[Amc-list] Happy New year!

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

OK, I know it was yesterday... which I spent lounging, recovering, from our 
NYE party. Shocking that we even had one! (Even the dogs needed to 
recover... they stayed up til 4am with the rest of us, and the oldest one 
had a good 4oz of sake... [4oz * 50lbs == 12oz * 150lbs] she's a happy 
drunk. Why she likes sake is beyond me.

I had nearly 10 days off over the holidays (state employee... the benefit 
of all the bureaucracy).

Anyhoo the Ramblers had a good time, in their own way.


The American --

The bad news of the 195.6OHV as everyone knows is the frequent head torque 
checking and mechanical valve adjustment. The good news is the whole job 
takes 20 - 30 minutes. For real.

Car is hot from driving. Air cleaner off. Wipe valve cover with rag. 1/2" 
socket on a 3/8" ratchet, valve cover is off. Elapsed time: 3 minutes.

Torque wrench, 6" extention, 5/8" socket, set wrench 60lbs, pull up each 
bolt. [Did not back them off, just checked]. No motion on any. Elapsed 
time, 8 minutes.

Fumble around for feeler gauge set (it's in the trunk box of tools). Start 
engine. Check/set all the exhausts (.016); intakes (.012). All are .001" 
tight (I guess), about 1/3rd of a flat rotation. One is about twice that. 
Turn off car. Drop on valve cover, line up bolts, tighten. Elapsed time: 19 
minutes.

Wipe valve cover and tools, install air cleaner, check oil, coolant, wiper 
resevoir. Elapsed time, say 25 minutes.



Got the rear quarter window regulators all lubed and working like new (did 
the fronts months ago). The guide for the glass is a curved "H" channel 
affixed right to the inside of the rear quarter skin! Better hope the car 
never gets hit there!!



I started on the interior panels, I'm going a mild 
(non-sheet-metal-cutting) custom. Interior is all polished aluminum, shock 
green with silver tint, hot-rod metalflake vinyl (silver and green) seats. 
Got the aluminum panels cut, fit and sound and heat insulated, and some 
aircraft skin lights with glass lenses for the interior courtesy lights. 
The original interior panels were all utterly beyond recovery. They'd been 
wet for a long time; crumbled, rotten, mildewed, clips all pulled out, etc. 
They'd shrunk and warped too much to even use as patterns. Still haven't 
tossed them yet, but I will when the inside is sealed up.

Already did stainless steel front kick panels (nice), the door panels will 
be lower half stainless the rest aluminum. SS is a PITA to cut! Eats a 
jigsaw blade every 2 feet.

(One of those little car design details that you don't notice right away; 
no interior panel has compound curves. They're all flat, with one slight 
curve that gives them stiffness and a better look. The door panels, for 
example, are straight front to rear; there's a slight concave curve top to 
bottom. Hence, pressboard (factory) or sheet stock (mine) fit just fine.)

The steel window trim sanded, primed, painted shock green layered with 
silver spatter then clearcoated, look great. Montana Paints 
<http://www.mtncolors.com/>.

The fiberglas one-piece headliner was a ruin, as were all of the interior 
panels and rear inside deck (which was completely disintegrated). The 
headliner caved in as it lost all it's stiffness. I cleaned off all the 
insulating fiber, laid it out on the lab floor and propped the edges up 
with wood blocks and junk to set to the original shape, then used fiberglas 
mat and resin to repair and rebuild it. First pass came out great. I'll 
have to trim and grind, and some fix ups. It will get covered with a 
brilliant green short fur (like long mohair). This will hide the surface 
imperfections that will be pretty much impossible to get out of this warped 
thing. Got some 3M headliner aerosol, I'll sew darts in it to match the 
curve, and put the same aluminized bubble insulation behind it that I used 
on the Hornet.

Got a metalflake green Grant steering wheel for Christmas! Matches the 
primary color perfectly...

Went shopping for the metalflake vinyl, and found it in the fabric district 
first place I went! $15/yard. Some place online I'd found it for $45/yard! 
I didn't get cheap crap either, it's the real thing, nice and heavy with 
the flakes deep in the clear vinyl coating.

The rear interior deck was the only thing I did oddly; I cut aluminum sheet 
to fit, and installed it with spray-foam insulation. The frame underneath 
is an odd shape so that solved that; but also there's no sound, heat or 
fume insulation between the trunk and interior at all. I'm going to make a 
3/8" plywood panel to seal behind the rear seat, and will fill the 
surprisngly big gaps to the side of the rear seat upright and the trunk; 
you can stick your arm into the trunk from the back seat! It was designed 
and build that way. Odd.

Can't figure out where to put any speakers though, the rear deck is tiny 
and filled with structural metal, the doors are shallow, the rear panels 
have the window regs. Maybe a subwoofer under the rear seat? It's tough! 
Small car!


The Hornet --

Sadly, I'm gonna sell it, probably in spring. I'm just not driving it, the 
American reminded me how much I like the older stuff. I drive it to work 
occasionally to keep it in shape but that's about it.

The Classic wagon --

Not driving it much right now, for no reason though. I will convert to 
gasoline fuel though, not a panic on that. The motor is tired, so I plan on 
a teardown this spring. Making lists of what needs replacement.

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