In January 1966, American Motors Corp. unveiled its first prototype featuring a “Ramble Seat,” the company’s updated version of the prewar rumble seat placed where the trunk compartment would be. Although the production 1968 AMX two-seater did not include the Ramble Seat, the concept remained influential.

James “Jim” Jeffords, former Milwaukee-area racer and manager of AMC’s 1968 Javelin Trans Am campaign, partnered with designer Brooks Stevens, also of Milwaukee, to design the custom AMX-R featuring a Ramble Seat. The feature would have added open-air riding for rear-seat passengers of the two-seat AMX, which was a shortened version of the four-passenger AMC Javelin fastback coupe. 

Constructed on Dec. 11, 1967, the featured AMX-R prototype was assembled two months prior to the public release of the AMX in February 1968. It was sent to Dave Puhl’s House of Kustoms in Palatine, Ill., for modification, as House of Kustoms had worked on other AMC prototypes. In six weeks time, Puhl extensively modified the AMX, preserving its original concept. He replaced the fastback rear window with a vertical, removable Plexiglas panel, rebuilt the deck for fold-open seating and created an air dam designed to channel airflow over the roof and rumble seat occupants. The AMX-R also featured rear suspension upgrades to accommodate the extra weight. Puhl lowered the car and stiffened the rear springs, and also swapped the 14-in. wheels for 15-in. Spyder wheels. Additionally, the hood was modified, the car was sprayed with custom paint and the AMX-R was given unique and more plush upholstery with more seat padding and upgraded carpet. The exterior was also dressed with unique “AMX-R” and “Jeffords” scripts.

The AMX-R’s custom paint was an eye-catching Candy Apple Red complemented by flat-black paint on the ram air-type hood that came to be called a “Shadow Mask” hood treatment.

Jeffords and Stevens intended to manufacture a limited number of AMX-R cars and distribute them via AMC dealerships. To attract attention, they showcased the AMX-R as a pace car at several Trans Am races. Ultimately, however, AMC did not support the initiative, resulting in only one prototype — the Puhl-built model — ever being produced. Jeffords’ and Stevens’ plan had been to offer the Ramble seat on 500 production AMXes, making the AMX-R a distinctive and unique prototype. In the end, AMC decided that if performance junkies wanted to seat four people, the four-passenger Javelin upon which the production AMX was based satisfied any need.

Additionally, there were several other significant obstacles that prevented the AMX-R prototype from reaching serial production. These challenges included safety and product liability concerns, AMC’s refusal to sell vehicles for modification, and a strong negative reaction from consumer advocate Ralph Nader regarding the exposed exterior seating concept.

Although the AMX-R never entered full production, its special blacked-out hood treatment later appeared as the “Shadow Mask” option on the 1970 AMX models, leaving a lasting influence on subsequent designs.

Landing the AMX-R

While the AMX-R was making its PR rounds back in 1968, Darryl A. Salisbury, of Vicksburg, Mich., had just returned from five years of overseas service with the U.S. Air Force. Soon after his return, his father showed him an article on the AMX-R in the October issue of Rod & Custom that ended with, “How would you like to have one sitting in your driveway?” Little did Salisbury know one day it would be parked in his driveway.

In 1984, Salisbury was president of the American Motors Owners Association when the AMX-R was displayed at the club’s annual convention. By that time, the car was owned by the Brooks Stevens Museum, and it was for sale. Darryl Salisbury inquired about buying the car and six months later, the museum curator called to say that Bob Stevens, the late editor of Cars & Parts magazine, designer Dick Teague, and the late Duane Mackie, then the editor at Collectible Automobile magazine, believed that Salisbury would be a great caretaker for the AMX-R.

After sitting neglected for a decade, Salisbury and his brother-in-law Brian Moyer began restoring the car. The AMX-R was complete and despite its very low mileage, it was in poor condition from years of basement storage before Stevens owned it. Even today, the former show car shows just 5,200 miles.

The restoration took 10 years, but the award-winning outcome justified the effort. Salisbury said the car drives like his other AMXes, although the Ramble Seat is uncomfortable with its single long seat belt for both passengers.

Launching the AMX

AMC orchestrated the mid-model-year debut of the AMX with a strong emphasis on its sports car capabilities. To highlight its performance credentials, AMC invited automotive journalists to Daytona, creating an environment that showcased the car’s strengths on a renowned racing stage. AMC also entered into a marketing partnership with Playboy Enterprises to broaden the AMX’s appeal among a youthful, trend-conscious audience. The introduction to AMC dealers was equally distinctive, with meetings held at nine different Playboy Clubs, ensuring dealer engagement and enthusiasm for the new model.

The AMX was officially unveiled to the public on Feb. 24, 1968, strategically timed five months after the release of the four-passenger Javelin and the other AMC vehicles for the 1968 model year. AMC positioned the AMX as “the only American sports car that costs less than $3,500,” appealing to buyers seeking performance more affordable than a Corvette. Advertisements depicted a helmeted race driver at the starting line in a sporty AMX, reinforcing the car’s readiness to reach speeds of up to 125 mph, underlining its competitive spirit.

Designed as a two-seater, the sporty AMX targeted a specific, well-defined niche in the market. Its unique attributes succeeded in attracting younger customers to AMC showrooms in unprecedented numbers. Automotive journalists responded enthusiastically, frequently describing the AMX as a “handsome two-seater with American-style acceleration and European-style handling.” Extensive road tests across varied terrains confirmed these impressions, with reviewers often declaring the AMX to be among the best-looking cars produced in the United States.

AMC optimistically advertised it would limit production of the AMX to 10,000 units for 1968, but only 6,725 of this “halo model” were built that model year. 

All 1968 AMX models were equipped with four-barrel carbureted AMC small-block V-8 engines, available in three versions: a 290-cid V-8 engine producing 225 hp (N-code); a 343-cid V-8 engine delivering 290 hp (T-code); and the 390-cid V-8 “AMX” engine, which was introduced with the AMX model and generated 315 hp and 425 lb.-ft. of torque (X-code). While these engines shared external dimensions, their internal construction varied. The 290 featured smaller intake and exhaust valves, thinner block webbing and a nodular iron crankshaft. The 343 received larger valves and thicker webbing, whereas the 390 was distinguished by a forged steel crankshaft and connecting rods instead of cast iron, along with larger 2.250-inch rod bearings compared to the 2.090-inch bearings in the smaller engines.

A BorgWarner T-10 four-speed manual transmission came standard on the AMX, complemented by specialized traction bars, a dual exhaust system and wider tires to enhance traction. As an alternative, buyers could opt for the “Shift-Command” three-speed automatic transmission (BorgWarner model M-11B or M-12) with manual shifting capability and a floor console-mounted shifter.

The popular “Go-Package” was available for models equipped with the four-barrel 343 or 390 engines. This package added power-assisted front disc brakes, a “Twin-Grip” differential, E70x14 red-stripe performance tires on 6-inch-wide steel road wheels, heavy-duty suspension with thicker sway bars, an upgraded cooling system and other performance enhancements. Additionally, AMC dealers offered a broad selection of specialized performance parts, organized under the “Group 19” catalog heading, which allowed customers to further tailor their AMX to their performance preferences.

Despite its performance prowess, good looks and rave reviews, the 1968 AMX was never a top-selling muscle car and today, they are rare. But none
is as rare as the AMX-R.

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In 1968, Bob Mannel began his search for his first Fairlane. A friend had provided him with a 1963 Ford Buyer’s Digest, which showcased all the Fairlane models and available engine options for that year. Among the illustrations, the depiction of a High Performance 289-4V engine caught Bob’s eye and sparked a lasting fascination with this particular powerplant.

Bob wasn’t able to locate and purchase an affordable Fairlane equipped with the High Performance 289-4V back in 1968. It wasn’t until 1984 that he finally landed a Fairlane with the rare High Performance engine option. And what a Fairlane it was!

An affinity for Ford small-block V-8s

From 1968 to the early 1980s, Bob was elbow-deep working with Fords packing other small-block V-8 engines, such as the 221-cid V-8, 260-cid V-8 and the pedestrian version of the 289-cid V-8. His first car, a white-over-turquoise 1962 Fairlane, was powered by the 221-cid V-8. His wife’s chestnut 1963 Fairlane Sports Coupe also featured the 221-cid V-8, which was later upgraded to a 260-cid V-8. Another one of the couple’s Fairlanes, a 1963 Country Squire station wagon, received a 289-4V to replace its original 260-cid V-8. Additionally, a 1963 Fairlane Sports Coupe was upgraded to a 289 engine using Ford’s Muscle Parts Program components, transforming it into a hydraulic version of the High Performance 289. As Bob’s small-block collection continued to grow, it even came to include a couple Mercurys: a 1964 Comet Caliente and a 1965 Comet hardtop, both powered by small-block Ford V-8s.

With so many small-block-powered Ford Motor Co. products — especially Fairlanes — coming and going from his garage, Bob found himself networking with other Fairlane owners. One thing led to another, and in 1981, he and his wife Jane contributed to the establishment of the Fairlane Club of America. They subsequently launched a newsletter titled Fairlaner that, over time, developed into a magazine under their editorial leadership. 

With a wealth of small-block Ford V-8 knowledge and hands-on experience with the engine, combined with his Fairlane connections, Bob set out to write a comprehensive book about the engines that powered his beloved Fairlanes, as well as other Ford models. The book included coverage of popular Mustang V-8s due to the high interest in Ford’s pony car, but Bob’s primary focus was on the smaller-displacement engines found in their predecessors, notably pre-1965 Fairlane models.

New Ford, new small-block V-8

For the 1962 model year, Ford repositioned the Fairlane from a full-size model to a new intermediate model, bridging the compact Falcon and the full-sized Galaxie. The Fairlane was designed to compete with Chevrolet’s new Nova and Plymouth’s new shorter models. Measuring 197 inches in length with a 115.5-inch wheelbase, it was 16 inches longer than the Falcon and 12.3 inches shorter than the Galaxie.

Fairlane styling borrowed from several FoMoCo products, and for its inaugural model year of 1962, it actually borrowed more of its styling cues from the full-size 1961 Fords rather than the restyled 1962 big Fords. The 1962 Fairlane had small canted tailfins that terminated above large, round taillamp lenses, as on a 1961 Ford. The Fairlane grille incorporated horizontal quad headlamps and appeared close to that of the 1959 Edsel grille, but without the Edsel’s central “horse collar.” The roofs of the new 1962 Fairlanes had wide C pillars, as seen on a Thunderbird.

Structurally, the new Fairlane featured unit-body construction incorporating Ford’s distinctive “torque boxes,” which improved vertical absorption of road shock. Its front suspension utilized a standard short-long arm design, complemented by a Hotchkiss drive system at the rear. For 1962, Fairlane body styles included only two-door and four-door sedans available in both the base Fairlane and top-line Fairlane 500 trim lines.

Fairlane powertrain options for 1962 began with a standard 170-cid inline six-cylinder engine, while the introduction of Ford’s lightweight small-block V-8s provided increased performance at extra cost. Initially available as a 221-cid variant generating 145 hp, mid-year saw the addition of a 260-cid “Challenger” version producing 164 hp. These new small-block V-8s packed good punch for their size — with relatively good gas mileage to boot — and fit nicely into the intermediate Fairlane’s engine bay. They were also lightweight, which helped keep the Fairlane’s overall weight down.

