Street Freak Rambler build

[LetsFNgo]

This is pretty embarrassing, but I’m posting this for posterity in hopes that at some point I can post pictures of the same thing but better.
I need to work on my bodywork, sanding, and painting, and I want to learn line work and other stuff. So here’s my first attempt with a spare Rambler decklid I had laying around.
Today I used paint remover and removed this paint job, sanded the decklid with 80 grit because I found that the first sanding job I did wasn’t good enough, and now I’m hoping to prime and paint this decklid again after fixing a couple small pinholes in the corners.
Also today I removed the inner structure from it because I want to do a pin on hood and decklid and wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything special about removing it before I cut up the nice original lid on this car.
After sanding with 80 I hit it with 400 on the DA sander. For now I’m just using cans. Once I play with the line work enough I’ll move up to using a paint gun. Hopefully at some point I stop sucking so much at it.

I should be picking up the block, heads, and possibly the crank in the next couple weeks after the machine work is finished. I’ll post some pictures once I have those parts in my basement for assembly.

[LetsFNgo]

Here’s the decklid at the end of the day. It’s pretty pitted once sanded down but for a practice piece will be just fine. Also included is a photo of the custom Crower blower cam spec card when it arrived at my door Friday. I need to call them tomorrow for a valve spring recommendation.

[LetsFNgo]

Stopped at the machine shop today. The small local guy I use doesn’t have the ability to align hone the mains so it’s going to another shop about 10 minutes away. He’s hoping to knock it out tomorrow and finish boring and honing the block to the piston size by the end of the week. The heads should be done tomorrow as he actually had valve springs brand new in the box that he can use for my cam. Head porting and cleanup is just about done. He’s very happy with everything.

There are a few other modifications he’s doing to the block before it’s done. They include:

Running a long drill bit through all of the mains to make sure the factory actually did their job. It’s very common on AMC blocks to find the mains on 4 and 5 not actually drilled to full size. They just ran the bit until it broke through and pulled it out. This causes low oil flow to the back two mains which already have oiling issues on AMC engines due to poor oil passage design.

Drilling a port to feed the external sump oil pan through the block on the inlet side of the pump. It gets drilled and finished to 1/2”npt.

Knocking a bunch of flashing off the block where the heads return oil and drilling a bunch of small holes in the upper cam webbing so the oil returns to the sump instead of sitting in the top of the engine.

Drilling the main oil feed to the mains to feed oil direct from the front passage to mains 4 and 5. This is mostly unnecessary if you make sure the holes are drilled, but even AMC themselves recommended this line and more oil to the mains is never a bad thing.

Running a tap into the drivers side oil feed and restricting oil flow to the left side of the block. The oil galley on the left side only feeds oil to the cam lobes and valvetrain for the left side. Restricting it helps oil to the mains(see a pattern here?)

I have the oil pump and front cover for this engine mostly assembled under my bench at work. I’ll probably finish it up this week. The factory pumps flow a ton of oil when the clearances are set properly(read:tight) but are hampered by an oil system that prioritizes the cam over the main bearings.

Also spent some time today after my sons doctors appointment disassembling sheet metal off the front of the car, and test fitting the radiator. It’s a basically new 440 6 pack Challenger radiator I bought before I bought the twice as expensive “correct” radiator. It’s much larger than the factory Rambler rad so it should help. Just need to get it to fit nicely.

[MarcDant]

Nice thats going to be a wild ride.