Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

I am enjoying watching your project too. Cool little car. And something different which is good for the sport.
I plan on racing INDY someday. Maybe I will see you there.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

This is one cool build, but then I am different. Here in Division 6 we have Comets, Mavericks, Pintos, a 6 cylinder AMC Pacer, and a few others. Fun to watch these "slow" cars hold off the big muscle cars. Lots of fun for this 66 year old guy.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Well, as many of you have noticed I tend more toward the classic muscle cars myself, but I can appreciate different projects like this as well.

And I can always learn from how other people do things.

So keep it coming!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

(laugh) You -might- meet me there at Indy, but it's more likely I'll walk up to you in the pits and introduce myself because I'm a LONG ways off from running - .8 or more under to even make the Indy field! Tough tough place to qualify at much less do well at.
My goal for this year is to get my car put together, pass tech, get down to the 14.40 T/SA index one part at a time, and go from there next winter by adding in the 'good stuff.'

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

One of the cool things about class racing is that the ET on the scoreboard doesn't define fast or slow. It is defined by how fast you can go under the Index or how fast are you compared to the car in the other lane with the same set of letters on the window.
Dont get me wrong low et cars are very cool. Low et cars take more discretionary cash not only to build but to maintain. I race where my money allows me to race and be competitive. Keep on updating the build it is very fun to read and thanks for sharing it...

Don

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Yeah, the faster cars are a lot more exciting to watch and I know I love a four foot wheelie that carries out past the 60 ft clocks, but the expense of running and maintaining those is simply beyond my means. Parts countermen don't usually race big block supercars. I'll start out in T where I can live with it and parlay my big winnings into an O car some day. (you can laugh here)

Spending the waning days of my vacation doing some wiring on the car after outrunning the floods all over the southern part of the country early in the week. I guess we don't use our credit card often enough back home either, the company shut it off mid-vacation for suspected fraud. Makes it more exciting that way...

Yesterday's fascinating chores on the car included finishing up the headlight re-do so they wouldn't be shining up in the stands or at the tower. The old plastic headlight adjusters and a couple of springs too had long given up and broken apart, so that's all good now. Lights shine forward. The neutral safety switch wiring got ran where it needed to, and I tidied up some other loose ends hanging around in the engine compartment like tying the shifter cable back out of the way of the exhaust. Installed a couple relays in the engine bay for later usage of things like the electric water pump and possible radiator cooling fans too. Who knows what else will be needed out there, but electrically it's ready for them.
Took the dash mostly apart for about the third time to get some little things as far as wiring relocated on it for a rocker switch panel and fed the new wires around, plus scoped out where the future gauge pack installation will go. The tried and true antique Sun 2 5/8 chrome 3-gauge cluster out of the old Rambler race car gets moved into the new one now. I always loved the look of those, so it's a little of the old in the new again. I'm getting REAL familiar with how the dash goes together in this car, I think I can identify every danged wire under there by it's color now. The schematic is tossed aside, who needs it?
Also, kept stripping off the GT trim pieces and fender lip chrome for the install of the fender flares. Once those pieces came off, I'm super glad there was no hidden rust under them--this car is about a miracle considering it's life of sitting outside forever-- but it makes it look terribly "plain" now. I know it will change drastically when the AMX decals and the flares get on there and they get painted body color (they really look hideous with the baby blue flares and orange pinstriping held up against the red body, kinda looks like a circus wagon!), but I did do the car some justice in making it look "racier" with my latest effort.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

I love these quote "slower" cars. When they run a 2015 copo for example crazy how far out there they are before being turned loose. That's cool stuff! Great job keep it up.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

I happen to have a little experience in these matters, that is, being hung out to dry while being chased by something so fast it about blows you off the track at the finish line.

Many years ago, 23 to be exact, my then 5 months pregnant wife and I took a vacation to Phoenix and rented of all things, a Geo Metro convertible with a 3 cylinder automatic to tour the countryside with. And of course, every gearhead races his rental car before turning it back in the next day, doesn't he? (shades of Bret Kepner here). Found out there was a gambler race on Friday nights at a track way north of Phoenix, so we headed out there on our final night of vacation. The tech guy there looked at me and then at the car proudly wearing it's Alamo Rental Car plate and asked me if I was serious or not. Well, YEAH!
It passed tech and I was in.

