Project 80 proof Spirit (AMC content)

[Thephranc]

The car is a 1980 AMC Spirit. I picked it up at the end of January 2012 from North Carolina it was rear ended on feb 28th. In its previous life it was a bracket racer with the AMC drive train taken out and a SBC/TH350/Ford 8.8 installed. From what I can tell the current motor is a tired and lowly 305ci small block out of a truck with under 200 hp but over 250 tq. The trans is a solid TCI built unit and the 8.8 rear has 4.10 posi gears. Brakes are manual with disc front drum rear.

Being that the motor is so sad everything I've done so far is with the mindset that this is a mule motor and will be replaced by another SBC later so no cracking into the motor just bolt ons. When the motor was swapped it was done with a custom cradle bolted to the front of the motor and to the car so its not isolated and you feel ever vibration. I actually prefer this because I can feel what the motor is doing in conjunction with the gauges.

For the look I'm going for tacky 80s redneck and so far have gotten many complements with the direction. I also get a lot of people telling me I have a nice Pinto.....


What it looked like when I got it. Keeping the rims just need wider up front. The 4 inch wide with skinny tires makes it handle like a pig up front.


The carb is a bottom of the line Holley 600. Works well enough now that I have a solid fuel pressure going in. Upgraded the air cleaner to a 14" reusable element with the reusable top piece that is filter material.


Came with a alum Edelbrock water pump but it threw a belt one day and caused a major over heat.


To fix the possibility of that happening again I went electric with the water pump. Had to relocate the alt and in order to do that I had to notch and box the engine cradle. You can see the hard angle to the right of the alt.


Gates shrink wrap hose clamps. I absolutely love these things. Used it for clearance but will be placing them in the other hose ends instead of the horrid work drive clamps I have now.


New alum radiator to replace the 32 year old one ment for a small i4 motor. Trans cooler with stainless hard line going through the sheet metal.


Lots of room up front


Fuel pressure gauge. I spent a good 1/2 hour mulling over cutting the holes in the hood for this. Justified it by saying the hood was bent any way from the accident.


The money I got from the accident to fix the car bought me a nice little Eastwood 175 mig welder. I fabbed up the exhaust into these Patriot side pipes. This is them freshly installed. Now, a few months later, the Mexican chrome is rusting. Plans are to take the shielding of, polish it back to a shine and powder coat in a smoke black for a black chrome look.


Some trim work:

These are the rear side lights. One on the right is original on the left I freshened up with a silver out of a rattle can and OneShot for the colours.


Headlight buckets after I repaired them from the accident. Silver is the same rattle can colour used in all the trim work I did. Black accent stripe is OneShot.


B-pillar trim


Fat tires in the rear.


Square fog lights to go with the 80s motife



Next on the list of to-dos is chrome trackion bars and install the B&M mega shifter plus under dash work like putting heat back in and electronics wiring. But like most times what I have planned and what I get done seldom mesh.

[instro84]

nice amc, i love the obscure cars.

[Hornet LSX]

Love that it's an AMC. We are building an 83 GT ourselves for my Son. Drop that car in the weeds and tuck the exhaust back under the car for a Pro-Mod look. Add a cowl hood scoop and it will look really menacing. The Spirits are a greatly overlooked car. We stripped out this ole rust bucket for a track car only. They made me take it off the track on it's second pass because it did not have a roll cage installed. To fast for a "street" car. LOL Got the weight down to 2400 lbs. with 304 V8/ 4 speed combo.

[Thephranc]

The lowering plates are in the works, just need to decide how low to go then do the math to make sure wider front tires will fit. Can't tuck the pipes back under the car. I love the side pipes too much. I also have a spoiler for the rear that needs to be painted and installed.

I have a feeling after the motor swap I will only be able to make one pass at the track.

Spirits are definitely over looked. So are the Concords that I believe would make an even better race car for its inherent rigidity of a coup over the Spirit's hatch. If I do another AMC it will be a forced induction i6 Concord.

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Glad to see another AMC on here! I'm helping my 14 year old son with his '72 Gremlin X.

[Hornet LSX]

We have owned 3 of the Spirit AMX's in the past. They make for great drag cars. Trying to convince my Son to lettting me help him turn this 83 GT (1st picture) into the Rally Car concept in the second picture.

[Thephranc]

Thats sexy.

[Thephranc]

Glad to see another AMC on here! I'm helping my 14 year old son with his '72 Gremlin X.

I'm kind surprised there aren't more. I think cars like a Matador, Rebel, Marlin, Rambler coup, or Javelin would make great platforms.

[Johnny Blaze]

My best friend had a 80 Sprint in school, called the 'shaggin wagon'! Had a screwdriver handle for a shifter. We had some times in that ride! No front shocks, with some good pedal work he'd have it bouncing the front tires off the gound in the school parking lot. I gott a show him this thread!

[Thephranc]

Installed the B&M mega shifter drove about 30 miles and blow the motor. Looks like motor swap just got moved up the time line. May also need a new trans as I now have a leak I didn't have before. It was bad, very bad, like spun crank bearing bad.

[5spd540]

I have a rambler that we are thinking about building a road corse car out of

[Thephranc]

Been taking the parts I want to sell or swap to the crate motor thats coming so the engine bay looks like this now.


Almost ready for the hoist to pull out the boat anchor. But in the mean time I have taken the cheap skull shifter knob that can be had you local advanced/pep/zone And added 3mmLED eyes to it. Then it will need to be back filled with resin and the 1/2 20 nut adhered to it with probably some chemical glue and set screws before installing it on the shifter.

Before


After



Still haven't really settled on a crate motor yet. I've narrowed it down to Plueprint, Year 1 or Phoenix but if any one has suggestions I'm open unless its GM. I will not buy from GM until they have paid back all the tax payer money that was gifted to them.

[Zanie]

that shifter looks familiar


Balls!

[71duster]

how about this? future project. probably retirement the way things are going!

Attachment 69036

[Thephranc]

That would be a very nice project.

[Thephranc]

This weekend I pulled the motor and trans. So now I have a big gaping hole and I'm sure since the motor install is months away I will start to tidy up the engine bay and that will lead to rewiring things and rerouting lines and paint here and paint there.....

[Thephranc]

Made this centre dash insert and placed some holes to see if things would fit. Pretty happy with it so instead of just a prototype I may go ahead and use it. Need to figure out what to cover it with. Might go black soft vinyl or get tacky and do a hammered gold faux vinyl or brown. I have 40 colours and a few patterns to play with. I will still make a file for it so I can cut out several from a sheet of material on the router.

[Thephranc]

Finished the cluster and went with the soft pleather because I have about 1/2 a bolt of the stuff.

[Thephranc]

Armrest section of centre console done for now. I may redo the brown vinyl. It has a hidden hinge and magnetic clasp thats nice and strong. Keep forgetting my 1920 sewing machine to do the shift boot.

[Thephranc]

Been doing some interior work.

http://s82.beta.photobucket.com/user...library/SPIRIT