Build direction...

So I've been thinking about where I want this build to go since I bought the Hornet. Pro Street-esque cruiser... Kind of cool look. Part-time track day car, barely streetable driver... Really leaned that way for a while. All out racer, maybe for the NASA American Iron class... Cool to think about, but probably not realistic. Then I started thinking Vintage Racing. After doing a lot of surfing, I came across a few pics of an IMSA RS Series Hornet. Gene Felton Racing, campaigned from 1973-1975 by Bob Hennig. The better pictures were owned by a photog named Mark Windecker. I sent him a message through his web site, and he graciously sent me the following three photos...

Number 21 is the Hennig car, number 12 is the Felton car. The cars run by Felton under the "Team 21 Racing" banner were 1973's, but I'm hoping as a "tribute" car, HSR (Historic Sportscar Racing) will be content with a "spirit of the original" rendition. Here are the other two Windecker photos...

Really nice to have front/rear, profile and rear 3/4 views. There are a couple other internet shots of the car. I'd like to get permission to use those as well. If I can't find a copy right holder, I might have to pirate the others.

I believe Gene Felton's racing page has a couple, I will start there. Not all of the pictures I've found are from the same racing season, so mine will be an amalgamation of liveries/sponsors. The primary sponsor on this version was DeWitt American (AMC) in Akron, Ohio. The dealership is long defunct, and represented numerous makes over the years.

Chill out, keep cool...

The old radiator still holds water (looking at it, I'm not sure how). Decided to go ahead and replace it anyway. I ordered a Champion, 3-row aluminum unit off of Ebay.

I picked-up lower and upper hoses and a really nice, used fan shroud.


The shroud is an AMC Jeep unit, so the hose locations are a little different than the AMC car shroud. Some creative cutting, trimming and sanding made it a nice fit.

I drilled the radiator flanges and mounted the modified shroud. The hoses have plenty of clearance, and the transmission cooler line fitting looks like it will clear nicely.

After draining the system, I pulled the old hoses off and was able to get the anti-collapse spring out of the old lower. The old Trans-line fittings are larger on the new Rad, so it's off the the parts store to source new fittings.

Alternator and wiring... hopefully an upgrade...

So basically, I stared at the empty spot where the alternator is supposed to be and just let my brain wander. The more I stared, the more it looked like I could use a couple of the timing cover studs and at least one of the old A/C compressor mounting holes to mount the factory bracket. Sure enough, after a little jimmying around, it popped into place and I was able to use one of the A/C bracket bolts and some odd hardware to secure the alternator bracket. Bolting the Alternator to the bracket was straight up, and there it was! The alternator is back in, pretty close to it's old spot. 




Next up, that dodgy Walmart speaker wire that runs from the starter switch to the Alternator wiring loom. I bought an 11 color bundle of 16 gauge, high-temp automotive wire off of Ebay. 25 feet of each color. I randomly picked Grey and Pink and went to work. First up I needed to 86 the speaker wire... I snipped through the zip cords the PO used to bundle the wires and disconnected from the starter button (that's another story) and pulled the spade connectors that attached the wire to the factory plugs. The pressure switch under the drivers seat had been bypassed, so the PO had done some creative wiring. Some of his spade connector crimps were pretty flimsy, so I re-did those on wires I needed and crimped them on my new wires as well. I pulled the new wire through a firewall access grommet and wired to the back of the starter button. I did the zip-tie thing as well and made my connections at the alternator end. The battery is pretty dead, but there was enough juice to crank it over, so the wiring swap seems to be a success...





Because the alternator is in a slightly different location, and I no longer have the A/C pulley to drive the alternator off of, I need to guestimate the belt length I need and get a new battery. Small victories... But I'll take them...

Up Date...
It took three tries, but I found a v-belt that fits with proper tension. Kind of a "Goldy Locks" situation... the 56" was too short, the 60" was too long, but the 58" was just right!

Drop plates, part II...

Since "Drop Plates V1.0" went so well (not), it's on to V2.0. This time I know what I'm dealing with... A36 mild steel. The internet, specifically Ebay, is a beautiful thing. I started with 4" x 8" x 5/8" plate. I went with 5/8 after reading several drop plate threads on The AMC Forum.



