RallyEagle's 82 SX4 Rally car rebuild

[Ace2600]

Luckyyyyy, you have a V8 in there. I have dreams about that. But the sheer fab work and such is beyond my skill range. Really hope I get the chance to check it out this summer.

[RallyEagle]

No doubt. It's a machine.  I drove it this morning while the road were still frozen to avoid the mud and she screams.  3000 rpm at 50 mph if I believe the speedo.  Taller tires might now be in my future.  From 0-35, it rides up the road.  Still have fix exhaust and touch up the paint....the disco colors are, well, noxious.   

[RallyEagle]

Brought car into exhaust shop. Here is before pictures less mufflers.  Dual going in with up and over then out the back.   More pix when done. 

Photo bucket not working.

[RallyEagle]

Fast working custom exhaust guys!  Better than before and a more manageable sound. Thrush turbo mufflers.

[amarshall]

Looks great!  Random question - have you replaced the strut rod bushings yet?  They look like rubber.  For what it's worth, I put in a new rubber set and they lasted about 500 miles of dirt roads before they exploded.  I'm now running poly bushings from Prothane, much more durable.

[RallyEagle]

Good eye. They are rubber and I have not replaced them yet.  They are currently in good condition but when they fail, they will be poly.

[RallyEagle]

I replicated the rubber deflector that protects the left rear shock from rocks and then I installed anothger up by the fuel tank sender and lines.

I am now starting the sanding.  Say good bye to baby blue and purple.  It will be sprayed silver as original.   I'll have to find the paint code for AMC .

[Draekon]

I'll have to find the paint code for AMC .

The Eaglepedia has paint code charts:
http://amceaglesden.com/guide/1982_thru_1984_Exterior_-_Interior_Colors

[RallyEagle]

Awesome! Of course this site has everything AMC Eagle! Thank you Draekon for the link.

It appears that it is Mist Silver Poly 3466.

[RallyEagle]

Reworked the hood. The infrastructure was removed to lighten the hood for racing.  It was all bent and twisted. I've done a bit of metal work before and I got it back into shape.  Still flimsy but now it seats properly. I installed a hood stop for front end accidents. I also prepped the tub for painting. I had to remove the old stickers that were illegible. I ordered new stickers.  I really like the stance of this car!  I posted for info on specialstrage.com for this car since it was talked about a few years ago. That site is really dead now!  Strange that these sites and others are dying.

[Blip Downshift]

Looks good as usual. specialstage.com is likely defunct.  The only rally forum I know of that is still partly active is rallyanarchy.com.  Although most have abandoned that site as well thanks to a handful of trollish and dismissive users (if you've been on there, you can probably guess the people I'm referring to).  That is why I like the AMC forums, people here are positive and helpful.  Some of the facebook pages have taken over for some forums, may have luck there.

[RallyEagle]

Thanks. Car goes in Thursday for an exterior paint job.  I'll finish sanding it prior to save money with my painter so that all they will have to do is tape and paint.  It will not be show car paint job, just a good durable one for the trails.  All new and original stickers but the 99 on the door are gone.  Sad to do it but the original ones were mostly illegible heavily cracked.  If the car was still one color, I might not have painted it, but since PO hand sanded large areas, it was too far gone for me.  She will look like she did, silver and black.
Correct jebidia24, the rally sites are dead or almost dead.  This site seems to hang in there though with good people and priceless knowledge.  I was reaching out to the rally sites for information on this car and or to find someone that race in or against it.  The original 1982-85'ish owner/racer passed a few years ago so that was a missed opportunity by previous owners to get first hand knowledge of this car.  It has been talked about for many years up to 2016, and that is when most forums began their decline.

[Ace2600]

Ive been talking to my local exhaust shop, and they seem to thing the downpipes off of the exhaust flange is going to be difficult? What did your shop say?

[RallyEagle]

For my 390V8, they just disconnected the old pipes from manifolds and with their bender made new one piece lead pipes to each muffler.  Drivers side routing was a bear for there was no easy path for dual exhaust.  The sort of followed the original but I think they improved the routing a bit.  From the mufflers back, they did a up and over bend with good clearance for the axle and fuel tank. The guy that did mine was in his 60's with lots of real world experience (hot rods, race cars, etc).  I have since paint the pipes black so they blend in better.

[Ace2600]

The guy at my muffler man tells me "I don't know if ill be able to make that pipe" Im really hoping he can. But I do like the sound of open headers