(first posted 2/15/2011) I run into former Curbside Classics constantly, and from time to time their stories change enough to warrant a follow-up. In fact, we’re going to make a new series out of it: CC Follow-Up. Let’s start with this 1961 Rambler Cross Country Wagon, whose circumstances are not quite as happy as they were the first time around. In fact, this is as much a heart breaker as it is an axle buster.
The last time we visited (and wrote its CC) this quite nice original wagon was basking in the sunshine in front of its owner’s house a few blocks from mine. It had been his father’s car, as is so often the case. And it was running like a top. Things do break, and the first was their marriage. The owner packed up the Cross Country for the Cross-Town trip to a cheap apartment.
The reason I know this is because after I ran this CC, a reader contacted me desperately wanting to buy this Rambler. It was exactly like his childhood family truckster, right down to the red color. He was desperate to take it in, and give it a good home in a garage in Kansas.
When I saw the Rambler reappear here in the Whiteaker District, I nosed around, found the owner, and told him about the eager buyer of his Rambler. He was very torn: his left brain told him the Rambler needed and deserved a good home out of the rain. His right brain couldn’t let go. Guess which one won?
Sure enough, when I saw it again a few months later, it was looking even more forlorn: it had busted an axle, as this rear wheel was not the beneficiary of an early AMC experiment in four wheel steering. So there it sits, all winter, and before long the moss and lichens will be starting a garden on it.
So do we condemn him for not giving up the Rambler to a good home, or sympathize with his inability to let go of an heirloom?
As “the man in black” said it best; “I hang my head and cry, cry, cry…”
But as a man who lost a red 1997 Escort LX wagon (with only 70,000 miles on it) in a divorce to a woman who only took it because it was paid for (she actually despises that car) I sympathise with him.
He’s still got the Rambler, but no garage to keep it in, and from the looks of it, no time or money to fix it. It’s come down quite a bit in just a year.
I know Paul, I’m just saying I sympathise and empathise. (Which is something my ex-wife claimed I wasn’t capable of, BTW, but I digress.) I’d certainly give the guy a shoulder to cry on or have a beer with him.
Oh man, that’s a shame. I can understand the financial situation, though. Been there myself a couple of times. Sometimes there’s nothing left to do but to let it sit and rot.
My heart goes out to the guy. I experienced a similar situation with a gorgeous 1964 Caddy Coupe, though it wasn’t an heirloom. It was an incredible bargain I just couldn’t pass up — unrestored, high mileage, in need of many little things I couldn’t afford, but I was naive and thoroughly smitten. It was a trap, and due to the desperate state of my finances at the time I had little choice but to drive that car into the ground and kill it. It saddens me still, but at least I got to have nearly two years of driving around in that beautiful Coupe de Ville — it was a gas while it lasted.
Hi Paul, Jeff from Olympia posted a link to your blog on ours today and it was great seeing what you’re up to! This story in particular inspired me to post these shots from my last visit to Eugene. Favorite Rambler I’ve ever seen?
http://www.oldparkedcars.com/2011/02/1961-rambler-classic-cross-country.html
I had to share the love! (Jeff)
Oh,and thanks Jeff. You’re all over the place!
Ben, Thanks; you’ve got some gems on your site. I’m especially desperate to find a Peugeot 404, as I used to own half a dozen or so. I really want to write one up; let me know if there are any not too far away.
There are few things sadder to me than a really nice old car being left outside in the weather to rot. Down the street from me is a 76-78 Grand Marquis. The paint is now shot. The vinyl roof is in shreds. The chrome is peeling. The owner has told me that it was a relative’s car and has really low miles (30-40K). This car would be a gem if it had been kept indoors, but no such luck. Another one slowly disappearing.
How sad.
