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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Oct 18, 2006 18:26:42 GMT -4
Finally decided to get the Hornet project underway - here's what we did today:  Thanks to Gus Hayes of Nova Towing we pulled it out of my backyard in Sydney. It had been sitting there for two years and other than some minor rust repair and suspension work had nothing done to it during that time.  After a 40km drive we deposited it in Dad's garage. Since we'll be working on it a few days a week all winter it'll be nice to be in a place with a concrete floor, heat, power and compressed air(unlike the backyard at home LOL)  Now that we have a place to work on it it might actually get turned into a race car. Since there's no excuse now for putting it off any longer we'll try to document the transformation over the winter once we can convince a few serious sponsors to come on board(that's a hint LOL) |
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Post by 89camaro on Oct 18, 2006 18:40:33 GMT -4
Glad to see some activity Doc. If there is anythng we can help you with don't hesitate to call or stop out.
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Post by MercuryMan on Oct 18, 2006 19:39:14 GMT -4
I know how you feel going from the backyard to a garage - your gonna take it up a notch now! ;D
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Oct 25, 2006 17:42:45 GMT -4
Today's task was to strip the interior for installation of the rollbar. Took no time to get the trunk and the back seat area down to bare floor. Surprise!! Under the carpet, speakers and factory plywood hatchback floor there was just original silver paint everywhere. Zero rust - not even a pinhole in the paint.   Got it up high enough on jackstands for a good look - from what I can see the underside is the same silver paint with some factory undercoating. The only visible rust was the exhaust(left below) and a couple of fuel lines(right below) and clamps none of which will be used again.   Looks like this project dodged the "rust demons" in all the critical areas. The driver's door and hinge post I already repaired and the lower edge of the hatchback needs some work but nothing major. |
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Post by 56chevtruck on Oct 26, 2006 8:02:10 GMT -4
looks good and solid underneath doc for sure.you dont see too many of those around! i can remember one of my neigbours having one when i was a teenager with a newspaper route it was a hornet X i do believe?
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Apr 18, 2007 21:57:34 GMT -4
Today we finished fabricating the AMC Hornet subframe connectors(so easy it wasn't funny). Since the rear floor pans are 1/4" lower than the bottoms of both the front and rear subframes it only required cutting four 2" wide flaps to expose the ends of both frame sections. Getting the angle right on the roll bar mount was the only thing that took any amount of time. Did it all from inside the car too - from under the floor you would not know the subframe connectors are there at all. With the main rollbar hoop now tacked in final position the rest of the bars will be the next task before we plate and gusset everything and MIG weld it all solid. Note the amount of red mud and gunk I dug out of those frame sections. It's no wonder those old AMCs rusted out so easily.  |
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on May 31, 2007 13:26:38 GMT -4
Rollbar and braces are 90% fitted now but the real work is just starting. Lots of grinding and welding left and a few patches in the floorpans. One of these days.........  Travis and Bruce's Nostalgia look Mopars have convinced me to do the same thing with this car. Here's what we're going to use as a template:  |
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