Richard A. “Dick” Teague grew up a hot-rodding teenager in Southern California before turning his attention to designing new cars. Even then, his cars often had sport to their style, usually being designed as two-seaters — much like the hopped-up roadsters he would have been surrounded by in sunny So-Cal.

Teague had studied at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena, Calif., where the focus was on form and line, not decoration. He carried these lessons to Kaiser-Frazer where he designed a hardtop convertible in 1946. By the early ’50s, he was working at Packard where he designed the 1954 Packard Panther Daytona. This open car combined Teague’s idea for clean forms with his preference for sporty two-passenger automobiles.

Teague was a young man when he had created the sporty designs for Kaiser-Frazer and Packard. By the age of 40 in 1964, he had been elevated to the position of vice president in charge of AMC styling. By this time, he had become known as “Mr. Clean” in the industry. Car Life said that he represented “fresh air amidst an atmosphere of the all too common ‘design by committee’ school of styling.” Teague still favored less flamboyance and exterior ornamentation on cars. He saw clean design as a “maturing of aesthetics,” as well as a safety enhancement with fewer doo-dads to impale pedestrians.

“Teague has brought a young man’s outlook to Detroit’s styling studio,” wrote Gene Booth in the June 1964 issue of Car Life. The designer had a good handle on industrial design and accurately predicted to Booth that bucket seats, fastback roofs and performance engine modifications would become big trends in the near future. He was, of course, correct.

These automotive sporty and performance features were almost required in the booming muscle car market that grew throughout the 1960s. Teague made sure to include them as the muscle car era mushroomed.

“We thought that it was great to see muscle cars and pony cars coming out,” former AMC clay modeler Keith Goodnough told us at the AMC World Meet in 2003. “Chuck Mashigan was put in charge of the Advanced Styling Studio and he was the one who designed the hot pony cars like the AMXes.”

AMC boss Roy Abernethy resisted the muscle car market. He believed that AMC was doing well selling small cars, and indeed, AMC had experienced an upswing in its fortunes during the early 1960s by building smaller cars. Problems arose when Abernethy started a movement to larger AMC cars, which he personally preferred. These did not sell very well. Meanwhile, the pony car market expanded from 11.2 percent of the market in 1966 to 14.6 in 1967. Total specialty car registrations rose 18.0 percent in 1966 and 17.6 in 1967.

“I decided to do a really hot two-seat car — one like Ferrari would do,” Teague told Motor Trend while discussing AMC’s AMX muscle car. “But instead of (making) 10 a year, we’d design it so we could build 10,000.” Teague wanted the AMX to have a rumble seat, but said, “They (management) looked at me like I was from the moon.” Still, a working model of the AMX — complete with the “Ramble Seat,” aka rumble seat — was approved and built for AMC by Vignale in Turin, Italy. It debuted at the 1966 New York International Auto Show.

About the same time, Detroit industrialist Robert B. Evans bought 200,000 shares of AMC stock. He became the firm’s largest shareholder and was elected to the board of directors. Evans soon dropped word that AMC was going to build a production version of the AMX show car.

Victor G. Raviolo was put in charge of all AMC creative projects in 1967 and wanted to make quick changes. He told a Car Life writer that he had watched women and their reactions to changes in skirt lengths. “The skirts got shorter and women who were 40-50 years old said that wasn’t for them,” he pointed out. “But the next year you see those women and their skirts are a little shorter. This is the influence of young people — they pull the rest of the market with them.”

Not all of Teague’s youthful ideas made it to the assembly line. The Ramble Seat rumble seat was considered a safety issue. However, the 1966 AMX did evolve into the midsize Javelin, which entered production for 1968. The Javelin kept the AMX show car’s sporty looks, but brought the rear seat under the roof. A few short months later, the two-seat AMX did bow, and like those skirts Raviolo mentioned, the AMX was a bit shorter than the Javelin upon which it was based.

The production AMX looked very much like a chopped Javelin with a different grille, hood and roofline. “It is a very hot little vehicle with a strong family resemblance,” Teague said. “We have tried to keep the cost down and build an uncomplicated vehicle, but it is still a different type of vehicle because it is a foot shorter than the Javelin, and a two-place car.”

Although it was good looking, hot performing and innovative, the AMX never captured the fancy of young car buyers the way the Mustang had. Only 6725 were sold in 1968, followed by a slight — and very temporary — increase to 8293 in 1969. Then, in 1970, the total fell to 4116 cars. The AMX was not selling as hoped and environmental and political factors were shrinking its future potential.

One AMX to save them all

At AMC, company president Bill Luneberg informed Dick Teague that the two-seat AMX was going to be dropped after 1970. Luneberg was a production man and knew the extra work involved in building the two-seater was not justified by its sales. Teague wanted to convince AMC to continue building the two-seater, so he customized his own AMX.

Teague’s car was originally an early-production Rally Green Metallic car with a black vinyl interior, the 390-cid 315-hp engine and automatic transmission. Teague painted the front bumper white, installed ’67 Plymouth Valiant turn signal lamps, bolted on a front spoiler and added 8-in. Kelsey-Hayes rims, a Sidewinder exhaust system and a customized fuel filler on the left-hand sail panel. Other touches included competition-style hood locking pins, twin longitudinal racing stripes, special 390 badges and a red interior with armrest.

Some of the changes to Teague’s car became production options, such as its painted bumpers, which were offered on Big Bad AMXes. To get the racing stripes like those on Teague’s car, AMC buyers could specify the ’68 Go-Package option. The Tadco-made Sidewinders were a ’69 option. Later, Javelin Trans Am and AMX models adopted the chin-type front spoiler.

Teague knew AMC was planning a four-seat AMX model based on the standard Javelin and also knew of plans to give the Javelin new front and rear ends on a 1-inch-longer wheelbase without altering the outer door panels, windshield, unibody and trunk lid. He dusted off the custom AMX he hadn’t used for a while and added the front clip off a fiberglass ’71 Javelin mockup. He also adopted bulging fender lines penned by designer Eric Kugler and added red T-stripes that were already set for production.

Teague installed circular 1971-’74 Javelin turn signals in the grille, a set of ’70 Javelin taillamps and a distinctive scooped hood. The racing-type fuel filler and spoiler were deleted. He added updated side mirrors and silver-blue paint. An adjustable rear spoiler was bolted on. Teague swapped steering wheels and seats, replacing the red originals with ’71-style bucket seats, and installed custom door panels in the same color. He added a rear cushion to make the AMX into a car that could be converted to four-person use (if the rear passengers were very small kids). In essence, he turned his personalized AMX into a ’71 concept car that was dubbed “AM 197X.”

Teague showed his personal “1971 styling prototype” to the AMC board of directors on Nov. 4, 1969. The design was rejected and that wasn’t a big surprise. Teague had not had enough time or money to properly integrate the front and rear styling, but the interior did get some additional consideration. In the end, the AMX lived on, but as a package on the Javelin as management had intended.

