| Restoration of 1972 Javelin SST We pulled the engine & transmission on April 24, 1999. After the garage was full of parts everywhere a hail storm hit. Baseball size hail fell & no place to put the other vehicles. You guessed it, my truck was damaged, my wife's car was under some trees & it had little damage. We were blessed, others in the area had roof & siding damage. Oh well made a call to the insurance company. They had it repaired & gave it a full paint job. May 8, 1999 we replaced upper & lower control arm bushings, coil springs, inter-outer tie rod ends, upper & lower ball joints. These parts where from Kanter Auto parts. Replaced manual drum brakes with power disc brakes. The spindles & backing plates came from a 1972 AMX at Temples Junk Yard in Batesburg, SC. Had to use a proportional valve off of a car with power disc brakes.The donor car was a 1973 SST from the above junk yard. The power booster & bracket also came from the 1973 SST. We replaced all of the 5 steel brake lines & hoses up front, these came from American Performance products. A rebuilt booster, calipers, master cylinder where also replace, with new disc rotors, bearings, & seals these came from Hartley's Auto Parts here in town. We rebuilt the Saginaw steering gear box on Saturday May 15, 1999. Pitman arm which was replaced about 5 years ago showed very little ware. On May 22, 1999 we tore down & rebuilt the AMC Torque Command 3-speed transmission, this was manufactured by Chrysler Corp. We replaced clutch pack, front & rear bands, all gaskets & seals. June 2, 1999 we had the engine block bored to .030 oversize. Two cylinders had to be sleeved. Crank was untouched, & heads were reworked. After we picked up the engine & block it was time to rebuild. New parts included pistons, rings, camshaft, lifters, timing gears - chain, rocker arms, valve springs, push rods, main - rod bearing, oil pump kit, water pump, fuel pump, & gasket sets. A few days before we were to install the engine, we sandblasted & painted the firewall - fenders. Friday June 18, 1999 we reinstalled engine & transmission. Everything seem to go well as planed, except Robyn has found exhaust manifolds to be scatched off her list of things to install, they gave her "a heck of a time" (that is a southern expression for those of you, not from here). Next day we went to town for some parts & lunch. At around 3:00PM we started it up. Robyn was so glad to hear it purr again, that she had to take her for a spin out across the pasture. She came back with a big smile. September 4, 1999 I started to strip off the 20 layers (or so it seemed) of paint. This looked like something I will scratch off my list. About 2 months went by, I worked every weekend & some evenings stripping paint & repairing body damaged areas. November 6, 1999 took the front & rear glass out. there was a lot of rust damage. Treated it with a product called Ospro, a rust converter. Then used a primer Por-15 surpose to seal out moisture, hope this stuff works. Sunday November 14, 1999 Robyn started taking out all the interior of the car. She also used some foam gasket material for sealing around the heating ducts. I was cutting the spot welds that held the "A" post's outer sheet metal. This had bad rust damage due to the vinyl top holding moisture, glad she decided not to go back with a vinyl top. Saturday November 20, 1999 I primed & painted the trim area around front & rear windows. The trunk deck underside I painted earlier this week, is going to be put on next week. Sunday Novbember 21, 1999 I rebuilt Upper & lower hinges. The pin & bushings come from American Performance. The roller cams were made from 4140 steel that was bored to the correct ID. December 11, 1999 we set the doors back onto the car, what a job aligning this back correct. Also placed fender back in place. On Tuesday this same week we went to junk yard for heater cable clips, can not buy these anywhere. December 18, 1999 I started on rear spoiler, had some hairline cracks, which were reinforced with fiberglas. Finished on Sunday, it sure looks good & no cracks. January 6, 2000 did some work on the interior today, should put the heater control box & insrument cluster in this week. October 2000, it has been a few months since we worked on her car. We brought a Vulcan 1500 motorcycle, riding it most of our time off. Love this bike, maybe I can get her to finish the car. Januray of 2001 & the car will not finish restoring itself. Put the new front spoiler on today after we trimed & painted it. Sent the front & rear bumbers to have them rechromed, should be back in 3 months. Weekend of Feburary 10, 2001, I did the layout for the "T" strip on the hood & fenders. Made a temporary paint booth with a positive air flow, which should reduce airborn particles. Next week I sprayed the car with a BASF Diamont base coat - clear coat. The new FinishLine HVLP paint gun works great for this paint. Car looks great, but in 24 hours I will need to color sand & reapply 3 more coats of clear for that deep shine. The Charlotte car show is less than two months away, we will need to focus on the deadline of April 7, 2001. Had new Dayton P215 60R 14 white letter tires put on today April 2, 2001 at Tyler Tire. April 7, 2001 this is it, show day. We left home around 6:00 AM for the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Seen a lot of nice folks from the southeastern part of the country. There are about 3000 cars at this show. Robyn won third place in the Javelin contest, that put her on cloud 9. The ride home was great, two years & lots of labor has paid off. Since this diary has been keep she has won more trophies, which lets you know some people can appreciate all of the time & money it takes to restore a car to "like new" condition. If you are willing to dedicate the resources & set a goal you too can achieve anything. Thanks for stopping by and dream the impossible. |
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