I have begun!

Jon Kanas

New Member
I acquired an Amphicar 770 from my father-in-law's estate at the end of 2018. I joined IOAC, downloaded manuals and FAQs and am becoming familiar with this very interesting machine. I have undertaken several automobile restorations, and I would like to start getting this Amphicar roadworthy in advance of a good, driver-quality restoration.

  1. This Amphicar is titled as a 1963, however based on the information in the IAOC FAQ, I think this is a much earlier car. The chassis number is 100859.
  2. My best description is that my Amphicar is a "roller" with cardboard boxes of stuff. As of today, I have not taken an inventory of what I do (and do not) have. Structurally it is in good condition, with only minimal rust in bottom of the rear quarter panels. The floors and basic structure of the Amphicar appear to be excellent.
  3. It appears to be mechanically complete, although other parts of the body have been disassembled; Possibly an aborted restoration attempt.
  4. I have been in contact with a local Amphicar expert, John Blevins, who came out to my warehouse to inspect it. He recognized it as a parts car that my father-in-law bought to supply a restoration he had in progress, however the restoration vehicle was lost in a barn fire. This gives me pause, as I can now expect that there may be lots of missing "stuff".
  5. I am thinking that I would like to attempt to get it running on land later this summer in order to more fully assess what I am dealing with mechanically so I can determine what a restoration effort will entail.
I am seeking to converse with one or more members regarding the steps they recommend that I take to begin to bring it to life mechanically. Better yet, if anyone on the forum recognizes this Amphicar that Dr. Birmingham purchased in 2013 I'd be particularly grateful to hear from them!!
 

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BrianF

Member
Hi Jon
Very quiet on this site lately. I have been writing and asking questions lately with limited responses. That said, I will say you have some work ahead of you.
Try to get the motor running and if it starts and runs the next step is the brakes. All parts are available from a handful of venders. if it runs down the road and stops you have a decision to make. Complete restoration, Driver/swimmer, or just a runner on land until you make a decision.

If you want to take it for a swim check the site for "water testing with a garden hose"and see how bad it leaks. Basically close and lock doors, bilge plug in and fill up the car in the driveway and look for leaks. Or remove interior, open hood and trunk, tie a rope to the car and push it in the water and stand next to it and look for leaks.

I watched a guy wrap Saran Wrap around the rear quarters, duck tape the doors, turn on bilge pump and splash in with a rusty barn find that hadn't run in over 20 years. Car was in and out of the water for a few hours and the new owner was very happy.

So good luck and let us know what you decide and how your progressing.

Brian
 

Jon Kanas

New Member
Brian and others on the forum... The restoration of 100859 is actually starting!!

Earlier this summer I spent a few days doing an inventory of my Amphicar stuff (keeping in mind that I received the Amphicar as a rolling shell with multiple cardboard boxes).
  • In May, I spent the better part of a day with John Bevins stepson to assess at my car, and also look at the cars and parts that will be sold out of John's estate. The objective was to identify missing components from my car. We decided that my car is an excellent restoration candidate, as there is minimal rust, none that is structural.
  • I had my body guy came out and provide me with an initial quote for bodywork. I figured that if I was reasonably confident that the engine and transmission were in good shape that I would proceed with restoration and return the car to service in the next year or two.
  • The engine in this car probably had not been run since long before my father-in-law bought the car in 2010. The oil in the engine, and both transmission dipsticks looked brand new, so I spent a couple of days last week preparing the engine for its first starting attempt. Aside from the "interesting" design characteristics of the Lucas distributor that was preventing the ignition from firing, the starting attempt was eventually successful. The engine runs well, and went through a couple of heat cycles during my testing that revealed no issues.
Today's question: Research I have done to date indicates that my Amphicar (VIN 100859, Engine:GK819HE) is an "early" model. I have the Service Manual that is available through the IAOC website. In reading the manual, I find that there are references to two different engine compression ratios, 6.8:1 and 8:1. Is it possible to determine which compression ratio my car should have, maybe using the engine number? I did find a posting from Ed Price on this forum which appears to indicate that my engine should be 8:1 compression.

Amphicar comes to life:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/av01...ey=ynfdki6efr7rdxta1w1hevtia&st=dp3z0sk2&dl=0
 

Jon Kanas

New Member
The adventure begins in earnest. My body shop picked up the Amphicar about two weeks ago and has started work. They started with the RR quarter panel which was the most needy, and are working their way forward. There was a very well-done panel repair that had been previously done on the quarter panel and the bottom of the R door will need some metalwork. Overall, if these are the worst areas then the restoration should go pretty well.

Two images follow, one is the departure for the body shop and the second is the R quarter panel, stripped of paint.
 

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Hi Jon,

Best of luck with your restoration!
I wanted to provide a bit of information regarding your VIN number as you have asked a couple times for some.
Your car would be considered an early car and the number 100859 indicates it was probably built in 1960. The club VIN code list shows over 600 cars listed and yours is in the first 1/4 of them.

As for the year of 1963, that is common and on the club list of the cars with numbers earlier than yours, half of them are registered as 1964's!

