1981 SX/4 Project (New to Eagles)

[AMCbaby]

Just wanted to start a thread about my SX4.  I am a recent new Eagle owner after wanting one for a long time. Not sure how this is going to play out, but I have a lot that I would like to do. I picked it up from a guy in Atlanta a month or so ago and drove it back to Chicago.

The first order of business is to make sure it's safe and runs consistently. Here are some things i need to fix:

1. Horn switch on steering wheel. I don't believe I have a complete steering wheel assembly. it seems like there should be some kind of spring to keep the center part out until you push on it, but there is not really anything. The good thing is that the horn does sound if you pop the cover off and manually connect the contact ring thing. I fabricated a "spring" from a block of foam, but the amount of travel still is not enough to connect the contacts. I think i am just going to put a drop of solder on the contact ring to make the necessary travel to contact closer.  Will probably work fine, but I don't know what the real malfunction is. Probably not an original steering wheel, I'm guessing. Horn is a safety thing in Chicago traffic for sure. About once a week, I need to let someone know what they can do to themselves. It's for safety.

2. Plastic seat belt buckle cover on driver side (silver and black parts both) have snapped tabs and the button and silver part are completely off. although I believe the buckle functions fine without it, it still looks a little sketchy.

3. I need to look into the dash. I don't believe there is anything of substance between me and the engine. It's loud and hot air blows in from under the dash even when the heater is off. It also has a slight burning oil smell.

4. I am pretty sure the fresh air vents are permanently stuck open. "Fresh" air pours in. so when it's 40 degrees outside, it's 40 degrees on my crotch. the knobs seem to do nothing at all. When the engine gets hot, the "fresh" air gets hot too.

5. rear seat belts retract, but don't pull back out. Would like to throw the kids back there at some point. Not sure how to get this working


There are a lot of other things that I would like to fix or mod over the next few years:

1. Need to redo headliner. Fully sagging. bought some vinyl to replace fabric.

2. replace visors and rearview. They just look like crap. I need the sun visor middle clip, too.

3. New dome light cover. I bought a replacement and am working on it this weekend.

4. replace interior hardware. All the screws and metal are totally rusted. This car looks like it sat at the bottom of the sea for a few years.

5. replace 4 cylinder with 6 cylinder. I will not be able to do this myself. Want more power. If there is a better solution (or easier) I'm looking for ideas. And a mechanic.

6. replace exhaust system with louder, more badass exhaust.

7. Pass Illinois emissions test. Hahahahahahahahaaa...  I don't have to test for a couple years. Then I'm probably F'ed.

8. paint fender flares and bumpers black. They are gold right now. Just would prefer the black like they came stock. I might get brave and just paint them myself with Rustoleum and some wet sanding.

9. Lift suspension an inch and a half and put on some larger off road tires. New wheels. white jeep looking ones.

10. replace non-original car stereo (kenwood casette) with something that I can easily hook my iphone into. would love for it to look like the original stock radio. i have seen a few online that look older and have replica knobs.  Might be a good option. I would like to get a better sound system as well, but it wouldn't do any good until i can get the blaring engine noise to go away.

11. modify fender flares to accommodate larger tires.

12. Louvres. lots of 'em.

13. 4 inch crack in middle of the dash on top. How do you fix this? sounds like it would be pretty common.


Probably a bunch I am leaving out. Just happy to own a running Eagle with a clean title. Here is a pic:



many thanks. If anyone has any thoughts on this, i am all ears. thx

[AMCbaby]

Has anyone tried to replace the chrome trim above the fender flares with something off the shelf? Like a strip with an adhesive back. I have seen it in auto parts stores and wondered if it's a good alternative to the "kind-of-beat-up-trim" look?

Also, if anyone has any fender flares that they would be interested in selling, I am looking for a set to trim out to accommodate for larger tires. I would like to save my originals for a rainy day.

I forgot to mention my first fix on this was to replace the hatchback gas struts with some new ones that i bought online. Operation went very smoothly and the hatchback pops up without any issues.

Many thanks in advance.