A Sports Coupe version of the Fairlane 500 two-door sedan debuted during the 1962 model year, adding bucket seats and a compact floor console. All top-line Fairlane 500s added wider side strip moldings and three bullet accents on the rear quarter panels not seen on base Fairlane models.

For its second model year, the midsize Fairlane/Fairlane 500 started to look more like the full-size Ford it complemented. The 1963 Fairlanes received new front fenders that were led by a concave grille very much like that of the 1963 Galaxie. However, the body shell from the cowl back remained the same as in 1962, so the 1961 big Ford’s tailfins appeared on Fairlanes for another year. The Fairlane line also increased for 1963 by adding station wagon and two-door hardtop models. 

The Challenger 221-cid and 260-cid V-8s returned as options for 1963, so the real news was the debut of the High Performance 289-4V engine (aka Hi-Po 289). This engine was based up on the small-block V-8s that had debuted in the Fairlane line in 1962, but besides being punched out to a larger displacement, it also had cast-iron headers, solid lifters, a nodular iron crankshaft, high-performance connecting rods, a wider harmonic dampener, a dual-point ignition system, Autolite 4100 series four-barrel carburetor, a hot camshaft and screw-in rocker-arm studs, among other performance goodies. These tricks brought the Hi-Po 289-cid V-8’s performance potential to 271 hp — not too far from one horsepower per cubic inch. Fairlanes equipped with the High Performance 289-4V engine received front fender-mounted “V” badges labeled “289 High Performance” to indicate the upgrade to John Q. Public, and a “K” as the fifth character in their VIN to identify the hot engine to Ford personnel. As a result of the “K” in their VIN, High Performance 289-4V cars are often called “K codes.” It’s worth noting the Hi-Po 289 was the same engine supplied to Carroll Shelby for use in Cobras — it’s a true high-performance, no-compromise engine designed for full-throttle operation, capable of generating its 271 hp at 6,000 rpm. Ford offered the engine through 1967, replacing it with the 302-cid V-8 in 1968. 

Fairlanes for 1964 received a minor refresh to mark the new model year, notably receiving a new forward-raked grille that mimicked the grilles of that year’s full-size Galaxies. The tailfins were finally clipped from the Fairlane, but the large, round jet exhaust-inspired taillamps remained, as did the wide Thunderbird-type C pillars. Since the 1962-1964 Fairlanes have a clear resemblance to one another, it’s logical that Bob Mannel would concentrate his small-block engine research efforts to Fairlanes of these model years.

Landing a Hi-Po 289 four-door

Locating and documenting early-1960s examples of the 221-, 260- and standard 289-cid V-8 engines for his book was relatively easy in the large junkyards around Bob’s Los Angeles home. However, the Hi-Po 289 was much rarer and highly sought after by Mustang enthusiasts, making it difficult to find examples. 

After relocating to the Northwest, Bob placed a want ad in the Seattle Times seeking early Ford small-block V-8 engines to document. This led him to a neglected 1963 Fairlane 500 four-door in the Seattle area equipped with the 289 Hi-Po engine he had been searching for. The seller would only sell the car as a complete unit, refusing to separate the engine from the car.

Bob struck a deal and brought the whole Fairlane 500 home. He removed the engine for documentation, but chose to keep the rest of the car since he had never heard of a High Performance 289-4V being factory installed in a four-door sedan. Through further research, Bob discovered that only one other four-door sedan with this engine had been produced in 1963, but it had been scrapped before it could be saved — likely for its valuable engine and drivetrain. This left Bob’s Hi-Po 289 Fairlane 500 as the sole surviving K-code four-door.

When Ford Motor Co. installed the High Performance 289-4V engine in Bob’s Fairlane 500 four-door sedan, it paired it with a column-shifted manual three-speed transmission — specifically, a modified heavy-duty Galaxie unit usually paired with a 390 V-8 — rather than the typical Fairlane unit. It’s believed this transmission was installed to better handle the increased horsepower of the High Performance 289-4V engine. Like other 1963 Hi-Po 289s, the exhaust system was comprised of a single 2-3/4-inch pipe and a special muffler. Both the engine assembly and scheduled build date of Bob’s car occurred on April 9, 1963.

The white 1963 Fairlane four-door sedan had passed through seven owners before Bob acquired it. He learned it was originally ordered by Westside Ford, Inc. in Seattle, potentially for use as a showroom display as it was outfitted with chrome valve covers, likely for aesthetic enhancement. Apparently having a performance engine in its four-door body didn’t help sell the Fairlane 500, and it took five months into the following model year to find a buyer. When the Hi-Po 289 Fairlane 500 did finally sell, it was sold as a leftover model at a heavily discounted price of $1,950 (the base price of a 1963 Fairlane 500 sedan, before any options, was $2,407). Each owner used the car as a daily driver and modified it to suit their needs. These included changes to the rear gear ratio, the vacuum advance distributor and the installation of hydraulic lifters. After 12 years and 94,000 miles of use, the rare Fairlane 500 was parked in a field for four years. Bob saved it from the field in 1984, then stored it another four years, although in better conditions.

Restoration journey

In addition to removing the engine and transmission for documentation, Bob also removed the seats, carpet, door panels and any other items that might attract mold and mildew. He then treated the car’s metal surfaces with primer and undercoating to prevent rust. The car remained mobile and was stored in three different states over the course of Bob’s career as a U.S. Navy pilot. 

In 2016, Bob finally had the opportunity to begin restoring his K-Code Fairlane 500. The car spent six months with a professional restorer to repair the chassis and receive a fresh coat of white paint. Bob then undertook the meticulous task of overhauling and reassembling all components. The restored Hi-Po 1963 Fairlane 500 four-door sedan made its debut appearance at the 2022 Fairlane Club of America National Meet in Kingsport, Tenn. It was the only Hi-Po 1963 Fairlane four-door sedan at the meet, and as the lone survivor, it always will be.

Bob not only finished restoring the unique Fairlane four-door, he finished his book on Ford small-block V-8s. His book, titled “Mustang & Ford Small Block V8 1962-1969,” was finally self-published in 1998. It sold out in December 2024, but since 2015, he’s been updating its contents with a complementing PDF that was included with the printed books. Now that the book is sold out, he offers his PDF as a stand-alone, digital book at a nominal fee to cover his expenses. He continues his small-block Ford V-8 research, and updates his PDF of valuable information at http://www.fordsmallblock.com. 

Looking for more information on Fairlanes or just want to meet fellow Fairlane lovers? Check out the Fairlane Club of America.

Fairlane Club of America
7177 County Road 1135
Leonard,  TX  75452-6083
610-750-4703
https://fca.clubexpress.com

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The post Car of the Week: 1963 Ford Fairlaine Hi-Po four-door appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

The “gone but not forgotten” saga of Gene Leopold’s 1967 Ford Mustang GT was almost more of a “gone and good riddance” story.

But Gene’s son Kris was determined to change the ending.

It’s not that Gene, a resident of Superior, Wis., didn’t like the hot Acapulco Blue Mustang GT he bought new back in 1967. Heck, he custom ordered it exactly the way he wanted it, and he loved driving it for the first five years of the car’s life.

But when Kris wanted to play detective and determine if the car still existed many years later­ — and maybe see if he and his dad could somehow get it back — Gene wasn’t so sure.

“We had a couple of pictures of the car, with the license plate on it, and my son was always asking me about it and saying, ‘Man, I’d like to buy that car!’ I figured the car probably didn’t exist anymore and had been crushed or something… Well, my wife knew somebody at the police department and she asked him if he could help us locate the car, and he got back to us and told us who had it. And it was the same fella I sold it to!”

That was about 35 years ago, and Kris and Gene couldn’t resist. They had to go look at the car in person in Ashland, Wis., and see if they could buy it back. And while they had succeeded in finding the car, the happy ending to the story would have to wait a while.

“We went and looked at it, and I just kept saying, ‘Oh man, look how rough it is,’” Gene recalled. “We offered to buy it for $800, and a day later he called us back and changed his mind, said he wasn’t going to sell it.”

That was in about 1990. About 11 years later, Kris sent the man a letter asking again if they could work out a deal to buy the car. This time, the man said yes and stuck to his word. The price had grown to $1,200, but the Leopolds took the deal and dragged the tired Mustang home. Ironically, as rough as it looked, it had barely been driven since Gene had sold it back in 1972.

“It’s crazy,” Gene said. “I drove that car to the East Coast when I had it, and he drove it to the West Coast, but he put it in the ditch and ruined one shock tower, so he quit driving it. He had it in the garage all that time, sitting on a gravel floor, and it just started rusting away. Him and his brother, I think they wanted to restore it, but it’s expensive restoring something like this, because it was so bad. But he was a single guy, he never got married, and he just couldn’t let go of the car.”

After finally locating the car, waiting years for a deal to materialize, retrieving it and getting it back home, Gene admits he still had a few regrets. He wasn’t convinced trying to rebuild the Mustang was a good idea.

“When we first got it back, it was so bad I didn’t even really want it,” he says. “That’s the truth. That’s what it came down to.”

1967: Days of Thunder

For 1967, competition in the so-called sports-compact market was noticeable stiffer. Mercury introduced its fancy version of the Mustang — the Cougar — in 1967. Chevrolet, which had little success responding to the Mustang with the dying Corvair, chose to develop its own entirely new sport-compact model for 1967 it called the Camaro. The Firebird was Pontiac’s version of the Camaro, and it bowed in mid-1967, six months after the Camaro.

Ford was hard pressed to improve on the classic Mustang it had introduced in 1964, but it had to. The competition was getting very keen, indeed. Lee Iacocca and company did a great job with a tough assignment. 

The 1967 Mustang received a jazzy new body, a wider tread for better road grip and a wider range of engine choices. Options included a built-in heater/air conditioner, an overhead console, stereo-sonic tape system, SelectShift automatic transmission that also worked manually, a bench seat, an AM/FM radio, fingertip speed control, custom exterior trim group and front power disc brakes. Styling followed the same theme as the original, but in a larger size.

On the exterior, the 1967 Mustang was heftier and more full-fendered. Especially low and sleek was the new 2+2 fastback, which featured all-new sheet metal. The roofline had a clean, unbroken sweep downward in a distinctive concave rear panel. Functional air louvers in the roof rear quarters were made thinner than before. The wheelbase was unchanged, but overall length grew by nearly 2 inches. Front and rear tread widths went up by 2.1 inches and overall width was 2.7 inches wider at 58.1 inches.

All Mustangs had bigger engine bays. This was necessary, because the first “big-block” option was among the many 1967 hardware upgrades. It was a 390-cid V-8 with 320 hp. This small-bore/long-stroke power plant was related to the Ford FE engine, introduced way back in 1958. It provided a good street-performance option with a low $264 price tag, lots of low-end performance and plenty of torque.

All of the 1966 engines were carried over, plus there was a new 200-hp version of the Challenger 289 V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor. That engine was standard in cars with the GT option. The new designation used on cars with automatic transmission and GT equipment was “GTA”.

