Today, let’s look at another rare AMC. Jason Shafer showed us an amazing ’68 Ambassador sedan, but have any of you seen the elusive convertible? Offered only in ’67, the model only found 1,269 buyers despite quite an attractive look. This one was at the 2012 Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, IL.
Sadly I only got a single shot. I haven’t seen one since, and I’ve probably been to over 100 shows since then. This one looked to be a work in progress, with missing rocker trim–but the fasteners were still there. Despite that, it was quite a looker! I’d rather have some factory wheel covers and whitewalls though…
Note: a rerun of an older post.
I had one in dark blue metallic with the 290 V8 and troublesome Holley carb, four on the floor, and the rare Satin Chrome option also used on the Marlin – silver paint ten inches above the rocker bottom. The frame was subject to torsion and a kink developed in a rear fender.
I likewise can’t grasp the desire to change wheels on an otherwise original vintage vehicle.
Neat looking convertible. Here’s a 1965 Rambler for sale near me…the sign says it was built by Boyd Coddington.
1965 Rambler.
Nice, rare in the US means non existent over here, a mate from my school days has a hardtop SST from 67 one of two delivered new here, no verts are known to be on the roads but both those hardtops are still registered thats a pretty good survival rate.
LOL, as comments are as rare as the car.
I did not know these existed, but it actually looks quite good. I took my driving lessons in a 66 4 door sedan version, so it does bring back some memories.
A visitor drove one of these around our town for a few weeks in the summer of ’67. As teenagers with learners permits, we took lustful interest in any convertible. Wisconsin’s climate didn’t exactly encourage convertible purchases. Any convertible was rare. Though Ramblers were disproportionately popular in our part of Wisconsin, I never realized how rare this car was. One memory still stuck in my mind was how the top had a low stack height compared to many other convertibles. If it hadn’t been tarred with the Rambler image hangover, it might have actually sold better. It was a good looking car. Hard words for me to say about any Rambler
It was unlikely that AMC discontinued their last convertible by any great foresight, but it certainly was a harbinger of things to come by the Big 3.
Even today, the last domestic-branded convertible remaining is the Mustang which, except for a brief period during the Mustang II era and a few of the first years of the Fox Mustang, has remained in production since 1965.
Wow, it really does look nice .
I see the ‘coke bottle’ shaping in there too .
Wheels and tires are very subjective plus one of the easiest things to change, why so many automatically junk the often beautiful stock wheels and covers .
-Nate
I could easily see keeping the original wheels and covers aside, with or without period correct white stripe bias ply tires and mostly driving around on aftermarket ones that take an easier to find tire size.
Yeah, I don’t mind those who, in an effort to maintain driveability, switch to an aftermarket wheel and tire on an otherwise original survivor classic, so long as what they choose somewhat match the originals. They can retain the OEMs for special occasions or even use for sale later. It’s more difficult and expensive to go with repops, not to mention the performance demerits of bias-ply type tires versus modern radials.
But there’s definitely a limit to the aftermarket stuff. One of my pet-peeves are aftermarket ‘Grant’ type steering wheels. It’s not that hard to have cracked OEM steering wheels repaired.
Even worse are replacement shift knobs, like the el cheapos that have a snap-in shift pattern. I mean, c’mon, new, OEM Hurst knobs aren’t that pricey, easy to obtain, and a small (but noticable) touch when everything else is original.