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Devilboy's 1965 American 330

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Devilboy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug/28/2017 at 12:53am
Originally posted by LakesideRamblin LakesideRamblin wrote:

Nice sticker and glad to hear of your progress!

Cheers! Gotta' show some team spirit!
Jeremy
AMCRC #10059
AMO #10906
1965 American 330
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/23/2018 at 8:50pm
Been too long since I updated.

Things have not been going as fast or as easy as I would like with The Rambler. Still no driving. The tranny still needs to be looked at. It is leaking badly and has a bad seal. I have not been able to find anyone to get it in. Shops around here seemed to be very backed up.

This last year also has brought other things that have taken priority or have gotten in the way of the restoration and have made me very broke this year.

I have managed to locate a great number of missing parts for my car though. If I can't work on it, I guess stockpiling the parts I need & want is the next best thing.

I am only missing a few extras that I would like to get. The body line wheel well mouldings are at the very top. I think I found some, but the guy has not sent me a shipping quote. I also want to find some rocker mouldings too. They have not been easy to find at all.

Got 3 of 5 body line mouldings. Found the battery hold down I needed. Got my '65 grille and grille supports installed. Found a passenger side mirror. Scored an antenna. Got my am radio & backing plate. Bought a new Dual Voice Coil dash speaker. Got a new glove box insert. Found rear c pillar headliner supports. Installed my '65 hood emblem. Got lazy R wheel spinners for my wheels. Installed license plate lamp. Got engine paint and all proper engine bay decals for after painting. Got new door seals. New windlacing. New outer weatherseals. I have also found a few other extras too.

So in the mean time, I decided to do at least do something with the car. I took out the seats and covered them with dark blue material that looks miles better than they did before until I can reupholster them properly. They look pretty good for a total novice. Sewed every seam and stitch by hand. Wish I had a heavy duty sewing machine so I could actually attempt at least semi-professional looking ones.

I found out that under the rubber mat that the car came with, water had settled in the front floor pans. So I took out the mat, let it dry out and then tore out the nasty old carpet, padding & heat shields and spent a morning scraping up all of the worthless adhesive and sealer/protectant that was no longer serving any purpose other than holding moisture against the metal. I am really glad that I decided to do it.

Unfortunately and to my utter horror, after I was done, I found quite a few problem areas. The diagnosis is a new drivers floor pan. Mine is just too far gone. The passenger side is fine. I am also missing a hole plug from the driver's floor pan.






All of the other rust holes look as if they can be patched relatively easy, but none of the metal repair will be something I can do on my own. It absolutely needs to be attended to if I am going to save this car from deteriorating any further.

Weird that both sides have rusted badly under the front seat near where they attach to the floor. I have no idea what cause that since they are not in the floor pan... Weird.


The other bad spots are the wheel well lip & the lower edge of the quarter panels, the right side frame rail where the leaf spring attaches and the passenger rocker, which has started to open up along the bottom seam where the inner & outer rocker panels attach.

The worst parts will take a bit more attention. IE the drivers side floor pan and the seam where the floor attaches to the left side kick panel. I can actually see into my engine bay through the holes.

So since I started the job, I figured I would go all out. I disassembled, bagged and tagged the entire interior and removed the headliner. Removed the old windlacing. I scraped off all of the nasty old rotten padding off of the roof. Decided I am going to repaint the headliner after using a mold protectant primer. It is in good shape, just faded. Getting it out of the back door without ruining it was an adventure, but I managed to get it out in one piece. Cleaned up the back side and removed all of the remnants of padding and adhesive. It should clean up nicely.


The frame rail is also very bad and the most important to fix after the floor. I can not believe how bad it is. Just past it on the same side the bumper mount is rusted too. It looks as if the right rear tire was flat and the frame rail was resting in water or something for a long time. How else could only one area of one side be so bad?



Anyways, looks like I need to find a damn good welder, a fabricator and one philanthropic, wealthy patron. The easy restoration just turned into a serious one. Updates may be slow to come, but I am going to continue to Ramble forward.

Next is tearing out the dash, heater core and wiper motor, and then opening up the cowl to see where all this damn water has been getting in.

I am going to save this car if it kills me. Wish me luck. I will definitely need it.
Jeremy
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AMO #10906
1965 American 330
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote one bad rambler Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/23/2018 at 9:45pm
Hang in there...We have been through it...Your car has all the normal rust for the year..including the rear frame rail...I looked at a 65 about a month ago that had no floor left...It was a shame it ran mint...i just wasn`t looking for another big project
68 AMX 390 4 Speed,68 American,64 American 2 Door Wagon Altered Wheelbase,78 Concord Build 360,727,8.8
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/23/2018 at 10:18pm
Thanks! No worries Anthony, not giving up any time soon...

I just wish I could weld better and had my own equipment. My welding skills are pretty basic. I can arc weld okay, but wire welding is not my forte. 


Jeremy
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1965 American 330
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 6:10pm
I forgot about my console that I built a few months back.

I decided after I bought the Rambler that I was going to build a floor console that would hold a CD player, speakers, some gauges and some storage compartments.

I really liked the design Ollie used for his '66 American, so I measured up the dimensions of the car and built a mock-up out of cardboard that was kind of based off of his version but a bit different.







It fit well in the car and because I have a non-reclining single bench seat, I had to design the console kind of compactly so that it would fit while holding everything I wanted.

Put together the final build out of wood and it turned out great.











Cut out the necessary holes for everything and tested the fit of the components.





Primed it with Zinsser first to lock out any moisture or mold.


Painted it with gloss black enamel to protect against any moisture absorption.


After that I covered it with some dark blue vinyl wrap from Metro Restyling that very closely resembles the unique color of dark blue metallic paint with snowflake that AMC used on the metal inside the car.




I used a set of Mooneyes gauges and cut the mounting plate to make it into a backing plate that could be mounted flush against the front face of the console.

Mounted all of the components and am really happy with how it all fits together.




I used an old sun visor mirror frame as a backing plate/frame for the CD player, but I still need to find a piece of polished stainless steel that will fit inside the mirror frame and cut a hole in it to accommodate the CD player.

I added an old American script emblem to each side as a little extra touch.


I am also trying to salvage an old damaged, hood lip moulding as accent pieces on each side of the top face of the console. Cut off the usable parts that weren't too bad and cut them to length so that they will act as side rail mouldings on the console.




I may revamp it a little before I am finished. If I decide I want to, there is room on the top of the console for a 5x7 or 6x9 speaker for a fuller sound.

I also built speaker boxes for the package shelf because I do not want to cut any holes in this car. I figured out a way to attach brackets to the bottom that will affix the boxes to the shelf by the upper back seat bolts. That way they will not go flying off of the shelf in the event of an accident or sudden braking.

I need to order more vinyl from Metro to wrap the speaker boxes the same color as the console.

Progress!


Edited by Devilboy - Sep/25/2018 at 12:22pm
Jeremy
AMCRC #10059
AMO #10906
1965 American 330
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote LakesideRamblin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 6:55pm
Sweet job Jeremy.  That is a great idea for the American with a bench seat!
LakesideRamblin
69 Rambler 360
73 Javelin 360
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month." T. Roosevelt
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 6:58pm
Thanks Matt. 
Jeremy
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1965 American 330
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote SeanHatfield Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 8:16pm
Really nice job! Now you can finally have cupholders!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote 232jav3sp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 8:30pm
That is one fine looking console!  I want one!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Devilboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep/24/2018 at 8:46pm
Thanks guys.
Jeremy
AMCRC #10059
AMO #10906
1965 American 330
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