Just up the road from me sits an ’88 S-10 Blazer 4×4 going into its 8th year of rigor mortis. When it first went up for sale in 2003, I checked on it as I needed a vehicle, I liked the S-10s and this one had the 4.3. They wanted several hundred more than it was worth and I walked away. It’s moved – maybe once – since then, before being put back in the same place it’s sat for eight years. I think the house was even sold to a relative of the previous owner, but the Blazer still sits there, rot coming thru the door bottoms and rocker panels.
I currently have two projects that have sat for 13 and 15 years respectively, but both have been garage kept at all times, waiting for me to finish my house so I can turn my attention to them.
In any divorce,
It’s the cars that suffer most.
The poor little things…
Sometimes, it’s the project and special-interest cars that suffer from personal or economic upheaval. I had gotten rid of my “project,” a 1994 YJ-7 (yup, that’s right; a YJ with a CJ-7 front clip and trim) when an ill-advised Johnny Paycheck moment put me on the move to the Next Job. No garage and tools stored, and an old car with demands…I sold it to what I HOPE was a good owner; but it could be Sawzall-cut and running mud slicks for drunken laughs, now.
So it goes. The owner of this example ought to try to sell it; try aggressively. AMC rear axles are still to be found; the Model 20, the standard in AMC products, was used up until 1986 in CJs and until 1983 in Concords. Can the track be so different? It was the same size car; I don’t know if that year used a torque tube…
It is sad. But dust to dust; it’s the way of all things made by Man. The world is full of abandoned once-great buildings and artifacts; there are collapsing barns on land with no clear title, inside which rot old cars that were pristine when parked but now are little more than rust-piles.
That old 1961 had a good run; and may have a future, depending on how realistic is the present owner.
There’s a guy that lives near me–don’t know who he is, or exactly where he lives–that has the sedan version of this car. About once every couple of months I see him tooling around in it. The car looks like somebody (probably him) gave it a coat of housepaint with a mop about twenty years ago, but its not that rusty, it doesn’t smoke, and its apparently being used as a daily driver.
These old cars are just as tough as an old boot. It’s worth saving, and I’ve got to think that there’s more than one rear axle that can fit.
What a shame. Heirloom or not, I’d rather sell something when I cannot at least keep it running than let it quickly decompose. It’s amazing how what is a $300 repair, after it sits, becomes a $1000 repair, and then a $1500 repair after the car gets moldy, rust, rubber parts fail from not moving, it develops electrical problems . . . soon it’s only fit for the junkyard.
There they are, “smart burnished aluminum door frames …found only in DeSoto.”
I wonder what ever happened to it over the last 10 years…This era Rambler wagon is probably my favorite AMC product.
I wonder too. It sat there for about a year, and then suddenly disappeared. I’d sure like to think it went to a good home.
There was a sitcom sometime in the 1970’s featuring a newly-divorced mother. One of the daughters was played by the daughter of John Philips from The Mamas and Papas.
The opening sequence had the mother and daughters traveling to a new city in a car just like this, presumably she got it in the divorce.
That was One Day at a Time, featuring Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli and Bonnie Franklin, and it ran for 9 seasons.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072554/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
It was recently reincarnated in 2017 but appears to have been canceled already…
I think that car was a ’55 or ’56 Chrysler wagon if I remember correctly. I am old enough to remember, so I may be too old to remember anything.
Now that I knew the title, I looked up the opening sequence on YouTube and you’re correct, or close. It’s certainly some form of MoPar wagon.
It was a ’56 New Yorker Town&Country, mine was blood red w/white roof, think of it often. I was late teen’s, bought from girlfriends parents for $300 when they bought a new ’65 T&C.
Sweet little red car.
Sigh!
Wish I had it. Reminds me of the ’61 Rambler Classic I had. I kept it in the garage, but when we moved out onto an acreage that had no covered storage, I made the decision to sell it instead of letting it sit outside. I saw it a couple years later for sale on craigslist in a town about 80 miles away in worse condition than when I had it. THAT was heart breaking. Made me wish I kept it.