seal the wiper motor to the mounting plate, and also a gasket between the mounting plate and the cowl.

The washer nozzles are clear zinc and have a unique ribbed rubber hose that connects them to a plastic tee that mounts on the firewall/cowl. IIRC, the hose that runs to the electric washer pump is smooth OD and is slightly larger than the hoses that run to the washer nozzles. The nozzles seal to the firewall with small gaskets. The hardware that mounts the nozzles and tee to the cowl are clear zinc plated and are either pan head phillips sheet metal screws or hex head sheetmetal screws. The ground wire for the washer pump is connected to the sheetmetal with a hex head sheetmetal screw.

The under cowl linkage and drive arm on 1968s is olive zinc. In 1970 the linkage was still olive zinc, but I have been told that the drive arm to the motor was a black/gray phosphate finish. Something strange is that on original cars, the drive arm that connects to the motor seems to be bare metal, where it is usually rusty, while the linkage still has the olive zinc remaining. But, I have a 68 linkage that has been off the car for 30 yrs that clearly shows the olive zinc on the drive arm.

Cooling System Details pt I

In '67 and "early" '68 AMC used a "long shaft" water pump. If you look in some early road tests where they modded the engine and it is apart you can see the long shaft water pump; it is very obvious. I don't have the info handy, but the early long shaft WP has a distance of something like 5.7?" from the gasket surface to face of hub where the fan (or fan spacer) mounts, and the "later" WP is at ~4.5", so they are very different. The pumps may have changed again after 1970, but that's another topic. You will occasionally see a long shaft WP on ebay; they were probably rebuilt 35 yrs ago and sitting on a shelf since then. Supposedly AMC had a lot of problems with rapid bearing failures with the long shaft pumps and redesigned the system for shorter shaft pumps. When I look at the long shaft WP I wonder "what were they thinking?" When they changed to the short shaft WP they came out with a different WP pulley (it is narrower or shorter than the originals since the WP shaft was shortened) and also a new fan spacer and sold them in a kit including the bolts. According to the parts book the short shaft WP installations began in 1968 at car number E-049017. This is fairly early in the model year, probably Dec '67 or January '68, so very few production AMXs should have had the long shaft pump (none?). The long shaft WP was "removed" from the parts list so that after a certain time, all you could buy from AMC was the short shaft WP and then you needed to also get the pulley and spacer kit so that it would work. I have a NOS long shaft pump, in the Rambler box, and it is PN 3209692, which does not show up in either the 67-72 parts book or the AMX/Javelin parts book. The only difference is the shaft; it uses the same casting. The casting number on the OE housing is 3181706, it is at the "top" and it is very light and will be read upside down as installed on the car. The earliest water pumps used a cast iron impeller, then they later used a plastic impeller; rebuilders install a stamped steel impeller.

Pulleys:
Early "wide" pulley 3.50" tall 3186331
Later "narrow" pulley 2.31" tall 3193354

7 blade flex fans, With Heavy Duty Cooling (WHDC):
1968: 3185020
1969: 3195201
1970: 3197749

The 1968 fan does not have the AMC PN stamped on it. It does have a PN, but I assume it is a vendor PN. It has a date code using the format A68 for January 1968. This info is only stamped in one place, where the metal is folded over near the blade. On the later fans it is stamped much larger, and near every blade. 68s used only three rivets per blade and the 69+ fans used 4+ rivets to hold on each blade.

The 1968 flex fans were copper plated and then dipped in semi-gloss black paint.

Spacers:
A lot of different thickness fan spacers were used; these are extruded aluminum and bare when installed.
68/9 3193384 1.22 thk
69 3190510 1.50 thk (for three rivet fan with 5.88" fan blades)
69 3195409 1.75 thk (for three rivet fan with 6.25" fan blades)
70 3190510 1.50 thk, Less HDC (LHDC)
70 3195409 1.75 thk, WHDC (with HDC)

The original spacer on my '68 is 1.13 thk. The one in the pulley changeover kit I have is 1.22 thick.

Shrouds:
68 WAC used the metal shroud, 3185973
68-70 WHDC used the metal shroud, 3185973
69-70 WAC used the fiberglass shroud, 3194548, superseded by 3216095

On 68-70 cars Less AC and Less HDC (LAC, LHDC), no shroud was used and a 5 blade non-flex fan was used.