[rollguy]

WOW!  nice looking car. I like the color combo.  Thanks for sharing it with us.  You have found the best place for EVERYTHING Eagle. Welcome....Rich

[AMC1]

Enough bad news about your Eagle - a little good news is that you can relax about passing the emission  test - you're exempt - all 1995 & older vehicles in cook county are.

[AMCbaby]

you just made my day BTW. is that a county thing? the Secretary of State Jessie White told me it's due in 2 years. Does that have anything to do with getting a classic vehicle registration and plates? I looked into that and they said Classic Vehicle status meant that the plates were not valid for 3 months each winter. I figured this has no ac and 4WD. If there was 3 months that I would be benching it, it would be June, July, August.

[AMC1]

It's a state policy. I wouldn't know why the SOS would say its due in (2) years except I believe new cars are exempt for the first couple of years. I'm not an expert on types of license plates but I know if you have "antique" plates = "A", you can only drive in parades & to car shows/exhibits etc. I don't believe I've seen "classic" plates & wonder if you/they mean "antique". You might want to contact a member of an antique car club to get the info. correct. That (3) month thing doesn't really make any sense & especially the state wouldn't let you choose which (3) months not to drive.

[eaglefreek]

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/vehicles/license_plate_guide/antiqueexpand.html
" Expanded-Use Antique License Plates have a staggered expiration and are annual plates. To qualify for Expanded-Use Antique Plates, motor vehicles, including motorcycles, must be more than 25 years old. Firefighting vehicles must be at least 20 years old.

Vehicles displaying these plates during the months of January-March and November-December may only be driven to and from an antique auto show or exhibition, service station or demonstration.

Vehicles displaying these plates during the months of April-October may be driven on the highways without being subject to the restrictions of a standard antique vehicle plate.

The mechanical and physical condition of the vehicle, including brakes, lights, glass and appearance, must be the same or as safe as originally equipped. An antique vehicle may be a "bona fide replica" - an exact copy of the original in design, frame and mechanical operation. "Facsimiles" - close, but not exact, reproductions of the original -do not qualify for Expanded-Use Antique Vehicle"

[AMCbaby]

I'll do some more digging. I have at least two years to sort it out. 

[madmax4x4]

You could fix the dash, fresh air vent and heat/ sound insulation all at once. If you unscrew the screws at the bottom of the windshield and unbolt the two large bolts under the dash the whole thing will come out. Think th steering column cover has to be unscrewed and the air vent knob needs to be un screwed. I would do a Fiberglass repair on the underside of the dash and paint the top half with dash paint. The fresh air cable is really short and should be an easy fix. I would use something like dynomat on the inside fire wall and make sure you have all the wall plugs. The smell and air comes in around the steering column at the wall.

You don't have to pull the dash to close the air vent. If you reach up above the fuse box you can close it by hand.

I just put heat and sound  insulation in mine and now need to order carpet. They can get loud especially with mud tires. Make sure its not your rear end making all the noise like mine lol.

I used 5gal of this
 http://store.secondskinaudio.com/spectrum-5-gallons/

And 4 sheets of this
http://store.secondskinaudio.com/luxury-liner-pro-4-sheets-24x54-each-36sqft/

Along with some dynamat and thermal insulation paint.

[madmax4x4]

[Amc1320]

Nice looking eagle! Welcome to the den.

On the seat belt retracting item you mentioned above maybe I can help.

Mine were the same way, first I took them out. You need a large star shaped socket thing, torx type but big. They have them at the hardware store so no problem there

Step two clean them! Mine were full of 30 years of hair, dust, crud and all manner of gunk. I ran them thru the dishwasher stretched out, just don't ever tell my wife.....

Nest step is to lubricate them, I used some lithium stuff and kept working them as I got them to flow smoothly.

Them put the, back in, mine work just like they did in the 80's!

Good luck, lots of good helpful folks here on this forum
Rob

Ps I did the sound insulation thing just like madmax did, huge difference!

[AMCbaby]

wow thanks everyone. great advice. I am thinking about pulling the dash sometime in the next month or two when i have some time.

during the week. I lifted it about 1.5 inches front and back. Front using spacers and rear using shackles. Both bought on ebay and installed by a local shop.