Other technical changes included front suspension improvements and a competition handling package that cost quite a bit extra and didn’t go into many cars. The 1967 Mustang GT 2+2 with the 390/325-hp V-8 could do 0-to-60 mph in 7.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.6 seconds.

Specific breakdowns were not kept of how many Mustangs carried the GT package, but total Mustang production for 1967 was whopping 472,121, with the hardtop leading the way at 356,217 assemblies, compared to 71,042 fastbacks and 44,808 convertibles. 

Zooming down memory lane

Gene Leopold was a car guy to the bone and he didn’t cut corners when it came time to plunk down his hard-earned cash on a new Mustang in 1967. “I wanted to go fast, basically. Yes I did,” he laughs. “And this was basically the fastest Mustang they had in ’66-’67.”

The blue GT was equipped with the big 390 V-8 with a four-speed, limited-slip differential and 3.25:1 rear gears. It also carried a tachometer, AM radio, fold-down rear seat, heavy-duty battery, extra cooling package, two-tone paint (gray on the tail below the trunk lid), tinted glass and black Comfortweave bucket seats.

“I ordered this car myself when I worked at the dealership in Park Falls [Wis.],” Gene remembers. “I was going with this gal and we got married in August ’68, and I put a trailer hitch on it and I pulled a U-Haul trailer and drove it up to Superior where she was going to school, and I got a job at the Ford dealership there.

“I drag raced it in the Cities, yes I did, but I was actually very careful with the car. I drove it hard…but I took care of it.”

One of Gene’s favorite memories of those early days with the Mustang GT involved racing off and leaving a local police officer in his rearview mirror — a move that didn’t particularly sit well with his father, who was a police officer himself. “I took off out of town and got it up to about 125 and made it around a corner and lost him while he was still trying to get the carbon out of his motor,” he laughs. “I turned into another little town near us and, of course, they never found me… My dad heard the next day about one of the officers ‘chasing and losing a blue Mustang’ and he knew. The next day he’s asking me, ‘Gene, what were you doing last night?’”

Once fatherhood arrived, Gene began to realize the Mustang might not be the ultimate family car. He didn’t want to get rid of it, but eventually he relented, and he never even had to put the GT up for sale. 

“Some guy came by the dealership and said, ‘I’d like to buy your car.’ Out of the blue. And by God, I thought maybe that was the time to sell it to him. So I got rid of it in ’72.”

After Gene and Kris swung and missed at getting their ’67 back the first time, Gene eventually bought and restored another one just like it. “It was identical to it, made two days later in the same factory!” he says. “I bought it out of Wyoming. It was even the same color, Acapulco Blue, but it still wasn’t my original car. I think it was a good thing that we did that, because we restored this car better than we restored that other car.”

Father and son had that first 1967 Mustang GT re-done from top to bottom, with no screw left unturned. After dreaming about having the car back on the road for several decades, they didn’t take any shortcuts.

“It’s my son’s car now. He wanted it more than I did, and he funded most of the restoration,” Gene says. “We had the engine overhauled… had the transmission overhauled. Had the rear end all done. Everything is brand new underneath. Every suspension part is new. Everything was re-done, exactly how we ordered the car. We had to wait an extra two and a half weeks because it had knit-weave vinyl seats. They said we could put standard seats in it and you can have it, I said no, it needs to be knit-weave vinyl, no matter how long it has to sit there.”

Gene laughs and says he still has to pinch himself sometimes when pondering how his “lost and found” Mustang somehow survived and made it back home into his garage. He is quick to credit his son for making it all happen, with maybe a little divine intervention along the way. His first voyage in the car after it was “new again” made it clear that the waiting and effort had all been worth it.

“I was extremely proud. I did not think it would be possible to find this car. I thought it would be crushed like so many were,” he says. “Even though it was so bad, I thought, ‘If we could get this all restored like a new car again, I would just love that… And for my son to have the car!

“Kris is the one who wanted the car more than I did, at the time. And we were lucky, to be able to find it.”

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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

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The post Car of the Week: 1967 Ford Mustang GT appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Approximately 10 years ago, I photographed this Starlight Black 1963 Pontiac Catalina 421 Super Duty near Detroit. The Catalina had just undergone a systematic restoration to return it to its factory-original condition after its owner had acquired it.

I met Jim Crawford back in 2008 while scouting a local car show and noticed his stunning green 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne in the distance. The hood was open and as I approached it, the massive engine with its “409” valve cover decals instantly caught my eye.

After introducing myself to Jim, he told me the Biscayne’s restoration had just been finished. I asked if he would be interested in having me photograph the show-stopper for a magazine feature and he agreed. Jim also shared that since the Biscayne was finished, he turned his attention toward restoring the featured 1963 Pontiac Catalina Ventura 421 Super Duty. He was working with the same local restorer who had helped with the Biscayne. The Catalina was only as far as the primer stage, but I asked if I could see it and he shared with me the address where the work was being done.

Later in the week, I met Jim at the restoration shop, which was located in an old warehouse just west of Detroit. After seeing the Catalina in person, we decided I would document the restoration process. For all practical purposes, this was the start to my journey of documenting and photographing automobile restorations.

For nearly two years, I followed the Catalina’s restoration, capturing each stage from primer application to block sanding, guide coat, paint application, wet sanding and then buffing. These steps were followed by the final assembly and detailing. What you see in the pictures within this article is the culmination of a process that took more than two years. The finished product is an award-winning, best-in-class restoration that possibly makes this Catalina the finest example on the planet. It has received top honors and awards at the Pontiac Nationals and concours events throughout the Midwest. Like every world-class restoration project, the attention to detail sets this 1963 Pontiac Catalina Ventura 421 Super Duty apart from many of the automobiles it has gone head to head with at judged events. 

For me, this Catalina started a new chapter in my journey of capturing classic automobiles and sharing them with the motoring world. Much was learned from this endeavor. Many of the techniques remain in my memory bank and the approach and process that I have successfully used for 17 years started here with Jim Crawford and this 1963 Pontiac Catalina. 

The Super Duty is born

In the early 1960s, Detroit was waking up to a new kind of horsepower war. Long before the term “muscle car” had officially entered the lexicon, Pontiac was already staking its claim as a performance leader. At the center of that revolution stood a beast draped in full-size steel: the 1963 Pontiac Catalina 421 Super Duty—a factory-built dragstrip warrior that helped redefine the guts of American performance.

More than just a stoplight brawler, the Catalina Super Duty was the physical embodiment of Pontiac’s growing performance image. Born from a combination of corporate rebellion, engineering brilliance, and a hunger to dominate the quarter-mile, the ’63 Super Duty remains one of the most revered and rare factory-built performance cars of the immediate pre-muscle car era.

Christening the Catalina

The Pontiac Catalina made its debut in 1950 as part of General Motors’ line of new pillarless “hardtop” two-doors that captured the spirit of postwar America. “Catalina” was simply the name of the hardtop derivative of existing Pontiac models until 1959, when it became a stand-alone, mid-line Pontiac model available in hardtop, sedan or even a convertible body types. That year, Pontiac also began its split-grille front-end motif and its “Wide-Track” handling theme, adding more pizzazz to the Pontiac brand as it blazed head-on into its performance marketing strategy under the industry’s brightest minds of the period: General Manager Bunkie Knudsen, marketing whiz Jim Wangers and engineers John DeLorean and Pete Estes.

In 1961, all GM products received a significant restyling and the Catalina model returned, but was now at the bottom of the Pontiac hierarchy as it sat on the make’s shortest full-size car chassis with the least amount of trim. In 1963, the Catalina remained Pontiac’s least-expensive full-size two-door model — and its lightest.

The 1963 Catalina was an integral part of Pontiac’s ambitious performance plans for the ’60s. The American muscle car was beginning to take shape, and Pontiac was right at the forefront of that movement. In fact, the Catalina of this era can be seen as the precursor to Pontiac’s famous GTO, which would arrive a year later in 1964. But before all of that, there was the Catalina — a car that offered great looks consistent with the rest of the Pontiac line, and the perfect full-size lightweight for getting the most out of Pontiac’s hottest engines.

Enter the Super Duty Program

Almost immediately after finally getting a modern overhead-valve, over-square V-8 engine in 1955, Pontiac began experimenting with it to get more horsepower. In 1956, some Pontiac V-8s were fitted with dual four-barrel carburetor setups, and 1957 brought the introduction of the novel fuel-injection system on Bonneville convertibles, as well as the Tri-Power (three two-barrel) option available on all Pontiacs. In 1960, Pontiac developed its first Super Duty (SD) engine packages designed specifically for competition use. These weren’t warmed-over production engines only fit with additional carburetors — they were hand-assembled, heavy-duty, high-compression monsters built for serious racing.

The Pontiac 421-cid V-8, introduced in 1961, was the centerpiece of the Super Duty program that year. Rated at 405 hp by 1963 (though the real number was likely closer to 450), the Super Duty engine featured forged internal components, a high-lift cam, dual Carter AFB four-barrel carburetors, and factory long-tube headers. It was a street-legal powerhouse that could humiliate nearly anything that dared to line up next to it.

Catalina + 421 Super Duty = Fast

While later muscle cars would prioritize lightweight midsize platforms, the 1963 Catalina Super Duty was unapologetically big, bad and brutal. Despite weighing in at more 3,700 pounds, Pontiac engineers found creative ways to shave off weight and increase speed on the most serious lightweight race versions.

Buyers could option their Super Duty Catalina as lightweights with aluminum front-end panels, including the hood, fenders, bumper, and radiator support. Inside, a no-frills interior, sans radio, and optional lightweight bucket seats helped further reduce mass. The “Swiss Cheese” Super Duty Catalinas even had giant holes drilled in their chassis to lighten them up further for drag racing.

Every component of the car—from the heavy-duty suspension and Borg-Warner four-speed manual transmission to the beefed-up rear end—was designed with one purpose in mind: to win. Only about 88 of these lightweightss were built before General Motors, under pressure to downplay its performance image, officially ended factory racing support in early 1963. That makes the ’63 Catalina 421 SD not only rare, but one of the last true expressions of unrestricted factory racing engineering from Pontiac.

Quarter-Mile Royalty

The 1963 Super Duty Catalina found its natural habitat at NHRA-sanctioned dragstrips across the country. In the hands of legendary drivers such as Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick, the Catalina Super Duty quickly built a reputation for devastating performance and unmatched durability. In the early 1960s, his car consistently ran mid-12-second quarter-mile times at more than 110 mph—astonishing numbers for the period and especially impressive considering the big car’s full-frame construction.

The Catalina’s sheer speed helped Pontiac further stake its claim as a performance brand, paving the way for the GTO and the rest of the muscle car revolution. While the Catalina Super Duty wasn’t a muscle car in the classic sense (a midsize car with a big engine), it laid much of the groundwork for what was to come. Perhaps more importantly, it gave engineers like DeLorean the confidence to plant the 389-cid V-8 into the midsize 1964 Tempest — creating the Pontiac GTO and igniting the muscle car era.

The ’63 SD Catalina is now one of the most sought-after collector cars in American muscle history. Survivors trade hands for six-figure prices, and rightly so — each one represents a brief but glorious chapter where engineers were allowed to build unfiltered performance machines with full factory support.

