New owner of a 1987 AMC Eagle

[vagolfer]

Gentlemen,
  As a lifetime ( well, since high school ) car restorer/refurbisher I have been through all the British POS cars, muscle cars, Studebakers, Thunderbirds, Mercedes/Bmr's, Japenese, Italian, etc. However, I have always wanted to get my hands on one of the most eclectic vehicles of all time  -  an  AMC Eagle. Well, I finally did it !      I found one near me on Craigslist and drove two hours to see this  semi-abandoned car begging to be brought back to life. After a through inspection ( A lesson well learned through the years ) The Good - 1) Almost all original with 99% of stuff there 2) Virtually no rust 3) New Michelin tires ! 3) Loved the color 4) No evidence of an accident 5) 69,000 miles 6) Interior was exceedingly dirty, but not torn up and mostly there 7) $2000 asking/bought for $1500 ! The Bad - 1) Not running well ( combination, my guess was, bad gas and bad Carter carb 2) Paint was filthy, filthy, filthy and faded 3) Carpet and headliner needed replacing 4) The unknown.....since I could not take it for a good test drive somethings were still questionable. However, it was giving me the look that a couple of canines and several women have given me over the years saying " Please take me home."
  As of a couple of weeks later I have washed it ( 3 times ! to get all the crud off !) clayed it and buffed it and was surprised how well the paint came back. Cleaned the interior, changed the oil, plugs, plug wires, fuel filter, etc. I am currently switching over to the Motorcraft 2150 carb ( thanks for the advice ) and will be installing new Monroe shocks ( again, thanks for the advice re: ChevyII shocks ).
I did have some questions if you could help me further - 1) I like the stock wheels, however, I'd like to change to some original alloys ( 15" x 6" ) or install some 16" alloy wheels.....suggestions ? 2) Has anyone tried painting the wheel arches + below the trim piece/ bottom trim with bedliner like materials. 3) Best place to get carpet/headliner material. I was looking at Stock Interiors but I'd looking for options.
Thanks.....Pix attached of before any work done......Updates later,
Jim

[eaglefreek]

Welcome and congrats. Hopefully someone else can answer some of your questions.

[amcfool1]

hi and welcome. ALL auto carpets, no matter who sells them, are made by ACC (Auto Custom Carpet) you can order from them directly, or from any other net jobber. Sometimes the net resellers actually have a bit lower prices than ACC itself, but me, I just get it direct so as to have one less worry. A lot of Jeep XJ wheels will fit. Browse through this site for ideas. As for using bedliner on the flares, I don't see why not. The only downside is it may be hard to remove if you change your mind later. I just did my whole roof with truck bedliner, to replace a torn up vinyl top. Looks pretty good. good luck, gz ps does the va refer to Virginia?

[vagolfer]

Thanks for the info ! Yes, I'm in Virginia....Goochland, Va. to be exact.
Jim

[Amc1320]

Welcome to the den and nice eagle, I like that color too!

My son did all his flares on his sx4 with that line x stuff, it came out very nice, maybe you can see it in this pic if you zoom in?

[amcfool1]

hey, vagolfer, I'm in Roanoke, if you're ever in the area....stop by. gz