Pictures of the time tickets from Phoenix Raceway park shown here.

The Geo was not exactly a "leaver", was not exactly consistent, and was definitely not fast. This car was all over the place. I dialed it in at something like 21.42 .
My first and only round pairing was with a 12 second early 70's Camaro. I took my best guess on a dial-in, seeing as how the car wouldn't run within .05 of itself, and turned the light green at the start. I had to be about 3/4 of the way downtrack before I heard that Camaro launch. I looked back and saw he'd turned his light green, so the race was on. Just as I'm approaching the traps and am running through the big X and the finish line cones, I thought I might have it won, but at the stripe something went by me so fast it rocked the little car with the wind as he passed by. The only thing I saw from then on was a pair of brake lights melting into one single light way out in the distance. He had went by me at 112 mph.
My wife had a report from the stands that was comical: she said when the people up there saw the pairing of the cars ahead of time, side bets were made on the senseless Geo/Camaro matchup and once the race started, a pack of them started chanting "Go-Geo Go-Geo Go-Geo! " Big moan from the crowd when the underdog lost.
Hey, it was kinda fun, a good memory...

This scenario could be repeated with a COPO, Cobra Jet, or Hemi matchup sometime. I'll have to tell you whether the wind from the fast car blows me sideways or not then. :)

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Very cool! Not sure I would even have thought of racing a Geo!

In 2010 I dislocated my left shoulder a month or so before the King of the Track race at that same venue, which by then was Speedworld. I couldn't drive my Camaro but I could drive my Ranger, as it would shift itself, leaving my right arm free to steer. So I wound up with a mid-15 second dial-in and matched up against Mike Zimmerman's 8-second Mustang. He passed me at the stripe going 65 MPH faster than me, his 150 MPH to my 85. There was a very pronounced side sway from the little Ranger as he went by also!

And yeah, he won that race, though at least it was moderately close.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

I guess some people tend to progress slower than others in life. It's taken me 23 years to double the amount of cylinders I get to race with. :)

Now does this mean my ET should go down by half from the Geo one since I'm doubling the engine size? Man, I can only hope! (but I know better...)

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Been a couple weeks since my last report, mainly because this is a super busy time of year for me as far as the pinball business. Lots happening in late March and all thru April in that world. And in what spare time I did have recently, the winds were howling across the prairie making it nearly unbearable to do what I really wanted to do on the car which was to try and get the hood prepped for paint so the whole car could be red again. (Even though the overall paint quality of the car is certainly not what I'd call good, that blue hood just bugs the crap out of me). So instead, I settled on doing some more mop-up tasks in between frequent excursions to go get more pinballs gathered up from sellers for eventual transport to their new owners out east at a major show in Allentown Pa coming up in early May. After that though, it's full speed ahead on race car!

These last couple week's fascinating work included things like re-engineering an old factory AMC radio to fit into the dash properly and getting the antique Sun gauge cluster mounted. Doesn't sound like these should be something that hogged up an entire evening and one afternoon to get mounted, but they sure did. After all, it takes some time to go through your pile of spare AMC radios and weigh them all to see which one you gotta have! When I selected the lightest one and got all done, the look of the dash improved a lot, and I only have one more empty hole left to fill on the center pod of the dash. A lighted fuel pump toggle switch is slated to go there when I get to the fuel system re-do someday. Initially I'll be running off the regular factory fuel pump and gas tank just to get the car mobile, so it's not like it's a hurry up thing. If I could just quit that regular day job...I'd have a lot more time! (but no money)

A few shots of the recent work shown here...Still looking for my matching Sun water temp gauge I *know* I have stashed somewhere so it can mount to the left side of the 3-gauge panel. The matching fuel pressure gauge and it's chrome cup will go on the outside of the car of course.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Just curious why you are installing a radio In a stock eliminator car ?