Hoses: All of the OE hoses were molded (less the heater hoses with the valve on the intake manifold) and had some type of inking on them. The upper radiator hose that was installed at the factory is not inked identical to what was sold at the dealers. The factory installed hose is inked "AM RAD >" where this indicates which end of the hose faces the radiator. This is because the ends are the same diameter and can be swapped at installation. The lower hose has different diameter ends and cannot be swapped at installation and does not have this marking. I have an OE used 68 AMX upper hose and it does not have a PN inked on it but does have the "AM RAD>" marking. The lower OE hose from the same car is marked with the AM script and the PN. I have never seen a NOS upper hose with the "RAD>" inking on it, I have several AM logo NOS rad hoses, yet every 68-70 road test with an underhood picture has this "RAD >" marking. Both the upper and lower rad hose had a stripe inked on. The bypass hose had the PN and group number on it along with the AM marking and a stripe. The heater hoses were also inked. OE heater hoses: 69 and 70 were date coded using the format 09208 for 9/20/68, and also included a PN and probably a stripe inked on (can't remember). In 68, the 5/8 one has a PN and group number but no date code and the ¾ one has a yellow stripe and again no date code and also no part number.
Cooling System Details Pt II

Clamps: The radiator hose clamps were by Wittek and were the "tower" type. The upper hose used two 2" clamps and the lower a 2" and 2-1/4". The clamp metal was galvanized and the screw and captured nut were clear zinc. The bypass hose usually used a 1-5/16" tower clamp at the water pump and a corbin (round spring wire) at the thermostat housing. The heater hoses used a changing combination of clamps over 68-70. 68s used a tower (I think, maybe a #7, I'm going from memory) and a corbin at the heater core, a wittek #7 (side screw type) at the heater valve, and a tower at the water pump. Other years used different combinations. The wittek tower clamps are dated 3/67 for third quarter 1967. The "#7" clamps were not marked with a date code, only "Wittek Chicago, IL" and the "7"

The original heater valves that screwed into the intake manifold were clear zinc (as were the firewall mounted ones). They (intake manifold ones) are very similar to the yellow zinc ones you can buy today except the assembly tangs are oriented differently with relation to the outlet nipple. I have seen partial stampings on the top of the OE ones, this might be a date code, but I have not seen a complete stamping to see what it means. There is also a patent number stamped on the top, the "date code" stamping is much larger.

coil bracket- clear zinc
pulleys - semi-gloss black
'z-bar' of alternator bracket - semi-gloss black
rest of alternator bracket - engine color
exhaust manifolds - natural
AIR Tubes (manual cars) - engine color
oil fill tube - engine color, 390's have shiny breather. formed hose to air cleaner
AC compressor bracket (mouting)- natural
AC Compressor support braket - semi-glossblack
AC Compressor small L-shaped bracket - semi-gloss black
AC compressor - I have seen them black and silver
AC Clutch - seen both ways as well
Dist. Clamp - natural
throttle bracket, bolts - galvanized or zinc with zinc hdw
air cleaner - gloss black, chrome lid for 390, wing nut 'chrome' on 390, Also, there are two air cleaner bases for 70, one is an open tub like the 68/9, and one with a baffle around the inlet, to quiet intake air noise, I believe the baffled version was for the non ram air cars.
Stove pipe - engine color - two styles, auto & manual
PS pump - (from Tom B & Steve P) the cast iron body of the pump is a natural cast finish. The bowl, cover, and brackets are semi gloss black.or automatic shift cars the pulley is a stamped steel piece that is painted semi gloss black. The bolt that holds it in place is natural. There is a large hex head on the side of the pump. This should be natural.
large PS aluminum bracket - natural
fuel pump - natural
sending units - not painted
valve covers - should have small bolts with semi-circle washers on the exhaust side, larger 1/2 head size bolts with washers on the intake side. These are plated
Intake - The center bolt holes have a smaller wrench size bolt in them since the area is tight. the bolts should be engien color.
Thermostat housing - natural, 70 has two syles, early shouldn't have any extra ports. Bypass is held on with corbin clamps, but the upper hose is tower clamps (and please don't put the upper hose on upside down! I have seen this in cars in magazines! a pet peave of mine!)
brass fitting for rally pac should be natural - both on intake and block. Rally Pac junction at oil pressure switch is: large octagon fitting painted engine color, natural brass extensio tube, natural brass T fitting, Rally Pac sender and light sender. Light goes on the run, gauge off to the side (There are also metal strap clips that were included with Rally Pacs to bundle the wiring with the original wiring harness)
fan - semi-gloss black, spacer natural
heater control valve - clear zinc
Distributor - base is natural, black DR cap. 70 had two styles, dual and single diaphram. Dual diaphram came later in the year. Clamp is natural
most bolts that bolt pieces to engine are clear zinc.