Love Ponchos? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1964-pontiac-gto-red-car

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1974-pontiac-trans-am-sd

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1967-pontiac-firebird

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I met “Bronco Jack” Niederkorn in 2010 at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) in Rosemont, Ill., where he was displaying his 1971 Stroppe Baja Bronco within the confines of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. During our introduction, he mentioned how his fascination for the Ford Bronco started back in 1980, and today he says he has “never been without one since.” Since 1980, he has owned 15 of Ford’s off-road ponies, with five currently in his collection.

According to Niederkorn, it all started with the purchase of an original 1972 Bronco that he upgraded with a suspension lift kit with the intent of doing some off-roading near his home in rural Illinois. The fun times navigating that Bronco through rough terrain and mud bogs quickly turned into a fondness for the little 4×4 vehicle. 

“There’s just something cool about the Bronco with its unique looks and off-road capabilities,” Niederkorn adds. “I started with a nice original one back on June 12th, 1980. Nearly 45 years and 15 trucks later, this is where I’m at. 

“They are a cool-looking truck. With their boxy shape and raised fenders, they have attitude, personality and one-of-a-kind styling, and I just love them. This little one, the first-generation trucks, are my favorites. I will continue to collect them.” 

Niederkorn’s collection really took off after he joined the thriving Bronco community. With each new Bronco that he purchased, his collecting evolved as he became more informed about the various Bronco models. In the end, his Bronco collecting didn’t just take him down rough back country paths, but also down smooth highways to acquire various unique and rare models. Niederkorn initially began hunting original and unrestored versions, but when the opportunity presented itself to restore a rare model back to like-new condition, that’s when Bronco Jack hit his stride.

Restoring a rare 1967 Bronco Sport

Old Cars readers might recall Niederkorn’s unrestored original 1974 Bronco Ranger on the publication’s cover back in May 2021. While photographing that Bronco survivor, I learned about Niederkorn’s 1967 Ford Bronco Sport Pickup featured here. Niederkorn had acquired the rare Raven Black Sport Pickup back in 2018, and it was still undergoing a concours restoration in 2021, with a significant amount of the work being done by Niederkorn himself. He reached out to Ross Gregory at Marquette Classics in Ionia, Mich., to do the body and paint work. Gregory and his team started with the original Bronco sheet metal and transformed it into a laser-straight body with a mirror-like paint finish that’s world class. 

Niederkorn’s featured Bronco is one of just 86 Sport Pickup “half cab” models produced for 1967, and one of only four originally painted Raven Black. (“Half cab” is the nickname given to Broncos with the short steel roof that turns the Bronco into the Pickup version.)

Niederkorn has traced the history of his 1967 Sport Pickup back to when it was new. Its original owner raced stock cars and was a master mechanic at Charles City Ford in Charles City, Iowa. After the original owner’s death, the second owner bought the Bronco at an estate sale in 2017, with the intent of giving it a complete body-off-frame restoration. For unknown reasons, he lost interest and Niederkorn bought the partially disassembled Bronco a year later, storing it at a friend’s farm before starting on the restoration a year later. Deterred for a time by the COVID-19 pandemic, Niederkorn completed the concours restoration in 2023.

The painstaking restoration involved a complete engine rebuild. In addition to doing the body and paint work, Marquette Classics crafted metal parts and reconstructed the cargo bed. Finishing Touch of Chicago replated all the chrome parts and polished the Bronco’s stainless-steel trim. Jeff’s Bronco Graveyard in Brighton, Mich., was the source for numerous Ford-authorized reproduction parts.

A close-up look of the Bronco reveals the smallest details within its amazing restoration carried out by Niederkorn, whose goal was to “take it to the highest level.” We’d say he did just that.

Bronco Sport: A prettier pony

According to the 1967 Ford sales catalog, “Should you prefer sizzling, total performance on any road with a Ford Bronco, then choose the optional, big 289cid V-8 that delivers 200 horsepower. Big Six or V-8, Bronco engines are equally bred to give you responsive, spirited power at work or play.” This Bronco’s original owner, who had an inkling for horsepower, opted for the 289-cid V-8.

Niederkorn is a hands-on owner and when it came time to put the finished product together, he meticulously went about the painstaking task of reassembling the Bronco. His assembly process was methodical, deliberate and done to the highest standards. 

When you step back and look at the finished product gracing these pages, it’s hard to believe we are not looking at a Bronco on the showroom floor of Charles City Ford in 1967. Broncos equipped with the V-8 used a black air cleaner until Ford changed the color to Ford Blue in 1970, and that’s how Niederkorn restored his Sport Pickup. His only modifications to the Bronco are a few tweaks on the chassis.

“It’s a factory-correct restoration, with the exception of the suspension and tires,” Niedekorn says. “I did not want the ride and handling it had back in 1967, so I added new springs, shocks and larger 31×15-inch tires.” He notes that optional suspension packages for 1967 would have created a height nearly identical to his example, despite his change in springs, shocks and tires.

Ford offered the Sport package for the Bronco Pickup and Wagon models in 1967. The Sport included the nameplate and insignia affixed to the fender, just behind the front wheel opening. The Sport package also provided an array of exterior and interior enhancements, as well as additional optional factory equipment, such as front tow hooks, a winch and power take-off.

Niederkorn indicates the Bronco Sport-specific vinyl-covered door trim panels with bright-metal moldings and armrests were unique for 1967, and they are back on his Sport Pickup. He adds that the door window frames can be detached, which most people don’t realize if they have never owned a Bronco. Removing the two chrome knobs located at the left and right sides, just below the dash padding, allows the windshield to fold down and lock into a U-shaped latch located on the top side of the hood.

A 1967 Bronco sales brochure included a nearly identical interior view of the attractive, upscale Sport interior. With the passenger side door open, the Parchment Rosette vinyl-upholstered bench seat and padded dash can be clearly seen to welcome passengers. Even with the upscale Sport option, Ford equipped the Bronco interior with the vinyl floor mat as an acknowledgement that the Bronco was designed for off-road use. In wet, dusty, muddy or snowy conditions, its design and engineering favored functionality. 

The Bronco Sport full-size wheel covers add an element of class and are identical to the covers on the Ford Galaxie. The rear wheel covers feature the complete design, while the front wheel covers provide an opening in the center for access to the mechanical 4×4 wheel hubs that require manual locking when switching to four-wheel-drive mode.

The transmission shift lever for the Bronco’s three-speed, fully synchronized transmission was mounted on the steering column. A single floor-mounted T-bar shift lever operates the Dana 20 transfer case. 

According to Motor Trend magazine’s 1966 coverage of the Bronco, “instrumentation is simple, direct, and complete. Bronco uses real live gauges. Padded dash is a useful option, especially for back roads.” 

Niederkorn adds, “The instrument cluster did not change from the prior model year, but all dash knobs were changed for 1967 and included an aluminum insert.” 

Our featured Bronco includes the optional instrument panel-mounted manual AM radio with the single speaker located between the ashtray and glove box.

Niederkorn has added a period-correct front license plate that acknowledges the model year of his Bronco and pays homage to its original owner by displaying Iowa’s “34” license plate code for Floyd County, Iowa, which includes Charles City. The “U14” represents the code for the Pickup or “short roof” Bronco model. 

Bronco Jack isn’t done restoring his favorite trucks. He has started the process of restoring the latest addition to his collection, a 1967 Sport Pickup in Holly Green with Parchment Rosette Bucket Seats. It promises to be as stunning and eye-catching as this Raven Black gem.

Meet Bronco Jack and see his Raven Black ’67 Bronco Sport Pickup up close and personal at the 2025 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) from Nov. 22-23. Learn more at www.mcacn.com.

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

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

The post Car of the Week: 1967 Ford Bronco Sport Pickup appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

This story was initiated as the result of a random, seemingly inconsequential act on my part. I gave my copy of the Jan. 1, 2024, issue of Old Cars to a friend, because of its cover story about a 428 Cobra Jet-powered 1968 Torino. My friend owns our featured Fairlane 500 of the same vintage, which also has the 428 CJ, thus the reason for giving him the magazine. A couple days later, that friend called me to tell me an incredible story — he had drag-raced with the original owner of the featured Torino, Billy Ray Sullivan! That was not all, though. That Torino was bought from the same dealership from where his Fairlane was purchased, with only days separating the purchases!

Ordering a Cobra Jet

On April 17, 1968, Glenn Wells, a Longview, Texas, resident and student learning how to perform body work, walked into the local Pegues-Hurst Ford dealership to special order a 1968 Fairlane 500 two-door hardtop. (Incidentally, this dealership began operations in 1915 and continued operating under that name until being sold in 2024.) He checked off a few must-have features listed on the dealer’s order form: W-code 390-hp 427 Cobra V-8, 4.30:1 Traction-Lok axle, AM radio, black all-vinyl interior and special-order Oxford Gray metallic paint (a Thunderbird color). 

“I did not know Oxford Gray was a special-order color; I was just looking at the paint chip chart,” said Glenn. (As per Ford’s practice for special-order paint, the paint code was left blank on the car’s VIN plate.) The special-order color selection added $94.60 to the base price of $2,591.07. Packaged with the 427 engine option was the C6 Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission, the only transmission available with this 427, plus power disc brakes, FR70x14 wide-oval radial-ply tires and the GT handling suspension. Glenn said his dad, “cosigned for me to buy the baddest car on the planet.” The car was to be used for drag racing, which Glenn had been doing for some years by this point. In all, he built and drag raced seven 1958 Ford Fairlanes before deciding to order the 1968 Torino.

Not long after placing his order, Glenn received a phone call from the sales agent informing him that the 427 was no longer available. The salesman suggested the 428-cid V-8 as a replacement. Glenn was aware that the 428 was offered for Thunderbirds and full-size models. He also knew it was not really a high-performance engine, but rather offered good low-end torque and was more of an accessories runner (like air conditioning). Glenn had no interest in the 428, thus, disappointed, he canceled the order. He was completely unaware of the new 428 Cobra Jet (CJ) variant.

A few days later, however, Glenn was reading a magazine article about the 1968 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. The article mentioned the debut of six 428 CJ-equipped, Ford-sponsored lightweight Mustangs racing in the C/Stock Automatic, Super Stock E and Super Stock E Automatic classes. These cars, prepared for Ford by Holman-Moody-Stroppe in Long Beach, had their 428s hopped up with 427-type connecting rods, a C8AX-C camshaft, dual-point distributor, forged pistons with 11.0:1 compression, Doug or Jardine headers, Detroit Locker rear end with a 4.44:1 ratio and traction bars. (In all, Ford had 50 special lightweight CJ-powered Mustangs built that year.) Those engines differed, though, from the stock type later available to the public. The article reported the Mustangs had an 11.5-second elapsed time at about 120 mph in the quarter-mile competition, greatly impressing Glenn. He reinstated his order with the only change to it being the substitution of the 428 CJ. The base price was $2,591.07, but the options and transportation charge of $106.45 raised the total price paid to $3,727.28.