I could not find anything else about your car, but if you have any paperwork from previous ownership of it that will help in figuring out where it started out and came from.

Hope that helps a little!

Mark
 

Jon Kanas

New Member
Hi Jon,

Best of luck with your restoration!
I wanted to provide a bit of information regarding your VIN number as you have asked a couple times for some.
Your car would be considered an early car and the number 100859 indicates it was probably built in 1960. The club VIN code list shows over 600 cars listed and yours is in the first 1/4 of them.

As for the year of 1963, that is common and on the club list of the cars with numbers earlier than yours, half of them are registered as 1964's!

I could not find anything else about your car, but if you have any paperwork from previous ownership of it that will help in figuring out where it started out and came from.

Hope that helps a little!

Mark
Thanks, Mark. I took the instrument cluster apart today, and the gauges are dated 6/1961, further confirming it's an early car. The 2006 title that was provided to my father-in-law when he bought it for parts indicates that the prior owner was Michael Leonard Gralewski of Duluth MN. I've done a couple of searches, but have been unable to definitively locate the correct Mr. Gralewski to attempt to contact him.
 

RalphF

Member
Hi Jon- When I got mine in May of 2020 it ran and supposedly swam but was not in the best of shape. . It came from a somewhat legendary owner who was called Kamikaze Ken. He had added lots of weird bling such as train horns, eyebrows over the headlights, and 1959 Caddy tail lights front and rear. It had faded original paint that was covered with "patina". And it had been torn down to the body. In other words almost everything that attached to the car was in boxes. I had no idea if it was all there. Luckily it mostly was and with the help of my good friend John Bevins I got it all figured out and put back together. You talked to John and no doubt know what a fountain of knowledge he was. He answered my questions right up until he could no longer talk! We had a memorable week at the Sturgis SD motorcycle rally back in 2007.

My car had lots of rust, but 2 new rear quarters did come with the car although even they were rusty. No local body shop would touch the car and I have no skills in that arena. Thank goodness you have a good body guy! I talked Gord Souter into replacing those quarters in November of 21 and he agreed but ONLY IF I brought him a lift for his Florida shop. I don't think he thought I would come through but I did and he had the car until the March 2022 Florida swim-in. He did a lot more than the quarters and it was a shiny red car when I picked it up. I have won about 3 local car shows with it.

Good luck with your car! I know you will get a similar experience when you get it back. And I hope you keep it white. We have too many red ones, LOL. As John always told me: This car will change your life! Oh and if you decide to go to the wide whitewalls, you can get Finnish tires (sold in the USA) that are 1/2 the price of the American ones.
 

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Jon Kanas

New Member
Hi Jon- When I got mine in May of 2020 it ran and supposedly swam but was not in the best of shape. . It came from a somewhat legendary owner who was called Kamikaze Ken. He had added lots of weird bling such as train horns, eyebrows over the headlights, and 1959 Caddy tail lights front and rear. It had faded original paint that was covered with "patina". And it had been torn down to the body. In other words almost everything that attached to the car was in boxes. I had no idea if it was all there. Luckily it mostly was and with the help of my good friend John Bevins I got it all figured out and put back together. You talked to John and no doubt know what a fountain of knowledge he was. He answered my questions right up until he could no longer talk! We had a memorable week at the Sturgis SD motorcycle rally back in 2007.

My car had lots of rust, but 2 new rear quarters did come with the car although even they were rusty. No local body shop would touch the car and I have no skills in that arena. Thank goodness you have a good body guy! I talked Gord Souter into replacing those quarters in November of 21 and he agreed but ONLY IF I brought him a lift for his Florida shop. I don't think he thought I would come through but I did and he had the car until the March 2022 Florida swim-in. He did a lot more than the quarters and it was a shiny red car when I picked it up. I have won about 3 local car shows with it.

Good luck with your car! I know you will get a similar experience when you get it back. And I hope you keep it white. We have too many red ones, LOL. As John always told me: This car will change your life! Oh and if you decide to go to the wide whitewalls, you can get Finnish tires (sold in the USA) that are 1/2 the price of the American ones.
Hello Ralph et al,

Yes, I am keeping it White. I'm not sure if I want to go with black or red for the top and rub strips.

Progress continues. The engine lid, front hood, left quarter, left door are now stripped.
  • Engine lid: Worst panel so far (as expected, as deterioration was clearly visible on the bottom of the lid). The structural members on the outside edges require extensive repair.
  • Hood: Under the navigation light and horn we found some surface deterioration, though not enough to require patching. There is also and a bit of collision damage on the tip of the nose to be addressed (see image).
  • L Quarter: When stripped, no additional rust was found. Like the R Quarter, we found high quality patchwork that had been previously performed (see image).
  • L Door: This is the first unpleasant surprise. There is considerable rust where the door skin sheetmetal is attached to the door structure. that was concealed until stripped. I've contacted John Bevins's stepson to see if he has a better door before we embark on many hours of metal repair. Does anybody on this forum have a rust-free left door?
 

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