Engines were assembled as long blocks & painted without accessories. 390s were painted with valve covers on, and as explained by Peter Marano, who worked at AMC, they used plastic 'tubs' to cover them. I have seen a lot of chrome valve covers with small traces of green around the edge which supports this theory.

68 was carvelle blue, changed to alamosa aqua (not exact IIRC, but close and what everyone sells for them) in 69, 70 and few years into the 70's. You can buy them in spray cans from eastwood or amc vendors. You can also have it mixed (i like to do this, spray with a hardner, colro looks better, lasts longer. High heat paint was around back in the 60's and look how well they hold up).

I had thought the oil hose was preformed but think it just formed into its shape over time. I think there were two vendors on the AC compressors, one was black one was natural aluminum. I believe the most common is natl alum. 390s had a chrome wing nut for the AF lid. 70 throttle bkt is galvanized or zinc with zinc hdw. AF snorkel screws are zinc. Intake bolts varied in style bet 68-70. Tstat hsg is natural AL. Chrome valve covers were definately painted on the engine- I have a pic with one showing about an inch of overspray in one area.

- spacer/3-bolt bracket for PS - painted?
short answer, natural aluminum; long answer, sometimes the spacer has some black overspray on it as it was attached to the pump when the reservoir was painted.

adjusting 'arm' for PS, color?
semi gloss black along with the AIR pump "arm"

- clamps on bypass hose - both hog ring?
no. Corbin on the Tstat hsg and wittek tower on the waterpump; this may have varied though as the clamp styles on the heater hoses varied. however, I have seen both original 68s and 70s as I listed.

- fitting on manifold for brake booster - painted?
AFAIK, not painted
There are clamps holding the breather tube hose at the oil filler cap and the air cleaner, they aren't hog-ring, flat metal... can't think of the name.
Some cars had no clamps on the oil hose esp 70s as seen in old road tests photos. I don't know the technical name of that clamp but the same type was used on the fuel lines, brake booster hose, etc. The hog ring types are called "corbins"; different sizes are different colors.

Bakelite spacer with vacuum port on the rear for carb, not painted.
right, 70+, not on 68-9; vac port was for PCV

edits:
the distributor hold down clamp is natural metal, not plated.

on the AC compressors I think York were natural AL and Tecumseh were flat black, but I am not sure. I believe that info is actually in the parts or service manual.

there are 4 PNs (more?) for the stove pipes as 290-360 used two types and 390 used two types, auto and 4 spd for both application. The 390 used a .25" taller intake manifold so the stove pipes are slightly different because of this.

66: first year of 290 engine. Only 625 cars had it, with 500 of them the
special yellow and black Rogue. There was also 28 American Converts with
the 290: 25 auto, 3 4 spd (1-4 bbl, 2-2bbl. I owned a 2 bbl, still local).
The engine was gold color, Ditzler number 22866.

67: The 343 was intro'd in 67, and the 2 bbl was painted copper-#22867.
The 4 bbl was red, #71394.

68: saw the intro of the 390, and all V8s were now the same color:
Caravelle Blue (Same as the exterior color) #13416.

69-72: engines were painted Engine Blue, (close to Tahiti Torquoise) and is
# 13730. This is the paint Seymor sells for AMC, AM-66.

73 and up: engine color changed to a lighter blue, and is also called
Engine Blue. The # is 14688.

These are all Ditzler numbers. I buy the paint at a body supply shop
(custom mixed) and paint my engine the same as painting a car. As long as
the parts are clean and dry, it lasts forever. Too hot you think? Ever
feel the hood of a car in the desert sun? The only part of the car that
hot is the exhaust manifolds (Which are originally painted engine color.
They get the silvery finish in less than 200 miles of driving. Think about
it-the engine is assembled, then painted as a unit-exhaust manifolds, bell
housing, smog tubes, spark plug shields, air cleaner stove pipe, etc. The
carb, dist, water neck, are added later.)

My TA Javelin was built prior to that, but still has the Oct 1 69 (for 70 model year) date. I am assuming they were all pre-dated.
So here are the codes:

First line:
SEQUENCE NUMBER- (example:R012345). This is the order in which the car came down the BODY assembly line. Found on the door tag next to "BODY". Though the bottom number on the tag is often called the Sequence Number, on the build sheet it is the Body Number.

BROADCAST MO. DAY. 68 and 69 only: For Month and day-rarely used, and what a shame. Eliminated in 70.
--------------------
Second Line:

SERIAL NO.-(example: X123456 -the last 7 digits of the VIN. Also stamped behind the steering box). The first letter is the engine size, the last 6 are the sequential order number for the factory. The sequential order number is the order the cars were processed to be built. After they are processed the order goes to the BODY plant and the BODY number is given to the car. Then the body is sent to the final assembly plant where the SEQUENCE number is assigned. So you could have 3 "first cars" first ordered, first body, first final assembly.