Glenn’s car was built at Ford’s Atlanta assembly plant on Wednesday, April 30, and a week and a half later, on Friday, May 9, Glenn received his car. Upon arrival of the delivery truck, a Pegues-Hurst employee called Glenn telling him, “I think your car is here.” Glenn was sick in bed, but he was not going to let that stop him from getting his car that day. He and his dad got there in time to watch it being off-loaded from the car carrier. Glenn took possession of the car before it had gone through the typical dealer prep, thus the antenna (which was laying inside the trunk) was not yet installed, though he performed that task later. Glenn took the keys, and to this day, is the only one to drive this car other than the guy who backed it off the trailer.

“The first time I got on that car, it startled me,” he said, which most assuredly convinced him he had not made a mistake with his purchase. It was used exclusively for racing for 47 years and has never been driven for daily transportation. 

“It’s been a toy… and is still a toy,” says Glenn. To date, his car has traveled a little more than 16,000 miles since new.

Separated by more than a cubic inch

The W-code 427 engine originally ordered for Glenn’s car had hydraulic lifters, a 10.9:1 compression ratio, open-element air cleaner, reached its peak output at 5,600 rpm and had a torque rating of 460 lb.-ft. at 3,200 rpm. Was the 390-hp 427 engine ever actually available for the Fairlane/Torino series? Ford’s earliest brochure on this line of cars (as well as the brochures for the Mustang and Mercury’s Cyclone) listed the four-barrel 427 as an option for two-door hardtop and fastback models. Even Ford’s full-size XL was supposedly going to be available with the 427. In the end, only 357 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GT-Es (a mid-year model) received the “W” engine while another 37 received the R-code 428 CJ, though there are rumors of some ’68 Mustangs getting the 427. Regardless of those claims, no proof has surfaced to date to support the rumors. In fact, Kevin Marti, of Marti Report fame, has searched Ford’s 1968 build records and his efforts revealed not a single production 1968 Ford-badged automobile was equipped with this short-lived engine. Prototype 1968 Mustangs with the 427 appear to have been built and tested, but none of those cars are known to have survived. The 427’s complicated block suffered from core shift during manufacturing. This, combined with strict build tolerances, proved to make the engine too costly to build. Illustrating this point is the fact that the 427 listed for $622 (another source claimed in excess of $700) versus the $306.27 extra Glenn paid for the 428 CJ. 

In announcing the new engine, Ford said, “This new 428 Cobra Jet V-8 provides a high-performance engine for street use… that is simpler to maintain than the 390hp 427 cubic-inch V-8 developed directly from Ford Motor Company’s racing engines.”

Ford released its original 427 with mechanical lifters on Feb. 15, 1963, in two states of tune – 410 hp (single four-barrel) and 425 hp (dual four-barrel carburetors). The 427 was another variant of Ford’s FE series V-8 which debuted for the 1958 model year in 332- and 352-cubic-inch displacements. Over the next few years, it grew to 390 and 406 cubic inches before reaching 427 cubic inches. (There were also truck versions, such as the 360, and a 361 for the short-lived Edsel.) The 427 was built with durability in mind for the 500-mile races of NASCAR. The later 390-hp version was a bit tamer than the preceding solid-lifter 427. The thin cylinder walls of the 427 made regular production line assembly impractical while the smaller bore of the 428 solved this issue, and additionally, its longer stroke offered improved low-end torque.

Bore-and-stroke measurements of the 428 were 4.13 and 3.98 inches, respectively, while the 427’s were 4.23 and 3.78 inches. Actual displacement of the 427 measured a trace under 425 cubic inches, but Ford was not going to round down to 424. Rounding to 425 may have been undesirable since Oldsmobile had a 425 while Plymouth and Dodge offered the 426 Hemi. Advertising the displacement as 427 cubic inches was a good marketing move. As for the 428, it actually displaced 426.56 cubic inches; labeling it as a 427 would have clearly been confusing to the public, thus it was rounded up, too.

Special features of the new 428 CJ included cylinder heads with 2.06-inch intake valves, 1.66-inch exhaust valves, intake ports measuring 1.34 by 2.34 inches, exhaust ports with dimensions of 1.28 by 1.84 inches and a 16-bolt-pattern exhaust face specific to the CJ heads. Furthermore, the CJ had a crankshaft specific to it, as well as dished pistons, a 10.6:1 compression ratio, special cast-iron exhaust manifolds and a 735-cfm four-barrel carburetor mounted atop a cast-iron intake manifold based upon the aluminum police interceptor type. Maximum output of the 428 CJ was officially listed as 335 hp at 5,600 rpm, although this was deliberately underrated. A Hot Rod magazine dyno test performed in 2016 of a stock, freshly built CJ engine peaked at 365 hp at 4,800 rpm. With the engine broken in, output was estimated at 375 hp, though with headers, 400 hp was expected. Torque, by the way, registered 452 lb.-ft. at 3,700 rpm, a bit higher than the 445 lb.-ft. at 3,400 rpm figure quoted by Ford in 1968.

A Torino all his own

Multiple engines, including a Boss 302, have been installed in Glenn’s Fairlane 500 over the decades. Not long ago, it was running a 390 modified with .030 TRW pistons with 12.5:1 compression; balanced rods and crank; 324-degree Ford cam with .500 lift and dual springs; C6AE-(R) heads with CJ valves; Holley high-performance mechanical pump; 110-gph electric pump; high-volume oil pump with ARP drive; and the exhaust gases exiting via Blue Flame headers and 2.5-inch exhaust pipes, H-pipe and Flowmaster mufflers. During 2023 and into 2024, it underwent yet another engine swap, resulting in the reinstallation of the car’s original block, rods and crankshaft. Glenn, along with his good friend and ace mechanic, Russell Chandler, completed this work and gave it some nice undercarriage detailing; a lot of burned rubber was removed from the rear of the car. 

“I could not have done it without my good friend,” noted Glenn.

Upgrades to the car’s engine include Edelbrock aluminum heads; Victor intake manifold; Melling high-volume oil pump and ARP drive; custom-grind camshaft by Oregon Cam; flat hydraulic tappets; Harland Sharp rocker arms; Crane push rods; Cloyes True Roller timing set; Holley electric fuel pump and a Carter X mechanical fuel pump; Quick Fuel 735-cfm carburetor; Snow Water methanol injection; MSD ignition; Shelby plug wires; and Canton oil pan and windage tray. The exhaust system is comprised of 428 CJ exhaust manifolds and 2.5-inch exhaust pipes with Flowmaster “Flo X” mufflers. All exhaust pipe hangers were custom-built and installed by Glenn.

Upgrades to the car’s original C6 transmission include an R-code servo, Hughes valve body and torque converter, B&M deep transmission fluid pan and Derale transmission fluid cooler. As for the rear end, it is, of course, a Ford 9-inch, now with Detroit Locker 3.89:1 gearing and 31-spline axles.

Stopping power is provided by the stock front discs and rear drums.

Glenn drag raced his Fairlane at tracks in Texas and Arkansas for decades. About 18 years ago, he quit drag racing the car and he and his wife, Ruby, now take it to car shows in the East Texas area. Glenn’s trophy case is getting quite full, too.

Some will, no doubt, cringe at the fact that a car this rare is not totally stock, but in 1968, Glenn had no thoughts of keeping the car for nearly six decades, and he had no expectation of the car becoming a collectible. The side trim was removed when the car was repainted around 1975 and there were suspension modifications. The rear wheel openings were slightly enlarged for tire clearance, too. Glenn bought his Fairlane for drag racing and it is modified for high-performance, quarter-mile driving, as well as to suit his personal tastes. Originality and collectibility simply were not factors until many years later. Even now, those matters are of no great importance to Glenn. He says his car is exactly the way he wants it. 

Incidentally, Glenn purchased a rare 1968 hydraulic lifter 427 not long ago and it will go in a 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt replica he is building, so he will finally have that 427-powered Fairlane after all these years.

Love Fairlanes? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1956-ford-fairlane

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1958-ford-fairlane-500

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1968-ford-fairlane-500

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

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

The post Car of the Week: 1968 Ford Fairlane 500 – 428 Cobra Jet appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

A good friend of mine was a high school classmate of the original owner of our car. My friend had been trying to buy this car for years and finally convinced her (the owner) to sell; however, when the time came, he decided he had too many projects going on to take on another. My friend knew that my “first car” was a 1969 Firebird; same color, same engine (but it was a coupe), so he called me to gauge my interest, and I immediately said of course, I wanted it! My wife and her twin sister shared a 1968 Firebird convertible in high school, so there was a strong affinity for this car from both of us. Ultimately, my buddy was able to make arrangements to have his friend (the owner) sell the car to me.

Beyond my personal affinity for Firebirds, my wife’s family has been in the car business for going on 100 years. Her grandfather started an Oakland franchise in 1929 which of course in time became Pontiac. In the 1930’s he added Cadillac and at one time was the oldest Cadillac dealer east of the Mississippi. In 1975 they added Honda. The dealership is now GMC/Buick/Honda in Rocky Mount, NC and is still in the family and managed by the third and fourth generation. My wife worked in the business for almost 20 years and obtained her dealer certification from NADA, but when our daughter was born, she “retired” from the car business.

The car was originally purchased in June of 1968 from Lexington Motor Sales in Lexington, Virginia (approximately 35 miles from where we live in Staunton, Virginia). The car was purchased by a dad as a gift for his daughter’s high school graduation. It never left the area and was daily driven by the daughter until 1991 when it was parked in the family’s dairy barn. The daughter retained ownership of the car until we purchased it in late 2020 after it had been sitting for nearly 30 years, with 42,250 actual miles. The car is “matching numbers” with a 350 c.i. 2-barrel V-8 with a two-speed automatic transmission. Factory options include AM radio, floor console, rear speaker, door edge guards, remote mirror power steering, power convertible top, custom trim group, and floor mats. The exterior color is Verdoro Green with Ivy Gold interior.

The car is almost entirely original, including paint, interior, and convertible top. I even still use the original floor mats. I had a paint correction performed along with an application of ceramic coating. Unfortunately, during the time, the car was parked in the barn it sat alongside a lime truck which caused some surface rusting, particularly on the trunk lid, which got into the paint. Nevertheless, I have decided not to do anything further to the paint as most of the car looks fantastic for its age. The top only needed a good cleaning and coat of protective sealant. The interior needed cleaning and some touch up on the kick panels and the panels on the back of the seats, which had turned brown with age. I did replace the carpet but in hindsight probably could have saved the original. Fortunately, the car did not suffer from any serious mouse infestation. I am told by the mechanic that worked on the car originally that he was able to get the car running before we did any enhancements. I got a chance to look underneath the valve covers during the initial renovations and it looked like new. I would say the majority of the cosmetic improvements were underneath the hood. I painted the engine bay and the engine and replaced (with period correct OER parts) all of the hoses, hose clamps, belts, etc. and added a Delco “battery topper” and period correct battery cables. The original hood insulation was still there and completely intact.

Aside from cosmetic enhancements and replacement of certain limited-lifetime components, the engine and transmission have not been touched. I replaced suspension bushings, front springs, rear leaf springs, and installed period-correct Koni adjustable shocks. For safety and drivability, I installed power front disc brakes. I also period-correct dual exhaust. Vintage Rally II wheels and period-correct redline radial tires were installed (I went to 15-inch wheels and tires to accommodate the disc brakes), and the original deluxe steering wheel was restored. All updates were done using period-correct components when possible. The original “space saver” tire and inflation can is still in the trunk.

