nut job hornet parts car

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

(Doc, let me know off-list if you need any parts from this 73
hornet...)


I just looked at a 73 Hornet 2-door this morning. It was billed as
drivable, but the owner, to be kind, is an idiot.

Before the amusing story -- it's white, in fair condition overall.
The only rust I could find was door corners; has mild crease on
front fender, shallow ripple on pass. door, shallow bonk on trunk,
etc. Interior is actually good -- the dashpad is near-new, center
ass'y completely straight, srround trim all excellent, seats
(white split/bucket) fair to poor, but only one small seam rip.
Car clearly garaged. Basically the whole car is intact. I did find
evidence of a large amount of low-quality bondo on pass. rear
quarter, rust underneath, so that's a big deal.

If I buy this car I will part it out, which is sort of a shame, as
it's in better shape than the '70 I just went through was when I
got it! But I prefer the early hornet style. Anyways, I want a lot
of the interior parts, but it has a lot of good parts (even the
spare tire, jack, jack handle/wrench, J-bolt, wingnut, funny
washer, etc is there). KH disks, working factory A/C (York).

The drivetrain is totally shot. So this guy bought it from a
repair shop (customer unclaimed), it had sat for 5 years. So
what's he do? Puts a battery in it, starts it, drives to Long
Beach (30 miles). Didn't even check the oil. Guess what. KNOCK
KNOCK KNOCK. On the side of the road he pulls the valve cover,
finds a rocker not a'rockin'. Loosens or removes the rocker,
drives home. With the valve cover off.

When he gets home he finds a fire under the hood. Surprise! Puts
that out. This was a few weeks ago.

So he has all these early Valiants and Darts, wants to get rid of
the Hornet. Remember, car still has no valve cover. He drove it
around the neighborhood.

I heard about the car from our tenant. I went over to look this
AM. He is asking $666 for it (clever). I look the car over, looks
nice (above), then opens the hood... and tells me his tribulations
outlined above, which didn't seem to strike him as unusual.

So he turns it over, it fires etc, it'll probably start up again,
but I tell him not to bother. I pull the dipstick -- it's up to
the top with coffee-colored whipped cream (radiator+oil). Clearly,
well-stirred, it's foaming over the exposed rockers. Thedy were
wondering what that was they say (him and his rocket-science
fried, someone I know from around the neighborhood; these two
together reach room temperature IQ).

Pull the trans (904) dipstick, it's got floating crud on it, cork?
Odd, fine flakes. Not metal. Says it runs OK, but.

Motor probably has a good 10 minutes of runtime left before it
grenades, enough to get it to my back yard.

I figure I'll offer him $222 for it. Plastic trim, A/C condenser,
rear axle, spare tire setup, and all the small parts are worth
that.

There's more, but I'll post that separately.






On Fri, 13 May 2005 AMC74Hornet@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 08:22:36 -0400
> From: AMC74Hornet@xxxxxxxxx
> Reply-To: mail-From-tomj-wps.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: {FORGED?} Hornet Interior Progress
>
> Finally after 1 1/2 years of collection and repairing interior parts the interior is finally starting to go together. The original interior was warped and cracked and in just sad shape from UV rays in Florida and on another note it just wasent my color. An all black interior looks much better than what was in there (a puke tan interior with liesure suit seat inserts) with an orange body. The headliner has been dyed and regular Dynamat installed before it went back in. All the visable metal parts not covered by upholstery have been painted black. From the door jam back the floor has been cleaned and coated with Eastwoods rust paint. The floor had only minor surface rust. The sail panels have been dyed and installed and the custom hatch upholstery panel made and installed on the inside of the hatch. The floor under the hidden compt. will get splatter painted today and then clear coated tomorrow. Then the rest of the interor parts will start to go back in from the rear twards!
 t!
> he front of the car next week. I still need to find some one to upholster the seats.
> "Doc"
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