Roached '72 Javelin Build for 24 Hours of Lemons!

[Bulletpruf]

So, I picked up a fugly - but solid - '72 Javelin roller (no engine/trans) a week ago. I wasn't in the market for another project, but I think it will make the perfect 24 Hours of Lemons project so I pulled the trigger. Anyway, it was originally a 304/automatic car. Other than the MIA drivetrain bits, it's reasonably complete.

It has power steering, power brakes (4 wheel drums) that will be upgraded to 4 wheel disk brakes.

The rear diff is an AMC 20, likely with 2.87 or 3.15 gears, and the dreaded two-piece axles. I've got some scar tissue with these; I drove a '79 CJ7 with a 360 and spun a few of these axles on a few spirited off-road excursions.

The body is remarkably solid; the fenders and quarters are damn near perfect. There's a bit of rust around the trunk lip and some spots in the floors that will need to be patched, but that's about it.

I've been stripping it down to get it ready to get a cage installed and I need to start thinking about a drivetrain, too. The easy button is to keep it AMC, so I'm inclined to pick up a complete AMC 360 (easy to find and inexpensive) and mate it to the close ratio T-10 that I was saving for my '71 Javelin.

[Bulletpruf]

Disassembly is just about complete - interior is out except for the steering column, front crossmember is out (it was bent to he11), fuel tank is out, etc.



Rear suspension won't need much at all besides new shocks and some leaf spring bushings, and front suspension should be about the same - once I replace the crossmember, it will need new shocks, bushings, ball joints, etc. I plan to box the lower control arms, but that's about all of the fab work needed.

[jaybee]

That's pretty crusty, but plenty there to make a fun Lemons car!

[Bulletpruf]

Picked up a set of polyurethane bushings for the car - supposed to have everything to do the front and rear suspension. They're black, so I'm hoping it won't be super obvious that they're not OEM stuff.

Picked up a used - but very nice - engine crossmember. It's the one in front. When you look at them at the right angle, you can see how bent the original one is.

Got the upper control arms and springs out today.

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[Bulletpruf]

Strut rods and swaybar are out. Removed ball joints from upper and lower control arms. Lower control arms are blasted and painted with weld-through primer; need to weld a plate on the bottom to box them. Wire wheeled, blasted, and painted the replacement engine crossmember.



Spent a few hours this morning helping out my buddy Lee with his Lemons car. It's a Dodge Omni, but apparently these are based on the VW Rabbit/Golf platform. It has a 16V engine and it's apparently pretty quick.

[Dave Pratt]

Oh hell ya! An old buddy of mine had one in high school back in the very early 80's that we use to roll in.Great memories.Have fun with the build...

[Bulletpruf]

Oh hell ya! An old buddy of mine had one in high school back in the very early 80's that we use to roll in.Great memories.Have fun with the build...

Ditto. A buddy of mine had one in high school in Slidell, LA, in the mid 1980's.

[Bulletpruf]

Trying to get some blasting/wire wheeling and painting done on suspension bits before I start work in the morning. Tedious work, but I hate putting rusty and grimy parts back on a car, and there's often damage hiding under the grease and grime.

[carter_eng_fab]

I love the masking tape paint job on the Omni! And following along on the Javelin, such a neat car.

[Bulletpruf]

I love the masking tape paint job on the Omni! And following along on the Javelin, such a neat car.

Yeah, the masking tape "paint" is pretty cool.

Agree with you on the Javelin; once I saw it, I knew it was the perfect Lemons car.

Thanks

[Bulletpruf]

Getting tired of blasting and painting suspension bits, but I'm almost done. Goal for this weekend will be to get the front suspension back together or close to it.

Torn on whether I should cage it myself or take it to a shop in Houston that's done over 100 Lemons cars, but at this point, I'm leaning towards doing it myself. The shop in Houston wants $5k to do the cage, and I would probably have them patch the floor, mount the seats, handle the harnesses, etc, so I'm guessing it would be $6k or more to do all that. It's also 3 hours to Houston if you drive 75 and don't hit any traffic, so I'm thinking 9 hours total driving slow'ish + picking up and dropping off the trailer (30 minutes each way) loading and unloading the car, etc. Then the question is why should I spend $6,000 + 18 hours when I could do it myself for $1,000 (highly regarded kit from Rollcage Components)? And I'd have an excuse to buy more tools, too.

[Bulletpruf]

Good day yesterday.

First order of business was to install the freshly painted engine crossmember; this is the replacement for the one that was bent. Anyway, it wouldn't fit; the bolt holes were about 1/4" to 1/2" too far to the inside. Makes sense, because the old crossmember was badly bent, so the subframe must have moved a bit. A bit of persuasion with the porta-power got things back in the right spot and the crossmember fits just fine, now.



Once the crossmember was in, I noticed that the inner tie rod was almost touching the crossmember. Looked at my '71 Javelin to see if it was supposed to be like that, and it's definitely not. Then I realized the drag link had been whacked, too, and it was bent. More used parts to source; these aren't reproduced.



My buddy Scott got the fenders off, and as expected, the troughs under the fenders were completely full of acorns, dirt, varmint poop, etc. Got some video before we cleaned it up, but no pics.



