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Well, the Javelin survived another track day. This time it was Thunderhill. I’ve been there 3 times already this year in my Vette so I’m pretty comfortable with the track. I did my usual drive up to Willows the night before and stayed at the Baymont. I screwed up when I booked the room and just got a regular (full?) sized bed. I’m 6’5″ so that means about 12″ of me was hanging off the bed. I tried to do the corner to corner thing but it didn’t really work. I find it hard to sleep in hotels and I ended up getting my worst night’s sleep of any of my tracks days so far this year.

Despite that I got to the track bright and early and got a nice spot under the awning nearest the club house. My father-in-law and his wife came out for the day as well so I had company. My father-in-law rode shotgun for 4 of the 5 sessions I ran. I think he had a blast. He’s been on the track before in his road-racing kart but never in a full sized car.

First session was just getting comfortable with the track again and figuring out how the Javelin felt on it. The session was black flagged after just a few minutes due to a couple of spins. After sitting in the pits for a few minutes we got back out for a couple of laps. Second session also got black flagged for spins?! In the first session I had one corner where I locked the front right brake for a second and then, coming into turn 14 I really got on the brakes to the point where you could smell them. Well, after that I started getting a really pronounced vibration under braking. Talked to some guys in the pits and someone mentioned warped rotors. I’m just not hard enough on the brakes for me to believe I could have warped a rotor. Since getting home I’ve done a little research and I’m pretty sure the issue is that I didn’t get the brake pads properly bed. I did try to bed them but the bedding procedure is a pain in the ass if you don’t live out in the middle of nowhere. I was on the San Rafael / Richmond bridge doing hard stops from 65 to 25 trying to bed the damn things. Problem is they want 8 to 10 of those stops and I ran out of road without traffic behind me to do more than 3 of those stops. What I read was that if they are not bed properly and then you get them hot they can transfer material to the rotor and that can create a high spot that will cause vibration. You can’t see this at all but you really feel it. The posts I read also said that if you didn’t really cook the brakes that you may be able to sand off the transferred material with garnet sand paper. So I’ve bought some garnet paper and will try to clean up the rotors before my next track day.

Well, I didn’t know any of this during the track day so I ran the rest of the sessions lifting early and braking lightly… The Javelin takes more effort to run than the Vette and between that and not really sleeping the night before, after the 4th session, I was just spent. I had to sit out the 5th session. I recovered a bit and did go out for the 6th and final session. Then I drove the 2+ hours home. It was a hard day but I have to call it a success since the trusty Javelin got me to the track, let me beat on it for 5 sessions and then got me home. Oh, one other note. I’ve been thinking I was highting a rev limiter at 5500rpm so I switch my MSD chip to 6500. But, the engine was still making the noise that I thought was the rev limiter at 5500… we’ll, duh, I don’t know why I didn’t put 2 and 2 together sooner but I have a dyno sheet from back in 2001 (same engine that’s in the car now). the dyno sheet clearly shows that at 5500 rpm the motor just dies… so, I guess the sound I’m hearing is valve float? whatever, I now know the engine is done at 5500 so I’ll be shifting at 5400 from now on. I was starting to do that anyway in the last couple of sessions.

Next up is another 2 day outing with NASA on August 21st/22nd. I’ve got 2 videos this time. The first is my “standard” music video. and for the guys that don’t like the music videos I’ve got a plain old one lap video with just the audio from the GoPro camera. Enjoy!

This weekend was about making sure the car is ready for my track day at Thunderhill this coming Friday. I had a number of items I needed to do. I put the car up on jack stands, pulled off my street wheels/tires. Then I replaced the front brake pads, which were Wilwood Q compound, with more aggressive E compound. The change was really easy as the calipers have a cross bolt that you just remove and then pop out the old pads. push the pistons in a bit with a c-clamp and the new pads drop right in. I also had a set of rear drum brake shoes that I’ve be sitting on for years. I finally sucked it up and replaced them as well. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve changed drum shoes and it’s one of those things that takes an hour to do the first side and then 10 minutes to do the other side. While I had the car up on jack stands I also checked the u-joint strap bolts. Couple of other things I did were to screw my clutch pedal pad to the pedal backing plate with 2 screws. The pad kept coming loose. The other thing was to lengthen the clutch master rod that connects to the clutch pedal. I had noticed driving the Javelin on the street that it was getting hard to get into gear. Not so much when moving but when trying to get into 1st from a stop. Anyway, I remembered that when I first hooked up the clutch, after moving the master higher up on the firewall that I couldn’t get the car into gear. I then lengthened the clutch rod and voila, easy gear engagement. So, I assume as I’ve been wearing the clutch I probably have gotten to the point were I needed a little more stroke. Anyway, it definitely fixed the problem. However, I’m probably maxed out on length so when it wears some more I may need to figure out how to lengthen the rod on the slave cylinder a bit. Also switched to a 6500 RPM chip in the MSD. And lastly threw on the track wheels/tires and drop the car on the ground. I also have a Microtrak II digital audio recorder that I’m going to try to use to record the exhaust when I’m on track. Here’s hoping for a good track day!

ok, not quite but it’s very close. I just need to hang the doors back on, pop out the rear glass and bolt some wheels back on so it will roll. Unfortunately I broke the upper drivers side corner off the windshield when I was removing it… I’ll either need to find a replacement or look into having a lexan windshield made. I need to order the fuel cell, pedals and seat as all the mounting for those items is going to be done when the cage is installed. here’s a little video walk around of the car.

