Interior – asifnyc.com

Grem Life – Project Greta update…

asifnyc — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 19:34:54 +0000

Had some time to mess with the Gremlin recently. I bought a cheap plastic console/cup holder combo and cut it down to fit. This is a temporary solution but who knows how long it will be before I redo the interior. So in the meantime, grab a drink! Also pulled the AM radio in preparation for putting something else in there. Haven’t decided on exactly what I want to do yet. And lastly, the heat had stopped working. I was pretty sure the core had gotten clogged after having the motor apart. So I pulled used the heater hoses to reverse flush the core. It was a bit of a messy operation. The heater hose was not big enough to fit over my hose nozzle and I didn’t have any hose the right size to make an “adapter”. I tried duct tape which worked for a bit. Anyway, at first I couldn’t get any water through the core, kept backing up and spraying everywhere. But after using the tape to improve the seal I started getting water in the bucket. Gross, brown, full of crud water… I did this until the water coming out was completely clear. I also drained ALL the coolant out of the rest of the motor/radiator. It was brown and muddy looking. put a fresh gallon of coolant in and topped off with clean water. Put everything back together and have my fingers crossed. I didn’t run the car long enough for it to get hot so I’m not 100% sure this fixed the heat but I’m fairly confident. Will update after I get a proper test run…

Yellow Javelin Update

asifnyc — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 04:02:54 +0000

Since I’ve moved I’ve been able to go to the local AMC club meetings every month. I finally took the Javelin to a meeting and the car was overheating. It was weird. it’d get to 200* when stopped at a light but then go down when moving… I only had a 20 minute drive so I was able to get to the meeting and back without out it getting crazy hot. I figured the easiest thing to do was replace the thermostat. I did that and took it for a test drive. It still ran hot. So, even though the water pump doesn’t have that many miles on it I decided to replace the pump. Bought a replacement online and installed it. Bingo, overheating issue solved. I expected to see something obviously wrong with the old pump when I removed it, but no. Impeller shaft doesn’t wobble and don’t really know how else a water pump could go bad…

Another thing that I did was pick up a set of used auto store vinyl bucket seats. Got the pair for $175. So I pulled the Corbeau A4 drivers seat that’s been in the car for 10 years and replaced it with these seats. Had to do a bunch of seat track mods to get them in. Now I have a matched pair. Looks much better to have matching seats BUT this seat is not as comfortable as the Corbeau seat was. I need something (towel, small pillow) at the small of my back or it starts hurting in like 15 minutes…

It’s been a lot of fun getting to drive the car again semi-regularly. There’s a car show in June the club always goes to and I plan on taking it this year. I’m not really a car show guy but I like the idea of getting as many AMC’s in one place as possible so I’ll go to support the club and the AMC cause!

dash mostly done… NASA American Iron Javelin update

asifnyc — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:40:36 +0000

worked on the dash today. Got it painted, riveted the gauge and starter switch panel to the dash and loaded up the gauges. dash came out ok. I will probably have to notch it to allow me to fit a windshield brace since I’m running a lexan windshield. The wiring isn’t done though but I’ll get that sorted out in the next week. I also painted a few small bits and pieces like the fuel cell and battery straps, pedal box and the radiator top mount. Oh, and the solid motor mounts I ordered came in.

dash fab and more… NASA American Iron Javelin update

asifnyc — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:28:52 +0000

Another week has passed and I’ve made some progress on the car. The Dash is basically done. I changed the design slightly and instead of a straight dash all the way across I made it in two pieces so I can have the passenger side of the dash recessed closer to the firewall. Took a bit more work but I think it came out decent. I’ll paint the dash black (maybe use a wrinkle finish paint) and I’m using a Quickcar gauge panel. So the dash is going to have (left to right), the master cutoff switch, a Quickcar ignition switch panel, a Quickcar gauge panel with water temp, oil press, fuel pressure and a 3 3/8″ tach and then finally the brake bias knob. There’s a slideshow below showing the process from template to finished piece.

