Golden Lime SC360
 

I have a thread going on the amc forum but I thought I’d also create one here as well.

I’ll start this story September of last year. Months earlier I had spoken with a gentleman about some AMC parts he had for sale, during our conversation he mentioned that he owned an SC360 Hornet. He purchased it in the mid-late 80’s with a blown up 360 and planned to build a race car out of it. However life got in the way and the car sat, first in a driveway, then at a storage unit, then in a field behind a garage about 5 minutes from my house.

However he was not ready to sell it. So I moved on. However in September he calls me, interested in selling the car. Turned out he was behind on storage fees and needed to move it. Luckily I knew the owner of the garage and was able to go inspect the car. This is how I found it.

After inspecting thoroughly and hearing his very modest asking price, I immediately jumped on buying it. Next post will be that.

I love these SC360’s!!! What trans? What rear?

Ryan W31

So…

A week goes by, everything is set up, Saturday morning arrives, and I’m able to pick up the car. We all meet up, the owner of the garage gets paid his back storage fees, I pay for the car, and I have my dad and a friend to load the car on a flatbed for the trip home. I wasn’t going straight home as I had to go to a storage unit and pick up a bunch of the parts that the old owner removed to build his “race car”.

The car itself is a 4 barrel 4 speed SC360. One of 306 in that powertrain combo. AMC built a total of 784 SC360’s across all of the powertrain options.

Now the car is home and I have to come up with a plan.

T10 4 speed and it has 3.54’s in the rear. I’m not sure if it was 3.54 or 3.91 originally.

4 speed!!!

Now the car is home and needs to be cleaned. My dad and I spent some time giving the car a bath and going through all the parts included with the car. The trunk was full of parts, and I was given several totes worth of parts with the car.

I also love finding out the history of these cars and lucky for me, the guy I bought it from never titled it in his name so I was able to hunt down the owner before him and get a bunch more info for the next post.

It was also accepted into MCACN barn finds 2024 when I purchased it. I’ve been incredibly blessed to have a car at the show both in 2022(1970 Challenger) and 2023(my Barn Find SC/Rambler). And now I’m hooked. It is the greatest muscle car show on earth and I can’t wait to be a part of it again.

With the old owners name I began google searching and ended up finding a random phone number. Taking the chance I called the number. The gentleman picked up and I explained why I was calling. He was thrilled!

Turns out Henry(his name) bought the car from behind a butcher shop in Northern NJ in 1978. He was 13 or 14 years old. It was a basket case. He spent all 4 years of high school building the car, and skipping school to hunt down parts and put it together. He was able to send me 1 picture he had, though he says he will go through some albums at some point because he’s sure he has more photos. He also sent me photos of the plaque his mom had made for him. She worked at Bendix aviation and had some of the guys make it as a gift.

He drove the car from about 1981-1986. He had 4.88’s in the rear and one day spun a main bearing in the 360 he built and lost oil pressure. He was about to get married and his soon-to-be wife didn’t like the car anyways. So he sold it to the guy I eventually bought it from.

Henry told me he searched for years trying to find the name of the guy he sold it to, but never had any luck. We still keep in touch and he’s thrilled to know the car is still around.

Because of how relatively solid the car is, I decided that I would like to eventually drive it as is. I already had another 360 amc short block that needed a thorough cleaning, along with a nice cam and all the other parts needed to build an engine. I’ve also hunted down some of the missing parts

I decided to build the 360 like an 18 year old in the early 80’s would. Scrounging for parts. And using what’s available. So the 360 will end up with 993 dogleg heads, a Lunati cam originally spec’d for the Car Craft CC/Rambler, an old R4B Edelbrock, and a 1030 cfm 3 barrel Holley that I bought and rebuilt a year or 2 ago.

Now let’s check the trans that came with the car. Though not original it is a 2.64 first gear 1968 T10. And put the engine and trans in the car. Also at this point I have the 4 wheel manual drum brakes rebuilt and I’m a couple of lines short from being able to bleed them and hopefully I can have 3 working pedals soon.

Also I found a set of J bolt AMC traction bars. And a set of widened magnum 50’s with H50-14 Mickey Thompsons which will look badass on this car

I found an old Accel dual point and figured I would start getting the engine more together and ready to run.

This is basically where I’m at as of now, 4/13/24. I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have and will update more once I get something else done.