An AMX keepsake

Teague later gave his AM 197X to his son Rich as a high school graduation gift, and Rich traded it in on a Gremlin. The car was then drag raced on Woodward Avenue before Unique Motorcars in Rockford, Ill., restored it. It almost went to a museum in 1975, but wound up with a teenager who drove it for five years and then stored it in a garage in Whitewater, Wis. Meanwhile, Don Loper, of the American Motors Owners Association, heard about the car and in 1985, he told AMC collector Mike Spangler that the Teague design car was less than 15 miles from his home in Jefferson, Wis.

During storage, Teague’s AM 197X lost a few parts. Regardless, Spangler obtained it and realized it needed re-restoration. He started to disassemble it, and it sat partially assembled for 14 years. During that time, Spangler began documenting its authenticity through Dick Teague himself. Spangler learned that the car used several different AMC V-8s, which explained its 401 badges.

Rich Teague had damaged the fiberglass hood and hood scoop and substituted a flat steel hood. Spangler located an enthusiast in Oregon who reproduces the scoops in fiberglass, but to date has not installed them on the car. Spangler also replaced the damaged rear spoiler with a reproduction spoiler for a Trans Am Javelin. He says just about everything else matches the car when it was turned into a prototype.

Teague died in 1991, before Spangler finished his restoration, which took until 1999 to complete. Former AMO president Darryl A. Salisbury asked Spangler to finish the car for the Eyes on Design show in Detroit, which featured a Teague tribute. Spangler worked hard to put it back to its Nov. 4, 1969, configuration by show time.

Spangler currently stores the car in his private AMC museum in Jefferson where he has two large buildings filled with AMC family cars, dealership memorabilia, literature and petroliana. During the spring and fall Jefferson Swap Meets hosted by Madison Classics, he sells parking spaces on his land opposite the swap area and shows his collection to visitors. Each spring, he also hosts a Graduation Car Show and Pig Roast focused around Nash, Hudson and AMC models.

He and his wife Cheryl have definitely earned their status asVIPs in the American Motors Owners Association and are the best caretakers one could find forDick Teague’s historic AMX.

American Motors Owners Association
1615 Purvis Ave.
Janesville, WI 53548
608-752-8247
www.amonational.com

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A 1965 Rambler Classic sedan took a shot from a 1961 Pontiac Tempest sedan, which in return was forced onto the sidewalk and into a tree. In the background is a desirable ambulance — a 1962 Cadillac. This circa-1965 Menlo Park, Calif.-area photo comes from investigative photographer Rodman Bingham.

The post Wreck of the Week: 1965 Rambler Classic appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Herb Stewart sent us this photo of a very unlucky 1968 AMC Javelin SST, which met its demise on a Pennsylvania road 50 years ago. The Javelin SST was a hot number in ‘68, with either a 343-cid or 390-cid V-8 under the hood. It was AMC’s reply to the Ford Mustang and emerging Camaro and Firebird from General Motors. This one looks like it took hits from multiple directions — the roof, front end and driver’s side are all smashed.

Wreck of the Week: 1961 Pontiac Bonneville convertible

Wreck of the Week: 1977 Chevrolet Cheyenne pickup

Wreck of the Week: 1977 Chevrolet Cheyenne pickup

The post Wreck of the Week: 1968 AMC Javelin SST appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Jim Schutz wasn’t sure what kind of car he wanted when he began snooping around for a new hobby vehicle last winter. He was just hoping he’d know the right one when he saw it.

The right car turned out to be unique on many fronts. Not only was it an AMC, it was a first-year 1965 Marlin — a pretty scarce sea creature these days. And this particular AMC might be the only meticulously restored true “barn find” Marlin in existence.

“Two guys in Concord, N.C., restored it, and they found it in a barn with the rear end sticking out and everything practically falling down on it,” says Schutz, a resident of Fond du Lac, Wis. “It wasn’t done by a body shop or anything… They were a couple of good ‘ol boys that decided they were gonna do it, and that’s one of the things that’s so cool about the car, is how it was done.”

The men sold the car to a local dealer when they were done, and Schutz came across the car while browsing online earlier this year. After seeing a lot of photos and visiting with the dealer on the phone, he pulled the trigger and had the car shipped to Wisconsin.

“I sold my ‘36 Olds street rod and then told my wife I was going to go look for a classic car, and preferably an AMC, seeing it was made in Kenosha [Wis.,],” Schutz said. “I was thinking maybe it would be my last car. I was looking for an AMC car and what I found in the Midwest, of course, was everything was rusted and I could have got it cheap, but it would have cost me X amount of dollars to put it back together. So I decided on this one after calling the dealership about five times. I think he got a little tired of listening to me.

“They stored it all winter for me as long as I had it insured, and then we vacation in Gulf Shores, Ala., in the winter, and when I came back I called a broker and he brought it up …A guy out of Delaware brought the car up to me and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.”

According to the story Schutz got, the two brothers spent about three years rebuilding the Marlin. That included changing the color scheme from blue-on-blue to white with a red interior. The original 232-cid six-cylinder was rebuilt, the interior was completely re-done and all the chrome was either re-done or replaced. In short, the car was made to look new again — a proposition that didn’t likely didn’t turn much of a profit for the restorers, but certainly produced a terrific specimen. “I guess you can’t call it a frame-off restoration, because it doesn’t have a frame,” said Schutz, referring to the Marlin’s unibody construction. “It wasn’t rusted, because it was down there in Raleigh, N.C. The body panels were all straight. There were no dents or anything in it … They bought it from the original owner. It was finished 3 years ago and it took ‘em 3 ½ years on their own to put it back together. Then they evidently sold it to the dealership, and that’s where I found it.

“Everything is like you’d buy it off the showroom floor. It’s got the 232 six-cylinder Jeep engine in it. It’s got the Borg-Warner automatic in it. It’s a closed rear end and its got the torque tube rear end in it, like the old Buicks would have. And it’s quiet. You can hardly hear it run going down the highway. They rebuilt all that themselves, evidently.”

A new fish in the sea

The ’65 1/2 Marlin had the hot fastback look of the Mustang 2 + 2, but could a Rambler really hang with hot new Ford and all the other muscle and sports cars that were on the drawing boards in the mid 1960s? Ramblers were supposed to be low-budget economy cars, but the Marlin was a different animal.

The Marlin roofline bowed on the 1964 Tarpon show car, which utilized the compact Rambler American’s 106-inch stance. The Tarpon seemed to take aim at Plymouth’s Valiant-based Barracuda and the ‘65 Ford Mustang, but the AMC brass blew Dick Teague’s design up in size and sat it on the mid-size Rambler Classic chassis. From the beltline down, the two had the same body.

The 112-inch-wheelbase Rambler Classic was restyled for 1965 and grew about 5 inches longer. It now had distinctions from the upscale Ambassador, which got four additional inches of wheelbase and more individual styling.

