Resurrecting the Rambler

[jims5600]

Iam really interested in following your build. Years ago I worked at a
AMC dealer. Always liked the Spirit AMX. Loved the Rambler
Americans too

[Pinballer]

Originally Posted by jims5600

Iam really interested in following your build. Years ago I worked at a
AMC dealer. Always liked the Spirit AMX. Loved the Rambler
Americans too

I wish you'd kept some 79-80 AMX parts when you were working there! Those AMX option pieces are year specific and fairly rare. The flares and spoilers were made of a material that ages badly and guys are reporting they're rotting off their cars now. No plans for repro stuff yet as far as I can find out. I'll be fabricating mine if it comes to that unless good used originals turn up.

[Pinballer]

OK. So to get things in perspective as this goes forward, the car and class have been selected, and the physical work of the transformation needs to start. But before the car is taken in for teardown, the groundwork of the plan of attack can be laid out. Somehow, according to calculations, I've got to get at least 225 HP at the rear wheels using a max of 270 cubic inches, a crummy intake, not nearly enough valve lift on puny valves, a small 2 bbl carb that will be gasping for air after 660 feet, and this has to somehow propel 3020 lbs down the track in 14.40 or less. I do love a challenge!
I'm sure the build veterans of the sport will heartily disagree now and then with my methods, but the possible lessons I might learn the hard way that could help way down the road had to be considered too. So did the financial side of things, meaning I'll have to start small and gradually iron things out.
Bear in mind I have plenty of spare "everythings" for this car, and if something is installed initially just to keep progress moving forward some, chances are it's backup part is being 'romanced' somewhere in the background for the future. As I learn about what works good and get spare things done, things will inevitably change.


First: the Spirit was hauled into a friend's auto shop for a look underneath at things, and mainly for the use of his lift to ease in pulling the drivetrain out. Once there, it didn't take long to learn the condition of things might change my mind drastically. The 15 years of the previous owner's daily drives to a factory day after day in all kinds of Midwest weather and a 12 year sit in the weeds after I was done playing with it in 2003 had no doubt helped the winter salt treatments here in IL take their toll.
Turns out the entire unibody is rotten. So bad there is no saving it.

Time to look for another car.

[Alan Nyhus]

Take a look in the Classifieds here. Dated 7/24/15, Mike Meier has a Spirit roller for sale. -Al

[Dan Fahey]

This is an interesting Stocker Build.

The AMX straight 6 Engine is still popular with the Jeep crowd.
Golen Engine hops them up with Stroker kits and ported upgraded heads.

Good luck.

Dan

[Pinballer]

You're right there, Dan, the Jeep crowd is the one experimenting more than any other group with this engine. A lot of their efforts can translate over to what I'm pursuing, so they were pretty helpful. The main thing they know is that revving this engine much about 5000 rpm doesn't help anything. The power curve falls flat on its face and parts attrition goes way up. That told me that the ET I need must all be developed in the 1/8th mile because there won't be much gain after that. It's all about torque on this one, not raw HP made by wringing the guts out of it.

Back to the build:
At this point (early Oct as I catch you up), I'm looking at a rusted out piece of junk I'll have to part out. A new body is needed, and I still preferred to go with the Spirit platform rather than switch to something that classes differently, so looked around at what I had in my own stable of cars and saw this 'jewel' that had been sitting in front of the pinball shop since 1993. It's a weather-worn 1982 Spirit GT that was originally a 151 4 cyl 4 speed car, no engine or trans, that had a straight good body, that I had bought back then with the idea of throwing a V8 and an automatic in it and bracket racing it eventually. There was some initial work I did to it right after hauling it home back then, the best part of which was installing an 8 3/4 Chrysler rear end that has the same width as the original tiny AMC rear. The pinball business was getting going good about that time for me, so I shelved the project due to building the business and let the car sit where you see it in the picture. It was still there in the same spot as of October 2015. Man, where do the years go??
Now then: is it rotten underneath like the '80 Spirit was too? Going to have to pull this one out and take a full assessment.
On to Plan B!

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

You're right there, Dan, the Jeep crowd is the one experimenting more than any other group with this engine. A lot of their efforts can translate over to what I'm pursuing, so they were pretty helpful. The main thing they know is that revving this engine much about 5000 rpm doesn't help anything. The power curve falls flat on its face and parts attrition goes way up. That told me that the ET I need must all be developed in the 1/8th mile because there won't be much gain after that. It's all about torque on this one, not raw HP made by wringing the guts out of it.

Back to the build:
At this point (early Oct as I catch you up), I'm looking at a rusted out piece of junk I'll have to part out. A new body is needed, and I still preferred to go with the Spirit platform rather than switch to something that classes differently, so looked around at what I had in my own stable of cars and saw this 'jewel' that had been sitting in front of the pinball shop since 1993. It's a weather-worn 1982 Spirit GT that was originally a 151 4 cyl 4 speed car, no engine or trans, that had a straight good body, that I had bought back then with the idea of throwing a V8 and an automatic in it and bracket racing it eventually. There was some initial work I did to it right after hauling it home back then, the best part of which was installing an 8 3/4 Chrysler rear end that has the same width as the original tiny AMC rear. The pinball business was getting going good about that time for me, so I shelved the project due to building the business and let the car sit where you see it in the picture. It was still there in the same spot as of October 2015. Man, where do the years go??
Now then: is it rotten underneath like the '80 Spirit was too? Going to have to pull this one out and take a full assessment.
On to Plan B!

FYI If you go with the Spirit that came with the 151 engine you'll need the disc brake rotors and pads specific to that engine, they're different than the 6 cylinder cars.

[Mike Meier]

Originally Posted by Alan Nyhus

Take a look in the Classifieds here. Dated 7/24/15, Mike Meier has a Spirit roller for sale. -Al

Thanks Alan

Brian......My Spirit is still for sale as a roller w/ a disassembled 304 - 2bbl. I have less time to deal with racing since changing jobs in August. I don't recall if you were someone that already contacted me but feel free to shoot me an email at mmeier1167@yahoo.com.

[Pinballer]

(Catching up to late October)
Got underneath the red Spirit and initially things look pretty solid other than a place in the floor right behind the driver seat. Wonder if the mangy possum nest I found there had anything to do with that?
Loaded her up on the trailer and took it into the auto shop for a real good going-over. Very solid underneath as it turns out, so the Ziebart people did well on this one. Found their sticker on the driver door jamb.

Now we've got something very suitable to work with. This car is an original manual steering manual brake stick car, so its a great platform to use. There will have to be one important piece changed right at the beginning, and it's a monumental headache. I know this because I've done one before. On AMC cars you have to have the proper engine cross member in place for the type of engine you're wanting or the engine mounts won't line up. The 4 cyl one will have to come out and be replaced with the 6 cyl one out of the blue 80 car. The nasty part of this is that the lower control arms bolt into this cross member, and to remove those means removing almost everything else suspension related first. And I'll get to do this TWICE! Get out the breaker bars...
The blue 80 car now gets parted out so I can use a lot of things off it. And here we go. You'll notice that when the dirty work was done it was just a little bit hard to steer due to an "alignment problem". Getting the hulk back up on the trailer took a while!

[Charlie A]

One of the coolest looking factory rims from "back in the day" on the blue one.