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

From the way I read the rule book, the car has to have a complete dashboard that appears factory original, so I can't leave a gaping hole in my dash. Doesn't say things in the dash have to work, they just have to be there.
AMC did not have a radio-delete option on an AMX in 1979--they were normally pretty well-optioned cars with plussed-up interiors--or I would have had the chance to leave it out. Maybe some of their ultra-cheap-for-fleets Spirits of that era had the radio delete option, but I can't truthfully claim it on the model I'm building. The last thing I need is to haul to an event and get tossed for having no radio, so I'm playing it safe. The 2.8 pounds is worth it, and I can lose that much body weight to offset it! No cake for me...

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Where else are you going to hide the delay box? Remember those days?

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Trust me on this one, you will be One of the few Stockers in the lanes with a radio....You can FAB your own radio delete plate....Would be a wise idea to join us at Indy Pts meet, walk thru the staging lanes and OBSERVE.....might save you a lot of trouble down the road.....Ed Fernandez , quit being a wise guy ....LOL...!!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Most use the spot where the radio was for a switch panel or gauge location. I have seen more golf carts at the track with radio's than I have ever seen in a Stock or SS car. Your radio is cool, but not needed.

Thanks for sharing your build!
Sean

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Those who know me realize putting a radio back in a STK car would not be out of character at all for me. That being said, look at what I'm building here! :) Being exclusive won't bother me too much.

But Ed has ruined my dreams of hiding the delay box inside the radio. What should I do now? Nitrous bottle under the back seat?

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Brian , In your own words...can't truthfully claim it ....this really concerns me....if you build this car to the Letter of the rule book, you will really be challenged to run the index.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

We can only wait and see how it all turns out. :)

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

???? I read the rule book, I built my car to be legal. It has run 14.29 on my 15.50 index.
I really don't know where you're coming from. I always thought part of S/SS was to be legal, not to see how much you can get away with.

Jim Mantle V/SA 6632

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

That is one flyin' Pacer Jim!

If my T car can run a 14.29 by the end of this year, I'll be ecstatic.

Not really much to report from here as far as the build, most of April and early May are super busy for me. Spent the last three weekends doing pinball work everywhere, and running back and forth to Pennsylvania to a major pinball event. Today, I finally got to spend some time with the car. Couldn't get real deep into anything, the car is on the trailer and too much still going on today catching up on things, but in between people coming by and picking up their games I hauled back from out east, I was able to attach the newly purchased left fender flare and a front spoiler that I finally unearthed from a real good AMC guy out in Colorado. These pieces are like hen's teeth, there just aren't any out there (they only made about 2900 of these AMX cars and that was 37 years ago), and if you do find some flares and spoilers that might be available, you expect them to be roughed up to some extent and you have to fix them and make them work. The blending in the flare edges where they mate together into the spoiler comes later when the weather gets a little hotter, I can't fiberglass this stuff when it's 55 degrees out.
Couple of pictures after I resize them...

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Hide the box in the wheel flare. Don't tell anybody I told you that.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Too late Ed, the box is in a different location. :)

Here's the pics I promised, and I forgot about the striping effort on the left side. I'm painting them all on instead of ordering the immensely overpriced decal kit. Save money where you can you know...

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

gut the radio...

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Love your car jim, that s quite an accomplishment.....and I thought Ed. F.(Red Sox fan ) AMC was unique....LOL....

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Also a dejected NY Islander fan MJ.
Brian, I hate topee on your corn flakes but if you want to run deep into the index some of the things you are doing (full interior,wheel flares etc) will have the effect of going down the track with an open parachute behind you. You'll see that a lot of fast older stockers were built from bottom end no frills models.Just saying.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Ed--all I can say is I intend to surprise you and make you and all my fellow Rambler racers proud. Just need some time.
Money wouldn't hurt either...

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Been a while since I posted an update, the car work sessions have been sporadic due to other commitments, but the long holiday weekend was pretty beneficial. Got several things done and feel good about those. Right now I'm so tired I had to quit and come in and sit down for a while!