ORDER NO.-I have no idea how to track these. It was also on the sticker price-it would have the 2 digit dealer code, then the 6 digit order number. I have a sticker for a zone 16 car and the order number is 140418. It was built the week of Jan 23, 1970. I am wondering if it has to do with the numbers found on top of the Dealer Car Purchase Order, used when ordering a car. It is also 6 digits.

ZONE- AMC divided the world into various Zone Offices. Each zone area had a number of codes assigned to it. The Boston Zone was codes 11, 12, 13. I am trying to compile a zone code list, but no luck yet. If you know yours, please send it to me. There are tons of people looking for this info. Dealer name and address would also help.

TRANS. NO. CODE-Not sure here either. I have a zone 38 car with the code "12 A". I believe this had to do with how the car would be transported to the dealer, and the codes were carrier IDs. (My guess, anyway)

SHIP-Again, not sure but the codes I have are either "G", "R", "T", "A". I'm assuming all are Ground, Rail, Truck, Air. All the local slips I have are "T", and all type cars in this area were trucked in. Some slips from the Northwest say "R", and I know their cars arrived on Railcars. Ground could be perhaps the dealers picked them up themselves, which was allowed until around 1971.

FL SO Not sure, but has to do with the dealership Floor Plan-(SL or Sales Class was used in 69-70)-If a car is fully loaded it is doubtful it was ordered for the showroom-it was probably customer ordered. However, you can check right here on the build sheet. A "D" would be for dealer stock, a "Z" would be for zone use, and a "R" would be a customer or retail order. Also have an "S". but don't know why.

MODEL-79 7 (Javelin SST) 75 5 (Javelin base) 39 7 (AMX) Matches VIN and Door Tag.

DRI-No idea, but blank on every single sheet I have seen.

COLOR- "72 00" (The 72 is Frost White, the 00 is no other color, such as two tone, roof color, shadow hood on AMX etc. The "A" from the code on the door is for Acrylic, which was the standard). -this is from this AMX. The TA Javelin says 00 00. Red with Shadow Mask 70 AMX is 39 08. (What is the Machine-both colored and RWB?) Matches door tag.

TRIM- 35 F (Red Vinyl. Matches door tag). L-Leather- in 69, E-Corduroy in 70 Javelins (and at least one documented first day of production AMX). 1=black, 3=blue, 4=green, 5=red, 6=brown, plus others.

TIRES-37 E70 Redlines. Other codes: 20-E60 x 15 (15" on Machine rims), 28-F70 x 14 RWL, 32-E70 x 14 RWL,. I have a whole list, but would really like some positive IDs before publishing it. The above I am sure of for 1970. There were 22 different tires for 68 models, 20 for 69, 21 for 70.

Conv Top (ST for 69)- The convertible option ended in 68, but there were two colors: 1-black, 2-white.. This also showed if there was a vinyl top, and what the color the vinyl would be: 9-black, 8-white, 7-blue

FRT SEAT-5-buckets, 2-reclining. In 1970 -7 (Front buckets with center cushion). 5 (without center cushion) Blank on most of my 68-9 slips.

SEAT BELT-2 (I'm assuming because it is four anchoring sections-the rear middle anchors with the outboard ones. All AMXs say "2" here, all Javs say "4"). Cars built prior to Jan 1 68 did not need a shoulder belt (and I had one AMX so equipped, and a number of Javs-had a small plug in the panel). I have the code for with/without shoulder belts, but can't find it.

1968/9-HEADREST. 1 with, blank without. Standard on all 69s.

PP1 PP2- 2 (Performance Package 1 or 2, also known as the Go Pak. 343/360s is a 1, 390s a 2).

ENG in 69, 9-390. (Have the rest, will get them out). BLANK SPACE in 1970, and not filled in as it is on the Serial Number section.

DE- 1 (Dual Exhaust. 1 means you have it, blank you don't).

TRAN-(Transmission. M is 4 speed floor, C-floor automatic, A-column automatic. Same as in VIN).

GEAR RAT- As I do not know what the cars came with when I get the slips I am only guessing here, but my AMX with manual trans and 3.54 gears is an "F". The TA with 3.91 gears is a "9". There is NO correlation between gears and rearend tags, though. A 70 Jav with 3.15 posi and automatic is an "H" a 70 6cyl 3.08s is a "B"). 7 codes in 68, 12 in 69 and 70.

TACH-2 (Blank if none) (On 68 the heading is "1". Why?).

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