Instead of stressing go-power, the Marlin emphasized comfort and roominess. It featured an Ambassador instrument panel and could be had with individually reclining front seats or slim bucket-type seats with a center console or center cushion. And it could carry six people — two more than the Mustang.

Tucked under the hood was the same new 232-cid/155-hp Torque Command six used in the Ambassador. A pair of Gen-I AMC V-8s were optional. The first was a mild 287-cid 198-hp version. The second was the 327-cid/270-hp V-8 that had been around since the days of the 1958 Ambassador.

In the transmission department, a three-speed standard shift came as the base unit. On cars without buckets, overdrive or three-speed Flash-O-Matic was optional. Those with the console and buckets had an interesting option called Twin-Stick overdrive, which boasted five forward speeds. You could also get Shift-Command Flash-O-Matic, which could be shifted manually if preferred.

AMC retained the outdated torque-tube-drive system with its enclosed drive shaft. There were coil springs at the rear. However, power disc front brakes and flanged rear drums were standard. Different taillights were used, but the grille was of the Classic type with the vertical division bars removed. A special Marlin hood ornament was used.

Not a screamer, the 327 Marlin was capable of average intermediate performance. Mechanix Illustrated’s Tom McCahill found such a Marlin, with automatic transmission, capable of 0-to-60 mph in 9.7 seconds.

The factory base price for the Marlin was $3,100. There was sufficient curiosity in it to draw a modest 10,327 orders in the short first-year run that followed its February 1965 introduction. That would be a high-water mark, so to speak, as the 1966 Marlin, minus the Rambler nameplate, some previously standard equipment and with the addition of an optional four-speed manual gearbox, found only 4,547 customers. It was in that model year that the 1966 1/2 Dodge Charger was introduced. It used the same formula with a fastback body on an intermediate chassis and sold better.

“I got a little static from my friends when they heard I bought a Marlin. ‘That car is ugly!’” laughs Schutz. “Well, I don’t think it’s ugly, I think it’s got great lines. Everybody thinks AMC had nothing but square cars and wagons and stuff. No, they did have cars that had style, and had a lot of options. This car had a tremendous amount of options. You could have had a vinyl roof, vinyl trunk, bucket seats, console, four-speed, electric windows … They had a choice of four engines in ’65, and they went up to seven engines in ’66. And then they made the car bigger in ’67 and put it on the Ambassador chassis.”

Beautiful Cruiser

Schutz was hoping to find a nice, reliable cruiser, and preferably something a little unique that might stand out a little at car shows around Wisconsin and on cruises in the streets near his home. He says he hit the bulls-eye on both counts with his gorgeous Marlin.

“This is just a nice, straight, family car, that you can put six people in,” he chuckles. “It handles well, the front end is solid. It’s got coil spring suspension all the way round so it doesn’t handle as well as some cars with leaf springs, or a Mustang II front suspension, but it does run well.”

Schutz’s car is one of only about 2,000 that left the factory with the 232 — the smallest engine available that year. The fact that it’s still got its original engine adds to the car’s uniqueness.

“It’s got the 232. It’s got power steering and power brakes, that’s about all,” he says. “It’s got an AM radio and a clock and neither one of them work. I don’t care if they do.”

Schutz is prepared to answer questions from other drivers or onlookers even when he takes the car out for short stints. He knows the questions will probably be repeats of two he has heard many times already in the short time he has owned the car: “What is it?” and “How did you get it in this kind of condition?”

“When I take it to Fleet Farm or wherever, there is always somebody standing by it when I come out that I have to talk to. And at filling stations, you pull in and the next thing you know the truckers are standing there by the car… You don’t see these, and that’s why I bought it. They are a conversation piece, and that’s what I like. I love talking with people at shows, and I love walking around and visiting, and this car gets a lot of attention. People really can’t believe the condition of the car. They always ask, “Where did you get this?”

Schutz jokes that he doesn’t golf and doesn’t have a ton of other hobbies. He likes to be the grandpa with a cool car to his grandkids, and he loves to go to weekend car shows. The way he figures it, he’s pretty much landed the perfect ride.

“I really don’t have to do anything to it,” he says. “I’m just enjoying it and taking care of it. My wife says, ‘You really got lucky, getting a car like this in this condition.’ And she’s right.”

Show us your wheels!

If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

The post Car of the Week: 1965 Rambler Marlin appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

He’ll never know for sure, but Dave Labar can probably claim to have the “most painted” AMC Javelin remaining on the globe.

At last count, the Mountain Home, Idaho, resident had painted his beloved 1970 Javelin SST six times. The car is in fantastic condition now and looks great, so Labar has no plans to ever paint it again.

But you never know.

“It’s been a great car. I’ve never really restored it, just repaired it as necessary over the years,” Labar says. “The last time I had it painted, I had to have it blasted down to the bare metal. With five coats on there, the paint was getting kind of thick!”

As a collector vehicle, Labar’s Javelin is unique in several ways. First, there aren’t a ton of ’70 Javelins of any variety still remaining. Only 19,714 of the SSTs were built — plus about 100 SST “Trans Am” editions and another 2,500 Mark Donohue signature models — and nice examples are not overly plentiful these days.

Labar’s car is also a bit of a rarity in that it carries a six-cylinder. Most buyers preferred one of four-different 360- or 390-cid V-8s that were available, or at least the base 304-cid, 220-hp V-8 that was standard.

Lastly, it’s doubtful too many Javelins have ever been around the block as many times as Labar’s AMC. The odometer shows more than 312,000 miles — most of those racked up by Labar over the past 43 years. And it all started because Labar needed a car to get to and from the church for his own wedding ceremony.

“I bought it in July 1972 and I was in the Marine Corps at the time,” he recalled. “I was getting married the next month and didn’t have a car. I had to buy one to get married. I had to have a car.

“I had gone home that Fourth of July weekend to buy a car and went looking and found a ’66 Comet convertible, but my [future] father-in-law said, ‘No, you can’t have a convertible, you’re getting married. You need something different.”

That something different turned out to be his brother’s AMC. Dave’s fellow Marine sibling had just gotten out of the service and decided to unload his low-mileage Javelin.

“It had a six-cylinder and he wanted something more … so I bought from him I I’ve had it ever since,” Labar says. “I’m the third downer. My brother was the second owner and car was only about 6 months old when he got it. A lady bought it new and only had it a few months and didn’t like it. She didn’t like the way it ran so she got rid of it.”

Labar lived in his home state of Pennsylvania for the first two years after he was married, but when he joined the Air Force he, his wife and his Javelin had to pack up and hit the road.

“I was all over the country and we went everywhere with it. I traveled a lot and we always kept it with us. I wound up in Idaho. We came out in ’83 and brought the Javelin with us.”