Remember that list of 712 other things that needed to get done to the car in one of my previous posts? I've knocked a few more off that, maybe we're down into the 600's now...this sucker may even run by fall! :)
Line lock is mounted on the firewall now, the gas tank is finally out of the car after having to saw off some rusted bolts out that held it in, and surprisingly the tank was pretty clean inside. Not sure if I'll ever use it on this ride, but it's perfectly good for something else Spirit-related on down the road, which is about all it fits. All the proper fender flares are mounted, and there was one that required some fiberglass work inside and out to keep it from totally disintegrating. The majority of the work sessions in recent days have mostly been filled up with painting the AMX stripes on the driver side of the car. I know I know...stripes don't make this car run any better, but it does makes the owner happy to see it evolving into something that won't be such an embarrassment while sitting still. Even my wife came out and remarked at what a change there had been in the whole car since she last saw it. She said it looked way more "aggressive". OK, I'll take that!! Now I have to do the other side.
Repaired some damage to the rear taillight fill panel and right fender extension by replacing them with pieces from the blue parts car. Had to repaint them both of course.
Tried plasti-dip spraying one fender flare as a test with the deepest red color I could find, but was not all that happy with the results, so peeled it all back off and will resort to using regular paint later on for a better match. At least now I know it's not quite the stuff for me.
Bought a new Snell 2015 helmet, my old helmet with it's 1985 Snell rating wasn't going to cut it, even at our local track. They told me not to come back with it. Guess it's been a good while since I bought a helmet!
Changed out the outside passenger door handle with a new one today, great to have two fully working doors again.
Lastly, cleaned out the entire car of all the leavings of unused parts, bolts and screws, wiring, and assorted pieces of whatever, and vaccuumed out everything really good. Made sure all the spare tire stuff was correct and mounted back in it's proper place and called it good. Have to get the driver seat re-upholstered soon, it's the worst looking thing in the interior now. I'd replace with with another, but I don't have any black ones as spares.
But it's all come a long long ways from the day I first pulled this car out of where it sat in front of the shop. Look back at the beginning posts and it's been a major change!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

looking great! can't wait for it to hit the track.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Neither can I !! It's hard seeing and hearing about your racer friends heading over to the track and what's going on with their racing pursuits while you stay home every spare waking moment working on your own car so you too can get there some day. Some of them are pushing me onward with this build because it's kind of unique, some of them are still shaking their heads and asking me what the H I'm doing this all for.

Got curious tonight and added up all the expenditures since the beginning (about 9 months ago) that I had on part store tickets, Jeg's tickets, Summit tickets, NHRA fees, and so on plus the initial cost of the car body ($250) and the rear end assembly with Moser axles, gears, and the install that I had a shop do way back in the dark ages. ($700). I even threw in $500 extra for misc expenses in case I forgot anything.
It's still a "nickel" rocket, but not by much. Sure to be well on the way to a "dime rocket" before it's all over. Main thing is that it eventually becomes a "rocket."

$4518.95

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Great job!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Bigger is better:


http://classracer.com/classforum/att...7&d=1464646469

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Thanks Charlie!

After the usual race reports from the "retired racer's breakfast club" that meets on Monday mornings at the local pub, and the normal running around paying bills sessions that always follow, the rest of today was spent prepping the right side of the car for the main striping. Managed to get two of the three stripes laid down and cleared before running out of tape late in the day. Hope to finish up that side next weekend and then move on to the flares, hood, and rest of the car and turning it all into an even shade of red. Painting has got to get done before it turns into humid 90 degree days.

Was going through a shoebox that I started putting old track and race decals and stickers into clear back in the early 80's, and happened upon a couple that I remembered being included inside the box with a new Hurst Ram-Rod shifter I bought for my '68 Camaro back then. These little red and white stickers will have to become a fixture someplace on this AMX.
They read:
"For your safety, tighten all nuts and bolts securely. Recheck periodically."
Good advice.