 I had a buddy at work cut the blanks to size on the Hyd-Mech saw. The 1/2 inch stock seems to work really well for the 1-3/4" drop style, but I like the idea of added bending resistance with the thicker material. These plates should allow almost 2.5" of drop, so a little extra unsprung weight is a worthwhile trade-off. I cleaned up the blanks at the grinder. Next is to the Bridgeport for boring the six 7/16 through holes and a little clean up. I'll chamfer the holes and send them through the tumbler. I'll either put them through the Black Oxide line, or paint them black.



I'll post additional pics as these progress...

Rust is the enemy...

I recently did a Bumper-ectomy (front and rear). I will attempt to use the factory steel bumpers as templates to create fiberglass reverse molds and replacement bumpers. The originals weigh a ton, and stick out too far. The fiberglass units will be far lighter and I can tuck them up to the bodywork. After removing the bumpers, I removed the bumper-filler (injection molded pieces that are painted body color). Those are mounted on pins that are riveted through the sheetmetal. Removing the pins left several holes. I tapped them flat and sprayed anything remotely oxydized with rust inhibitor (black}.
Then everything tan or black got a shot of grey primer...







Of course, I've never actually fabricated anything in fiberglass, but how hard can it be? Insert laugh-track here...

Drop plates (drop spindles)...

Finally started fabbing the drop-plates... 

I bought a 1/2" piece of plate steel earlier this year. It's about 11"x 23" of unknown type/grade. I got it at a local scrap yard in their "burn-out" area. Basically, they torch cut whatever is larger than they can put through the shredder. I think I paid $10 for this piece and a 7" x 18" piece of 1/4" thick stock for the caliper bracket mounts for the Ford disc brake conversion.


Turns out it might be made from unobtainium... this stuff is hard! I tried cutting the blanks on a bandsaw with a bi-metal blade... the steel giggled. We ended up cutting this stuff on the Hyd-Mech saw... slowly... After we blanked the pieces on the saw, I took them to the Bridgeport to true them up... I proceeded to destroy a high-speed steel end-mill after a few passes. I switched to a carbide end-mill and took .0020 at a time... slowly. I beveled the edges on a 12" sander/grinder with 80 grit and threw them in the tumbler. 


After tumbling...


I'm off until Tuesday, so I'll start on the through holes next week. 

There are a couple different lowering plate designs, The more common of the two gives a 1-3/4" drop, which works well for a street stance. I am using the maximum drop design. It should give me about 2-1/2" of drop without effecting the steering geometry... 

I'm not looking to "slam" the Hornet, but I want to get the body down over the tires. Since I've taken weight off of the from end, she sits pretty high. The rear I'll lower with drop blocks, maybe 1-1/2 to 2 inches. Axle wrap shouldn't be an issue, but I will fit traction bars none the less. That's still down the road a piece...

More from: "the out-of-order file"...

Buying things out of order, that is...

So, I bought some used flat-top pistons (199's had flat-tops) and a set of spindles.

The flat-tops will get cleaned up and stored for later. If I can't use them for some reason, I have next to nothing invested (shipping was as much as the parts). I'm hoping I can use them to get the CR up around 10:1 from the stock 8.5:1 (?)... I think I've settled on some engine basics: Isky 270 LH cam, early AMC/Jeep 4.0 head swap, fabricated intake, Edelbrock 1804 500 cfm carb, Mopar HD valve springs, aftermarket 6 into 2 header with "H" pipe and dual exhaust, MSD ignition, gasket-match the head to the intake and headers... I reserve the right to change my mind (again)...

The spindles will be used to create the templates for the lowering plates and the Ford caliper bracket locators. If it turns out that the spindles on the car now aren't as nice as the ones I bought, I'll use my old ones for spares or maybe build an entire disc brake conversion as a back-up set. 


If the disc swap works as planned, having a spare set wouldn't be expensive and could be sold for profit if the money is needed more than spare brakes...