In addition to the multiple repaints, the sporty AMC has gotten a bitten of a rolling rebuild in the past four decades. The engine has been rebuilt twice, the last time coming in 2005 when the block was bored .30 over and the 232-cid six got all new pistons, cam and crank. The black interior has also been redone twice. “It got new seats, new carpet, new headliner — the whole interior, except the door panels are original,” Labar says. The only real bodywork that was ever addressed was back in 1977, when a pair of new quarterpanels were installed after a few rust holes showed up, thanks to the Javelin’s year-round duties in a snowy climate. “We left Pennsylvania in ’77 and it’s never been in a salt environment since,” Labar notes. “When I joined the Air Force, we moved to Arizona. Then we went overseas and I left it stored for a couple years when we were in England, but it was stored in a nice, dry place. Where we’ve lived, rust has never been a problem. I have other old cars, too, and they don’t have any rust on them.”

The last bit of restoration in 2005 also included rechromed bumpers and a sixth coat of Sonic Silver paint. At that time Labar also swapped out the tired three-speed transmission in favor of a five-speed manual that came from a 1979 AMC.

“At this point, yeah, it looks great, but we always kept it up,” Labar insists. “We’ve kept it up pretty much the whole time. It would get to looking a little sad and we’d take it in and get it painted, or get a new interior …It’s not what I would call a restored car. When it needed ball joints, we put ball joints on it. When it needed shocks, put shocks on it. I just like to keep it in a condition where I can get in it anytime I want and go anywhere I want.”

In his ’70 Javelin SST, Labar found the sporty, versatile pony car that AMC brass was seeking when the nameplate was introduced for the 1968 model year. The Kenosha, Wis.-built two-door hardtops took over for the discontinued Marlin and were joined in AMC’s colorful performance car lineup by the feisty two-seater AMX and later the SC/Rambler and Rebel Machine.

All could be had in various levels of power and performance, giving buyers a myriad of options and engine choices — a formula that helped make the Ford Mustang so wildly successful.

The 1970 Javelin models shared some styling features with AMX, but retained a twin venturi-type grille without the previous bull’s-eye badge. The headlights were better integrated into the nose, sharing a common upper border molding with the main grille. It had the same front bumper, front parking lights and hood as the AMX and, like the two-seat mini-mite, was an inch lower and two inches longer. Standard equipment began with all items (except package tray) that were found on the Hornet SST. Additional features included compartment lights; dual horns; high-back bucket seats; C78-14 tires (D78-14 with V-8) and three-speed manual gearbox with shift control on the floor. The Javelin SST also had a Sports steering wheel with horn-blow rim and full wheel discs. Two limited production Javelin SSTs were offered. The hot Javelin Trans AM cars were replicas of the Ronnie Kaplan Trans-Am Racing Team’s competition machines and were finished in a three-segment red, white and blue paint scheme created by industrial designer Brooks Stevens Only 100 cars were built, the amount necessary to make this model eligible for the Sports Car Club of America’s popular Trans-Am races under 1969 ‘formulas.’ In early 1970, the SCCA formulas were changed and so were the AMC drivers. The new rules demanded 2,500 replicas built to certain specifications. This led to the production of the Mark Donohue Javelin SST. The majority of these cars had a special, thick-walled, 360-cid V-8 and all featured a unique ducktail rear spoiler with Mark Donohue signature script on the right-hand side.

The SSTs were one step up from the base level Javelins in the AMC hierarchy and carried a window price of $2,863. The base 304- and optional 360-cid V-8s were added and replaced the 290 and 343 power plants. The 390-cid V-8 remained at the top of the company food chain and churned out 325 hp.

Inside, SST models had a one-year-only woodgrain dash for 1970 and other cabin tweaks, including a new center console and bucket seats with built-in headrests. Leather upholstery was optional.

Labar’s car came with few, if any options, and that’s just the way he likes it. “Yeah, one of the things that was appealing to me is it really has no options,” he chuckles. “It’s a six-cylinder, it had a 3-speed with no power steering or power brakes… That was one of things that appealed — it was very easy to maintain because nothing that could go wrong. And when it did need maintenance, it was very easy to work on that six-cylinder without all that other stuff on it … There is something to be said for simplicity.”

One thing working in Labar’s favor back in 1972 was that he was already familiar with the Javelin and knew he would be happy with it before he ever forked over the $1,700 it took to buy it from his brother. “I drove it a few times when he owned it and really liked it,so when he offered it to me I didn’t hesitate to buy it,” he said. “I knew it was a good car and an economical car. And if those years, you know bucket seats and a floor shift — that was pretty popular stuff!”

Labar has acquired a few other AMCs since that purchase. He’s restoring a 1957 Rambler station wagon, owns a 1972 Hornet SST, and is storing his son’s 1970 Javelin and 1979 AMX.

“I just kind of found out I liked AMCs,” he says. “I kind of gravitated to them when I found out just how good the really are. But I have a couple of old Fords, too.”

After 43 years, of course, Labar says he and his gray Javelin are partners for life. He doesn’t pile up quite as many miles on the car as he used to, but the odometer will certainly continue to roll on well past its current 312,000 rounds.

“In the beginning it wasn’t anything that I intended to keep or anything, but was such a good car I never had any reason to get rid of it,” Labar concludes. “Then after so many years it becomes a quest, ‘How many miles can I get on it, how many years can I keep it?…After 43 years I think it’s time to keep it.

“My son will get it eventually, but nobody is going to get it until I’m gone.”
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If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

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The post Car of the Week: 1970 AMC Javelin SST appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Dickie Towers

This is a brief recap of how my family became a part of the “AMC Family” and how my wife’s love for one particular automobile inspired her to hold onto the car for nearly 40 years.

The story of my wife, Linda, and her 1974 Javelin actually began in April 1974, when my parents bought my younger sister, Debbie, a brand new 1974 Javelin for her 16th birthday from Hooker AMC in Sherman, Texas, which is about 75 miles from our home in Paris, Texas. Hooker AMC was co-owned by brothers A. R. Hooker and Howard C. Hooker.

Linda soon fell in love with my sister’s Javelin and wanted one for herself.

On May 24, 1974, Linda and my mother visited Hooker AMC, and Linda special ordered her new Javelin with the same options as my sister’s Javelin, except my wife wanted G-4 Plum exterior paint. My wife loves anything related to the color purple.

The Javelin arrived at Hooker AMC on July 11, 1974, and we bought it on July 16. The odometer had 6 miles on it when Linda drove it off the sales lot. At the time, Linda was 21 and I was 22, and we had just returned from West Germany, where I had been serving in the U.S. Army.

The Javelin was the first new automobile that we had ever purchased. From 1974 until 1998, my wife put 118,000 miles on the Javelin as a daily driver.

In 1982, a massive tornado had struck Paris, Texas, with little warning. The Javelin was parked in our driveway at the time and was severely damaged on the top and passenger rear quarter. The insurance company considered the car a total loss and wanted to scrap it, but Linda refused to concede, and instead had the Javelin repaired and drove it for several more years. In early 1998, we put the Javelin in storage, with the goal of having it restored someday.

In May, 2010, we decided it was time to get the Javelin out of storage, to assess what shape it was in, and drive it a little. After sitting idle for about 12 years, the automatic transmission needed new fluid and the screen cleaned before it worked properly.