The Sonic Turbo mufflers are an EBay catch that fit the time period, and the gauges are older Sun Green Lines I had rebuilt and laying around. They fit the swap meet find idea, and they’re all going to get mounted to the column. The valve covers aren’t era correct, and I’d like to find an old set of Edelbrock or Offenhouser finned covers, but the placeholders look good right now.

What a great find!!

Wow this is moving quickly!!!

How long have you had the car?

Ryan W31

Those are neat cars. Have fun with your build and I look forward to seeing it at MCACN.

Kudos to you for saving it.

Thank you for sharing the journey! Great backstory and I dig your plans for the build. Looking forward to following along :beers:

Bought it in September of 2023. I’d like to have it running and driving by sometime in June.

‘

Awesome car, love all you’re doing w/ it including Sonic Turbos!
A few of us here w/ AMC’s in our past also everyone loves them anyway so, please don’t be shy sharing your other cars also welcome aboard!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Great progress. Can’t wait to hear it run!

Can post an update here today.
Spent some time cleaning up. I had thrown everything inside the car last winter because I’m low on storage space. I got the interior all emptied out and I’ll include a picture of the rear floor pans. I installed the Z bar linkage for the clutch but the factory calls for a spring to pull it into the strut rod bracket, or I need to figure out some type of clip to hold it all pulled into the bracket since there’s a cutout in the end for some type of clip.

I also got most of the front of the engine buttoned up. The rad hoses are run, I scored an original OEM upper rad hose in a parts lot I bought a few weeks ago so it’ll pretty excited to have the AMC logo front and center on the hose. The power steering hoses are all run, just need a clamp for up at the return. Also the alternator is all done minus one bolt that I need to cut down because it’s too long for the boss in the head.


Also got the steering wheel mounted. Excited for it to be nice out so I can push the car outside and put the interior back together. Unfortunately the car was missing the original seats, and the 73ish AMX seats that were in it were junk. However I scored a set of hideous green 71-2 AMX seats that are in decent shape and will go well with how ugly the car is.

Bad. Ass. :biggthumpup:

Update for today both here and on the amc forum.
Spent some time under the rear of the car getting the gas tank into place and figuring out what rear shocks I need. Ended up figuring out that mid 70’s Matador shocks have the eyelet on the bottom that will work with the different shock mounting with the traction bars. Also spent time inside the car reinstalling the heater box. What a pain in the ass that was holy hell. I ended up having to pull the whole dash forward to slide the box into place. And when I was all done realized the wire that’s supposed to poke out of the heater core hole wasn’t there. So now I get to loosen everything up to try and fish that out. Lucky me.

Otherwise didn’t get too much done. The heater core was a real pain and I was outside playing with my 1 year old son. Little bugger filled the Dominators on the Tunnel Ram with bolts lol.

Have a nice sized update today. I’ve been working on stuff but nothing picture worthy. I now have working brakes and my complete fuel system is plumbed from beginning to end.

Started this morning by cleaning out in front of the car and getting it pushed outside. Spent time today getting the interior put together. The carpet isn’t original but was put in the car in the late 70’s. So I decided to keep it. I carpet cleaned it yesterday and got it installed this morning along with the ugly green Javelin seats I picked up.

Next was cleaning the rest of the interior and installing the rear seat. Overall I’m happy with the inside of the car. My dad and I then spent some time cleaning the paint. Or at least starting to. My 1 year old had other plans for us so we gave up on the paint for today.


Overall got quite a bit done. Hopefully my driveshaft is done tomorrow and I can get the trans filled with oil after that and start getting the engine wired up to run.

nice car. i sold one last year. 1971 sc 360. 1 of 19 built, 2 barrel with a 3 speed trans. 1 owner low miles, window sticker, protect o plate, low miles in very good condition. guy that bought it has it running.

Spent some time yesterday going through wiring on the car and was able to get 12 volts to the coil. Then figured what the hell and threw 5 gallons of 100LL in the tank and filled the bowls and the car fired right up. Broke the cam in and got it to idle around 800.
I had initial timing set around 8-10 degrees before it slipped time backing it into the garage and backfired hard enough to pop the dipstick a foot out of the tube. I’ll have to retime it over the weekend and reset the idle. Otherwise I’m happy.
Took it for a quick ride around the block to make sure it shifts. I need to adjust the clutch a touch but again, overall it works just fine. I’m not sure if I can post a video here. If I can’t I’ll put up a couple of screenshots from the vids.