The car is a “driver” and we are certainly enjoying it! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the original owner of our car and was able to get some neat photos of her with the car, one of which is a photo in her graduation gown and cap. The car won it’s AACA Junior award in Gettysburg 2023 and it’s Senior award in Hershey 2023, and in February 2023 received a “Judges Award” at the Motorama show in Harrisburg, PA.

Owners: Grace, Julie, and Leonard Pittman, Staunton Virginia

*Images courtesy of Leonard Pittman

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This Petty Blue 1964 Plymouth Belvedere is an exact replica of the car that Petty Enterprises built and ran in the 1964 Winston Cup season. The build of this period-correct racecar was done at Petty’s Garage in Level Cross, N.C., and orchestrated by NASCAR Hall of Fame members Richard Petty, Maurice Petty and Dale Inman.

Petty Enterprises was a NASCAR racing team based in Level Cross, N.C.,  founded by Lee Petty and his sons, Richard and Maurice, as Lee Petty Engineering.

In 2008, the Petty family re-branded Petty Enterprises to Petty’s Garage with the purpose of serving car enthusiasts around the world. The mission stayed the same: to deliver the same attention to detail, care and expert capabilities that led Lee, sons Richard and Maurice, and their cousin, Dale Inman, into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

It was under Petty’s Garage that Richard, Maurice and Dale joined forces to replicate an exact, certified copy of the #43 Plymouth that won the Grand National Championship in 1964. Each of the three had a significant role in the original’s development, offering their knowledge and expertise while overseeing its creation.  Under their direction, a precise plan using a donor car and authentic Petty Enterprises 426 Hemi race engine was implemented that integrated each of their skill sets into the overall build of this iconic race car. Before the Petty’s Garage Team deemed the car was race-ready, each of the legends thoroughly examined the team effort to make sure it was up to their standards. Once each of them gave their approval, it was backed up by individual signature endorsements of authenticity with autographs on the silver air cleaner of the 426 Hemi.

To gather such men of stature on such a project is rare, but of those few projects they’ve undertaken, this car build didn’t start out in the conventional way. 

A legendary engine discovery

Back in the day, when Petty Enterprises received factory-built 426 Hemi racing engines from Chrysler Corp., they were sent directly to engine builder Maurice Petty, who would methodically go through each engine in his secluded engine room to find out which of them met his stringent requirements. This process included running each of them on the dynamometer. The engine room still exists, scattered with leftover parts from years of racing and layers of paint coating its nearly 75-year-old concrete floor. The process was done in complete secrecy, behind a black curtain, to keep things private and so Maurice wasn’t disturbed during this critical engine selection process. He insisted on putting each Hemi engine on the dyno to find the strongest and best of the batch. Some of the engines that didn’t make the cut were shelved or sold off. One of these engines is believed to be the powerplant that’s found its way under the hood of this ’64 Plymouth race car recreation.

Marked with a number 11 and the letters “PE” cast into the engine block, this 426 Hemi race engine sat dormant at Petty’s Garage until 1965. It was allegedly sold to a man in Nashville, Ga., and then was traded through several people before finally winding up with a man who planned to put it in a stock car, but never got around to it. The owner stowed it under a work bench in a wooden crate within one of his outbuildings. It remained there, surrounded by MoPar parts and automobiles, for decades.

After receiving a lead, Boris Bonutti and an associate visited a seller of MoPar parts and automobiles in 2008 in hopes of buying some of his rare MoPar parts.  During the walk-through, Bonutti’s associate lifted a military green canvas that covered what appeared to be a Hemi engine equipped with a dual four-barrel carburetor intake manifold. When asked, the owner wasn’t certain of the engine’s origins, then scolded him for peeking under the blanket. He told him, “Hands off!” and made it clear the Hemi wasn’t for sale. Boris and his associate left that day thinking they’d missed an opportunity to buy a Hemi. 

The following day, the engine’s owner surprised Bonutti with a phone call and said he would sell the Hemi engine. The owner needed money to pay for the medical care of a family member. Payment was immediately sent to the seller, then arrangements were made for the 426 Hemi engine to be picked up and delivered to Effingham, Ill. 

Once the engine was in their hands, Bonutti  and his associate looked it over. The number “11” and initials “PE” immediately piqued their interest. Not knowing what they had before them, they reached out to “Mr. Four-Speed” Herb McCandless, a former Sox and Martin drag race team driver and one of the first drag racers to use the 426 Hemi. That’s when things started to get interesting.

Without the help from Herb McCandless, it’s likely the project would not have happened. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that, without the advice and help from Herb McCandless, this project could not have happened,” Bonutti said. “He gave us directions and opened doors that we could not have done on our own.”

After seeing detailed pictures of the engine, McCandless immediately suggested calling Greg Steadman, the general manager of Petty’s Garage. After sending Steadman the photos, the phone rang and it was Richard Petty on the other end. He reached out personally and called, asking if he could buy the engine. Despite having the wrong intake and carburetors, it was, in fact, an authentic 426 Hemi track engine that left Petty Enterprises in 1965; the “PE” stamp had, indeed, stood for Petty Enterprises, and Petty hoped to reacquire it. 

The King was politely informed that the Hemi engine wasn’t for sale and so he asked, “What’s your plan for it?” During the phone conversation, Richard Petty said Petty’s Garage had recently decided to start building hot rods, customs and race cars at its shop. “We’re looking for our first major project,” Petty told Bonutti. He suggested that, if Bonutti and his associate found a nice donor car, he’d build them a race car. That’s when the light bulb came on.

Sourcing a shell

“We needed to build a car to bring this engine back to life, but not any race car, it had to be an exact recreation of the one that started it all for Richard Petty,” Bonutti said. Collectively, they decided to recreate the Petty Blue 1964 Plymouth Belvedere.

Another friend, Wayne Cox — aka Spanky — had just picked up a ’64 Plymouth Belvedere as a rolling chassis. It had a straight body, but no interior or drivetrain. 

After telling Spanky about the plan, Bonutti was offered his choice of two Plymouth Belvederes: a red one and a blue one. Bonutti talked Spanky into selling them both of the cars. 

Greg Steadman and the team at Petty’s Garage were called and given the news about the availability of the pair of ’64 Plymouth Belvederes. After looking at detailed pictures of both cars and discussing it with Richard Petty, they requested that the red Belvedere serve as the donor car for the build as it had the best foundation. 

Soon after reaching an agreement about using the red Plymouth Belvedere, it headed south to Petty’s Garage in Level Cross for the start of the 1964 Petty Plymouth Belvedere race car build. The recreation of  #43 was officially underway.

The pieces come together

The Petty No. 43 Belvedere is a combination of the cars that were used in the entire ’64 season. In its purest form, this car represents what was run in mid-to-late-’64. Bonutti ultimately deferred to the Pettys’ expertise in all decision-making, as Richard Petty and Dale Inman, former crew chief and cousin, performed the build. 

“These were the original guys who built the car in 1964 — they knew best,” Bonutti says.

This recreation shares characteristics of several versions of Petty’s ‘64 Plymouth, only showcasing the best. For instance, Inman insisted on using painted steel wheels as opposed to the chrome reverse wheels used at the ’64 Daytona 500. Inman complained that the chrome rim’s beads sealed poorly and caused the tires to slip at high speeds. Petty ran chrome wheels during practice and qualifying, but later switched to the painted wheels shown on the tribute car. The painted wheels had more bite and didn’t wear out the tire as fast.

The early ‘64 superspeedway Belvedere had full trim, but as the season progressed, the car began to lose its exterior trim. By the end of the season, the platform transitioned into a clean, trim-free race car. The Petty’s Garage team decided to go with the cleanest and simplest look for this race car. 

Bonutti is the owner of the featured 1964 Petty Blue #43 Plymouth Belvedere, and from day one, the driving force that truly motivated him to see this project to the end was the importance of keeping the history of Petty Enterprises and the special Hemi engine alive through this race car. But most important was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of having Richard Petty, Maurice Petty and Dale Inman — the original trio — involved in the recreation of their iconic #43 Plymouth Belvedere race car.

As the saying goes, there’s more to the story. Pulling off this monumental task required help from others.

“When word got out that the 1964 Petty Belvedere was being recreated, people wanted to get involved,” Bonutti said. “…As we started going about the hunt of locating real race cars parts for the build, we met another NASCAR legend named Cotton Owens.”

During the pre-planning and development of this race car, an associate stumbled across Cotton Owens’ #6 Dodge Polara. That car was built for the 1964 race season and was also one of the eight Hemi cars that ran at the ‘64 Daytona 500. 

“After meeting with Cotton at several shows and stopping by his shop, Cotton and my associate became friends,” Bonutti said. “That’s when we were finally able to convince him to sell us some of his vintage race parts.

“Cotton Owens was a great guy,” Bonutti continued. “Petty’s Garage used many of the dimensions from Cotton’s race car for the #43 Petty race car. Cotton sold us the accurate carburetor and intake manifold to replace the dual-carb drag racing intake manifold that was on the engine when we bought it. Cotton also sold us the correct bellhousing and shifter. Once again, without help from a legend within the MoPar and NASCAR community, this build could not have been successful.”

While working with Owens to acquire parts for the Petty #43 Petty racecar build, Cotton made a request: “I’ll help you with the parts you need for this project, but I’d like you to help me build a race car. I want to build an exact recreation of the 1966 Dodge Charger #6 race car that David Pearson and I won the NASCAR championship with in 1966.” 

Promises made, and promises kept. That #6 Charger was, indeed, built, and was featured in the Oct. 29, 2015, issue of Old Cars.

A comfortable future for the ’64 #43

After spending several years at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., the #43 ’64 Petty Belvedere returned to Petty’s Garage in 2023 for a thorough inspection, engine tune up and a little TLC to make it turnkey ready for its next adventure. It was picked up at Petty’s Garage, then transported to Auburn, Ind., where it’s been displayed at the National Automobile and Truck Museum (NATMUS) as part of the “Legends of NASCAR” display. There, it has received very favorable response.

“It’s a real attention getter for all generations,” says Dave Yarde, executive director at NATMUS.

A Brief History of the #43
1964 Petty Blue Plymouth Belvedere

In 1962, Chrysler set a goal: Dominate the ’64 Daytona 500. Despite the excitement surrounding Chevrolet’s 427-cid Mystery Motor, Ford won the ’63 Daytona, and its showroom sales skyrocketed. Back in those days, winning the Daytona 500 was a major factor in new-car sales for the “Big Three.” While Chrysler Corp. wanted one of its cars in the winner’s circle, so, too, did the Pettys. Lee Petty had been with Chrysler since his first Daytona win in 1959. As preparation for the 1964 season began, young Richard Petty knew he would be running a new engine, but he couldn’t know he would be introducing a powerplant that the hot rod world still talks about more than 60 years later. In February 1964, NASCAR discovered a King while MoPar created a legend in the 426 Hemi.