My buddy Lee stopped by and he started working on cleaning out the original gas tank and then did some disassembly on the 360 that I sourced for the car. 360 looks pretty nice so far, but we didn't yank the heads to check for a ridge yet.

[Bulletpruf]

Today was interesting.

I went to a buddy's house to scrounge for AMC parts. He has a 40' x 80' shop that's full of 2 seater AMX's, several Machines, old race cars, etc. He gave me a center link to replace the one that was bent, and I told him that I was also looking for 4 speed pedals, clutch linkage, some clean lower control arms, and a T-10 shifter (the AMC T-10 shifter is different than the Chevy version and no longer available). He made a phone call and located everything that I was looking for, but I was waiting on pictures and prices.

In the meantime, I went back to the shop, and figured I might was well dig through the stuff that I have on the shelf for my '71 Javelin stalled road race project. I was working on it in earnest until we left for a tour in Korea (followed by Italy) in 2013, so I've kind of forgotten what I have for it. Anyway, after digging through some boxes, I found a set of 4 speed pedals, some clean lower control arms, a T-10 shifter, some custom upper control arms that I thought were missing in action. All of this stuff will be repurposed for the '72.

[Bulletpruf]

Lots of progress on the Javelin since last update. We removed the door glass (have to remove it or keep it rolled down for racing) and quarter window glass and all the associated mechanisms and lost a fair bit of weight.





Still piecing together the steering - tie rods, center link, idler, idler bracket, etc. It will all be new. Everything between the idler arm bracket (used) and steering box (used) will be new. Not all of this stuff is easy to find, but I think I have everything either on hand or on the way.

Decided to swap steering boxes from the '71, which had a manual steering box, to the '72, which had a power steering box. Not sure if it will be a good idea to run a manual box while racing, but we should be fine once we're moving, and I like the idea of losing some weight, complexity, and not having to worry about puking p/s fluid on the track from an overheated pump.



Lower control arms are boxed, and roller bearings are going to replace the bushing where it bolts to the front crossmember. My buddy Lee is taking on that job because his welding and fab skills are better than mine.







Upper control arm and spring are in on the passenger side. You can see the fabbed brake caliper bracket in the pic.

[jaybee]

I know this doesn't apply to a Lemons application, but I have a question about the spherical inner control arm bearings. Can these be sealed adequately to use on the street without excessive wear?

[Bulletpruf]

I know this doesn't apply to a Lemons application, but I have a question about the spherical inner control arm bearings. Can these be sealed adequately to use on the street without excessive wear?

This is my first time using them, but I don't see why you couldn't use RTV or something similar to seal the open area on each side.

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Spent a bunch of time in the shop this weekend, but didn't make nearly as much progress on the car as I wanted to.

Spent Saturday morning helping my buddy Lee with his Plymouth Horizon Lemons car. They're fairly competitive in Class C and they have a 16V VW 4 banger under the hood.

Attachment 217419


Had to disassemble a spare 302 for my '69 Bronco so I could harvest the crank, rods, and pistons, just in case I need them. Then we unloaded and I partially disassembled the spare 360 that my buddy picked up in Houston.

The spare 360 was supposed to rotate, but I wouldn't rotate for me. Pulled the heads off and there was light rust on the cylinder walls. I didn't pull the oil pan, but there's water in the oil or vice versa, so I'm guessing I just need to soak the cylinders in Marvel Mystery Oil to free things up.

From left to right below, the first one is the 360 that does turn over fine; was said to have been running, but burning oil. The good engine for the '69 Bronco is in the middle. On the right is the 360 that's currently stuck.

Attachment 217420

The heads on the first 360 I bought are casting 502 - these are dogleg heads with bridged rockers and 60cc or so chambers.

The heads on the latest 360 I bought are casting 090 - dogleg heads, 60cc chambers, but not bridged rockers.

Both sets will work fine for a mild build.

[Bulletpruf]

Front suspension and brakes are together on the driver's side.

Wheel/tire combo won't work on this car but I knew that already. These are the 17 x 9 wheels with 275 40 series tires and they hit the coil spring mount. No big deal; these are from my '71, and that's getting coil-overs, so they'll work on it.

What should work - 17 x 8.5 or 17 x 9 with 4.5" backspacing and 255 or 265 series tires.

[Bulletpruf]

All new steering bits are in. Everything is new except for the center link (NLA new) and the idler arm bracket (also NLA new).



Did a minor disassemble and clean on the steering box, and threw on a new rag joint while I was at it. Special steer box lube should be here this week, along with the seals and a new gasket.





Car was missing the passenger side lower fender brace so I sourced a used one. My buddy Will did some spot weld drilling, bodywork, and welding this weekend and now we're ready to wreck it and destroy all the nice work he did.

[68Formula]

What's the benefit of the special power steering lube?

[Bulletpruf]

What's the benefit of the special power steering lube?

Well, it's actually a manual box, so these are typically packed with some sort of semi-liquid grease. I've seen recommendations to mix gear oil and grease, but there's no need to mix this stuff with anything.