Update for today.
Got the engine back in time set about 12 Btdc. Turned the car around in the garage and my dad and I got to work. He’s been messing around with the paint trying to get it to come back to life a little. It’s an early 80’s Maaco respray so it’s not great. But the paint is coming out much better than I expected. Otherwise I started working on getting the lights to work and putting the rear lights and bumper back on. Going to work on more assembly stuff tomorrow.

Also need to figure out an exhaust. Hoping I can order down pipes off the manifolds and make my own exhaust through the Sonic Turbos.

Where is Daddy’s sippy cup?

:-)

Great stuff!!!

Ryan W31

Great story and project! Keep up the good work,I'll be following.

Small update today. Have a party to go to this afternoon but had a little time to work on the car this morning. Replaced the front shocks and mounted the front bumper and grill so it starts looking like a car again. Then got under the car in the back and installed the left rear shock. I had to weld a tab onto the traction bar to do it, but it didn’t take long and came out nice.

Next step is the exhaust and wiper motor, then doing a lot of finish up work.

I absolutely love these cars!!

I never have seen valve covers like those !neat

Small update for today.
Have been working on the car a little bit but work has been crazy lately. Have a couple of weeks off coming up so hopefully I can get the exhaust finished and start to button up odds and ends. Hopefully by the end of June it’ll be tagged and legal to drive and go to a couple local shows before MCACN. It’s not the prettiest thing but I bet it’s the only SC360 wherever it goes.
I’ll add a few more pics later. I’ve been fighting a cold the last few days and have been forgetting to take pics and stuff.

Had some time to mess with the car today, I’ve been sick the last few days but when the cold meds kicked in I would work in the garage a little.
I got the gauges mounted and began running the wiring. Still need to wire the temp gauge and the lights, along with tucking all the wiring away nicely. Began tying up all kinds of things so it doesn’t look so thrown together under the hood. And got the exhaust all finished. It’s hitting a bolt for the driveshaft loop so I’ll need to do a little clearancing to make everything fit right. But overall I’m happy with it and the car sounds much better through mufflers.

Got the 4 slot mags dismounted from the old tires. My dad is going to spend some time cleaning them and next week at Ford Carlisle I’m going to try to find some tires for them. It’s 14x6 on the front and 15x7 for the rear.

Also was able to get almost every light working, along with the idiot lights in the dash. Brake lights and turn signals work, even the key buzzer works, and damn is it annoying.

I like it.Never seen one.My grandpa worked for AMC in the 50's/60's pulling engine blocks out of the oven.

Not much for pictures. But I’ve been driving the car around a little the last 2 days. Got insurance put on it and put the title in my name. It was an old brown NJ title and it’s a bit of a pain since NJ doesn’t like their old titles when transferring a vehicle. The car is surprisingly quick. More so than I expected.

Overall it seems to run good. Still have a ton to finish up and put together. And I’m in need of the headlight surrounds next to the grille. I have a NOS set but I don’t have the little corner marker light lenses for them. Hopefully I can find some used stuff at AMO in Virginia in a couple of weeks.

I also need to find tires for these slot mags. Hopefully Carlisle on Friday will provide tires for this and wheels for the Gasser Rambler I’m building.

Little update. Went parts hunting and found some other Magnum 500’s for the front. And I love Magnum 500’s. They’re one of my favorite wheels. So between the H50’s out back and the new fronts I’m very happy.

On a separate note, had the car out for about 50 miles yesterday. I had to run to my engine machinist about the Gasser engine block. And make a few other errands. I took the Hornet, but unfortunately I didn’t make it home lol. It started making noises in the rear about 20 minutes from home and I made it more than halfway from there before the wheel bearing came apart and allows the axle to walk and kill all motion. It ended up on the same flatbed that rescued the car when I bought it. I already have the car apart and hopefully next week I can replace all the seals and bearings so I won’t have to worry about it again.

Dang, that bearing was as dry as a popcorn fart, from all those years of sitting.

Yes, I may have been a little lax on inspecting the questionable non-original rear axle lol.

Little update
Got the car all put back together. New axle bearings and seals, fresh oil and added posi additive this time. Car drives much nicer so I’m assuming those bearings were junk from the get-go and I probably should’ve changed them when I initially was going through the car. But it’s all fixed now. Drove it about 25-30 miles yesterday. It’s a fun awesome car and I’m enjoying it more than I expected.

Something else I found funny. I was talking to Henry the old owner today, and he told me himself and all his friends called the car The Toad. He says because the car jumped off the line so fast. He had 4.88’s in it. Though I also think the car looks like a toad. So now it’s The Toad.

----Quite a transformation!....Bill S