This weekend was the AMCRC clubs national AMC meet in Sacramento. After all the long road trips I’ve done lately it was nice to have something only an hour and fifteen minutes away. Yesterday there was a swap meet at the California Auto Museum. Aside from Doug Galvin there wasn’t a whole lot going on though. I checked out the museum for a bit and then headed out to visit the guys at A&L Auto. This is a repair shop in Sac owned buy some serious AMC fans. I brought my Javelin over to show them and to see what they had going on. Great guys and some nice AMCs. Then I headed over to Evil Genius Racing in West Sacramento. This is the race shop that’s going to do the cage for my American Iron Javelin. John Pagel runs things over there. He spent a lot of time explaining things to me and I can’t wait to get the car over there so they can start working.

Today was the big AMC show under the highway near the California Auto Museum. I was skeptical about the location but it turned out to be a great place for a car show. Because of the overpass a lot of the cars were shielded from the sun all day. The guys from A&L had 4 AMCs in the show and Rich, the shop owner, won a trophy with his Matador wagon. I think there were 80 to 100 cars. One of the highlights for me was “Marlin Row”. There were NINE Marlins there. When was the last time you saw that many Marlins in one place? *If your name is Stan Kelly this question is not directed to you * Pretty cool…

After the show, back at the museum, there was a buffet dinner and a speaker. The speaker was Jack Carol who was a designer for AMC from I think about 1962 to 1967. He worked in both the interior and exterior styling departments. He had a slide show showing a lot of his original drawings and told stories of life at AMC during that time. I really enjoyed the talk.

He’s a little video I shot of the show.

This past weekend was AWESOME!!! Drove the Javelin down to Buttonwillow and beat on it for back to back track days. I’ve had the car since 1992 and drag raced it a couple of times but this is the first time ever the cars been on a road course. The car was great. Honestly I was shocked at how well it worked on track. It’s got a street alignment and I don’t know anything about setting/checking tire pressures. My first session was ridiculous. I’d never been to Buttonwillow before and no idea which way the track went. For my second session I grabbed an instructor who showed me the line. Then I rode in his Porsche Cayman S and got to see how he did it. So, for my third session it just clicked. I finally felt like I was actually driving the track. I spent the rest of the day and the two morning sessions on Sunday just getting faster and faster. The group that put on the track event was NCRC and they were great. I have to give a plug for my brakes. They were amazing. I have a wilwood front disc setup put together by Ken McIntire. They just rocked. If you are interested in getting a track worthy brake setup on your AMC, contact him at McIntire Machine in Crows Landing , CA.

I had some company on Saturday as I met up with Gaetano (gitter done from the Pro-Touring forum) and got a few laps in his killer 600+ HP aluminum block ’69 Camaro. Very cool!

I did have a couple of glitches. First, I had a 6000 RPM chip in my MSD box. However, the rev limiter was kicking in more like 5600 – 5700. Too low. I’m going to switch to a 6500 chip. The other issue is that after my second session on Sunday the car started sputtering on the cool down lap and stalled as I got to the pits. I had no idea what the problem was. I thought maybe the car had gotten hot and I had vapor lock. So, unfortunately, I sat out the rest of my sessions because I thought I had to let the car cool down. Anyway, at the end of the day I still couldn’t get the car started. By sheer luck I had stalled right near where some guys with a stock car were pitted. I went out and asked if they had a carb guru. Well they listened to my description of what had happened and took a quik look at the car. I swear it took them about 4 1/2 seconds to diagnose my problem. I had a piece of junk in the metering needle. The junk turned out to be a small sliver of blue anodized aluminum from the AN fittings on the carb. So, I’m going to swap out my fuel rail. Anyway, after empyting all the backed up fuel from the float and clearing out the junk, the car started right up. Huge thanks to the guys at Wide Open Throttle performance for saving my butt!!!

Despite the minor glitches I’ve had a perma grin on my face all week. I’ve done 3 track days in my vette this year but running the Javelin was just so much more satisfying. It was very cool to be out there in a car I built and feel that it was actually working. AMC RULES!

