Features Nash Rambler Whos Hot Rodding Them

wasn't this 2008's ridler winner?

 

Yeah i think it was 08.

Man i want a 59-61 wagon so damn bad!

 

My heap.

 

How's this Metropolitan for a kick?

 

Next picture

 

Gotcha!

 

I suppose it would be wrong of me to even ask why?

 

My 66 American project

 

I've got an Ambassador Brougham, but my front fenders/hood look longer.

 

The 58-61 and 65-74 Ambassadors have an extended wheelbase. All the extension (4" or 8", depending on year) is between the firewall and front wheels, so it's just got longer fenders (and longer "frame" section of course!). The drive shaft is the same on the mid size car and the long Ambassadors, as is the engine location. The front crossmember has set-back engine mounts on the Ambo. The 62-64 Ambo has the same wheelbase as the mid size car, it was a money saving move that didn't really work that great. When people plop down a good bit more for a dressed up car they want it to be a bit more noticeably different than the cheaper model. The wheelbase extension was easy and cheap enough, and gave the impression of a larger car even though interior and trunk space was identical to the "smaller" one.

 

I understand the difference between the Ambassador and lesser models. Pictured was a 1949 or 1950 Nash two door, which came as a 600/Statesman model (112" wheelbase, flathead 6, 85hp), and as an Ambassador model (121" wheelbase, overhead cam 6, 115hp).

I'm just saying the car pictured looks like the shorter model. It's still part of the larger of the Nash car line. By large, my Brougham is 210" long bumper-to-bumper.

As far as differences, there are suspension, brake, wheel, steering, and related wiring and cable variations between the Ambassadors and the shorter senior series 600/Statesman models. Ambassadors were also faster, if you call 0-60 in 17 seconds fast.

Similar differences are found on Nash/AMC extended wheelbase cars from the late 40's through the 60's.

 

Heres my 41 Nash Ambassador "600" Broughm Coupe. Not a Rambler, but still an orphan

 

Not mine of coarse but perhaps to...


roam in Pennsylvania

 

Gotcha Pre-K! You never know what someone else knows until you ask or tell them something they already know... ;>

 

Heres a couple of my Ramblers....

 

onebadrambler -- are they all AMC powered? Do you know Peter Stathes, he's up your way -- president of the NY/NJ Metro area AMC club, and also an AMC vendor (www.amcrambler.com).

 

Love your collection, but this one is really nice. The plate is really cool.

 

never thought id see so many ramblers ont he HAMB!!!

heres my project. gonna be a mild custom. 2 tone purple/cream, biased ply wide whites...ive been working on it forever...just one of THOSE kinda projects lol

 

I've been looking for a 56-57 Rambler on the other coast! Want to build a Rebel clone car, with an AMC 327 with Mercedes 1970s EFI grafted on. Then it would look like the old "Electrojector" equipped prototypes that never went in production!

 

Wow, would that ever be cool.

Say, if a fellow wanted to drop an AMC 360/401 and a 4-speed into a '58-'63 American, how would he go about it?

-Dave

 

You mean like this? Not exactly "traditional" methods... I used a complete 280ZX front clip under it and cut the HELL out of the inner fenders.

 

Bet that's a "super-sleeper"....
Did you use the ZX brakes too?

 

Yeah, it would surprise you. That was a built 390 the customer bought from somebody who was putting it in a drag Javelin. We put an 8" Ford under it with real leaf springs (wider) and shackles. It still bent the springs after awhile...

Yes, it had the ZX brakes. I was looking at going with 300 hubs to get 5 lug, but the front track needed to be a little wider anyway, so we used custom steel spacers to convert to 5 on 4 1/2.

Boldventure, just noticed you are in Watsonville. I grew up there. Wildcats class of 84...

 

Wow, that is great. Ditch the chrome wheels for some black steelies and nobody'd know it wasn't grandma's old Rambler.

How did you adapt the Nissan suspension to the Rambler unit body? The Z car uses the same lug pattern as my Falcon, so I'm curious.

-Dave

 

exwestracer, Yeah we've been here about 12 years. I grew up closer to where your are now! I'm from Central NY, lived a long time in the Rochester area.

 

That's one of the reasons we used the strut front end. The Rambler is a "spring-over" SLA (like your Falcon), so the inner fender is designed to carry the load from the suspension. Hold on, I've got an "in-progress" pic somewhere...

We pulled out the entire ZX front subframe and added box tubing on the bottom of the Rambler subrails to mount the crossmember to. Then built another crossmember out front for the strut rods. The strut tops were just flat plates welded in where the orig. spring perches used to be. Just had to be careful to get the caster and camber right. We did have to make a pretty ridiculous oil pan for the engine. Raising the engine would have solved that, but the customer didn't want to cut the floor open to raise the trans..

 

That was the hard way, but looks really good! I've gone over using either 280Z or Volvo struts in one of these cars, but the old suspension is just different, nothing wrong with it, and it's relatively cheap and easy to repair once you know how (just ask if needed!). The double A-arms offer better geometry than struts, but you can't get a lot of caster from the original suspension, about 3° is it. Radials really like 5-6° for straight tracking, but 3° works okay -- steering is just a little sensitive.

The old Rambler front suspension is plenty strong, a typical small block is only about 40 pounds more than the old heavy flat-head six (the OHV weighs as much as the flat-head). The main thing you have to do is take the "humps" out of the inner fender panels just above the upper A-arm mounts. Then the engine will JUST fit. The narrower the better -- a 302 Ford would be the best fit. Stock manifolds will work, or shorty/block hugger headers. For an AMC 360 the Edelbrock shorty headers should fit. Keep the stock suspension and steering, just order stiffer springs for the front. They were spring pretty darned soft! Standard HD springs are stiff enough (the factory option -- 10-12% stiffer than standard) and make a HUGE difference. The body rolls a good bit due to the soft springs, the HD springs do more to lessen roll than a sway bar does.

Here's a photo of one that has an SBC in it with stock front suspension, just the humps removed. This guy used "over the rail" Chevy II headers. There used to be "over the rail" headers made for Jeep CJs that should fit, maybe with just a little re-work. Then this could be duplicated with an AMC 360.

 

Farna,
I don't remember much about the orig. suspension on that car (it was 1996 after all...) other than it was ugly frozen and bent...lol. We just ditched it because we know the struts would give us as much room as we might need. That Chevy looks sweet in there.

 

The moving joints in it are metal to metal and can freeze up. Then they have to be replaced. The arms can be repaired, but when the joints freeze they turn in the arms and wear the ends of them out too. The joints aren't hard to replace or find -- Kanter has them as well as AMC vendors. It's pretty easy to keep them from freezing too -- just grease them every now and then! The joints are standard 5/8" coarse threads. Ever wear a nut out to the point it will pull off the threads? That happens, or they freeze up -- both due to lack of lubrication. Most of the old Ramblers were used and abused by several drivers as used cars before succumbing to failure of one part or another due to little to no maintenance. Cheap used cars are disposable, ya know!

I don't blame you a bit for not using it -- you needed the room and the whole setup probably needed replacing. I don't care for the suspension being replaced just because it's unfamiliar, but even then it's up to the owner/builder to do what they want -- that's hot rodding! I'm real familiar with it, very few are!

 

i put a 67-69 camaro sub frame in hers makes it easy for engine swaps and installs.complete with disc brakes everything.easy easy.