1973 AMC Javelin Restoration

In October of 2003 I made the decision to have all the rust taken care of and have the Javelin repainted. The price quickly doubled once the project was underway. I stripped the car as much as I could before I dropped it off. All parts I removed were cleaned and detailed. All rust was cut out and replaced with metal parts or welded in. Front and rear glass were removed. The 360 was pulled and detailed so the engine bay could be painted. The trunk was undercoated and painted. The doors were oxy coated. The stock hood was replaced with a 1972 functional cowl induction one which was reinforced and strengthened. The car was repainted in urethane with 3 coats of clear, base-coat-clear-coat would have been better but the urethane turned out nice with minor dust in it. The car was at the shop for 11 weeks plus a week before to strip it and nearly 2 weeks after to reassemble it. Even though the price was more than I originally wanted to spend, it was worth it and the shop did a lot for the money, the bad areas are now fixed and should last me a long while. It was better to do it now and stop the rust rather than to watch it continue to get worse.

I want to thank Jacks Economy Paint for the body work (239) 332-4477 and DeeJay Miller (239) 369-2047 for the engine work, both in Fort Myers, Florida.

The rust at the drivers rear window was the worst and was all cut out and replaced. Fortunately it wasn't so bad that a new new piece couldn't be fabricated as opposed to a replacement panel. Rust around the tail light bezel is ground away	Rust at the rear was more than we thought with bondo heavy from previous repair, all was removed and a new panel was fabricated. It is in rough form here.
Here's the car after the first coat of urethane. The engine bay is painted and the glass is still removed. I'm still cleaning the dust out of the interior	The 360 is detailed and ready to be placed back in the engine bay
The body shop is done. This is how it looked before I reinstalled all the trim.	All buffed out. No hood springs yet, waiting to be driven home