Linda drove the Javelin on a limited basis for the next two years. In July 2012, we decided it was time to get the Javelin restored, but we had no idea what was involved. Linda was not interested in making the Javelin a concours level show car, she just wanted it restored so she could drive it and enjoy it, as she had in the past.

Like most folks, we got a few bids on the restoration work, and took the lowest bid.

Big, big mistake.

The agreement with the initial body shop was that they would work on the Javelin part time at night, and on weekends. Initially, this body shop did a few repairs on the body, but after a couple of months, they basically quit working on the Javelin.

Every time we would visit the body shop and inquire about the car, they would give an excuse as to why they had not been working on it, but promised to start again on it “next week.” For several months, we believed them, but finally, in June 2013, after the Javelin had been at this body shop about 11 months, and no work was being done, we knew we had to take the car somewhere else. Fortunately, we found another local man that agreed to restore the Javelin.

When we picked up the car from the initial body shop, it was in 1,000 pieces, like a jig-saw puzzle, with nothing labeled or categorized, parts thrown everywhere, bolts/nuts just piled on the floorboards, chrome trim pieces and various parts thrown in the trunk. Even the radiator was laying in the back seat, still with antifreeze in it. The body shop owners had let their kids play in the Javelin and they broke several items: front windshield, steering wheel, dome light lens, sail panel, turn signal lever, etc.

To top it off, the shop even had large dogs in the shop at night, and they urinated on the Javelin’s wheels, causing them to rust. Linda actually started to cry when she saw how her baby had been treated. Overall, the experience with the initial body shop was a nightmare, and a valuable lesson learned. Some restorers would have walked away from the project, considering the mess and disarray the Javelin was in, but Gary Armstrong, of Reno, Texas, agreed to complete the restoration.

Armstrong had previously owned and operated a Corvette restoration business in Wylie, Texas, for many years. Our car was his first experience in restoring a Javelin, or any AMC vehicle, so he was unfamiliar with sources for parts, etc. I agreed to supply all parts as needed and I bought a complete Technical Service Manual (TSM) for him to use.

In mid-July 2013, work again was started on the Javelin at Armstrong’s shop. Along the way there were several bumps in the road, one being that the initial body shop was supposed to have rebuilt the engine, and we took them at their word, but after Gary installed the engine and primed everything, there was no oil pressure and a very loud noise coming from the bottom end. Gary had to remove the engine and tear it completely down. He discovered that the initial body shop had rebuilt the engine, but did not order the correct size main and rod bearings, and there was excessive slack in the rods. This was the reason the engine would not pump up any oil pressure. A new crankshaft and matching bearing kit had to be ordered. The the engine was the rebuilt, installed, and the oil pressure was correct.

The Javelin was basically put back as originally equipped from the factory, using original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and new old stock (NOS) parts. Linda did want a few items on the engine chromed (air cleaner and valve covers) and she also wanted the wheels painted to match the color of the body. Also, the exhaust was changed from a single pipe to a dual exhaust system, still utilizing the factory free-flow manifolds. The original Motorola Multiplex AM radio w/8-track stereo player was refurbished. The original 40-year-old Goodyear F70-14 RWL Polyglas spare tire is still in the trunk and has never been used. All original data plates/tags on components are still attached. Linda has all original dealership provided documentation, window sticker, car build order, warranty card, and service pamphlets.

The restoration has taken nearly two years, and overall we spent about three times what our initial budget had intended for the project. But, that tear that I saw in my wife’s eye’s when she was handed the keys to her restored Javelin by Gary Armstrong was priceless.

My wife plans to enjoy the Javelin for many more years, then keep it in the family by passing it on to our daughter. This restoration of a piece of AMC history would have never occurred without Linda’s persistence and dedication, and her sentimental love for this car. Hopefully, her story, and her Javelin, can provide inspiration to others interested in keeping the AMC name alive.

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The post Car of the Week: 1974 AMC Javelin appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

We all knew one of those kids when we were young. You remember him — the ornery little runt that nobody messed with even though he was kind of a shrimp. He was a little crazy and a little bit off, but he was tough as nails.

That was the AMC AMX — the sawed-off little ruffian of the muscle car world in the late 1960s. What the pint-sized bruiser lacked in stature it more than made up for in guts and attitude, and the American automobile landscape has always been a little more colorful because of it.

The little AMCs were largely overlooked by the buying public during their 2 ½-year production run from mid-1968 through 1970. Only 19,134 AMXs were built in all, but there were a few guys like Gregg Pieczynski of Plover, Wis., who got on the AMX bandwagon early and never left. “When I was a kid I remember the first time I saw one of these. I grew up in Stevens Point [Wis.] and I was walking with a buddy of mine on Main Street on a Saturday afternoon, and I saw one of these and I said, ‘Whoa, is that one of those new Camaros?’ And my buddy said, ‘No, it’s a Rambler!’ I thought, ‘No way, they never made anything that sharp!’”

Not long after that, a father of one of Pieczynski’s classmates, Dr. James Sevenich, bought a new AMX, and Pieczynski became permanently smitten. “I got to ride in Doc’s car, and I just said I’ve got to have one of these. When I finally got one, I said, I’m never going to let it go. From the time I rode in Doc’s car, I really, really wanted one.”

About 30 years ago, Pieczynski finally spotted a red 1968 AMX for sale at a used car lot in Schofield, Wis., and he talked his wife, Maggie, into letting him have his toy. “We had just sold a Mustang convertible that I had restored… so I had some extra money. So we went up to Schofield and there it sat on a lot that’s now a McDonalds. A guy was selling it on consignment for his friend, and I just looked at it and I always wanted an AMX and I looked at my wife and said, ‘We either buy it now or it’s going to be gone,’” he said with a laugh. “I’ve had it ever since.”

The car is a splendid, very original survivor with only 46,000 miles on its odometer. At some point in the 1970s, the AMX was given a new coat of Matador Red paint, and Pieczynski later replaced the matching red carpet. Beyond that, however, the mighty little AMC is largely untouched. “It was pretty much as you see it. It’s a low-mileage car. It had 30-some thousand miles on it and it’s still got the same paint on it as when I bought it,” Pieczynski noted. “The guy before the guy I bought it from painted it in his garage, believe it or not! I use dry wash on it, and I tell ya, that’s a great product. I’m not one to hawk products, but it does great. You never hit it with water.

“When I bought it I think it was painted about five years before that, so that would make it about 35 years ago, and it still looks pretty good.”

AMX was short for “American Motors Experimental” and was part of AMC’s plan to overhaul its image and attract young car buyers who were in the market for high-performance machines. For that mission, AMC turned to designer Dick Teague, who wound up creating the first steel-bodied, two-seat American production model since the 1957 Ford Thunderbird.

The first AMX was a non-running fiberglass concept car that let auto show attendees know that ultra-conservative AMC could design a car with pizzazz. A later running model had a “Ramble Seat” in place of the rear deck.

