Resurrecting the Rambler

[cicero819]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

Appreciate that Billy and Dave,
I will not quit. I might go broke eventually, but I will not quit.

One of my very young co-workers at the NAPA store I work at has taken a liking to my Stocker project, enough so that he has educated himself a little on how the Stock Eliminator cars are classed, especially the slower ones. So he's messing around on Craigslist during a break looking for a cheap car to fix up, like kids even 60 years old like me tend to do, (!), and finds an original '84 Camaro 4 cylinder stick car with a bad clutch for sale for $850. He hollers to me to come and take a look at it, and immediately wants to know if this would make a good class car. I see an opportunity to razz him some here..."Could be, you'd be way down there in W/S, the lowest of the low. 4 cylinder cars only. You'd be about the only sick-o in America trying to run a Camaro down there." (Like I should talk, considering my choice of combo).
He says in his innocence, "Ooh, that would be good then, right? If I was the only Camaro I'd win class every time!"

What have I created here???

I didn't have the heart to tell him a Pinto owned by an Illinois racer named Buth would probably clean his clock out there in a bad way. Let him find out the hard way like I probably will.

But it will be a Camaro, a real car not a Pinto.lol Nice way to spread the religion of Drag racing. Nice project.

[Pinballer]

Originally Posted by cicero819

But it will be a Camaro, a real car not a Pinto.lol Nice way to spread the religion of Drag racing. Nice project.

I appreciate hearing that. Hopefully the masses don't find this whole long-term build of an off-the-wall six-banger AMC car boring. I know it's a slow car and runs way at the bottom of the classes, and not a lot of people would give it a second glance, but it's anything but that for me. I'm pretty stoked about it because it's new and different than me building another bracket car with a breathed on V8 and bolt-on everything. I know I can do those and have success, but this class racing venue is a whole new thing for me because a lot of thought has to go into every component due to the rules. It's going to take a while.

You know, if I wasn't already a Rambler man, doing a Stocker 4 cylinder Iron Duke stick '84 Camaro way down in W just might tempt ME! I'd have to sneak up on those wicked Pintos though...might take a couple years of re-adjusting to the Chevy ways.
I have '96 and '85 Corvettes out in the stable that I love to drive on nice days, so I might get an urge sometime to go back to the Bow Tie camp, you just never know.

Spent Saturday evening and all day Sunday driving from central IL to and from Minneapolis to get the baby blue '79 AMX parts car. Used my usual Monday off work then to strip the fender flares, emblems, and grille off of it and get started installing those into the build car. The flares are going to need some work first before I can mount them, they're almost powdery from old age and chip easily, but the grille is really good and went right into the race car with minor effort. I'll add some pictures later on.

[Pinballer]

And the pictures of some of today's efforts. One shot shows a factory fender flare for the AMX cars I'm talking about in the above post.

[goinbroke2]

"Hopefully the masses don't find this whole long-term build of an off-the-wall six-banger AMC car boring"

You're kidding right? If it was yet ANOTHER red 69 Camaro with a small block I wouldn't be reading. Over 10,000 views....that says it all.

What was that song, it's hip to be square? haha, this is an excellent thread, love to see a thread on a 6 cyl ford or ccccchev too.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

Hopefully the masses don't find this whole long-term build of an off-the-wall six-banger AMC car boring.

I don't see anything boring going on from here. Keep up the good work! You and Robbie Racer are restoring my faith in Drag Racers and Hot Rodders!

[George W]

Love the build nothing boring here

[Dennis P Chapman]

Not boring at all keep going.

[GTOMayhem]

Originally Posted by Dennis P Chapman

Not boring at all keep going.

^^^^^This^^^^

Rick Thomason
GTOMayhem

[Bob Emery]

Nothing boring here! Cool? Heck yeah!

[Pinballer]

Keep cheering me on guys, it's helping---my old arms hurt real bad from twisting out stuck screws all day!
Where's that Celebrex bottle at??

Not a lot to tell on today's efforts, it was simply doing a bunch of little things to improve on the car that won't readily show up. Spent most of today removing the wheel well chrome trim pieces and the lower mouldings along the rocker panel on the driver side in order to get ready for the flares to mount on. Stuck screws as I fully expected slowed this work to a crawl, but eventually I managed to get one side cleared off. I had hoped to get both sides done today.
I also took a solenoid operated hatch release assembly off the back end of the blue AMX and cleaned it all up so it could work on the red car, which had it's missing. AMC, in it's infinite wisdom, decided that a key/lock assembly to open that hatch might be a bit too much to ask, so they ran wires from the fuse box to the glove compartment switch, then ran two more wires down the entire length and across the back of the car to the solenoid. The original opening push-button is located inside the glove box, but I plan on moving it to the shifter console or the radio plate area at some point so my ever-fattening body doesn't have to lean way over there in full race dress and flop open the glove box lid to push on it to get ready for a fuel check. I chose "lazy" this time.

The remainder of the day was spent repairing my portable air tank, cutting off the emergency brake cable underneath the car, and cleaning up small parts to be installed later, mainly the fender flares. I had the thought of spray-can Plasti-dipping these things in order to keep them from crumbling any more on the edges than they already have.
Anybody had experience with this P-Dip stuff on an already rubbery material much like the Corvette bumpers were from the late '70s and 80's? It would have to remain really flexible after spraying it on because the wind is going to flex the fender flares a little bit all the time.

And finally, when I got home from the shop I see an email that the Division 3 office got my competition number for Stock processed. I was overjoyed to see that my humble request for my old bracket racing number was granted. Once again, and from now on, I am T/SA 3790.