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

In 2008 I decided to redo the interior, replacing the carpet, adding rally pack instruments, replacing the rear sill, fixing radio and a long list of little things. After dragging my feet for over a year I finally finished it in June 2009
Out with the standard gauges and dash overlay. Many interior pieces got painted including the mis-matched console cover.
That old factory carpet was just nasty, faded, ripped and rotted. I kept it for a pattern but the new carpet from ACC was molded and fit pretty good (after they finally sent me the right set) so I didn't use it. I added rubber sound deadening material. The floor pans were impeccable.
My Rally Pack collection and I used them all! The front one is the one I used, painted all the needles, updated to a modern electronic tach components, a new quartz clock and a good cleaning. I got all the gauges working great thanks to a wiring harness I bought to convert a standard gauge package to a rally package. Unfortunately I couldn't use the nicer colored speedo in front but will send it off to be redone. I also matched the odometer to correct milage of the old one.
New carpet installed and preparing the new gauges to be installed
I made a new rear sill out of fiber board and cut for speakers. I painted it in original color lacquer. I painted the rear plastic piece along with several other interior pieces.
All done! Well except for the speedo I will replace when rebuilt. The one in now works fine, just faded. The new carpet looks great. I painted the console plate and the console lid now matches the rest of the interior. I used a silver paint pen to freshen the silver lines where needed. I replaced the foam around the AC box and vents. The new turned aluminum dash looks great (though not perfect) and the red lines around it was freshened up. All the vent controls were oiled up. Seat tracks were painted. Bulbs replaced. Looks great!