The AMC Javelin pony car bowed in the fall of 1967 as a 1968 model. The two-place AMX — which was a foot shorter in wheelbase and length — came out as a 1968-1/2 model. It was unveiled to the press at Daytona Beach and the Chicago Auto Show in February of ’68.

The AMXs came standard with a 290-cid/225-hp V-8. From there, buyers could take one step up to the 343-cid/280-hp V-8, or go for the real white-knuckler — a 315-lb. 390-cid power plant that gave the little coupe a 10.8 lbs.-per-horsepower ratio.

The short 97-inch wheelbase cut the 390-powered AMX’s curb weight to 3,205 lbs. Car and Driver found this combination good for a 6.6 second 0-to-60 mph time. The 390 AMX did fish-tail down the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds at 95 mph with a top speed estimated estimated at 122 mph.

The 390 AMXs quickly earned a reputation as one of the rowdiest machines on the road, and Pieczynski said they live up to that billing even today. “I’ve done a few bonzai runs in it in my younger days. It’s scary. It’s scary fast, it really is,” he said. “The car is so light that if you tach it up and dump the clutch, you better be ready, because there will be instant smoke off the back. It really has awesome power and torque.

“I got a kick when one of the owners who had the car before me, Jerry Mullins … he looked at the car and was so happy that somebody took care of it, and he said, ‘That car was not the car to be driving if you had a beer or two, because that car would kill you!’

“The [short wheelbase], it makes it tougher if you really get on it, because that back end wants to come around really quick. It gets a little squirrelly. I couldn’t imagine that car in the wintertime!”

Reclining bucket seats, carpeting, wood-grain interior trim and E70 x 14 Goodyear Polyglas tires were all standard on the AMX. Also included were a four-speed gearbox and heavy-duty suspension. The ’68 AMX was base-priced at $3,245. Each example built in calendar year 1968 had a metal dashboard plate bearing a special serial number from 000001 to 006175. However, the first 550 cars, which were assembled in 1967, did not have this feature.

In February 1968, on a test track in Texas, race driver Craig Breedlove established 106 world speed records with an AMX. About 50 special red-white-and-blue “Craig Breedlove” editions were then built.

Many other owners probably drove their AMXs just as hard, although Pieczynski figures his car was one of the lucky ones that was treated fairly gently. He’s not sure, but he believes the car at one time had a hotter cam installed, although the original cam was still in it three years ago when he finally took the engine apart for the first time.

“I pulled the motor out because it developed a small antifreeze leak on the back of the head. These cars were known for that. From the factory they leaked,” he said. “So I was concerned about the antifreeze leak and I pulled the engine out and had it on an engine stand and had it upside down and had the oil pan upside down and I found chunks of metal in the oil sump. And I thought, “Ohhhhh, where did this from?” I figured it just had to be a cam bearing, so I turned it back over and, sure enough, it was a cam bearing just ready to go.

“I pulled the original cam out of it, so one of the original owners before me must have pulled the original cam out and then put a performance cam in there, and then somehow bumped that rear bearing. I did pull stock cam out of it, so I went through the whole motor and I was glad I did. Brian and Dave Layden rebuilt it for me and I can’t give them enough credit. They are a couple of big AMC guys from Stevens Point and they know these engines inside out and it runs beautiful now — absolutely great.”

Pieczynski was able to get all of the “pollution stuff” from a previous owner and he has returned the car to stock form. “I went to his house and he had all this stuff in boxes — he had the smog pump, the resignator, all the original tubes for the car. I just went, “Wow!” . I couldn’t believe it, so then when I put it all back together three years ago, I said I’m gonna put all the pollution stuff back on and put it back to original and see if it works, and it did. I got lucky and it worked. It had sat in a box for 30 years and it worked.

Pieczynski also put new seat cushions in the two front bucket seats and fixed his cracked steering wheel, but otherwise repairs have been few and far between in his three-plus decades of owning the car. Of course, there weren’t a lot of bells and whistles that could fail on his car. It was ordered as pretty much a bare-bones muscle monster, with a few peculiar exceptions.

“This car was kind of an anomaly. I can’t believe the guy who ordered this car – he ordered absolutely power nothing,” he laughed. “No power brakes. No disc brakes. No power steering. No engine-robbing power, but he ordered a tilt wheel! It’s got an AM radio and vacuum wipers. A lot of people don’t realize, you could could get either electric or vacuum [wipers], and I’d rather have electric because vacuum, when you step on it and its raining, your wipers stop.

“But it’s quite a combination — 315 hp, no power anything, and drum brakes.”

It all adds up to an appealing little package for adrenaline junkies and guys like Pieczynski who have an appetite for something a little offbeat and different. He’s noticed his AMX has begun to earn a lot more respect from the mainstream crowd as the years go by, and he hears plenty of tales from others who survived rides in a car that famed automotive scribe Tom Cahill once described as “harrier than a Borneo gorilla.”

“The most common comment I get, is something like, ‘You can have your Torinos, or you can have your Chevelles, but I knew a guy that had one of these, and that thing would smoke ’em.’” he chuckles. “And when you get smoked by a Rambler … ohhhh, the shame!

“But I’ve always loved the car. I know a lot of guys are into it for an investment and that type of stuff. I was always a guy that, you know, buy what you like and that way you don’t care about the price. You’ll always love it.”

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If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. E-mail us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

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The post Car of the Week: 1968 AMC AMX appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

Scott Raney never figured he’d have to leave Arizona and head north to the “rust belt” to find a car, but when the Phoenix resident finally got the chance to turn back the clock and land a 1971 AMC Javelin AMX like the one he had in high school, he was willing to fly just about anywhere.

What Raney found when he arrived in Detroit was an unmolested survivor that was even better than he could have hoped. The orphaned muscle machine needed some attention and cosmetic help, but as far as Raney was concerned, he had hit the jackpot. He had owned a 1973 Javelin AMX during his younger days, but it had to be sacrificed when he went off to college. He knew there weren’t many others around — at least not nice originals — and he didn’t have to think too hard about the Mustard Yellow AMX he found in the Motor City.

“I’m 50 years old now, and when I was 18, we had moved to Florida and I had a ’73 AMX and I absolutely loved the car,” Raney recalled. “I always wanted another one, and finally about seven or eight years ago I put an ad on one of the AMC forums saying that I was looking for a restorable ’71 to ’74 AMX, but I really didn’t expect to get anything from it.”

He got a reply from a man in Detroit who owned a nicely preserved ’71, got to see some pictures, and before he knew it, he was cruising down Woodward Avenue with four other people in the car and trying to figure out how he was going to get the car home.

“I hadn’t driven one since I had gotten rid of my old one in, like, ’83,” Raney laughed. “When I went to Detroit, the guy and his wife couldn’t have been any nicer. I was there all weekend, and the weather was nice because it was August, and the guy said, ‘Let’s go out to dinner and go cruise Woodward Avenue.’ He threw me the keys and said, ‘You drive, you’re buying it.’… It was great. It kind of scared me at the time. I was really shocked at how well it did run. It was a little bit ratty, but it drove really nice. It still had the original carpet in it, so it was all pretty much the way it came from the factory.”

