Priya's SX/4 project

[Whuntmore]

No problem,  I'll post lots of pictures when its done and I can manage a video too.

ACC offers a heavy duty backing for the carpet for an extra charge, not sure if that's what you're thinking of in terms of harder wearing.

Actually, I just sent them an email asking if I could get the nylon loop in the form for the AMC Eagle.  I also checked the later concords to see if they offered nylon loop. 

Nylon loop is the same type of carpet you'll see in offices.  it's harder wearing, and it puts up with more rigorous cleaning

[priya]

I got some new tires and wheels for the car and broke the budget. I originally was thinking $500 for wheels and tires. I bought a set of factory alloy wheels for $250 and they were a bit beat up and the finish was kind of rough.  I talked to hubby about refinishing them myself and he said I couldn't get a nice even shiny finish by sanding so he recommeded I take them to a place that refinishes wheels.  We got an estimate of $500 and I thought "Oh my!".  Sat on the wheels for another month thinking about leaving them as is or redoing them myself and eventually decided the paint job didn't cost me anything so I could afford to go overbudget on the tires and get the shop to refinish them.  They have a computer controlled lathe and they input the make of wheel and it takes the original dimensions and shaves off 5 to 10 thousandths of an inch to give it a new appearance.  Got the wheels back a few days ago and the bill was $660!   I was having a lot of buyer's remorse until I got a look at the wheels today and WOW!  Do they ever look good!  I had them painted the same shade of blue as the stripes and lower body of the car.  Hubby mounted and balanced the tires and surprised me with a set of chrome valve stems.

Too bad I didn't take a before picture.  The pictures don't really capture how nice these turned out but between these three you can get an idea of how they look:



I took this one outside when it was overcast so it looks quite a bit different from the previous two, but a lot more even:


And here's the Nokian Hakkapelitta 7 super duper winter tires.  $860 for four, ouch!


So I've gone about $1200 over budget, the wheels look great but I'm starting to run out of cash and I still have various things to buy so I'll have to start cutting some corners now.

[wagoneerhauler]

Wow they do look great.  The price is a bit much for me too.  I wonder what a set of new rims would have been.  You might have been able to get something close to those but I guess having the right ones is nice.  Are they clear coated?

[priya]

Yes, that occurred to me too, I could have bought a nice set of new rims for that price.  My husband said new rims would certainly have cost that much so its a bit of "which do you like best".  I do like having the original style Eagle rims colour coordinated to my car and they do look like new so I guess I'm okay with it despite the sticker shock.  The rims are clear coated as well.

[IowaEagle]

Wow!  Those are very nice.  Should look good when on the car.

[priya]

Thanks Doug and Regalwizard.

[rollguy]

Now the question is, what are you going to do about the plastic center cap?

[priya]

I have the plastic centre caps  unfortunately they're in the same sort of shape the wheels originally were, lots of gravel rash and a number of dents.  It'll be quite a mismatch when I put those on these new looking wheels.  I'm almost tempted to leave them off, I don't think the alloy wheels look too bad without them, and maybe a person could get some sort of smaller cap that would just cover the part of the axel that shows through.  I discussed it with my husband and he says he's going to cast some aluminum centre sections in the spring/summer to replace the plastic ones.  He'll then stick them in his lathe to give them that nice machined look the rims have.  He's got a lot of stuff to do in his off time so I've got my fingers crossed that he'll find the time to do this.

[priya]

Yes, I sure am.  I bought my first Eagle as a winter necessity and was really impressed with its snow-going abilities.  I bought this one for the same reason and my plan to use it as a winter car has never changed.  My summer car is a 79 Corvette so that's not going to be my winter car.  On the bright side I don't drive a lot these days, maybe 2-3000 Km per year so perhaps 1000-1500 km on the Eagle so I don't think winter will take a lot out of it.

[thereverendbill]

those rims do indeed look awesome!!! i like the idea of no center caps and getting smaller hub covers because of the paint  in the lug recesses (unless the lugs cover all the paint up).  Who did the wheels?

[priya]

The wheels were done by Saskatoon wheel works.

[shaggimo]

  Awesome!!

[greythorn3]

paint the center caps. either one of the colors of the car or black.

[priya]

I'm going to give that some thought greaythorn3, thanks for the suggestion.

[priya]

Before I abandoned my first Eagle my husband removed the tilt steering column from it so I could put it in this SX/4 which had a standard column.  I started prepping it for paint when Ward asked if I would rather have him disassemble it to make it easier to paint.  I said sure and he pulled it apart for me.  Here it is partially prepped for paint:


Here it is after painting and with the sport steering wheel I got from El Matador:


After hubby reassembled it:


And after I installed it in the car today:


Prior to installing it in the car I noticed the old column had a three prong electrical plug that the tilt column didn't have and the tilt column had a four prong plug that the standard one didn't have.  I thought "Oh no!"  but Ward looked and said the three prong plug on the standard column was for the column mounted dimmer switch with the tilt column didn't have.  He said he'll put a dimmer switch on the floor and that'll cure that.  The four prong plug on the tilt column turns out to be for its cruise control switch which the standard column didn't have.  After I installed the column  I noticed another thing that has me nervous.  There's a long electrical socket on the column with a single row of wires.  That connected up to the female end in the car but then I noticed the colour of the wires comming in doesn't match the colours of the wires going out.  Sounds like trouble to me but I'll see what Ward says when he gets home.  The tilt column was originally in my 81 Eagle wagon so I'd think if it worked there it should work in the 81 SX/4 but the tilt column originally came out of some other AMC and I'm not sure what it was other than I don't think it was an Eagle.