Pulled headliner down to replace. This was about 3 to 4 times messier than i thought it would be. No wonder the former owner didn't want to touch this.




cleaned up the headliner as best as i could. Looks like mold and rust stains.



Took most of the interior trim out for painting. Used a soldering iron to plastic-weld a broken piece back together. turned out pretty good. Can't believe it worked.




Used dupli color Vinly paint. Prepped by washing with detergent, then degreaser/dewaxer. then adhesion promoter. seemed to work well and looks great inside. Makes the dash (which i did not touch) look pretty rough in comparison.




Had some issues with the sun visors. Turns out they are not original and don't really fit the screw hole pattern for them. they are also at a funny angle. If anyone has a lead on where I could get some original sun visors, it would be appreciated.

I put all of it back in, with new dome light and new headliner. I used black perf vinyl and it looks good. This was my first time redoing a headliner and I learned how unforgiving the adhesive can be.  There were a couple places where i tried to reposition it, but just ended up ripping/separating layers inside the headliner. The imperfections are noticeable - as are the minute bumps and such on the headliner itself, but overall, it looks worlds better than it did.

Here is the final reassembled. It's just a picture of black and darkness, but it all came together well.


Also, I replaced all the screws that hold the trim on. All of them were mis-matched, rusted, stripped, and just ratty looking. Some weren't even there. I am noticing a lot of missing screws on the vehicle in the dash, interior, and trim. Going to re-do all that.

I might tackle the seat-belts next.  Many thanks AMC1320 for the suggestion. Going to try cleaning and lubing.

I was under the dash this morning and I think that the cable for the fresh air vent is fine (a bit rusted), but the lever that it hooks on to refuses to move, so I have some more digging to do. There is a rats nest of wiring under my dash. Just loose stuff hanging down with bare ends and all. I need to spend a little more time down there to tidy up that mess.

Thanks again!

[Prafeston]

It's great to see an new Eagle owner and forum member come on and job right into their project head first. Love seeing the updates! It's coming along nicely!

[AMCbaby]

Hey, it looks like you all are putting some kind of paint down before dynamat? is that some kind of rust preventative or just some kind of primer for the spectrum?

If I take the time to pull everything out of my interior down to the steel, would it be worth applying something to eat at the rust and prevent new rust from appearing before any sound/heat mitigation?

[AMCbaby]

Got some new wheels put on my SX/4 this weekend. I wanted white wheels with a black beadlock (Faux) and white beadlock hardware. Had to create that myself.

I ended up buying these wheels from jegs:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Black+Rock/262/952571245/10002/-1

Here are some pics of the paint Job. I used duplicolor wheel coating and duplicolor clear coat. The clear coat turned the white a little darker, which I was not really all that happy about.

Cleaning


Sanding


Masking


Painting


Painting the hardware with enamel paint. Just dipped the bolts in rustoleum enamel and put them in a drilled 2x4 to dry. there were 80 of these (i did 5 wheels -one for the spare)


I bought some Kumho Road Venture AT tires. They looked nice and got good reviews. I was hoping that if i got 225/75/r15, they would fit without having to mod my car, but that was not the case at all. The rear fit fine. The front rubbed on both the front and the rear of the fenders.


I have never taken a grinder to a car before, but decided to cut first and ask questions later. I'm pretty sure there was a better way to do this - probably more professional, but the former owner of this car has done so many weird things to it, that i figured it could withstand me hacking away at it. I was (still am) mildly concerned about rust where i was cutting, so I did my best to paint over any exposed steel and coat over everything with truck bed liner for good measure.


Cut and painted


Covered with aluminum


Painted with truck bed liner


In the front of the fender, all i had to do was take down some of the plastic flares with a grinder. took 5 minutes and i hit some of the steel with truck bed liner for good measure. I am sure i knicked it with the sander.

Final results. Looks great in person. My next step is to paint the flares, trim, bumper and bottom of the doors black. I may use truck bed liner for that as well to give it a more rugged off road look. Has anyone used this before on their eagle?