The brightly hued Javelin had gone through at least a couple of previous owners, but apparently sat untouched for many years. The man Raney bought the car from had only put 3,000 miles on it between 2001 and 2005, and the odometer showed just 32,000 ticks when he brought it home.

“The guy I bought it from bought it from a used car lot in western Michigan, and they had taken it in on a trade from a guy who had to get divorced and had to get rid of it,” Raney said. “They had parked it for a long time. I don’t know how long, but I think it sat for quite a while. Otherwise, I’m sure it would have been history.

“It hadn’t been driven much, but I think it was driven hard back when it was on the road.”

And there definitely weren’t many on the road, even when the Javelin AMXs debuted for 1968. Only 2,054 examples were produced in ’71, which was the first year the nameplate was used on the four-passenger Javelin. Previously, AMXs had been power-packed two-seaters, and the AMX monicker turned the Javelin into a completely different machine.

The 1971 Javelin was completely re-styled. Prominent, sculpted fenders, a twin-canopy roof and new full-width tail lamps made the cars look even bigger and heavier than their 3,244-lb. listed weight. The interior was completely redesigned and upgraded. It featured a curved cockpit-type instrument panel inspired by aircraft motifs. In addition to having a rear seat and entirely new profile, the new AMX had a rear-facing cowl induction hood, flush wire mesh grille and optional front and rear spoilers that were credited to Mark Donohue, who raced Javelins to victory on the SCCA Trans-Am circuit where AMC won the championship that year.

With its flamboyant design and loud colors and graphics, the AMX definitely stood out in a crowd, and it packed plenty of fun under the hood, too. The base two-barrel 360-cid V-8 was rated at 245 hp, but for a few more greenbacks added onto the AMX’s $3,432 base price, one could jump up to a 285-hp “Go Package” 360 with a four-barrel carb. If they really wanted to dust somebody between stoplights, buyers could go to the top of the menu for the 401-cid V-8 that offered 330 hp.

Raney’s car is equipped with the Go Package 360, power disc brakes and a few other extras. It came with an AM radio and no power steering. “It’s very similar to my first car, but my ’73 had air conditioning. This one does not,” he said. Raney added a power steering unit “because I’ve got a really tight corner to get in my garage. After doing that for a while, I said, ‘This is not going to work,’ so it has power steering now.”

Raney was wary of the rust problems that often plagued the Javelin’s unibodies back in the days when they were daily transportation, but he found no such issues with his orange car. “It had been Ziebarted and didn’t have much rust,” he said. “When I got it, it had probably 70 percent of the original paint, but whoever had it had put dents and creases on all the fenders in the front and back. These cars are hard to see out of, especially the back window, and whoever had it didn’t know how to aim it very well. It had creases on both back fenders, and on both sides in front. It had them in all four corners — it was pretty funny.”

Raney drove the AMX the way he bought it for about a year, then decided to take the car in and have the body worked on and repainted. That process started in April of 2007 and he had the car back and ready for car shows one year later.

In addition to the paint and bodywork, Raney swapped in a new automatic transmission, bolting in a circa-1972 AMC TorqueFlite in place of the original Borg-Warner transmission. “1971 was the last year for the Borg-Warner in these cars, and it was not really known for being a performance transmission,” he said. “In ’72, they went to the TorqueFlite… so I went with that and put a 727 [TorqueFlite] in it.”

For now, the AMX also has an Edelbrock intake and carburetor, and Holley Super Comp ceramic headers, but Raney still has all the original items and has not ruled out returning the car to its factory dress at some point.

“Actually, I was tempted to do more to soup it up, but as I got into it and realized how rare it is, I decided not to do too much. I keep thinking eventually it will get the recognition it deserves. If I do want to put it back to original, it wouldn’t take much.”

Aside from a new headliner and new seat coverings, the interior is original. One thing Raney did not consider changing was the car’s sassy color. It would have simply been too much of a personality change for a machine that was meant to seek attention.

“It’s a base coat-clear coat, so I did do [the modern] two-stage, but I stayed with the original Mustard Yellow,” he said. “After I got the car everybody kept asking, ‘Are you really going to repaint it the same color?’ It’s not my favorite color, but I didn’t really have a choice. It needed to stay this color. It looks like Velveeta cheese, that’s what I tell everybody.”

Raney has put about 3,000 miles on his AMX since acquiring the car. That’s not much, but the car has certainly met his expectations as a fun weekend cruiser and great conversation piece at car shows. He doesn’t street race and do all the crazy things he did with his first AMX back in Florida, but his orange car can still crank his heart rate up on any straight stretch of road.

“It’s fun on an entrance ramp!” he says. “You can still do the 0-to-60 in no time. It’s incredibly firm and the handling is really surprising. The power steering is really soft, so it really feels over-assisted, which is typical of cars in the early ’70s. There’s really not much steering feel with it. On the highway or on the freeway, it’s great. It’s got a ton of power, it’s quiet and it handles great at speed. It hugs the road better than you would think it would.”

Raney also has a 1968 Cadillac deVille that he is working on, and Mustang GTs from 1986 and 1994. None of the others brings back the same feeling of nostalgia that the AMX does, however. “I will hang onto it for a long time, just because it means a lot to me and brings back a lot of memories,” he said. “And nobody else has one. That’s the best thing, plus every time I drive it, it always brings a fun compliment of some kind. Positive or negative — people like to make fun of the color — it never fails to get some fun comments, and I like that.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1971 AMC Javelin AMX appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Bob Wunrow just chuckles when you ask him if his shiny, bright-yellow 1977 AMC Hornet AMX has ever been restored.

The answer is sort of a qualified “yes,” and the story of the restoration is about as unusual as the sight of a Hornet AMX at a vintage car show these days.

Suffice it to say that Wunrow was glad he had his high-visibility Hornet rustproofed after he bought the car new 34 years ago. And he is even happier that he kept the warranty valid by faithfully taking the car in for rust checkups every year.

“Nobody restores the Hornets because they kind of rusted out and nobody did much with them. I drove it daily for 10 years, and when it started getting all that rust on it I’m glad I had the lifetime warranty on the Rusty Jones rustproofing,” said Wunrow, a resident of Marshfield, Wis. “I took it in every year and did the service checks on it with the AMC garage, so every year they’d say, ‘OK, it’s getting a little rust.’ Then the fenders got holes in them and it kept getting worse. I guess the key thing was when I got a flat tire and tried to jack the thing up with the scissors jack under the rocker panel and the only thing that I jacked up was the rocker panel.

“It was rusty, so Rusty Jones gave me new rocker panels — both inner and outer — new fenders, both sides, rust-free doors from down South. They restructured the back. It was OK, just below the AMX name there was a little bit [of rust]. Then they checked the floorboards out and the shop manager told me they worked on it for about a week and they had the car practically cut in half! They pulled the fenders off and the rocker panels, and at that point I was sure glad I had the rustproofing!”