Another one I found interesting was a long bright orange one that we used to get from our NAPA warehouse when they would return our old stock we would try to send back to them every so often. Just reads: "Obsolete."
That one might need to go on my helmet.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Some more test painting efforts, apparently my red paint I mixed up matches reasonably well. The rest of the car will eventually follow as time allows. Can't wait!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Big improvement, lookin' good!

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Still painting and making some more cosmetic improvements while the good weather is holding out here. Rear bumper, hatch borders, and both rear quarters got the color and/or clear treatment over the weekend. So the entire back end of the car is now all done. Moving to the front end next, doors will be last because they may need to be removed and some body work done to those first.

The factory striping on these late AMX cars goes on forever....and there's still more stripes to paint on the front spoiler if I want to make it totally right. Sometimes I wish I'd bought the $400 decal package, it would have saved me about three weeks of time! The money savings from -not- doing so, however, can be spent on the fuel system pieces before much longer. Gotta keep the big picture in mind here.

Even though my initial intention was to be reasonably thrifty about this build and see where it takes me, when I finally get this car wearing paint all over, it's occurring to me that at least I won't have to be too ashamed of it's looks. Turning out much better than I expected for a one-panel-at-a-time driveway job so far. No runs yet!

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Finally, on to the hood of the car. This has been a long time coming. I needed a calm wind day and low humidity to pull this off. My limited time crude-but-effective driveway paint job is coming along fine though...it's only this shiny because it's wet!

Most of the center rise of the hood will be covered with a factory "flaming AMX" decal. Kind of like the 70's Trans Am's had only worse.

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

looks better than the "flaming" bird on the t/a's..;)

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

Yeah Tom, I guess it's the curvature of the letters inside that graphic that bugs me the most. It's like they had to squeeze them in there after the fact or something. The flames are well...flames which I'm not normally a fan of, and they're not really all that well done. Looks like a burning bush! Wish the letters inside looked more like the large block ones on the doors as is pictured on this other red car.
Maybe if AMC had gone with something more like the old Dusters had, (pictured), putting the very large engine numbers across the hood but instead of those maybe use the door-style AMX letters and put them inside a flat-blacked out rise of the hood, that would have been more appealing to my personal taste. But they didn't, so I'll go with what they had. It's the garish nature of the late '70's, gotta go with it man!

Re: Resurrecting the Rambler
 

After putting in my usual 46 hours at NAPA, a mighty busy weekend was spent on the car here, luckily the weather stayed good throughout which sure helped. Arms are now sore as all get out.

Finished painting the roof on try #2, didn't like try #1 at all, so that wasted most of Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Gun dripped a couple times while holding it horizontal and it had overspray patterns running through everything. Turned up the wick on the gun on try #2 just a little more and the paint laid down a lot better.
I'm not a painter by any means, but I sure like doing it. The immediate visual changes once it's done right are very rewarding. Wouldn't want to do it for anybody else or for a living, but I can stand my own work just fine.

Once the roof was reshot to my satisfaction and appeared to be turning out good, I rolled the car into the sun so it could dry and turned my attention to the next area to renew--the worst one of all--the driver door. This had a large and long deep dent in it which you can easily see in most of the pictures on previous posts and also had several door dings across the middle. There's also some screw holes down low from the Spirit GT trim that came off and those needed to be filled.

Door came off with minimal trouble, thank goodness for Gear Wrenches to get the almost inaccessable inner hinge bolts loose quickly, and it went onto the cart for bodywork. After removing the inner door panel and pushing that big old gouge back out to where it was close to flush again, then there was lots of sanding on the dents first, and then the filler, both with machine and by hand. Aah, you guys know what it's like... pretty dirty work. I looked like George Washington in one of those colonial powered wigs when I finally came in the house to clean up.
Once this driver door is done, I think I can do the passenger door while still attached to the car, there's only a few minor dings on it and the trim holes along the bottom to ping in and fill. Should be on that door by the 4th of July I hope. That would leave only the window trim blackout on the windshield and rear hatch and the paint will be all done. My goal when I started to paint was to be done by the 1st of July before the super hot weather hit town, so I'll be close.