In 1964, the MoPar world and motorsports changed forever. That year  marked the introduction of the 426 Hemi engine. It is a powerhouse that set a new standard, and it continues to be a highly relevant tool to create horsepower to this very day. The Hemi engine was a mechanical marvel and game changer that was so successful, it was banned from NASCAR after its first year. Today, it continues to be the basis of the engine that is used by all teams in the NHRA Nitro Top Fuel and Funny Car classes.

The story of Chrysler’s Hemi engine starts with the introduction of the hemispherical-shaped combustion chambers in its 1951 models. The size of those early Hemi engines ranged between 301 cubic inches in the beginning of the 1950s and 392 cubic inches by decade’s end. However, while these engines were very power-efficient, they were expensive to produce. Changes in passenger car engine technology also caused Chrysler to cease production of the first-generation Hemi in 1958. 

By 1963, the 426-cid Wedge engine that had been used by Chrysler Corp. in NASCAR was deemed to have hit its horsepower limit. Therefore, the engineering team at Chrysler Corp. looked to explore a different direction for its racing engine, all with the purpose of winning the Daytona 500 in 1964.

Chrysler engineer Tom Hoover and his factory crew worked with a number of teams and drivers — including Petty Enterprises — to perfect the new Hemi engine in time for the ’64 Daytona 500. The efforts by those engineers and the work by the teams all paid off. Richard Petty, in his iconic #43 Petty Racing Plymouth, led a 1-2-3-5 Chrysler Hemi finish for the race. Petty took the lead in the second lap of the race and never looked back — he ended up leading 184 of the 200 laps of the 1964 Daytona 500, a record that still stands.

Following that season, NASCAR imposed rules mandating that all engines competing in the series had to have production availability. Chrysler Corp. spent the remainder of 1964 and all of 1965 working through this challenge to bring their innovation to the people as the code A102 Street Hemi engine. (In the meantime, it continued to build 426-cid Race Hemi engines for drag racers.) As a result, the 426 Hemi engine returned to NASCAR for 1966 when the A102 Street Hemi became available in street cars. 

With the Hemi’s return, Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises reminded everyone that the Hemi 426 V-8 was the engine to beat, winning the 1966 Daytona 500 with his Plymouth Belvedere. David Pearson won the 1966 NASCAR championship title for Dodge in the Cotton Owens-prepared, Hemi-powered #6 Dodge Charger.

The success of the Hemi engine continued until the mid 1970s, when displacement rules forever banned big-block engines, such as the Hemi. But while the Hemi engine was originally designed to compete in NASCAR, the world of drag racing has seen the value in the 426 Hemi engine ever since its introduction. Beyond Super Stock classes that used it from the beginning during 1964, professional drag racers have continued to explore its potential, eventually introducing nitromethane to fuel them. The more they realized this was the perfect engine for unlocking unheard-of performance in the world of internal-combustion engines, the more popular it became.

Boris Bonutti’s Perspective

Engine builder Timmy Petty, the son of Maurice Petty, worked on the 1964 Hemi engine with his father in their original Petty engine room. Timmy Petty told me, “It was one of the most magical moments in my life when I opened the case of the #11 Hemi engine with my father, an engine my dad last touched in 1964. Sons rarely have living memories like that with their father.”

When I first acquired the engine, I was at a loss of what to do with it. I thought, “Even if we get someone at Petty’s to authenticate and rebuild the engine, what fun is it to have it sitting on a motor stand for show and tell?” That’s when we came up with the idea of recreating the 1964 Petty Belvedere. The engine needs to be in a Petty race car, not displayed on an engine stand. That’s when we made the connection with Herb McCandless, who told us about the new venture at Petty’s Garage and gave us Greg Steadman’s contact.

Greg initially authenticated the engine as the #11 Hemi engine built by Petty Racing in 1964. This was followed by a call from the King himself, asking if he could purchase the Hemi engine, which I politely declined. I proposed an accurate recreation of the 1964 Petty Plymouth Belvedere. Richard immediately grasped the value of the project and agreed. He was wondering why someone would be crazy enough to build a race car project like this, and I stated the goal was to preserve history. He confided in me and talked about how important this car was to him, because it started his long record of NASCAR success. The ‘64 Belvedere became one of two private racecar projects taken on by Petty’s Garage. It was joined at the shop with the Pete Hamilton Plymouth Superbird race car, which was being restored at the same time.

Love race cars? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/built-to-win-again-david-pearsons-first-and-last-race-car

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1969-ford-torino-pikes-peak-hill-climb-race-car

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/105693

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It’s not an everyday occurrence to come across an original, unrestored 1965 AMC Rambler Ambassador 990 in pristine condition, but there’s always a first. In the summer of 2024, I received a lead on an original ’65 Rambler Ambassador 990 that had recently shown up in Avon, Ind. — and it turned out to be one of the nicest unrestored examples of any 60-year-old vehicle I’d ever seen and photographed. 

On Sept. 30, 1964, Raymond Kramer, of Kenosha, Wis., ordered a new 1965 AMC Rambler Ambassador 990 four-door sedan from Johnson & Sons Co., Inc., in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., and while doing so checked off just about every factory option available including the 327-cid V-8, Flash-O-Matic Transmission, air conditioning, power steering and Montego Rose and Taupe two-tone paint. Leaving little to spare, Kramer ordered the optional individually adjustable seats, light and visibility groups, vinyl trim, AM-FM radio with Vibra-Tone rear seat speakers and front seat retractable seatbelts. 

It’s not clear as to why Kramer ordered the car in Wisconsin Rapids and then had it delivered to him in Kenosha, where AMCs were built. When Kramer passed away, he left the car to his nephew, who never titled it. In 1994, Kramer’s nephew sold the car to longtime American Motors Owners Association member Jim Webb, who also owns an AMC parts business. When Webb purchased the car from Kramer’s nephew, the nephew didn’t elaborate on the car’s history, so Webb doesn’t know why the AMC went halfway across Wisconsin and back before Kramer originally took delivery. 

Webb continued to keep the AMC in pristine condition for the next 30 years. By 2024, he was in the early stages of retiring from his AMC parts business and decided it was time to start downsizing his now-sizable collection. During a recent phone conversation, Webb said the ’65 AMC Ambassador 990 wasn’t getting much use and, “It was time to pass it on to someone who could enjoy it.” Webb went on to say he still has a decent inventory of NOS AMC parts, but the formal business no longer exists. 

Mark Preis purchased the AMC from Webb in May 2024. For Preis, the AMC reminded him of a part of his youth.

“When I was younger, my father owned a 1965 AMC Rambler Ambassador 990 four-door sedan, and about five years ago, I decided to see if I could find an identical one,” Preis said. “I discovered this car on Facebook Marketplace and decided to buy it. My father’s ’65 AMC Rambler Ambassador 990 was similar, but his was built with the 232-cid six with a three-speed transmission and bucket seats. When I was a kid, the console with the two slots that held the seatbelts in place stuck with me. Unfortunately, during my search, I couldn’t find one with the exact factory items like my father’s car. This one is as close as I could find, and the way it had been well cared for over the years was the deal breaker. I had to have it.” 

Preis drives his ’65 Ambassador Rambler 990 when Mother Nature cooperates and displays it at local car shows near his home in Avon.

Building a bigger Rambler

In February 1962, George Romney resigned as president and CEO of American Motors Corp. to successfully run for governor of Michigan. AMC’s board of directors elected him vice-chairman and granted him a leave of absence, and Roy Abernethy, a former Packard sales manager, became president.

Whereas Romney concentrated on building AMC’s successful compacts, Abernethy’s ultimate goal was for AMC to meet the Big Three head to head, matching AMC’s much larger rivals model-for-model by producing large cars in addition to its small cars. By 1969, the Ambassador’s wheelbase would grow to 122 inches, an inch longer than that of the Ford LTD! Overall length would expand to 208 inches, up from 189.3 inches in 1963, and its weight would increase by some 350 lbs.

But it would take several years for the larger cars to come on line. In the interim, Abernethy and AMC styling chief Dick Teague undertook to draw as sharp a distinction as possible between the 1965 Ambassador and the less-prestigious but more mainstream Rambler Classic. They began by extending the wheelbase of AMC’s luxury line from 112 to 116 inches. Body shells continued to be shared with the Classic series, with the four-inch difference appearing in the length of the Ambassador’s impressive-looking hood.

A number of styling studies were prepared for the 1965 Ambassador. One of these bore some resemblance to Chrysler’s 1963 experimental Turbine Car. Another featured a flat grille with seven or eight horizontal ribs. Yet another sported bridgework that might have been inspired by a giant waffle iron. In keeping with AMC’s conservative image, none could be considered radical in any sense.

In the end, Teague settled on a bold-yet-pleasing, extruded-aluminum grille design with a number of horizontal ribs V-shaped slightly forward and bordered by stacked, quad headlamps. Full-length trim capped the crown of the side and fender panels, extending from the V-shaped profile of the front fenders to the full-height vertical taillamps, silhouetting the car’s striking new profile. The roofline was crisp, and the mildly sculptured side panels served to further accentuate the appearance of length. Chrome trim around the wheel openings were standard on hardtop and convertible models. AMC, obviously pleased with the results, talked up the 1965 Ambassador’s “impressive new long-lived styling.” Motor Trend agreed, calling it a “strikingly handsome automobile.”

But there was more to this new Ambassador than just a pretty face. Consider, for example, the power teams. For the first time, a Rambler Ambassador was available with six-cylinder power. This was a brand-new engine, although it would not be totally inaccurate to think of it as an updated version of the overhead-valve six that had been used for many years by the Nash Ambassador. Of modern short-stroke design, and featuring a seven-main-bearing crankshaft with eight counterweights, it had a displacement of 232 cubic inches. With a two-barrel carburetor, it developed 155 hp. AMC proudly referred to this engine as “the world’s most advanced Six.”

Far more popular in the Ambassador, however, were the two V-8s, with displacements of 287 and 327 cubic inches. Their respective horsepower ratings were 198 and a “zestful” 270, both at 4,700 rpm, while the torque figures came in at 280 and 360 lb-ft at 2,600 rpm, respectively. Differing only in their bore, compression ratio and carburetion (two barrels versus four), the V-8s traced their origins to the original AMC-developed V-8 introduced in mid 1956.

Several transmission choices were offered. Standard was the usual three-speed manual with column-mounted lever, but not many Rambler Ambassadors were so equipped. Options included a Borg-Warner overdrive, controlled by means of a knob mounted below the dash; “Twin-Stick,” which provided two shift levers on the console (one for the three-speed gearbox and the other for the overdrive); and Flash-O-Matic, a three-speed automatic supplied by Borg-Warner. The last could be purchased with either the traditional column control or, for cars fitted with bucket seats, the console-mounted “Shift-Command.” And at mid year, yet another exciting option joined the list: a fully synchronized Warner T-l0 four-speed manual gearbox. 

Other options included All-Season air conditioning, competitively priced at $327.65; power brakes, either drum/drum or disc/drum (the latter a brand-new feature); tachometer; speed control; Adjust-O-Tilt steering wheel; Duo-Acoustic or Vibra-Tone rear-seat speakers; and the usual array of power equipment, plus the famous (or infamous) reclining seat/twin bed conversion that had been a Nash feature for many years. In addition, the new station wagon could be purchased with a side-hinged rear door, and two extra passengers could be accommodated if the optional third seat was ordered.