Wunrow can’t be sure he has the only collector car still around that was restored courtesy of Rusty Jones, but it gives him a fun tale to tell about a decidedly fun little car. The compact Hornet was a fixture of the AMC menu from 1970 through 1977, and Wunrow probably didn’t realize his senior year in college would also be his last chance to get one of the little three-door hatchbacks new. They were gone by the following year, but not before Wunrow stalked and eventually purchased one with the sporty AMX package. It was his first new car and, against all odds, he still has it.

“This sat in the showroom of the local AMC dealer for six months, and at the time I was a student (in college) and I didn’t have a job or nothing,” Wunrow recalled. “I looked at it every day thinking, ‘Boy I wish I could get a job as soon as I get out of school and buy this.’ And I got out of school and worked three months and it was still sitting there for sale. I guess I had good enough credit after three months of working, and the ’78s were out, so it was discounted like $1,500. I figure that was the only way he was going to get rid of it.

“The AMX package added a couple thousand more, because it came with the wheel flares and louvers and the Targa band. It came with a few extra things that most people didn’t want to pay for back then. But as a 21-year-old kid, it was something that appealed to me, even though I preferred the red color. Now the Sunshine Yellow has kind of grown on me after the 34 years I’ve had it.”

The AMX moniker had first appeared on the AMC menu in 1968 as a muscular little two-seater aimed at performance car fans. The cars lasted in that format through 1970, when the two-seaters disappeared and the flashy AMX package was applied to the Javelin. The AMX name came back in 1977 as a $799 dress-up package for one year only on the Hornet, and the following year it was shifted again to the Concord after the Hornet was killed off.

The base Hornets were available as three-door hatchbacks, four-door sedans, two-door sedans and four-door wagons. AMC built 11,545 of the two-door hatchbacks, but there are no exact figures confirming how many were given the AMX treatment.

“They didn’t do too many, but AMC didn’t keep track of it back then,” Wunrow lamented. “They had the Hornet model hatchback, but they didn’t really declare how many were AMX packages and how many were the Hornet X. There is an AMX registry … and the guy has 50 of them documented that are left in the world. I’m sure there are more out there, but he’s only found 50 so far… Mine’s the only one around that I see. In fact, mine’s the only Hornet around here. Not many people kept them.”

It certainly wasn’t a true muscle car, but the Hornet AMX had all of the exterior trappings of a muscle machine. The cool louvered rear window was a definite nod to the Mustangs of the era, and pronounced wheel flares were the first time AMC tried such a fender treatment. Then there were the paint colors; the Hornet AMXs were available in four eye-catching flavors: Sunshine Yellow, Alpine White, Lime Green and Firecracker Red — the most popular choice.

AMX graphics were placed between the doors and rear wheels. The package also included a front air dam, color-coordinated bumpers, blacked-out grille, Euro-style brushed aluminum roof band, twin flat black mirrors, floor console, gauges (including tachometer), soft-feel steering wheel and brushed aluminum instrument panel overlay. Flared fenders topped DR78 × 14 tires. The simple rear bench seat could be folded forward to give the AMX decent cargo room.

The base Hornet engine remained the 232-cid six coupled to three-speed floor shift, with a 258-cid six or 304 V-8 optional. Sixes could get the new four-speed manual shift. AMX hatchbacks required the 258 with a four-speed, or V-8 with automatic. The cars rode on a 108-inch wheelbase and measured 186 inches from bumper to bumper. Aluminum wheels were a popular option.

MSRP for a 258-cid, 98-hp six-cylinder AMX like Wunrow’s was about $4,300. Swapping in the V-8 tacked on about $160 to the total bill.

“Mine’s the 258 two-barrel, automatic,” Wunrow said. “It’s got power steering, but no power brakes. You’ve got to really stomp on the brakes. It’s got the floor shifter, of course the window louvers and Targa band. It’s got special gauges on the floor — temperature and oil gauges, and clock and battery [gauge]. It’s got the wheel centers over the rims … They didn’t really have a lot of options. It does have air, but it didn’t come with air. That was an AMC factory add-on that goes under the dash. It was about $500 and I had the AMC garage put it on the following year after I bought it. They even painted it to match my dash. And it works. I haven’t put Freon or anything in it and it works like a charm.

“The yellow has kind of grown on me. This thing sticks out like a sore thumb wherever I go. It’s a good thing it’s only got a six-cylinder. It’s all show, but not much for go. For my insurance, I list it as an economy car, but they did have a V-8. It does go pretty fast. It was the last year for the non-pollution stuff and no catalytic converters, but my ’67 Marlin with the 343 with 4-barrel will go from 0 to 60 really fast and I have to be careful because I can really turn the rubber. This one, not so much.”

Wunrow said he’s fixed a few rips in the upholstery over the years, but the interior is all original. The six-cylinder under the hood has lasted 106,000 miles and has never been overhauled. Rusty Jones had to give the AMX a new coat of Sunshine Yellow paint when it fixed the car’s rust issues back in 1987.

“They sprayed the whole car, because the AMC garage said, ‘If we have to do this much, we can’t just do one fender or one rocker panel, we have to shoot the whole car.’ But they didn’t take a few hail dents out that I had in there. They shortcut it a little bit. I think they were kind of at their limit.

“For me, the paint job, I was happy with it. I was happy to pay for the decals, but there were a few boo-boos on it. The only thing I had to pay for was the AMX decals. For some reason, Rusty Jones didn’t want to pay for the decals. I guess they figured I could pay for that… The interior I’ve kept it pretty good. I’ve had a few little rips corrected in the seats, and I’ve put new carpeting in there. That was the only thing, really, from driving it 10 years. There is a company out of Ohio that reproduces the exact carpeting, and that fit right in there. It has leaf springs, and just sat on three. A couple years ago I replaced the springs and went with the heavy-duty springs, and it has five now, and it brought up the rear end quite a bit. It used to sit pretty low, and it really helped the performance and handling of it to, sitting up a little higher.

“I did put a timing chain on it, but that’s about it. Mostly what I’ve done is spend a lot of time detailing it.”

Wunrow gets plenty of attention when he shows up at old car gatherings and shows behind the wheel of his colorful AMC. He can be pretty certain he’ll be the only Hornet on hand at almost any local or regional shindig. These days he gets compliments on his Hornet after spending years getting ribbed for it.

“Yeah, you’d hear a lot of it,” he laughed. “You got that driving any kind of AMC car. Even my former Driver’s Ed. teacher made fun of them!

“When I take it out now, basically a lot of people ask me who made it. A car show I was at a couple weeks ago, there was a man who came up asked me if he could sit in it. He was pretty sure he worked on it and he hadn’t seen one of these in years. He was so glad I bought it to the car show, because you just don’t see anybody bring a Hornet out, you know?”

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