Enjoy the video…

So, after the skid pad outing in March (where I put a big hole in one of the Kumho Victoracer track tires) I realized I should probably get a set of street tires. I was especially concerned about driving the 800+ miles to Pomona and back on these tires. So, after a LOT of thinking about what I should do I decided to keep costs down and buy steel wheels for the street. They’re heavier but, for the street I don’t think it matters. So, I ordered some black Cragar D-Window tires from Summit racing. I ordered 17×9 with 5″ back space for the rear and 17×8 with 4 1/2″ back space for the front. For some bizarre reason the 17x8s were back ordered. Initially it was just a couple of weeks but when the date they were supposed to be available came around the expected arrival date would jump forward another few weeks. I finally realized I wasn’t going to get them in time for the Pomono drive. So a week before the show I was scrambling for plan B. After a lot of measuring I realized I could fit the 17x9x on the front too. So I bought another two of the 17x9s and cancelled the order for the 17×8. However, the 17x9s didn’t show up in time for the show either. So, I drove the whole trip on the Kumhos. Anyway, when I got back I finally got the tires (nitto 555, 275/40 17 and 255/40 17) mounted. I also got black lug nuts. And I used 1/4″ yellow pinstripe tape to cover up the thin red/blue stripe the Cragars come with. I’m really happy with this new setup.

And in other news I finally broke down and brought the car to a body shop to get the doors properly hung. Cost a bit of money but man was it worth it. I’ve got new hinges that work and hold the door open AND the body lines, while not perfect, are a thousand times better than they’ve ever been!

I’ve had a 1974 Javelin shell for about 7 years.  Finally decided what I’m going to do with it.  I’m going to build it for NASA’s American Iron class.  Here’s a timelapse of day 2 of the disassembly.  The car is 100% gutted now.  Next step is to strip all the insulation and body sealer out of the interior and then it goes out to get a cage installed.  Stay tuned!

wow!  what a trip!  I drove about 900 miles over the last 3 days.  had a great time at the Socal AMX club’s ALL AMC car show.  Just like last year it was in the parking lot at the NHRA museum.  Great show!  One particularly interesting car there was a 1969 AMX 600 that Craig Breedlove used to own.  Really interesting car.  Also got to hang out with Jon Feltis and his dad.  great people and they are building (rebuilding) their cool 1969 Javelin with a killer new front suspension will all corvette C6 components.  Wow!

Oh, and I won a FIRST PLACE trophy… crazy.  I was in “Javelin Modified” class and there were only 2 other cars in that class so I realized I was definitely going to win a trophy.  I was shocked  to get first place though.  My javelin was the least “nice” of the group, with all it’s paint chips and the bugs in the grille from the drive (I didn’t even wash it).  But, I can confidently say I had the MOST modified javelin, so if that was the criteria then I guess it makes sense.

I was really impressed and happy with how well the car performed.  with the tko 5 speed it just cruises on the highway.  it does wander now and then over certain surfaces.  don’t know if that’s because of the wheels or not.  it’s got a street alignment on it… dunno.

coming back over the grapevine was COLD!!!!  I have no heat or AC in this car and it was down right FRIGID for about 20 minutes…  some day I’d like to put a vintage air system in.

Here’s a time lapse of the show I shot with my go pro camera. enjoy.

I went to the Socal AMX club’s AMC car show last year and vowed to come back with my Javelin.  We’ll I leave in the morning and BOY it’s been an epic thrash.  Here are some of the highlights/lowlights…

The interior if fully dynamated and the carpeting, seats and dash is mostly all back together

The center parking brake is installed and working!

The new amp rack and new door speakers are installed and the stereo works!

As for the problelms…

I orderd a set of black, cragar d-window wheels from summit. actually I ordered a pair of 17×8 for the front and a pair of 17×9 for the rears.  and I bought nitto 555 tires.  Well, the 17x9s came quickly but the 17x8s have been backordered for over a month… I made a last ditch effort by ordered another pair of 17x9s so I’d have that size all around.  However, they’re not going to get hear in time for the show.  So, that means I’m driving the 410 miles (each way) on my Kumho victoracer dot legal track tires…  not my first choice but I have been running them on the street for a while.  Hopefully there won’t be any issues.

Another, bigger issue is that I ordered rebuilt door hinges because mine have always been shot.  I’ve tried replacing the pins/bushings and tried added the door springs (which were missing on my car) but I have been unable to get my old, worn out hinges to work.  So I sprung for the replacement hinges.  I decided to go ahead and try to replace them for the show.  big mistake.  there is no way, by myself, that I can get the door aligned…  I started on the passenger side so the drivers side still works.  But, on the passenger side I’ve basically given up and have to sit on my butt and push the door closed with my foot to get it to latch.  oh, and even though I can get the door latched, the window won’t roll up in the position I have it.  So, I’m driving 900 miles with a door hanging on and a window I can’t close.

I spent last weekend, ALL WEEKEND, working on the car and realized I would never get it done in time.  So I ended up taking the last 2 days off to complete it.  Leaving in the morning.  Wish me luck!

I had created a simple particle board, covered in cheap fuzzy “carpet” as an amp rack.  As lame as that was the real issue was the way I mounted it was a simple piece of sheet metal, bent into a wide L bracket, screwed into the back of the board and riveted to the trunk.  Super lame.  It flexed badly and I was sure it would eventually just tear the bracket.  So, I fabbed a proper mount from some flat bar stock.  this is MUCH better, really solid and you can’t even see it.  looks like the amp is just floating.  now, my welds aren’t the prettiest but no one will ever now.  done and done…