Guys, I'm curious about the AMC Rambler from the 60s for a weekend car. I like the look of them. Were they good cars or just two ton paperweights?
I have owned many 1960s-vintage Ramblers over the last 50+ years and still have a couple of them in the garage. They are basically good cars but due to limited funds AMC tended to keep older technology around longer than the Big 3. Thus Ramblers had trunnions in the front end instead of ball joints (upper only on later models) and a flathead six as the base engine in the American through 1965. All Ramblers came with vacuum windshield wipers standard, and torque-tube drive was utilized on larger models through 1966.
On the other hand their newer series engines (232 six, 290 V8 and derivatives) were some of the most modern in the domestic industry at the time, and all Ramblers had dual-circuit master cylinders starting in 1962 (well ahead of the federal requirement).
Is there a specific model you are looking at?
Either a Rambler or an Ambassador. Something that has a throaty rumble to it with 4 doors.
I used to have a 1964 Ambassador 4-door with the Nash 327 V8 and 4-barrel carb, automatic transmission, and air conditioning. Even had factory AM/FM transistorized radio with "vibra-tone" (reverb) rear speaker. Wish I had kept that car. (1963-1966 Classic and Ambassador are basically all the same car with styling updates and and changes such as front disc brakes available starting in 1965.)
You'll want to join a club such as the AMC/Rambler club as well as an active forum both for help in finding and evaluating potential purchases and technical assistance since these cars do have some different engineering than the leading brands.
https://theamcforum.com/forum/forums.html
Oh, and just for grins, in the 1990s there was a guy who turned his 1965 Rambler American into a recording studio and recorded an entire album inside it entitled "Rambler '65" - some of it is on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aT_C_Mw89s
And who could forget:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTJtVzHOLs
(“I’ll show him that a Cadillac is not a car to scorn!”)
Ahhh. AMC. Go for it! they are good cars.
I had a 64 Rambler Classic when I was in college. I believe it had a 287 cu in V8 in it that burned oil like a 2 cycle engine. It had vacuum type windshield wipers and mine had a tube type am radio. It had wing nuts on the valve covers and people said it was so they were easier to work on. The front end went out and had to be overhauled. Overall it was an ok car for aa college student but I sold it and bought a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle.
I hated those damn vacuum windshield wipers.
The vacuum wipers would work more or less OK when everything was new but would deteriorate in a few years. It is strange that AMC did not make electric wipers standard until 1972. They must have had a warehouse full of vacuum wiper parts. A vacuum booster section in the fuel pump is supposed to keep them going when you step on the gas but good luck with that. Today you could probably use a vacuum pump and reservoir to keep them going.
I've had Ramblers with that series V8 (287/327) and not had serious oil burning problems but with the oils available back in the day they'd wear pretty quick if neglected.
The front ends are kind of bizarre due to using trunnions. Those will actually last a very long time if kept lubricated but wear quickly if that isn't done - and a lot of owners didn't bother. At least they could be lubed on the larger Ramblers, from 1964 on the American used "lifetime" rubber bushings in the trunnions that could not be greased.
Factory radio for 1964 is transistorized though in yours it's possible someone swapped one in from an earlier car.
I'm pretty sure the radio was a tube radio. The car I had right before the Rambler was a 64 Plymouth Valiant and it had a transistorized radio and I remember it being odd having tubes. I was used to tube electronics as my Dad and I had to make a lot of trips to 7Eleven to use their tube tester for our tv tubes.
The Rambler probably had a lot of miles on it before I got it. I can't remember. I used to buy that oil the gas stations had sitting in glass bottles by the gas pumps because it was cheap. The car had belonged to a farmer and probably saw a lot of rough road which may have worn out the front end.
Nice cars that should survive an EMP attack.