I also finished the rear blockoff panel. Came out pretty good. It will be riveted to what’s left of the package try on top. At the bottom I’m using aluminum angle that will be riveted to the trunk floor. And, we figured out how we’re going to mount the radiator. I bought an aluminum AFCO radiator, 26″ x 19″. We’ll have two cradles on the bottom that the radiator will just sit it. Then there will be a top panel that it bolted to the radiator and the rad support in the car. Making progress but still lots to do before it’s ready for interior paint. I’m shooting for Monday or Tuesday, Dec. 20th or 21st. I’m going to take it to Miracle in Napa. This first trip will just be to paint the engine bay, interior/roll cage and trunk. Stay tuned…

block off plate – Laguna prep continues…

asifnyc — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 04:53:56 +0000

As mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to carry my track tires where the back seat normally goes. Pulling the rear seat leaves a big pass through opening to the trunk. I’ve got the battery back there and will soon add a rear-end catch-can/breather tank. So, I needed to create a block off plate. Used .025 aluminum sheet. I didn’t have one piece that was big enough so I created two halves and still needed a center panel to get the width I needed. Picture below shows it being held in place temporarily with clecos. I’ll pull it back out, run a bead of body seam sealer around the perimeter and then rivet it in place.

my first video…

asifnyc — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:15:31 +0000

so I put together a little video blog entry on the dash/gauge cluster I modified for the Javelin. I’m planning to do a few track days this year and bought a GoPro HD camera to do some in-car video with. I also got a new point and shoot camera that does HD video so I thought I’d start getting familiar with using it and doing a little video editing. I was also inspired by Kevin, Kelle and the rest of the crew at V8TVshow.com. I enjoy watching their project update videos and thought I’d try to make a few of my own. hopefully it’s not too painful to watch…

light ’em up…

asifnyc — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:49:36 +0000

been working on tying up some loose ends so I can start driving the car again. I actually started it today and let it run for a few minutes. the brakes need to be bled and the tires aired up but other than that it should be driveable. as for the loose ends, I got the door jamb switches installed and wired up the dome light and the rest of the headlight switch. everything works with the head lights and courtesy circuit now including the cool turn signal button to toggle the hi-lo beams. however, the fuel gauge and oil pressure gauge aren’t working. I’ll need to figure out what the problem is… here’s a pic of the gauges lit up. looks good. other random items are I painted the bottom dash piece black and installed the trunk popper switch. more to come…

It’s been a while…

asifnyc — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:59:56 +0000

It’s been 2 months since my last post. I’ve been busy at work but finally got my life back early last week. So, this weekend I was able to get back in the garage. Yesterday I spent some time mocking up the dash pieces on the bench. I needed to trim a little here and there so that the gauge cluster would seat into the dash structure properly. During all this messing around I noticed that the stamped metal dash “skeleton” had completely cracked and separated on the drivers side. I welded it back up and now the dash structure is much more solid. Unfortunately I have run into some problems. One is that with all the testing fitting I keep breaking the legs on the LEDs I’m using for the turn signal, brights and hand break. I broke one leg on the brights LED a couple of months ago and yesterday broke a leg on the hand break LED. I already replaced the brights LED and I have more LEDs to change out the red one but it’s annoying and I’m not sure how to keep the legs from getting fatigued from continuous movement… the other issue is that the underlying bodywork on the dash is developing hairline cracks from the movement. If I had to do the dash over again, and I probably will wind up doing it over 🙁 , I would use a single layer of fiberglass mat and resin to “lock in” the bodywork I did. Here are a few pics.

let there be rock! eventually…

asifnyc — Sat, 09 May 2009 04:34:12 +0000

continuing progress on the re-wire project…. before I finish routing all the wires and terminating all the ends I needed to make sure I know exactly what all the wires I’ll need are. part of that equation was figuring out the audio system. I’m going to run an amp (which I’ve never done before). no sub woofer though. so I ordered a Boss amp and head unit online and it arrived yesterday. The head unit is a “digital media receiver” which means there is no CD deck. it takes a USB input, an SD card or an ipod. I’m going to get an 8gig SD card and put a bunch of music on that. I spent today figuring out where and how to mount the amp and building a panel to mount the amp to. I also made the decision to relocate the battery in the trunk. I have wanted to do this for a while (for weight distribution) but decided not to when I shifted gears to trying to get the car running in time for the AMC show in Pomona at the end of the month. But, with the decision to run a power amp I’m going to need to run a heavy gauge power wire to the trunk anyway. So, I’m putting the batter in the trunk and that will make the amp power wiring short and clean. I’ll still have to run the battery + cable back up to the engine bay, but that’s alright. anyway, here are pics of the audio gear and the panel. I covered the amp panel is some fuzzy “carpet” substitute you can buy at your local auto parts store. it’s the same stuff I used to cover my package shelf years ago. Oh, I also finished dynamating the firewall today.

clutch box done!

asifnyc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:13:46 +0000

ok, I’ve been slacking on the updating of the blog but I have been putting time in on the Javelin. The saga of the “clutch box” has come to an end. I’m reasonably happy with it. my welds are not the best looking but they’re solid and you can’t see the welds under the dynamat. oh yeah, the dynamating has begun. more on that later.