spent all day from 7am-3pm outside in extreme heat working on eagle

[1983EagleHatchback]

I know many of you have spent many a long day bustin your backside and covered in filth and grease and aching in pain from a long day working on your eagles. I have had that fun today. It has been a very long time since I have done that type of thing and doing it in extreme heat inside a car with rolled up windows at a junkyard with tons of wasps in the car and flying around me while trying to remove parts that didn't want to be removed certainly brought back memories of times long ago when I did this a lot. It hurts a lot more now and isn't as fun as I remember it. Eagles are hard to find here in the junkyards and when they are found nearly all are missing the parts you need and the rest are broken. I didn't have the money to spare but bought a ton of parts anyway. I didn't NEED any of these parts save for the driver side outside door handle. But I figured the cars would be crushed soon and if I didn't buy the parts and needed them later they'd be gone from someone else buying them or gone by being crushed. So I bought the emblems and center grill and both doorpanels and both doorpanel armrests and carefully removed the woodgrain trim from the dash panels and took it and the glove box door and got the driver side remote mirror and got 2 trim rings and got a amc logo washer fluid holder and got a lot of screws and fasteners and got another thingie that is the switch and lever control for the 4x4 system and got the horn cap and hron cap holder for the sport steering wheel and got fog light covers and a foglight lens and both foglight lens metal holders and the woodgrain pieces with the reflectors in them for the armrests on the doorpanels and still want to go back for the sport steering wheel itself and maybe a pair of taillights if I can find some and who knows what else?

[vangremlin]

Thumbs up to you for grabbing all those parts!  Be sure to list all the parts you will be selling in the classified section, even if they don't sell now somebody may need those parts in the future.

[1983EagleHatchback]

I didn't know there was a classified section here. I will let you know if I get more stuff. I have to replace the outside door handle. I am tired of not being able to get in the drivers door.  I don't drive it yet, but being able to access that side of the car will be nice. The car came into the junkyard missing its keys. I hated too but I used my hammer and screwdriver and decimated the trunklock to open the trunk (1981 2door sedan eagle). Inside the trunk I found the original amc logo washer holder plastic bottle and 2 brand new belts for the engine and 2 new gaskets inside an opened gasket kit of some sort (may got back to write down the package brand numbers) and found the jack and I needed the rubber thingies on the jack that hold the handle so I grabbed those and I found a small bag that had a headlight adjustment screw and something else inside so I got those and I found something else in there I really wanted but now can't recall...some missing interior part that was missing and I needed and found back there inside the trunk..a dash or door part I think. I'll go back another week, right now all those wasps everywhere freak me out. I need a week to brave it again, they aren't going to go away so I'll bring wasp spray, hopefully it won't really make them mad since they fly around from all over the yard and these are wasps not hornets.

[mo.eagles]

If you go back and IF the car has rear wiper and washer get the wiper arm and spay nozzle as they are both near impossible to find. If you feel like really going to work the tranny mounts are hard to find as well . Years ago ( last century ) I was in a salvage yard that had its own AMC section . While I was under a wagon that was just bones I heard the yard tractor getting closer . Thinking maybe they coming after the one I was under to shred it, I got out from under it to find they were bringing in a very clean well kept  '85 wagon . It had been stolen and the insurance did not want to replace the passenger door glass and ignition switch . So I was the first to get parts off of it . I tried to get the whole car but these guys would not let me have it .

[1983EagleHatchback]

Actually I wanted the rear glass with the wiper and such in it because mine had the wiper option but the glass must have broke and someone must have replaced it with the just defroster rear glass. I have the rear window washer squirter but no wiper in the back glass. The junkyard only had one car that had any parts left on it and it was a 1981 eagle 2 door sedan. I'm going back to get a few more parts off it. I already installed a few parts on my amc eagle tonight. I replaced the driver side outside door handle and also sprayed lubricant on both door handles springs and such and then reinstalled both door panels and when reinstalling the door panels I used the arm rests from the car in the junkyard. It had the armrests with the woodgrain chrome piece with the red reflectors in it. Since that car had a maroon interior and mine has a black interior I had to remove the maroon armrests and put my black ones on instead. Then I used the maroon inside door handle plastic cover pieces to match. I will get the maroon steering wheel off the car in the junkyard and use that on my car and then I'll eventually replace all the bright red stripes on the car and instead use maroon stripes in place of the bright red ones, try to make the color match.  So I got both door panels on and functioning but I still want to replace a lot of the screws on the doorpanels with nice ones and with ones that hold better.

[eaglefreek]

I've got a junkyard story about heat. I went to the junkyard to pull some parts off of a Jeep for my 86 Eagle I used to own. It was very hot around noon time. I thought it would take me only a few minutes, but it took me much longer than I expected. I started feeling woosy  and decided to sit in the back of the Jeep in the shade for a few minutes. I looked down and there was an unopened bag of Gummy Worms. I ate half the bag and felt much better in a few minutes and got my parts and got the heck out of there and got a drink.

[vangremlin]

I looked down and there was an unopened bag of Gummy Worms. I ate half the bag and felt much better

Someone left those gummy worms there for a reason 

[1983EagleHatchback]

Went back to the same junkyard today to get the maroon eagle sport steering wheel. Then spent a lot of time getting 2 pairs of maroon plastic covers. These go on the sides of the seats as a finish item, they have a large aluminum circle in the center. I got back home to find out that my seat plastic finish covers are not even remotely the same. Guess a sx/4 is different than other eagles in a lot of ways. I was big time bummed. I am now regretting my decision to do maroon accents with a black interior and now just want to put the interior back to all black. Problem is I still want the reflectors in the armrests and those came from a maroon car and I can't locate any black ones anywhere. So it looks stupid with everything balck and maroon armrest surrounds with the reflectors in them instead of black ones. Did they make black armrest surrounds with the chrome piece with the reflector in them? If so anyone have a good pair of black ones for sale I can afford?

[eaglefreek]

You could always use a vinyl dye product on the maroon parts.

[vangremlin]

You could always use a vinyl dye product on the maroon parts.

Yes, this should be a relatively easy way to give you the black arm rest surrounds you want.

[1983EagleHatchback]

I deceided I am going to try the vinyl dye method. I will go get a few more armrests with the surrounds for the reflectors on them at the junkyard and then try dyeing those. I want to keep the entire interior color as black. I did buy the maroon sport steering wheel so I guess I'll just have to sell that now, at least I have the horn button for it so it should be easier to sell. In other news I was pushing the car back in the garage due to a sudden severe storm in which hail was predicted. The car got away from me and hit something in the garage and sheared the entire side of the driver side spoiler. So now I need to find another one.

[DAVE]

might be easier to try to fix what you have, so don't throw it out just in case you can't find a replacement

[1983EagleHatchback]

Anyone know where I can by the louvered rear glass covers and louvered rear side window covers for my 1983 sx/4?   I'm sure they are not cheap but I really want a set.