It was the old Rambler American that first caught my eye and got me to pull over, but I quickly realized that it was by far not the only CC here on this cul de sac. Birds of a feather….
Let’s take a quick looksie at the American first, which is a ’65 or so; a bit hard to pin down without its grille, but I’m sure you AMC mavens will know.
This is a rough but very ready daily driver, it would appear. The surface rust it has developed from a half century of our winter rains is pretty benign, for the most part.
Looks like someone started to do a bit of body work, but petered out. And I see dual exhausts hiding under the bumper.
It’s been converted to a floor shift. Given the tach and gauges, and the dual exhausts, it undoubtedly has one of AMC’s V8s under the hood. Which was probably the attraction in the first place. I’m guessing the 290.
Well, savor that, while I get Part 2 put together.
Wow, this looks almost exactly like the Rambler a buddy drove in high school. Same missing grille, same rust, needs different mags and bigger shackles in the back. I think it had E-60/14 Snowtires too, which seemed crazy at the time, even more so now.
Of course that was 25 years ago, which illustrates the difference in the rate of deterioration beween Oregon and Ontario.
Bacon Nation?
mmmmmmm…..Bacon
Everything is better with bacon, even a CC.
If they’d rubbed the Rambler with bacon it probably wouldn’t have rusted so much. 🙂
“There are two kinds of people: those who like bacon and those who are wrong.”
–Unknown
I don’t know why, but this car does absolutely nothing for me. That’s it – my first new years resolution for 2014 is to force myself into an appreciation of AMC cars.
Truthfully, when I saw the first picture, all I could come up with was a caption: “Stupid old American, out drinking all night, got into a fight and got its teeth knocked out.”
Start with the simplicity of the American, and drink in the lines of the Hornet hatchback and sportabout.
Ignore the Matador 2 door, Gremlin and Pacer.
Did somebody say bacon???
This car leaves me cold, but dang, what a lovely interesting neighborhood! I remember when more areas looked like this & I’d hop in the old Fiero & cruise all over the Birmingham, AL residential neighborhoods for hours at a time, soaking it all in.
Can’t do that anymore.
Will there be a CC on the International Harvester crew cab in the background? Honestly that interests me more.
Hang on for 29 minutes more.
There were quite a few Ramblers around in 60s Britain.They seemed a bit smaller and not as showy as the Big 3’s cars and they made a lot of RHD models.I’m sorry but they were Dadmobile’s to me as a kid,much too plain.Maybe I should have one now I’m a middle aged spinster!
The American is a ’67.
Yup. Revised taillights, round insturments, 3 spoke steering wheel, which came in in 67, but no side marker lights, which came in in 68.
4 speed conversion would have been a snap, from a junked Rogue.
Ever notice how much the front of the American looks like a 66 Plymouth Belvedere?
“and, for 1967 the Rambler American features the most robust rain gutters in the industry. Come see why more and more practical minded buyers are switching to AMC Rambler!”
Are those rain gutters or a spillway for the Grand Coulee Dam???
I remember when one of the staffers of Car Craft magazine had one these as a weekend driver and also a magazine project car.
Got my drivers license, in one of these, the drivers ed school had a bunch of them.Seats kept reclining back on there own…..made learning to drive….a touch scary!
I tend to like many AMC/Rambler designs and this is no exception. Clean, straightforward and purposeful design.
I may being a little dense but why is this American bacon? Maybe it’s like the time me and my family drove through western Canada and stopped in Regina for a pizza and asked the waitress for a Hawaiian pizza with Canadian bacon and she didn’t know what I was talking about. So I asked her if she could put bacon on it and what she would call that. She said they just call that round sausage in Canada, so is American bacon in Canada something we don’t get here?
I looked back through the pictures and finally seen the “bacon nation” van but I still wonder why Canadians don’t call it “Canadian bacon”?
We export it all, so we don’t have any ourselves. That’s why we don’t know what it is.
I know because Mrs DougD was at a conference in Scottsdale once, had fabulous bacon for breakfast and asked “what is this stuff anyway?”
Yes, all Canadian bacon is exported from the province of Snackitoba.
Pizza isn’t pizza without Canadian bacon.
To add some car content, my dad had the last Nash before they became Ramblers with the slowest 6 cylinder engine I’d seen, at least till I bought my 1960 Falcon with the 144ci and auto. It’s the same one used in this car, at least by pictures I’ve seen of the 60s engine.
Tends to be called back bacon here in Canada.