AMC’s decision to upgrade the Ambassador and make it larger for 1965 paid off — output more than tripled from a meager 18,647 units in 1964 to 64,145 in 1965. It certainly seemed that President Abernethy’s strategy was right on target, so the Ambassador cruised into 1966 offering more of the same.

Two trim levels were offered in 1965. The Ambassador 990 and 880 were priced to compete with the Chevrolet Impala and Bel Air; the Ambassador 990 proved more popular than the less-expensive 880 and outsold it three to one. The 990 was offered in four-door sedan, two-door hardtop, Cross Country station wagon and convertible body styles, plus an additional upscale hardtop, the 990-H, which featured bucket seats and special interior appointments. The 880, priced about $90 lower, came in two- or four-door sedan and station wagon configurations.

AMC billed its entire 1965 Rambler line the “Sensible Spectaculars,” with the Ambassador hyped as “the longest, the most luxurious, the top performer of the three great new Ramblers.” Motor Trend, which road-tested a Twin-Stick overdrive-equipped Ambassador convertible, found it sensible enough, but not particularly spectacular. To Technical Editor Bob McVay, the car was commendably economical, averaging 16.4 mpg over a 1,000-mile test run. “Traveling comfort was the Ambassador’s biggest selling point, along with its exceptionally powerful Bendix duo-servo drum brakes,” he wrote. “With the thin bucket seats that recline, driver and passengers can enjoy a high degree of riding comfort…. Ride and handling cater to comfort rather than control…. Many passers-by commented on the car’s good looks,” McVay recalled, adding, “Our summary: a nice, comfortable, quiet, well-built family automobile that rather neglects the performance market.”

Sales of the reformulated 1965 Ambassador reflected the car’s more important status in the AMC hierarchy. One ad during the 1965 model year boasted, “You’ll soon see why we’ve had to increase Ambassador production by four times to meet demand!” And indeed, output soared from 18,647 units in 1964 to 64,145 in the 1965 model year. That was a Rambler Ambassador record (the previous being 37,811 in 1963), only to be broken the next year when 71,692 Ambassadors were sold in 1966. It would be the Ambassador’s high-water mark.

For 1967, the Ambassador (no longer billed as a Rambler) continued to grow. The wheelbase was increased by another 2 inches, overall length by 3-1/2 inches. Weight increased by nearly 300 lbs, and even the styling looked more massive. Abernethy was about to resign as AMC president, but his influence was just really commencing to be felt. As he had intended, the Ambassador continued to grow until it eventually rivaled the full-sized models from the Big Three. In retrospect, the handsome midsized 1965-1966 models were “interim Ambassadors” en route to becoming as big as the Big Three’s full-size cars.

Love AMC rides? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1970-amx

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1974-amc-matador-x

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The Antique Automobile Club of America’s (AACA) Eastern Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa., attracts some of the rarest, most unique and most under-appreciated automobiles in the hobby. Such was the case in 2023 when I was covering the event for Old Cars and made my initial walk of the show field in search of rare and unusual automobiles with special stories. Unlike most who attend the event, I start at the rear of the show, by the Historic Preservation of Original Features (HPOF) section, and make my way to the front where the Brass Era and driver-participation vehicles are parked. This allows me to miss the onslaught of people and automobiles making their way into the event.

About halfway through the show field, I approached the long and lithe automobiles from the early ’60s where a light-green 1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer caught my eye. As I made my way closer to get a better look, the “Pioneer” script on the passenger side quarter panel and two-door hardtop body style stopped me. I couldn’t recall if I had ever seen one of these cars in person, and the car’s quality drew me in. As I walked around it, the Dodge’s exceptional condition piqued my interest. I had to find out more about this Dart Pioneer model, its owner and its history. 

From restoring Chevys to MoPars

I noticed three people standing near the Dodge and asked if the car belonged to one of them. A man nodded his head and said, “Yes, it’s mine.” I introduced myself, and after learning more about the car, I asked if he’d be interested in having it photographed for a feature story. The owner, who introduced himself as Russ Love, said he was interested and then directed me to his wife, Sue, and son, Paul. Russ then added, “You should really talk with my son. He’s the one who did the majority of the work. I bought it in 2019; the three of us worked together to restore it, and today is its first car show since we finished the restoration.” 

During the initial conversation, Paul mentioned his father had been looking for a project upon retiring in 2016. They came across this ’61 Dodge Dart Pioneer at a car show near their home in Baltimore, Md. Russ came up with the idea of the three of them restoring it as a family project. They agreed, and Russ bought the Dodge and drove it home. 

Russ has been a Chevrolet Malibu collector for most of his life. However, he wanted a more challenging project and decided he’d restore a car with tailfins, a push-button transmission, a V-8 engine and parts not available in a catalog or on the shelf of his local auto parts store. He looked forward to “the hunt.”

Father and son wanted the experience of restoring a car the “old way” by physically searching for parts, knowing it would be a journey that would allow them to learn more about their Dodge Pioneer and how “Forward Look” cars were originally built. In doing so, they would learn more about each other as each of them focused on their area of expertise and automobile knowledge and strengths.

Not surprisingly, Russ introduced Paul to the hobby. When Paul was 14, he asked Russ about a 1965 Chevrolet Malibu four-door sedan that had been purchased as a parts car. When Paul asked what was planned for the Malibu, his father said he intended to use it as a backup when parts were needed for his other Malibus. Knowing this ill fate for the four-door, Paul asked, “Can I have it? I’d like to restore it.” Russ was surprised by the idea, and agreed to give it to his son as long as he kept his word and restored it. 

Soon after, Paul started the restoration and Russ was there to lend his knowledge and support, but it was Paul’s Malibu and Paul’s project. With his father’s guidance, they went about the process of making the ’65 Malibu a fully functional automobile that they could drive daily. It was the start of their automobile restoration journey, and as the saying goes, things have evolved. Today, the 1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer is the perfect example of their father-and-son teamwork.

The challenge of the hunt

Russ quickly realized the 1961 Dart Pioneer project would be the challenge that they hoped it would be. The aftermarket industry currently offers an assortment of custom parts for early-’60s Dodges, but restoring one to factory-correct standards required determination to source original parts or factory-correct replacements. That hunt repeatedly took them to salvage yards, swap meets, eBay and to strangers who were passionate and knowledgable about 1961 Dodges, and who eventually became friends with Russ and Paul.

“Without their knowledge and support, pulling this restoration project off would have been nearly impossible,” the Loves told me.

With father and son working together, they methodically went over every component; if a part was of a mechanical nature, they made sure it functioned correctly before installing it. The drive-train was restored to Chrysler Corp. standards, and components and items that required cosmetic attention received it.

Restoration of the 1961 Dodge started in 2019 with Russ disassembling the car to a rolling shell. He then stripped or removed numerous layers of paint, taking it to down to the bare metal. Paul fabricated replacement sheet metal panels to replace those panels overtaken with rust, including the floor boards and the door skins, the latter of which were replaced with NOS sheet metal. Meanwhile, Russ restored the steering wheel, repaired the speedometer and refinished the trunk compartment. Russ then worked each body panel to perfection. It was followed by the application of primer, which was sanded and then built up again with more primer until he was satisfied that the panels were smooth enough. 

“I counted six layers of paint on the car,” Russ said. “My friend, Bill Eyring, agreed to paint it, but jokingly told me that the body work had better be right as he didn’t have the time to redo it. With that in mind, I went about the task of making the body as perfect as I could, working each panel, hand sanding them, then applying primer and repeating the process until it met my standards. Bill had challenged me, and I had to do my part. I didn’t want to carry the Dodge down to North Carolina and have him laugh at the work I had done.” 

Paul also installed a new wiring harness from front to back, installed functional NOS gauges and added a non-factory four-way flasher accessory from the period to improve the safety of the 1961 Dodge.

The rebuilds of the engine, transmission, radiator, heater core and power steering was handed off to Bill Eyring, who is known for his mechanical expertise in the drag racing industry and his ability to rebuild anything mechanically powered. 

“He was meticulous and specialized in the rebuilding of these automobile components,” Russ said. “I knew he would make everything he put his hands on right. He exceeded our expectations and added a much-needed standard of excellence to our ’61 Dodge Pioneer.”

Sue wasn’t left out of the project. She, along with Russ, reconditioned and installed the headliner. They removed the interior trim panels and delivered them to Evolution Creatives in Hampstead, Md., for rejuvenation.  Using original-style fabric from SMS Auto Fabrics, Evolution Creatives made the interior look factory new. Once the reconditioned interior components were ready, Russ and Sue installed them.  

After the body work was completed and the ’61 Dodge Dart Pioneer had received its final coat of primer, it was transported from Baltimore to North Carolina where Eyring applied Spring Green paint. Yes, he’s a highly skilled painter, too, and he joked that, to his dismay, the body work that Russ had completed exceeded his expectations and he only had to finesse a couple spots on the body. No time was wasted by redoing any of the body work Russ had completed.

The original chrome was given the re-plating treatment to look factory new by a local chrome shop that specializes in automobile chrome refinishing.

Virgil Exner is widely known for the “Forward Look” he created for the 1955-1961 Chrysler Corp. products, and his fondness for tailfins. The look he and his team created for the 1961 Dodges quickly became a love-it-or-hate-it design. 

This 1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer was produced as a base model without even an optional radio or reverse lamps, but it was built as a V-8 model with the 318-cid poly-head V-8 engine and optional push-button TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The odometer shows 43,000 miles, and that reading is believed to be correct.

“These bottom-of-the-line, simple working-class automobiles are the forgotten gems in the automotive world,” Russ opines of cars such as his Dart Pioneer. “The antique world is going to miss them, and if people like myself, my son Paul, and wife Sue, don’t take on the challenge of restoring an automobile like this, there’s going to be a big void in the history of the automobile. I can only hope that more people see their importance and do what’s necessary to get more of these cars restored, preserved and back on the road.”

According to the Chrysler Historical Society, the Loves’ Dart Pioneer was sold new in Los Gatos, Calif., at Abbot-Gibb Dodge. It ended up on the East Coast, not far from where it currently resides near Baltimore. The prior owner showed it at local car shows, then sold it to Russ. He drove it home after finding it for sale at one of those local shows back in 2019. 

“It was an OK car, but needed everything,” Russ recalled. “Paul and I started the restoration immediately and wrapped it up just in time for the 2023 Hershey fall meet. We were surprised at how well it was received at the Hershey show. Paul and I drove it up the causeway and onto the show field while my wife, Sue, took pictures on the sidelines. We didn’t have the car judged, but I was surprised at how well it was received at Hershey.”

Now that the 1961 Dodge Dart restoration is completed, Russ is ready to restore his next car, and this one also isn’t another Malibu. During the 2024 AACA fall meet in Hershey, Russ purchased a 1956 Plymouth Savoy four-door sedan. He and Paul have already started making it a mechanically sound driver. Like the Dart Pioneer, the Savoy sedan is another “bottom of the line” model, so just as Russ preaches, he and his son will be “filling the void” by rescuing another base-level classic automobile.

Love classic MoPars? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1971-dodge-charger-super-bee

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1968-dodge-super-bee-hemi

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1961-dodge-w-100

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